Windsor spanks Cosmos

Matt Rafus rushed for 167 yards and five touchdowns as Windsor, which trailed 15-14 at the half, had a monster second half in steamrolling Springfield, 50-15, Friday night in a Division III football game at Brown Field.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100918/SPORTS/709189883              Rafus scores five TDs, Windsor spanks Cosmos  •  Rutland Herald  •  By POODY WALSH Correspondent - Published: September 18, 2010  •  SPRINGFIELD — Matt Rafus rushed for 167 yards and five touchdowns as Windsor, which trailed 15-14 at the half, had a monster second half in steamrolling Springfield, 50-15, Friday night in a Division III football game at Brown Field.  •  The junior running back also caught two passes for 25 yards as the Yellow Jackets, who have been to the state championship game each of the last three seasons, are 3-0.  •  “Maybe we shouldn’t have come out for the second half,” joked Springfield coach Jack Cohun after the game.  •  Cohun, who was also impressed with Rafus, thought his team’s lack of depth really showed.  •  “We have a lot of guys who go both ways and when one of them gets hurt that’s two holes we have to fill,” Cohun said of his 1-2 Cosmos.  •  Strangely enough this was a very hard-fought, even game for two periods as the hitting was at times nasty and there was some snarling between the officials and the Windsor sideline.  •  Then there were two plays that turned this game around. The first occurred when Springfield, still leading 15-14 in the third quarter, failed to score on a third and goal from the 6. Springfield then tried a 25-yard field goal and the snap was high with Windsor taking over on its 33. Rafus ran for 20 and 7 yards and quarterback Austin Soule galloped for another 8. Then with a first-and-10 from the Springfield 35 Soule hooked up with Jacob Page in a dandy pass play as Page ran down the sideline and Soule hit him in stride as Page took the ball into the end zone.  •  Soule then passed to Kyle Cushing for the points and a 22-15 lead and the rout was on.  •  “We still got some things to work on, but we’re getting better,” said Windsor coach Jim Taft who was especially pleased with the offensive line play of Dan Wierzbicki, Win Townsend, Greg Kennett, Sam Kendall and Dan Lyon.  •  “We’re really a passing team, but we ran the ball pretty well tonight,” Taft said.  •  They certainly ran the ball well in the fourth quarter. The Cosmos were still in the game after three periods at 22-15. But Windsor scored on all four of its possessions in the fourth period with Rafus scoring three times on runs from the 2, 15 and 6. The fourth touchdown of the period came on a scamper by Soule up the middle from the 37.  •  “You know we’re not as good as the score showed tonight and Springfield is not as bad,” Taft said.  •  Springfield showed some spunk early as the Cosmos took an early 6-0 lead, helped out a lot when Springfield recovered a fumbled punt on the Jacks 27. Three plays later quarterback Jake Patione connected with Aaron Wallace for a 30-yard score. Then when Billy Wheeler booted the conversion the Cosmos had a 7-0 lead.  •  Windsor came right back on its next possession with Rafus taking it from the 9 through a huge hole to make it 7-6.  •  Windsor went up 14-7 in the second quarter on a Rafus run from the 1. Rafus also ran in the conversion points.  •  Springfield answered back as Patione brought the Windsor kick back to midfield and five plays later Kirk Perham carried it in from the 1. Perham also ran the conversion points for a 15-14 Springfield lead.  •  Both teams play again next Friday as Windsor goes to Montpelier and Springfield hosts Woodstock.   •