McAllister, Jacks run Mount Abe into the ground

WINDSOR — A dominant rushing attack and mistake-free football helped the top-seeded Windsor High football team defeat Mount Abraham, 45-6, on Saturday afternoon at MacLeay-Royce Field to advance to its second straight VPA Division III final.

The Yellowjackets (10-0) kicked the game off quickly, recovering a fumbled kick return at midfield for the game’s first turnover. Senior running back Travis McAllister punched in a 2-yard run five plays later for Windsor’s first score of the day.

Mount Abraham (5-5) answered with a touchdown drive of its own on the next possession off the back of a 39-yard power run by junior fullback Jamison Couture, who broke multiple tackles before being dragged down at the Windsor 1-yard line. Senior quarterback Zeke Dubois finished off the drive with a QB keeper dive into the end zone and, one missed point after later, it was 7-6 for Windsor halfway through the first quarter.

Windsor’s second offensive possession provided the Eagles with their first — and best — shot at taking an early lead when Windsor QB Maison Fortin’s fake-run-turned-bootleg-pass was intercepted by 6-foot-6 Mount Abe cornerback/wide receiver Ian Funke. The Eagles looked to move the ball through the air by targeting the towering Funke on three straight passes, though only the first connected for a completion, and a bad snap on the subsequent fourth-down punt led to another incomplete pass and Windsor ball on the midfield stripe.

Momentum then swung heavily and permanently in the Yellowjackets’ favor. Deploying a dominating run, QB keepers, outside stretch runs and end arounds, Windsor ran amok over Eagles defenders on its way to a 30-6 halftime lead.

But the highlight of the half, and the game, was a Windsor throw. With only seconds left in the second quarter, Fortin found McAllister down the field in one-on-one coverage and lasered a pass to the running back’s inside shoulder. McAllister caught it, broke from his defender’s grasp and galloped into the end zone on a backbreaking 63-yard score.

Two more McAllister touchdowns — one off a play action pass from Fortin and the other off an inside handoff, where he made one Eagles linebacker miss and then dashed 30 yards untouched into the end zone — capped off the scoring for the Yellowjackets.

Windsor head coach Greg Balch praised his team’s relatively clean play (one penalty, one turnover). He said his team knew going in they couldn’t relax with the lead against Mount Abraham. “It wasn’t easy,” Balch said. “We know that they’re a team that has come back on some teams, and we’ve been preaching all week that if we get up, we got to stay up, and I thought (our players) played really hard.”

The victory sends defending champs to their second consecutive D-III football final, which will be played on Saturday in Rutland against second-ranked BFA-Fairfax/Lamoille, which beat Mill River, 35-14, in Saturday’s other semifinal.