Euber scores five times in Slaters rout of Cosmos

Vermont football fans may not know the name Dakota Euber. But after Friday night he'll be known in all corners of the Green Mountain State.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110910/SPORTS/709109885

Published September 10, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Euber scores five times in Slaters rout of Cosmos

By CHUCK CLARINO

FAIR HAVEN — Vermont football fans may not know the name Dakota Euber. But after Friday night he’ll be known in all corners of the Green Mountain State.

Euber scored five touchdowns and led a parade of Slater scorers Friday who turned Thomas E. LaPlaca Field into their personal playground as Fair Haven roared past Springfield 59-14 in Division II football play.

Euber, a junior from Orwell, displayed his versatility as he shredded the Cosmos’ defense, scoring the first and last time he touched the ball from scrimmage. And he scored in all kinds of ways.

Euber’s first was a 40-yard TD pass from Robert Coloutti on the first play from scrimmage. He added a 56-yard punt return for a touchdown the next time he got his hands on the ball. Euber then raced 25 yards to paydirt from the Wildcat formation. He wrapped up the first half by hauling in a pass from Coloutti and completing it with a scintillating run through the defense for the 37-yard touchdown. And then the 6-foot junior closed out his big day by rolling 10 yards on a quarterback keeper.

“I was just making plays,” Euber said. “I couldn’t have done it without the blocking, especially the wide receiver blocking. We were all doing our job out there and are playing well as a team. But the best part about the game is that we won.”

The Springfield defense had no answer for Euber; they couldn’t stop him, they couldn’t contain him and barely got a hand on him.

Still, Euber was only part of the story as Fair Haven had many heroes on this chilly night.

Senior tailback Austin Amery scored a touchdown on a 1-yard run and rushed for 60 yards on four carries in his first action of the year.

Senior Coloutti fired a pair of touchdown passes, completing 4-of-7 for 126 yards in playing only a half. Meanwhile, three others scored touchdowns as Fair Haven shared the wealth.

Senior Andrew Reed forced a fumble and then recovered it in the end zone. And in the second half, burly sophomore running back Alex Fontaine lugged the pigskin 28 yards for a touchdown, while fellow sophomore Cameron Hughes topped the big day with a 4-yard touchdown run and displayed some great moves as he and sophomore quarterback Nate Bowen were impressive in reserve roles.

All told, the Slaters rolled up 410 yards from scrimmage, including a 284 overland.

“Maybe outside of the Fair Haven community people don’t know who Dakota Euber is, but we know him well here,” said coach Ryan Audet. “He came in last year (in the fifth game) and he scored a touchdown in every game after that including our only score in the playoff game. Now, he’ll get everyone’s attention.”

The Slaters offense rolled up big yards and big points, but it shouldn’t have been that big a surprise. The 0-2 Cosmos came in understaffed. They were missing quarterback J.T. Therrien and lost reserve QB Justin Gomez early in the first quarter. Springfield coach Jack Cohun had to call on Kirk Perham to take over the signal-calling duties.

While Perham filled in admirably, scoring a touchdown, adding a two-point conversion and throwing for a TD, Cohun had to scale down the Cosmos offense in order to employ Perham, usually his starting tailback.

That said, the Fair Haven defense had another good day, limiting the Cosmos to 129 yards, while forcing three turnovers. The first team defense headed by Neil Hier, Parker Lamoureux, Brian Buehler and Cody Bradish was rock-solid.

Fair Haven built the lead to 33-0 before Springfield got on the board with 3:21 remaining in the second when Perham found Aaron Wallace in the end zone with a 22-yard scoring strike.

The Slaters bumped the lead up to 52-6 before Perham scored the final Springfield TD with 10:26 to go in the fourth.

“We came in understaffed but the kids played hard,” said Cohun. “Somehow I don’t think it would have mattered if we had everybody, they (Slaters) played really well.

“We can’t feel too bad, there are a lot of people in Vermont worse off then we are. I mean we got to play a football game; some people don’t have homes.”

The Slaters ran their record to 2-0, while the Cosmos fall to 0-2. The Slaters will get their first big test next Friday when they travel to North Country to take on the high-flying Falcons.