QB Nick dazzles, but Redhawks efforts fall short

By Holly Fournier

It was a battle of wills Friday night when the CVU Redhawks faced off against the South Burlington Rebels in a closely-watched Division 1 contest. The teams traded scores through four quarters of action-packed play. However, when the final horn sounded it was the Rebels on top by a touchdown – final tally, 35-42.

Redhawks fans showed up in droves to cheer on the team despite drenching rain, outnumbering the hometown crowd in an awesome display of support. Oddly, CVU cowbells were silenced by South Burlington’s staff, but that didn’t stop the impassioned crowd from being heard.

Both squads came to the match with similar stories: CVU and South Burlington shared 5-1 records, each having lost to powerhouse BFA St. Albans, and both notching wins over Burlington and Mt. Anthony. The teams also ran similar offensive strategies. Before the game Redhawks head coach Jim Provost would not offer a prediction, calling the outcome a “toss up.”

Provost was spot on as the contest came right down to the wire.

All night quarterback Drew Nick deftly ducked and dodged Rebel defenders, hitting pay dirt five times. The senior co-captain rushed 150 yards for four touchdowns and passed a total of 194 yards, finding Davis Mikell in the end zone with 6:16 remaining in the game to tie the score. Running back Brent Carreiro, filling in for a recovering Nick Ferrentino, sung the signal-caller’s praises, “Drew Nick is an animal! He really put the offense on his back and played harder than I have ever seen him play.”

Nick took full advantage of the protection provided by CVU’s imposing offensive line: Alec Distler, Michael Fournier, Timmy Halvorson, Quinn Kropf and Dylan Raymond.

Kicker Tucker Kohlasch had a perfect night, nailing all five extra point attempts.

The Redhawks, now 5-2, wrap up their regular season on Saturday, October 22 at home against the 6-1 Middlebury Tigers where they hope to improve their playoff seed. “We plan to practice hard all this week and really stick it to Middlebury, “ said Carreiro. It’s also Senior Day - the CVU football community will honor its 12th grade players before the game. Kick-off time is 1:00 pm.

Redhawks wing it to victory over Fighting Patriots

By Holly Fournier

The Redhawks took to the air Friday night at Spinelli Field in Bennington, securing a 28-13 victory over Mt. Anthony Union on quarterback Drew Nick’s three touchdown passes. Champlain Valley Union, now 5-1 on the season, moves one step closer to clinching a playoff spot while the Fighting Patriots drop to 1-5.

Nick adroitly moved the ball downfield all night, totaling 280 passing yards and completing 21-of-31 attempts with aerial strikes to Ryan Beaudry, Brent Carreiro, Ryan Fleming, Trevor Kennedy, David Mikell, Johnny Powers and Harvey Ottinger.

Halfback Carreiro, filling in without notice for sidelined running back Nick Ferrentino, valiantly pounded out rushing yards, including a 9-yard carry for a first down to set up CVU’s first TD. Still, the Redhawk overall ground attack came up short against a Fighting Patriots defense well-prepared to stop CVU’s run game. "MAU made us one-dimensional. They took away the run, but gave us the pass and we needed to take advantage of that," Coach Jim Provost said.

Nick’s first tally came with 2:47 left in the first quarter on a 5-yard keeper down the middle to cap CVU’s second possession of the game. Tucker Kohlasch nailed the extra point, as he did all night, to give the Redhawks a 7-0 lead.

MAU evened the score with 6:21 remaining in the half on a 45-yard run by Alex Cross, but CVU responded quickly with Nick’s 9-yard completion to fullback co-captain Ryan Fleming. This game was a first for Fleming in two regards: new position, new number. Fleming’s move to fullback in addition to his linebacker duties was “designed to help with lead blocking on goal line plays,” he says. As for wearing jersey #30, Fleming likes it, adding, “It’s Eric Palmer’s number so I’m trying to do it proud.” Palmer, a stand-out member of last year’s squad, played linebacker on the Vermont Shrine Team.

