By Mike Donoghue
Free Press Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007
BARRE -- The Spaulding High School marching band will need to add another song to its repertoire if the school's varsity football team keeps playing like has to start the season:
A rousing victory march.
Spaulding knocked off Mount Mansfield 28-18 in a battle of undefeated Division II football teams at A.G. Pendo Memorial Field on Saturday before a large Homecoming Weekend crowd.
Quarterback Zach Dessureau threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as Spaulding (5-0 overall, 5-0 Division II) pulled away in the second half after leading 14-12 at the intermission.
Mount Mansfield coach Marty Richards gave Spaulding -- and its second-year coach Brennan Carney -- full credit for executing an excellent game plan.
"They outplayed us in every facet of the game," he said. "They deserved to win. They picked our secondary apart. We did not put enough pressure on the quarterback. Zach did a wonderful job putting the ball where it had to go.
"I give a lot of credit to this team. Brennan has done a nice job with this program and he deserves everything he has gotten today and along the way."
MMU (4-1, 3-1) could not keep pace in the second half, especially when running back Brian Wilcox went out with a foot injury early in the third quarter.
Both times Spaulding scored in the first half, MMU took the ball back down the field for an answer.
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Dessureau hit Dante Rossi on a 22-yard scoring strike with 3:22 left in the first quarter and Steve Thompson added the first of four extra points.
MMU's Mike Shaw responded on the ensuing drive with a 48-yard TD to cut it to 7-6.
Dessureau added a 1-yard touchdown sneak with 11.6 seconds left in the first period, a score set up by a 27-yard Dessureau-to-James Durham pass near the goal line. The kick was good and Spaulding had a 14-6 lead.
MMU responded with Shaw touchdown run, an 8-yarders on a first-and-goal with 9:17 left in the second. The kick was no good.
The Cougars stopped Spaulding on four plays and then appeared to score a go-ahead TD on a 29-yard pass from quarterback Nate Dolan to Chris Collier, but a penalty brought the play back and the drive later stalled.
"We had two holding penalties on that drive that really hurt us," Dolan said. "We were trying to fight back, but it slipped away on us."
In the second half, Cameron Cummings scored on a 1-yard run with 1:57 left in the third. Dessureau later hit Durham again on a 20-yard pass for a TD with 11:14 left in the fourth.
MMU's final score came on a Connor Gallagher 4-yard run on a fourth-and-1. The two-point attempt was stopped.
Carney said he has stressed every game is important to his team, one of three unbeaten squads among Vermont's 34 football schools after five weeks. "We are proving that we can beat teams. We are a force to be reckoned with."
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