CASTLETON, Vt.
Tyler Hamilton, the Hartford High quarterback and reigning Gatorade Player of the Year, was unleashed at running back in the second half, turning Vermont stagnant offensive push into a dynamic, multi-dimensional force to overcome two touchdown passes from Bow’s Matthew Harikins in a 24-13 win over New Hampshire at the 65th Shrine Game at Spartan Stadium.
He finished the game with 15 carries and 67 yards after halftime – both team highs six for first downs – extending the Green Mountain state’s dominance in the annual All-Star showcase to three straight years.
“That first half was kind of frustrating on offense, honestly,” said Hamilton, who is headed to Bates College to play football and baseball this fall. “But I knew our offensive line was doing well, I could see it the whole game. We just weren’t hitting the holes as hard as we wanted to. Coach Balch came over to me during the game and said, ‘Hey, you run for me?’ I said, ‘Yes sir. Whatever you need, I can do it.’
“I’m just glad we continued the winning streak. It’s great for Vermont,” he added. “All these boys are my brothers. All throughout the week, we’ve become really close. It’s a great win for us.”
Vermont outscored New Hampshire, 18-6, in the last two quarters, keeping New Hampshire’s defense on the field for nearly the entire half. Vermont outpossessed the Granite State, 18:29 to 5:31, in the second half, thanks in large part to the Balch-Hamilton Upper Valley duo.
The win also let Vermont head coach Greg Balch, Seth’s father and the bench boss at Windsor, off the hook. Vermont has outscored New Hampshire, 93-15, over the last three years. Balch admitted earlier this week that he’d been made aware that he was the first Vermont head coach in the last several decades to go into Shrine Game with the pressure of a winning streak.
“(Now) it’s someone else’s problem,” Coach Balch said.
It took a while for Vermont to find its offensive groove, making costly first-half mistakes that gave their Twin State opponents a halftime lead.
New Hampshire entered the game having scored two points over their last two contests, both lopsided losses in favor on Vermont. It changed that on Saturday, making Vermont pay for an early turnover – a fumble by Bellows Falls’ Shane Clark on Vermont’s third play of the afternoon – with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Harkins to Hollis-Brookline’s Matt Simco. It was New Hampshire’s first touchdown in three years, a mere 2 minutes and 13 seconds into the first quarter.
Vermont’s Jay McCoy (Burr & Burton) answered in later in the quarter, picking off a pass from New Hampshire quarterback Mike McAlister (Londonderry) and returning it 35 yards for the score. New Hampshire’s quarterback duo – McAlister and Bow’s Matt Harkins – were picked off three times in the loss.
But Vermont offense stalled in the second quarter, managing only 9 yards on seven plays before Balch hit Mount Anthony’s Will Fischer with a little more than a minute left in the half. New Hampshire led 7-6 at halftime with Rutland’s Jared Miglorie missed extra point.
“Early, we were getting a lot of pressure against their offense,” said New Hampshire coach Patrick Riberdy, who is also the head coach at Winnisquam High. “That kind of threw our offense out of sync a little bit. … If we could have made a few key blocks and kept the running going, they came with pressure and we didn’t respond real well.”
After halftime, Vermont went to work. It scored on all three second-half possessions, led on the ground by a combined 126 rushing yards on 28 carries by Hamilton and Balch.
“You know what? We didn’t do a whole lot differently (in the second half),” Greg Balch said. “We talked about changing a lot of things but we said, ‘You know what? We’re moving the ball. We’re just not finishing drives.’ Our line felt confident that they could keep getting New Hampshire off the ball. We didn’t change a lot. If you look at it, if anything, we probably got a little bit simpler in the second half, if anything. But we made a couple of nice plays when it counted.”
Vermont took the lead, 12-7, with 5:08 left in the third quarter, with McCoy finishing off a 13-play, 58-yard drive over 6:02 with a wildcat play from 10 yards out. Balch added to it on Vermont’s next possession with 7:29 left in the fourth quarter, faking a handoff to Hamilton before driving left to the pylon from 3 yards away. Balch scored again in with 1:14 remaining, diving for the end zone to put the game away.
“That’s where it hurt us,” Riberdy said of his team’s second half. “We had a few injuries with depth but we got moved around early, couldn’t handle the pressure and it wore us down.”
Balch finished the game 2-for-9 in the air with 51 passing yards and 59 rushing yards on 13 carries. He finished his varsity career having gone undefeated in back-to-back VPA Division III football championship seasons at Windsor. Balch is headed to Keene State to play baseball this fall.
Against New Hampshire, with Hamilton as his running back, Vermont’s best looked unstoppable.
“That was the plan all along was to play Tyler as a running back,” Greg Balch said. “We didn’t want to put him in there from the start playing both ways. We wanted to save him as long as we could.
Hartford’s Kody Rhodes made one carry for minus-4 yards for Vermont. Hamilton also finished the game with an interception, playing both free safety and running back for all of the second half.
Windsor’s Dakota Page was credited with two tackles playing linebacker for Vermont.
Hanover’s Graham Penfield made one solo tackle and assisted on another for New Hampshire in the loss. Marauder teammate Michael Staiger made four assisted tackles.
Estimated attendance was 5,229 at Spartan Stadium.
The game was delayed an hour for a passing thunderstorm, forcing fans to evacuate the stadium until the lightning strikes cleared. Kickoff was at 6:55 p.m.