CVU’s third touchdown came with just 55.3 seconds before the half on a 37-yard Nick pass into newcomer Davis Mikell’s capable hands for a 21-7 first half lead. Mikell’s six pass receptions created some press box buzz, considering that two weeks ago he had never played football and this was his first game appearance. Mikell said that he “kept watching the games and seeing how much fun the guys were having. I wanted to join in.”

The Redhawks and Fighting Patriots traded interceptions in the game’s third quarter. John Keen’s red zone pick with 2:04 into the second half was key in thwarting a strong MAU drive. However, five minutes later the determined Fighting Patriots scored with a trick play on fourth and long. MAU signal-caller pitched the ball to Chris Redding who then easily targeted Dan Lawson for a 21-yard touchdown pass over the heads of unsuspecting CVU defenders. Their extra point was blocked by Lucian Bedard for a 21-13 score.

The Redhawks extended their lead to 28-13 on a Nick-to-Kennedy 24-yard touchdown pass with 7:20 remaining in the game. MAU’s late game comeback attempt was brought to a screeching halt by Alec Distler’s quarterback sack, one of three that night for CVU’s #64, and that was followed three plays later by a Ryan Beaudry interception. With 2:22 left on the clock Beaudry snagged the ball from the intended receiver near the goal line.

Along with Distler, CVU’s Bedard, Keen, Rex McCoy, Ottinger and Peter Wernhoff stood out for their defensive efforts.

Roughly 100 CVU fans made the nearly 6-hour round-trip trek to support the players. While vastly outnumbered by the Fighting Patriots Homecoming crowd, the Redhawk side made a gallant effort to be heard with cheers of “C-V-U, C-V-U” anchored by parent Stephanie Wernhoff’s boisterous cow bell-clanging. But CVU families and friends found themselves somewhat speechless at halftime when a streaker dashed 130 yards across the football field shortly after the Bennington school’s King and Queen were crowned in what is apparently a MAU Homecoming tradition.

CVU’s next contest takes them on the road again, but this time it will be a much shorter bus ride when the Redhawks battle the South Burlington Rebels, also 5-1, under the lights. Game takes place Friday, October 14. Kick-off time is 7 pm.

CVU's Matt Bauer endures bad break after beating cancer

By John Fantino for the Burlington Free Press

Champlain Valley Union High School football player Matt Bauer has been sidelined for three weeks with a broken finger and is unsure whether he’ll be cleared to play again this season. For any other high school athlete, it would be considered a major setback. For any other senior, a major disappointment. For Bauer, it’s devastating. Especially when taking inventory of everything he went through to make it back to the football field.

Bauer, 18, is a cancer survivor, a student-athlete only two years removed from a grueling fight with myeloid leukemia while living in Florida. “When you’re 16, you’re worried about school, about females, about sports,” Bauer said. “Hearing the word ‘cancer’ in the same sentence as your name was a complete shocker.”

A receiver, a defensive back and kick returner, Bauer was shining in the sport he loves and contributing to CVU’s strong start to the season before falling out of the lineup with the injury. He fractured his middle finger while catching a ball in warmups before CVU’s victory over Essex, a freakish injury that required microscopic surgery and a long layoff from sports.

“We were asking a lot of him,” CVU coach Jim Provost said. “He was playing offense, playing defense, playing special teams. Then he gets injured. It hurts not having him in there, team-wise, but it breaks my heart when I think of what this kid went through to get to this point.”

Bauer recalls the ordeal in vivid detail. He has all the dates memorized. July 9, 2009: That’s when Bauer was diagnosed with myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

Bauer, born in Rutland, was living on Florida’s Gulf Coast at the time. A headache and swollen lymph nodes were the first signs, and then he blacked out for about 40 seconds while working part-time at a local bakery.

“My mom said ‘let’s go to the hospital,’” Bauer recalled. “I said, ‘it’s hot out, it’s Florida; I just need something to drink.’ A couple days later I completely blacked out at work again, fell over onto the table.” He was rushed to the hospital and quickly advised to go to St. Petersburg, about an hour away, for more blood work, bone-marrow testing and a spinal tap. “Within 10 minutes, they told me I had a form of cancer,” Bauer said. “The next day I started chemotherapy.”

