Cosmos face tough openers

The Springfield Cosmos have taken baby steps in football the past few years. They were 1-8 last year. They look better on paper this year, but they open their season with four tough games coming out of the shoot. They better be up for the challenges.

www.vermontjournal.com    

Cosmos face tough openers By Bill Murphy, The Vermont Journal & The ShopperSeptember 3, 2017 Coach Rich Saypack has been searching for answers about just how much his Cosmos football team has improved since last year. He likes his 2017 team and he says, “we are going to play our butts off every week and we will play until the last whistle, but, anytime we walk away at the lower end of a score, we will be ready to do it all over again the next week.” Photo by Doug MacPhee SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – The Springfield Cosmos have taken baby steps in football the past few years. They were 1-8 last year. They look better on paper this year, but they open their season with four tough games coming out of the shoot. They better be up for the challenges. Coach Rich Saypack really likes this team. He is confident this edition of the Green and White will surprise some people. However with Windsor, Woodstock, Free Academy of Fairfax, and Bellows Falls lined up coming out of the box, the schedule makers did not do Springfield any favors at all. Then in week five, when the schedule toned down some, the opponent Oxbow, dropped football. The Cosmos have no luck. The final few weeks of the schedule could allow Saypack’s crew to show everyone what growth they have shown. I can tell by Saypack’s demeanor lately, he expects to pull off an upset before that along the way. He told us after a successful scrimmage versus Fall Mountain, “I saw a lot of people on defense make good plays. Our defensive line did a nice job. They ran our scheme well.” Sayback knows his Cosmos still have some growing to do, but he says, “We have grown leaps and bounds since last year. Our goal is to get better every week.” Comos players and fans know alike by now, that getting better and winning are not necessarily the same thing. Saypack says of his team, “We are going to play our butts off every week and we will play until the last whistle, but anytime we walk away at the lower end of a score, we will be ready to do it all again the next week. We have kept our focus better in scrimmages this year so far and that is important.” Saypack still is not certain how the Green and White will line up in the opener and called the starting positions “an evolving piece of work,” with more film to watch before final assignments are handed out. However, he threw out possible names when we pushed. Senior Kyle Monier stood out in the Fall Mountain scrimmage and returns at quarterback. Senior Matt LaChapelle will be the main running back with classmate Trent Briere, also expected to have some carries with the football. Receivers for Monier, as starters should include seniors Ryan McSally, Gabe Considine, and Olney Mason and the tight end will be another senior Girard LeCouffe. The Cosmos offensive line will be made up by Bradley Bennett, Calvin Roby, Evan Otis, and Jayson Webster all seniors, and sophomore Greg Otis. Defensively, junior Deacon Watson and LeCouffe should position themselves at the ends, senior Garrett Delaney and Bennett could start at the tackles, Roby will be the nose guard with senior Logan Whitcomb, junior Bryson Jester and LaChapelle possible at linebacker, all depending on how the Cosmos decide to line up. The defensive backfield has the probability of seeing senior Alex Rennie, Considine, Olney, Monier, McSally or sophomore Kaleb Chambers, once again depending upon alignments. Senior Dre Jackson is the team’s kicker and several other athletes are hoping to earn playing time. Juniors Levi Clay, a lineman and Tim Bapp, a running back/ linebacker are on the roster, as are sophomores Brandon Bennett, Dan Hill, Eric Jaime, Francis Stafford, Skylar Wallace, and Jayden Thurber, all linemen. As well as running back/ linebacker Ryan Kirker and freshman running back/ linebacker Donivan Sprano. Sophomores Kodi Kirk and Alex Steele are still in the status of having their positions determined. Sophomore Jacob Stepler showed some promise as a running back/ linebacker, but his season came to an end in the Fall Mountain get together with a serious leg injury. Springfield could possibly challenge for a home play-off seed with a little luck, but in order to do that they will need one and possibly two wins in their first four games. In some ways, it appears that the deck is stacked against them, but in truth they need to pull off an upset or two and the Cosmos will rise in the standings in 2017.