The 2024 Vermont high school fall season has begun. See below for scores, schedules and game details (statistical leaders, game notes) from soccer, field hockey, volleyball, golf and cross-country running.

To report scores: Coaches or team representatives are asked to report results ASAP after games by emailing sports@burlingtonfreepress.com. Please submit with a name/contact number.

►Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.

►Contact Judith Altneu at jaltneu@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.

SATURDAY’S H.S. GAMES

Football

See Week 6 scoreboard for schedule, results

Field hockey 

Rice 8, Mount Mansfield 1

R: Lanah Quong 4G, 1A. Violet Clough 1G, 3A. Emeri Rasco 2G. Sophia Chan 1G. Kate Larkin 2A. Molly McGibney 1 save.

MM: Abby Hussey 1G. Bea Dirkmaat 13 saves.

Essex 2, Mount Abraham 0

E: Zuz Rooney 1G. Lina Nguyen 1A. Calleigh Bruyns 1G. Jemma Brinker 1A. Sophie Krauss 4 saves.

M: Reagan Lafreniere 15 saves.

Colchester 8, Middlebury 0

Woodstock 6, Springfield 0

Hartford at Cambridge/Salem Co-op, 11 a.m. 

Burlington at South Burlington, 3 p.m. 

Girls soccer

Mount Mansfield 2, Essex 1 (2OT)

E: Hazel Fry 1G, 1A. Bria Breckage 1G. Grace Symula 1A. Kelsie Scanlon 15 saves.

MM: Evie Keblin 1G.

Note: Fry scored the equalizer with 7:40 left in regulation and then set up Breckage for the OT winner with 3:24 to go.

Green Mountain Valley 2, Vergennes 0

BFA-Fairfax at Richford

White River Valley at Randolph, 1:30 p.m.

Lamoille at Montpelier, 3 p.m.

Boys soccer

Essex at Mount Mansfield, 10 a.m.

Milton 2, Middlebury 1

MILT- Andrew Preuss 1G, 1A. Jack Tomasi 1G. Maxton Greenfield 1A. Alex Harlow, Brody Allard combined for 4 saves.

MIDD: Ollie Choudhury 1G. Jonathan Kafumbe 14 saves.

Mount Abraham 6, Missisquoi 0

Mt. Abe: Riley Coffey 3G. Nick Fox 1G. Johnny Stanley 1G, 1A. Aidin Hodzic 1G. Zealand Jackson 1A. Abraham Camera 1A. Evan Corrigan 1A. Wayden Cherington 1A. Maverick Livingston 1A.

Miss: Jacksen Proof 14 saves.

Note: Mount Abraham held a 1-0 lead at halftime.

Champlain Valley 8, BFA-St. Albans 1

North Country 6, Spaulding 0

NC: Alex Giroux 4G. Jon Giroux 1G, 1A. Collin Sanville 1G, 1A. Zac Griffith 2A. Brodie Bingham 1A. Cam Gusin 7 saves.

U-32 5, Lyndon 1

U: Shiloh Weiss 2G. Zack Parton 1G, 1A. Maddox Heise 1G. Toby Brown 1G. Braden O’Donnell 1A. Cole Pittsley 1 save.

L: Henry Muller 1G. Angel Lockwood 1A, 14 saves.

Note: Weiss scored twice in the 14-second span in the final minute of the first half to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead at the break. Heise pushed the U-32 margin to 3-1 just 17 seconds into the second half.

Winooski 3, Richford 1

Hartford 9, Mill River 0

H: Sam Peckinpaugh 2G. Cavan Benjamin 3A. Tighe Hrabchak 1G, 1A. Owen McMahon 1G. Caden Marcotte 1G. Nunu Mayer 1G, 1A. Jason Kelly 1A. Jackson Jewett 1A. Colin Morlock 1A.

Hazen at Peoples

White River Valley at Randolph

Oxbow at BFA-Fairfax, 1 p.m.

Montpelier at Harwood, 2 p.m.

Rice at Vergennes, 2:30 p.m.

Colchester at South Burlington, 7 p.m.

Girls volleyball 

Games at 11:30 a.m. unless noted 

Hartford at Randolph, 10 a.m.

South Burlington at Essex

Rice at Mount Mansfield

BFA-St. Albans at St. Johnsbury

Colchester at Lyndon

Enosburg 3, Montpelier 1 (20-25, 25-13, 25-22, 25-14)

M: Veda Gahagan 6 aces, 2 digs. Neiro Damon 3 aces, 6 digs, 1 kill. Abby Hess 3 aces, 5 digs, 2 kills. Alyssa Burns 2 aces, 5 digs.

Missisquoi at Harwood, 3:30 p.m. 

Cross-country running

Woods Trail Run at Thetford Academy

SUNDAY’S COLLEGE GAMES

Women’s soccer

UMBC at Vermont, noon

Field hockey

Vermont at Dartmouth, 1 p.m.

(Subject to change)

You need to make a decision on what to fill your trick-or-treat bowl with. What candy are you picking?

You might think to pick one that was made in the state.

Vermont has a history of sweets-making, from the state’s iconic maple candy, which traces its origins to pre-colonial times and the teachings of Indigenous Americans to make maple syrup, to Lake Champlain Chocolates, made by a family of chocolatiers headquartered in Burlington.

However, it’s probably a better idea to get the most popular candies in the Commonwealth. Luckily, Candystore.com has released a 2024 study detailing what each states’ favorite candies are.

CandyStore.com’s study was conducted by looking at which three candies had the most pounds of themselves bought in each state.

What is the most popular Halloween candy in Vermont?