Bauer went through five rounds of chemotherapy. He’d stay in St. Petersburg for 30 days while receiving treatments. Once his immune system returned, he was allowed to return home for a few days. Then it was back to St. Petersburg for more rounds of chemo.

His hair was gone. A strong athlete who played football, basketball and baseball, he lost 31 pounds, wilting to 129. And he was in dire need of a bone-marrow transplant.

Oct. 21, 2009: Bauer is approaching the two-year anniversary of the day his sister, Whitney, saved his life by donating her bone marrow. “I only have one full sister and they told me it’s a 20 percent chance she would be a match,” Bauer said. “She was a perfect match — 10-for-10. “If I wouldn’t have had a bone-marrow transplant I would have died.”

With the transplant a success and no ensuing infections, Bauer began the long road to recovery. He said his strength was so sapped that when he tried to play basketball, his 3-pointer attempts came up 5 feet short of the rim. “It took months to get my strength back,” he said.

Bauer moved back to Vermont last year and has returned to life as a teenager, which has involved lots of football. He hopes his hand heals quickly, allowing him to return to the Redhawks before the end of the season. “I really hope he can get back,” Provost said. “That kid deserves to play some more football.”

Joe Kropf Photo

Surprise star Nick Ferrentino fuels CVU's football success

Written by John A. Fantino for the Burlington Free Press

HINESBURG — Not many people outside the Champlain Valley Union football community knew about Nick Ferrentino before this season. Playing on the junior varsity team two years ago and missing all of last season after undergoing shoulder surgery, CVU’s junior running back flew under the radar most of his high school football career. Now healthy, he’s flying past everyone trying to keep him out of the end zone. “I don’t think he’s going to sneak up on anybody anymore,” CVU coach Jim Provost said.

One of the most impressive backs in the state through the first three games of high school football season, Ferrentino has piled up 546 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. Making up for lost time, his production has highlighted the Redhawks’ 3-0 start in their first season playing in Division I. “I was anxious for this season,” Ferrentino said. “I really worked hard in the summer.” Ferrentino is coming off a 242-yard, four-touchdown performance in CVU’s 49-21 win at Essex.

That’s not including the 68-yard TD dash that was called back by a penalty. However, Provost said that negated play put on full display the attributes that make the 5-foot-7, 175-pound Ferrentino a headache for defenses. “There were four (Essex) guys who had an angle on him,” Provost said, “and they didn’t touch him. He throttled it up and just took off.”

Also scoring three touchdowns apiece in CVU’s lopsided victories over Brattleboro and Burlington, Ferrentino has been a major factor in helping the Redhawks score 126 points. His speed has been a big asset but not the only reason he’s been so productive. Provost said although diminutive, Ferrentino is strong enough to shed tacklers and drag defenders into the end zone.

Said CVU senior lineman Dylan Raymond about Ferrentino: “He has the speed to go from a dead stop to just be sprinting. He finds the cutbacks. We could be running to the two hole but he sees something in the five (hole), and he’s gone. He’s got that ability to go slow and let everything develop and then burst through and take off.”

It’s been a longtime coming after overcoming injuries. Provost remembers seeing Ferrentino play for the Buccaneers, a youth feeder program, and thinking he had potential to be a star at the high school level. But Ferrentino broke his shoulder in eighth grade, a nagging injury that lingered his freshman year. “It didn’t heal right so I had to get surgery,” Ferrentino said. “It was tough to sit out last year, but I’m playing now and that’s all that matters.”

Ferrentino and CVU play host to St. Johnsbury on Saturday to start a critical stretch for the Redhawks. Games against BFA-St. Albans, Mount Anthony, South Burlington and Middlebury round out the regular season. “Our next couple of games are going to be really tough,” Ferrentino said. “This is our chance to see where we stand.”

