Bellows Falls and Springfield complete tune-ups

The Springfield High School Cosmos begin their football season at Fall Mountain Saturday at 7 p.m.
http://www.vermontjournal.com/content/bellows-falls-and-springfield-complete-tune-upsfall-mountain-officially-has-one-left-area-fo

Bellows Falls and Springfield Complete Tune-Ups/Fall Mountain Officially Has One Left In Area Football Submitted by VT Journal on Tue, 08/27/2013 - 2:35pm By BILL MURPHY The Vermont Journal/The Shopper REGION -Bellows Falls and Springfield are all dressed up and ready to go. Fall Mountain still officially still has a week remaining before they can play for real, but they will all play some good old football this weekend. Bellows Falls is at Brattleboro Friday night at 7 p.m, while Springfield will be at Fall Mountain Saturday at 7 p.m. The Terriers scrimmaged Fall Mountain and Newport and came away with some confidence, but the truth is "you would have to say we could have played a lot better," BF Head Coach Bob Lockerby said. The Purple and White first stringers outscored FM 4-2 and the Falls moved the ball both on the ground and in the air. Kyle O"Rourke turned in the two most impressive offensive plays on a 44 yard TD run and a catch and run play on a 31 yard swing pass. Carson Fullam and O'Rourke continued to provide impressive offensive plays against Newport. Fans need to know that the Terriers have a young and inexperienced line on both sides of the ball and until they gain experience, there could be growing pains. "This is about learning the game," Lockerby offered, going on to say, "They are coming along well , but there is a lot to learn. They need to learn to be smart linemen and know what to do when things don't go the way they are suppose to." Assistant Coach Ryan Stoodley said after the first scrimmage that "the line is beginning to figure things out" and Lockerby confirmed the progress is continuing. Springfield had their scrimmage sessions with Newport and Newfound and have the most inexperience of the area teams. The most encouraging thing is the fact that they scored on their first possession in each session. In fact Josh Rivers tallied both scores. Ben and Zack Tubbs also have scored more than one touchdown in the scrimmages. Coach Kevin Tallman is pleased the way his team is moving the ball on offense, BUT... says, "We still need to work on blocking until the whistle." Tallman felt "We were much improved from our first scrimmage, gone was the deer in the headlight look," adding, "We are heading in the right direction." Defensively he feels there is still work in certain spots. He felt pass defense passed the test to date and "We did well between the tackles, but need work on the edges and open field." Blocking and tackling has been a Tallman emphasis since day one of practice. The Cosmos have one of those Vermont-New Hampshire crossovers like a Holiday Hoop Tourney, which counts for Vermont, but not for New Hampshire in the opener at Langdon Friday night. Thus the situation that the Cats have a week remaining before suiting up on Friday night the 6th at home against the Newfound team Springfield scrimmaged. The Cats came out of the gate in their first competition against the Falls and played well. "We looked far better than I expected we would after only being out six days. We have some experience at the skill positions, but a lot of inexperience overall, so this was good to see," Coach Frank Brown said following the BF get together. New Hampshire rules do not allow certain things in competitions that don't count in football, including the wearing of game uniforms, but the Cats will go as close as they can to make this a game experience for the Cosmos. Brown mentioned that conditioning is still ongoing and cautions " obviously I won't put people in any position to get hurt so that is a priority" and certainly everyone would agree with Brown. It is also known Brown is looking for this years club to grow each outing and he is still attempting to put a competitive drive into his charges so the competition should be exciting. If anyone saw the competition between these two last year, you know it could turn out to be real exciting. FOOTBALL SEASON IS HERE!!!