Long time Terriers and Cosmos rivalry lives on

They only open the bleachers on one side of the court for basketball games in both Bellows Falls and Springfield in recent years. It certainly isn’t like the old days.

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Long time Terriers and Cosmos rivalry lives on BY BILL MURPHY, The Vermont Journal & The Shopper December 27, 2017 SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – They only open the bleachers on one side of the court for basketball games in both Bellows Falls and Springfield in recent years. It certainly isn’t like the old days. But a good-sized crowd turned out Friday, Dec. 15, 2017 when the two schools met in a boys’ basketball game. There were a good number of students and a lot of noise directed at everyone’s favorites. The game was competitive, going back and forth with a few lead changes for most of the contest. terriers Springfield’s Dre Jackson attacks the hoop in the recent Green Mountain Holiday Basketball Tournament. Jackson is one of the Cosmos who are headed to Randolph this Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. encounter in pursuit of their season’s first win. Photo by Doug MacPhee. In the end, the Bellows Falls Terriers came away the winners, 54-41. The Terriers gained control of the game when their pressure defense bothered the Cosmos in the third period, and Coach Ryan Stoodley’s team ran off an 11-3 streak. One of the biggest factors, which allowed Springfield to play in a lead changing game in the first half, was the offense provided by Sumner Jansen. Jansen led the team in scoring with 15 points, most of which happened in the first 16 minutes of the game. Cosmo coach, Mike Ruppel, had clearly stressed man-to-man defensive principles to his team since he took over the program. Although they continue to get better in that regard, Coach Ruppel hopes “they will tighten up those man principles to take away what other teams are trying to do.” One defensive emphasis for the Cosmos defense was keeping Terrier Shane Clark in check. On that point, Ruppel said, “I thought we did a good job containing him [to 10 points], but we let Ryan Kelly [16 points] get a number of baskets in transition.” “Both teams had their good moments,” Stoodley mentioned about the game, “but both coaches are still trying to figure out our personnel. And it should be a different game next time we meet.” That game will be in the Terriers’ territory on Friday, Feb. 16, near the end of the season. At their opening game on Wednesday, Dec. 13, Stoodley’s Terrier team fell to Long Trail 57-47 in their home court. Clark had a superb opening night tossing in 20 points, while Kelly’s 10 was supportive. Bellows Falls looked golden taking an 8-0 lead at the outset, but little by little they gave the lead away. Stoodley noted, “We kept turning the ball over and kept giving them easy points. Turnovers killed us.” Terriers Bellows Falls’ Ryan Kelly going up for two points in the Terriers victory over Springfield. Kelly had a number of transition baskets in the win over the Cosmos and has led the Terriers in scoring in two of their three games thus far. Photo by Doug MacPhee. The same trend continued in the Terriers most recent game on Thursday, Dec. 21 with a 47-40 defeat to Woodstock. “This was another back and forth game,” Stoodley offered, “but it was also another game we lost because we turned over the ball, giving them easy points. We have to start making better decisions with the basketball. We also had some foul troubles in this one.” Bellows Falls is 1-2 on the season and will be heading across the Connecticut River on Wednesday, Jan. 3 when they rival Fall Mountain. The Cosmos will also meet the Wildcats next week. Springfield will travel to Langdon on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 2:30 p.m. The Cosmos are presently 0-4. Springfield had opened their season on Friday, Dec. 8 by bowing to a strong Fair Haven team 82-47. They improved in the Bellows Falls game and then had troubles offensively in the Green Mountain Holiday Tourney that took place Tuesday, Dec. 19. They only combined for 65 points in losses to Mount Saint Joseph (81-33) in the first round and to Twin Valley (55-32) in the events consolation game. Dakota Bushey led the team is scoring in each game with 12 points. Noah Zierfus tossed in 10 points in the MSJ game. “We struggled with both teams’ pressure,” Ruppel explained. “That is an area we have to keep working on.” The Cosmo coach is focusing presently on this week’s practices as he said, “We play Randolph Saturday, and we will be working on getting better. I see that as a winnable game.”