CVU gridiron gang pounds Essex, 49-21

By Mal Boright for the Williston Observer

After their spirited 49-21 victory on Sept. 16 at Essex High School, it is fitting that the next Division I test for the undefeated Champlain Valley Union football Redhawks will be on Saturday’s Spirit Day, when the 2-1 St. Johnsbury Academy Hilltoppers pay their initial visit to the Hinesburg pigskin foundry.

The Academy forces got crunched, 24-0, by BFA-St. Albans in their season opener, but then recovered with a 35-14 win at Burlington and last Saturday’s 46-6 romp over Spaulding.

In earning the school’s first victory in two appearances at the Essex field (a loss to the Hornets last year and defeat in the Division II title contest in 2009), the Redhawks took advantage of early Essex (0-3) turnovers to open a 28-0 lead by the early stages of the second quarter. The Hornets regrouped in the late stages of the second reel, but CVU got its mojo back after intermission to put the game away.

After the game, CVU head coach Jim Provost recalled an old Nashville tune when he mentioned his squad’s defense. “What’s that country song? Thunder gets all the credit but lightning does all the work? The defense creates opportunities and the offense taps them in,” he said.

The game was scoreless when the Redhawks’ Matt Bauer recovered an Essex fumble at the CVU 45 yard line after a Redhawks’ punt from deep in their own territory. With decent field position for the first time in three possessions, CVU rolled into paydirt in eight plays on a Nick Ferrentino plunge from five yards out. Quarterback Drew Nick’s 25-yard keeper was a key play in the drive. Nick finished the night with 97 yards on eight lugs.

CVU soon got the ball back when it recovered an Essex fumble at the Hornets’ 32. Nick passed to Ferrentino for 12 yards, and on the next play rolled out for a 20-yard touchdown. An incomplete pass for a two-point conversion left the score at 12-0 with 3:33 left in the first reel. A little more than a minute later, Ferrentino powered through the trenches for a 53-yard touchdown run. Nick passed to lanky end Ryan Beaudry for the two-point conversion and a 20-0 lead with 2:30 to go in the quarter.

For Ferrentino, his usual night at the office resulted in 231 yards on the ground, another 12 via a pass reception and four touchdowns. The night’s take boosted the junior halfback’s season marks to 10 touchdowns and 534 yards in three contests. “He doesn’t need much of a hole,” lineman/linebacker Quinn Kropf said of Ferrentino.

After CVU went up, 28-0, on a Nick to Brent Carreiro scoring pass early in the second stanza, Essex quarterback Jack Valley got the Hornets back in the contest with touchdown passes for five and 37 yards.

With CVU leading, 28-14, the Redhawks’ linebackers Ryan Fleming and Michael Fournier led a defensive comeback capped by Carreiro’s interception and 25-yard return. Ferrentino then scored on a six-yard scamper and Kohlasch booted the extra point for a 35-14 edge with 3:27 to go in the third reel. Ferrentino then loped 74 yards for his fourth touchdown on the last play of the quarter and Pat Shea (11 carries, 41 yards) scored on an 11-yard run in the final period.

The Redhawks assaulted the Essex defense for 369 rushing yards. CVU’s offensive created running room against a huge Hornets’ team that has four linemen weighing more than 250 pounds.

“They grown them big in Essex,” said Fleming after the game, adding that the coaches had the team well prepared for the contest. “This is Essex,” added Kropf. “We were pumped coming in.”

Defense drives CVU past Essex, 49-21

By Ted Ryan for the Burlington Free Press

ESSEX — When a football team racks up points the way Champlain Valley did Friday, the offense would seem to be the focus of the spotlight, and the Redhawks’ certainly dominated the Essex Hornets in a 49-21 win. Still, the Redhawks’ offense received a mighty big assist from the CVU defense, which produced four Hornets’ turnovers that led directly to 26 points, including the game’s first 12.

“The defense definitely pushed us forward. If it wasn’t for them, we would not be here right now,” said CVU running back Nick Ferrentino, who ravaged the Essex defense for four touchdowns and 242 yards rushing, and that’s not including a 68-yard TD romp negated by a penalty. “Our defense put us there and we executed.”

