Football was in the air again Saturday at Memorial Field when top all-star high school athletes from New Hampshire and Vermont faced off in the42nd annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.
With state pride at stake, the players of New Hampshire broke a 21-21 tie when Hanover native Eric Musiek ran in from the one yard line with under two minutes to go.
Although after a 24-yard kickoff return by Ryan LaCasse stationed Vermont on the 33 yard line with over a minute to go, the Granite State held off their rival and took the 27-21 victory.
For New Hampshire, the win represented a seventh straight victory over rival Vermont. It was also the last game for former Hanover High Coach Herb Hatch who recently accepted an athletic director's position at Mascoma High School.
As Hatch said in an article in the Valley News, "This game could have gone either way."
That was evident from the beginning when Vermont scored first to lead 6-0, but soon lost the lead in the second quarter when New Hampshire capped a 19-play 69-yard drive to move ahead 7-6.
When it appeared the teams would head to the locker rooms at halftime deadlocked at 14, Merrimack's Mark Rebeiro ran back a kickoff 92 yards with 49 seconds left in the first half tying the game at 14.
The second half proved to be just as brutal as the first when Vermont tied the game at 21 five minutes into the third quarter after quarterback Sean Keenan lead LaCasse downfied for a 27-yard touchdown.
The two defenses would remain steady though until New Hampshire broke free in the end to win the game.
