ST. JOHNSBURY – Nolan Walpole powered to over 100 rushing yards. Quarterback Orion Yates flung touchdown passes to three different receivers. The defense, despite missing a star linebacker, forced three turnovers.
The script went according to plan for the Champlain Valley Union High School football team during the Division I state championship game. And the Redhawks might have written themselves into history, too.
In a wire-to-wire performance, No. 1 CVU cruised to a 41-14 triumph over second-seeded Rutland to cap an undefeated season and seize its second D-I title in three years at St. Johnsbury Academy’s Fairbanks Field on Saturday night.
Walpole finished with 141 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries, Yates passed for 172 yards and connected with Walpole, Jacob Armstrong and Dylan Frere for TD hookups, and Chase Leonard forced a fumble and snagged an interception to headline CVU’s balanced squad.
“It feels great, it just feels awesome to go out like this,” said Leonard, a senior.
CVU was brutally efficient and dominant over 11 games this fall: The Hinesburg powerhouse outscored opponents 462-62, to cement its status with one of the best single seasons in Vermont history. Saturday, CVU gave up two touchdowns in a game for just the second time in 2024, and the first in over two months.
“That’s an awful big statement you want me to make there,” said CVU’s sixth-year coach Rahn Fleming when asked about his teams place among the state’s all-time greats. “But we certainly set a new standard for CVU football.”
Indeed.
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Two years after winning the program’s first crown, CVU turned over the offense to Yates, a 6-foot-3 sophomore star who hadn’t played the position in prior years, while relying on game-breaking receivers, experience in the trenches and a veteran defense that swarmed on every chance it got.
“You know my theory: Hire people smarter than you are and get out of their way and let them coach,” Fleming said. “But if we couldn’t win with this group, I’d have to turn in my coaching card. I didn’t fail, we didn’t fail, this was a special bunch.”
Rutland’s opening possession Saturday resulted in a three-and-out because of Dylan Terricciano’s sack on third down. After a punt, CVU started from its 42-yard line, and Walpole immediately went to work, gaining 29 yards on five carries, the last rush via a 5-yard plunge into the end zone.
“He’s an absolutely animal. He never stops and he’s a staple of our team,” Yates said of Walpole.
On Rutland’s next series, Sean Kennedy recovered a fumble near midfield. Six plays later, Yates fired a strike to Armstrong, who evaded his man on his way to an 18-yard TD and 14-0 lead with 3:07 left in the first quarter.
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Rutland responded when Noah Bruttomesso hit Ethan Wideawake for a 7-yard TD, slicing the deficit to 14-7 by the end of the first 12 minutes of action. But inside the first minute of the second quarter, CVU called a screen pass and Yates hit Walpole in stride for an untouched, 18-yard TD and 21-7 advantage.
In the third quarter, CVU sandwiched a pair of Alex Jovell 23-yard field goals around Leonard’s forced fumble for a 27-7 lead. Rutland got to within 27-14 on Bruttomesso’s 4-yard TD scramble early in the fourth. But Yates and the CVU offense continued to hum: The signal-caller hit Frere in stride over the middle, and the senior receiver broke one tackle to complete a 26-yard TD play.
Then after Leonard’s INT near midfield, Yates capped a 10-play drive with a 3-yard rush for the Redhawks’ final margin of victory.
“It doesn’t even feel real, I’m grappling with it right now. We have (18) seniors who from the moment we lost to BBA last year, set the tone and (saying), ‘We are going to win a championship,’” Yates said. “We did all the work to get there. I didn’t win this, they did.”
Champlain Valley, Rutland, D-I football championship highlights
Check out some scoring and other big plays from the D-I football championship game between No. 1 Champlain Valley and No. 2 Rutland
Rutland wraps a turnaround season at 9-2 (8-2 against Vermont foes).
“The senior class has a lot to proud of. It’s not for a lack of effort. They did everything they possibly could,” Norman said. “(CVU) just made more plays than our kids did. Tip your hat to them.”
After gutting out a 21-7 semifinal win over Middlebury in which they lost linebacker Lucas Almena-Lee to injury, the Redhawks refocused during practice. Almena-Lee’s replacement, Zane Martenis, also shined, allowing CVU’s defense to remain as fierce as it’s been all year long.
“Middlebury did a really good job last week, making us respect defenses a little bit more,” Leonard said. “That was a big theme in practice. We really just came out here and did what we were supposed to do.”
In Saturday’s post-game, Fleming’s emotions got the best of him.
“The bond that we have created on this squad, literally over the last four years, runs so very deep, that the joy is deserved by them and it just owns me right now,” Fleming said. “The joy for these guys owns me right now.”
Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.