“What’s that country song? Thunder gets all the credit but lightning does all the work?” asked CVU coach Jim Provost. “That’s exactly what happened. It’s a two-way street. The defense creates opportunities and the offense taps them in.”

The first Essex turnover came on a punt reception recovered by CVU’s Matt Bauer at the Redhawks’ 45. CVU drove to the 6, from where Ferrentino recorded his first score with 4:57 left in the first quarter. Then, in a weird bounce of the football, Essex quarterback Jack Valley had a pass batted back into his own hands for the catch, but he fumbled with CVU recovering at the Hornets’ 37. CVU quarterback Drew Nick completed a 17-yard pass to Brendan Davitt, then ran the final 20 yards for a 12-0 lead at 3:33.

Ferrentino pushed the lead to 20-0 with a 53-yard run before the quarter ended and the score went to 28-0 on Nick’s 9-yard pass to Brent Carreiro at 10:11 of the second. At that point, the Hornets rallied with two touchdowns, Valley throwing a 5-yard scoring strike to Trevor Yandow at 6:02 and then connecting with Willie McSoley at 1:02 for a 28-14 halftime score. The late Essex points were “definitely startling,” said Ferrentino, who added, “They’re known for coming back, known for staying in there ... but we picked it up in the second half and brought it to them.”

An Essex turnover set up Ferrentino’s 6-yard scoring run at 3:27 of the third and he broke off a 74-yard TD dash as the quarter ended. A CVU interception led to Patrick Shea’s 12-yard run to account for the Redhawks’ final points. Essex backup quarterback Joey Picard finished the scoring with a 33-yard pass to Yandow.

The win pushed CVU’s record to 3-0 while Essex dropped to 0-3.

Redhawks football prepares for Hornets' nest

By Mal Boright for the Williston Observer

When a 2-0 high school football team goes up against one that’s 0-2, a positive outcome for the unbeaten combine should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong.

Champlain Valley Union head coach Jim Provost is not buying the cake business as he looks ahead to the Friday night (7 p.m.) clash in Essex between his 2-0 Redhawks and the 0-2 Essex Hornets. “Essex just might be the best 0-2 team in the state,” Provost told the Observer Monday. “They will be sky high. This is almost a playoff game for them.” Last weekend, while CVU was dispatching Brattleboro at home, 43-13, Essex was suffering a 31-28 loss at Middlebury. “We have to prepare this week for perhaps the best team we will see all year, “ Provost added, noting that Friday’s contest is the home opener for the blue and gold Hornets. It will be the second straight year the Redhawks have visited the 2009 Division I champs in their house. Essex popped the Hawks last fall in a game that saw both starting quarterbacks sidelined by halftime.

In CVU’s initial outing before the home folks Saturday (Sept. 10), the Redhawks fell behind Brattleboro in a fumbly first quarter before they grabbed a shaky 12-6 edge by halftime. CVU then rolled in the second half behind a crunching ground attack and stingy defense.

Led by halfback Nick Ferrentino (22 carries, 168 yards, three touchdowns), the Redhawks piled up 253 rushing yards. Quarterback Drew Nick connected on 10 of 20 passes for one score and one rushing touchdown. “Old Thunderfoot,” kicker Tucker Kohlash, knocked in a 27-yard field goal and a pair of extra points. But it took some time for the Red and White to get the offense clicking. Two lost fumbles in the first quarter played a role. The second turnover gave the Colonels good field position at the CVU 41. Seven plays later, Brattleboro was in the end zone on a 17-yard pass from quarterback Tyler Higley to wide receiver Aaron Prue with 2:33 left in the reel. The kick for the extra-point was wide.

Midway in the second quarter, a naked reverse by Nick from the BUHS 40 got the Redhawks moving. Faking passes, Nick rolled out to his right and ran 26 yards to the Brattleboro 14. On first down, Ferrentino exploded up the middle and into the end zone to knot the contest. Kohlasch’s kick for the point-after bounced off the left upright. Five plays later, CVU was back in business. Nick, from his defensive back position, picked off a Higley pass and returned it 15 yards to the Colonels’ 34. Four plays later, Ferrentino had an 8-yard scoring run. The elusive back gained 18 yards in three carries in the drive, and Nick connected with lanky end Ryan Beaudry for 16 yards. An extra point kick never happened due to a fumbled center snap.

Early in the second half, CVU officially took charge. Recovering a Brattleboro fumble at the visitors’ 21 on just the third play of the third quarter, the Hawks scored in just three plays on a Nick keeper from the 3, — Ferrentino set up the score with an 18-yard run that left a trail of prone white clad would-be tacklers. Nick passed to Matt Bauer for the two-point conversion and a 20-6 lead.

After that, the CVU frequently scored. Nick hooked up with Brent Carreiro on a 14-yard scoring toss with 5:43 left in the third quarter and Kohlasch launched his field goal midway through the final reel. Ferrentino bolted 15 yards around the right side for the final touchdown with 1:07 to play. “Our (offensive) line really did at great job today,” Ferrentino said after the game and his second straight 100-plus yard performance.

Also deserving praise was the defense, led by linebackers Ryan Fleming, Michael Fournier and Quinn Kropf, along with Harvey Ottinger, Pete Wernhoff, Bobby Russell and Nick. “We were well prepared for (Brattleboro),” said Fournier who, along with Fleming and Wernhoff, had a role in the six sacks of quarterback Higley.

Higley, a junior, despite the sacks and being under constant pressure, still hit on 18 of 33 passes for 238 yards and two scores.

“Our defense is really coming together,” said Provost who also had good words for Russell’s punting (four for 35-yard average) that backed up the Colonels deep in their territory on at least two occasions when the game was in doubt.

EveryMorning Quarterback interviews CVU head coach Jim Provost

Coach Jim Provost talks D-1 football on Radio 1390AM with hosts Anthony Spagnolo, Trey Peiffer and Connor Mellen. Click the link below to hear Coach's segment.

coachprovost_1.mp3coachprovost_1.mp3 (MP3 ~ 11.94Mb)

coachprovost_1.mp3 (MP3 ~ 11.94Mb)

CVU handles Burlington in 2011 season opener

By Joe Cribari

Champlain Valley Union High School’s football Redhawks made an impressive statement with a decisive, five touchdown, 34-0 victory over the Burlington High School Seahorses Friday night at Burlington. The Redhawks defense was almost perfect. This game was CVU’s first as a Division I team and their first ever meeting with the Seahorses as a varsity squad. BHS, although a smaller team with fewer upper classmen, is an established organization in Vermont high school football. The Seahorses have been in Division I since 2007.

Junior running back Nick Ferrentino drew first blood for the Redhawks with a dazzling fifty-one yard scramble late in the first quarter. Ferrentino helped grind down the clock, rushing for over 125 yards two additional scores for one and thirteen yards in the second and third quarters respectively.

Senior co-captain Drew Nick has handily taken over as starting quarterback this year. Drew passed for over 130 yards and one touchdown, connecting with senior running back Brent Carreiro in the first quarter. Nick also scored on his feet from the nine yard line on a QB sneak with two minutes remaining in the first half.

CVU linebacker and co-captain Ryan Fleming is showing strong leadership in his senior year. Fleming was everywhere – he was in on almost every defensive play. Burlington’s offense will remember number 74.

Tucker Kohlasch, now in only his second season playing football, has proved to be a vital addition to the team. The senior kicker not only hit four of five extra point attempts and nailed the ball deep on kickoffs, but is now a defense threat as well. This young man showed his mettle in his first football game ever last year scoring a two-point conversion. In Friday’s game Tucker pulled in two interceptions. Tucker does a lot more than kick. Fleming, coming off the field after one of those interceptions, expressed the general reaction, “I love this! Our kicker comes in at corner and intercepts the ball!”

“I have been practicing with [the defense] and coach put me in,” said Kohlasch. “I just wish I had started playing football younger,” he stated. Tucker is certainly making up for that lost time.

The 2011 Redhawks have some other familiar faces. Alec Distler, Dylan Raymond and co-captain Quinn Kropf are back anchoring CVU’s big offensive line. Matt Bauer, Ryan Beaudry and Johnny Powers are back – each increasing as a contributing factor on this Redhawks team that lost twenty three graduating seniors since last year.

Redhawks fans made a great showing as well on this balmy, beautiful evening and may have outnumbered home team fans. With the help of CVU’s cheerleading squad, a lot of noise poured from the Red side of the field. Shouts of “CHAMP-lain VAL-ly” and “CVU!, CVU!” created a din that neither the Burlington fans nor the announcer could penetrate.

Junior running back Patrick Shea pounded out over ninety yards, especially towards the end of the game as those Redhawks fans shouted out “SAY good-NI-ite” and sang the 60’s song “Na-Na-Na-Na . . . Na-Na- Na-Na . . . Hey, Hey-ey - Good bye.”

“This was a team effort,” stated a smiling Head Coach Jim Provost at the game’s end. Next week the Redhawks play their first home game of the season with a visit from Brattleboro High School. The game starts at 1:00 pm on Saturday September 10, 2011.

CVU soars past Burlington

Redhawks enter Division I ranks with 34-0 win over Seahorses

By Alex Abrami for the Burlington Free Press

At the start of preseason, lineman Ryan Fleming and his Champlain Valley Union High School teammates received new, play-calling wristbands. “It was big news to start the season,” Fleming said. “It was like, ‘Oh, we have a new offense?’” Yes, the Redhawks do.

Employing a no-huddle spread attack, one that has picked up steam across the state in recent years, CVU began its era in Division I against Burlington at Buck Hard Field on Friday night. The Redhawks passed the first test.

Nick Ferrentino racked up 138 rushing yards and three touchdowns, quarterback Drew Nick threw for 150 yards and the Redhawks used quick strikes in the first half to run past the Seahorses, 34-0, on the opening night of the Vermont high school football season. “It was a lot of fun for us. The offensive line was incredible — they gave me plenty of time. Our receivers did their job and that set up the runs real well,” said Nick, who also threw for a score and ran for another. “It was a fun night.”

After stalling on its first two possessions, CVU took advantage of Burlington turnovers, capitalizing for 14 points in a span of 78 seconds late in the first quarter. After nearly falling down near the line of scrimmage, Ferrentino raced for a 51-yard touchdown with 3:36 left, putting CVU up 7-0. Nick then hooked up with Brent Carreiro, who danced his way for a 19-yard TD, pushing CVU ahead 14-0.

CVU added two second-quarter scores — Ferrentino plunged in from 1 yard out with 6:57 left and Nick scampered for a 9-yard TD on a fourth-and-1 conversion. Fleming forced his way into Burlington’s backfield, part of a CVU defense that held in check a platoon of capable, speedy Seahorse running backs.

“They were doing a lot of pitch sweeps and we knew that was coming,” Fleming said. “As the outside backer, I was blitzing a lot and trying to stay to the outside and break it up before it got going.” Mistakes proved costly for a young BHS squad. “Being as thin and inexperienced as we are, we can’t have that. It just hurts,” Burlington coach Brennan Carney said. “We had some bright spots, but too many mistakes, too many guys out of place. ... We’ll get there.”

Ferrentino capped his big evening with a 13-yard TD run in the third quarter, the lone points in the second half. Patrick Shea complemented Ferrentino with 96 rushing yards, many coming on a clock-eating drive to close out the game.

CVU’s spread offense scored 34 points, but only one touchdown came via the pass, coach Jim Provost pointed. “That’s going to take a bit of time. We might be a pass first, run second team. But we’ll take whatever,” Provost said. “If we are successfully running the ball, we’ll take that. I like balance overall.“I wasn’t expecting this and I tell you what — I didn’t know what to expect.”