According to the study, Vermont’s most popular candy is M&M’s, with 39,138 pounds of the chocolate candies sold in the state.

Vermont’s second most popular candy, according to the study, is Skittles, as shown by how many pounds of Skittles were sold in the state: 29,907.

Vermont’s third most popular candy is Milky Way, the iconic nougat, caramel and chocolate bar, sold 21,032 pounds of itself in the Green Mountain State, the study said.

If you can’t choose, all three would be a great spread for the trick-or-treaters of Halloween night.

Rin Velasco is a trending reporter. She can be reached at rvelasco@gannett.com.

This week saw the beginning of what could be the first legal challenge under the city’s half-year-old Measure HLA requirements. Metro is looking to make significant changes to Vermont Avenue, mainly new bus lanes. Advocates say Metro needs to think bigger; Streets for All says the latest plan falls short of complying with HLA.

Vermont Avenue has long been among Metro’s (and the nation’s) highest ridership bus streets. For at least a decade, Metro has been glacially slowly planning Vermont Avenue bus improvements. The project gained momentum with 2016 Measure M funding, but Metro studies in 2018 and in 2019 didn’t quite get the fiscally-cheap and politically-expensive project ready for its c. 2024 scheduled groundbreaking.

Recently Metro scaled back what might have been 12 miles of full-fledged Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to about six miles of bus lanes and bus stop improvements (details below). Unspecified, unfunded future phases remain a possibility.

Advocates see Vermont as a key opportunity. If you can’t go big, be thorough, and make transit and transit riders a top priority on one of Metro’s and the nation’s highest ridership corridors, where can you?

The Alliance for Community Transit (ACT-LA) is currently circulating a letter (sign on as an individual or organization) in support of improving Vermont for people on bus, bike, and on foot – from Sunset Boulevard to the Metro C (Green) Line Athens Station. ACT-LA and two dozen organizations are calling for following features all along the nearly 12-mile-long project:

• uninterrupted bus lanes
• protected bike lanes
• pedestrian scrambles at high injury and bus transfer intersections
• tree planting, non-hostile shelters, signage, wayfinding, trash bins, and a bus rider bill of rights at every stop
• wait time displays and public water at all major intersections
• electrification of buses along the corridor
• preserving all street vending and expanding the sidewalk in areas with high vending concentrations

For the near term, Metro is looking to spend its Vermont Measure M funds on a much less expansive project.

According to a recent Vermont Transit Corridor presentation, Metro is looking to add about six miles of bus lanes (2.5 miles from Sunset to Wilshire Boulevard and 3.7 miles from Gage Avenue to the C Line). Metro would also add “light rail-like stations with enhanced shelters and more passenger amenities for comfort and safety,” featuring off-bus fare payment, all-door boarding, and “bus bulbs at stations [that] would extend the pedestrian area and shorten crossings with less exposure to vehicle traffic.”

Metro is including little for pedestrians, and nothing for cyclists.

In the same presentation, Metro asserts that the project is consistent with the city’s Mobility Plan and that it “helps support” the city’s Measure HLA.

Streets for All disagrees.

The city Mobility Plan 2035 [map] designates all 12 miles of the Vermont Transit Corridor project for bus, walk and bike upgrades. The entire length is designated to receive bus lanes and pedestrian enhancements. South of 60th Place (near Gage Avenue), the plan approved protected bike lanes, and from 60th Place north, unprotected bike lanes.

Measure HLA now requires that planned bus/bike/walk features are installed during nearly any city road work at least one-eighth of a mile long. Generally street resurfacing is what triggers HLA, but the law is a little broader than just resurfacing. HLA requirements are triggered by “any paving project or other modification” excluding really small stuff: “restriping of the road without making
other improvements, routine pothole repair, utility cuts, or emergency repairs.”

For about six miles of Vermont, Metro is planning new bus lanes, new BRT stations, while omitting planned bike upgrades.

This week, the advocacy group Streets for All, the main proponent of Measure HLA and one of the signatories of the ACT-LA letter, wrote to Mayor Karen Bass and Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins in support of Metro’s Vermont project proceeding in full compliance with Measure HLA. The letter states:

As designed, the BRT project brings (welcome) improvements to Vermont Avenue… Those trigger the City’s obligation to install Mobility Plan enhancements. Therefore, were the City to issue permits for the project without assuring implementation of its Mobility Plan enhancements at the same time, the City would violate its ordinance, waste public funds, and allow Vermont’s dangerous conditions to remain despite the voters’ mandate.

Streets for All notes that the project complies with the city’s plan for transit and pedestrian facilities, but not for bikeways.

It is not entirely clear what is behind Metro’s omission of planned Vermont Avenue bike lanes. The fiscal cost of adding bike lanes (contrary to pre-HLA fearmongering) is minimal, especially during any kind of restriping. There are political costs, though, in re-allocating car space to bikeways. Especially north of Gage, adding the approved bike lanes will mean reducing on-street parking (or narrowing/eliminating car travel lanes), which the city and Metro have been reluctant to do, even in population-rich, transit-rich locations like Vermont Avenue.

SFA’s letter notes that there are other projects that Metro is doing in L.A. City that don’t comply with Measure HLA. Sadly, Metro has a history of omitting planned bike facilities – from downtown L.A. subway stations to Rosa Parks Station to many other projects. Streetsblog has compiled a list of several future Metro projects that do not appear to be in compliance with the city’s Mobility Plan (it’s unlikely that this list is comprehensive):

105 Freeway Express Lanes

Metro and Caltrans planned 105 Freeway Express Lanes project includes widening several surface streets leading to the freeway: Central Avenue, Fir Street, Bullis Road, Harris Avenue, and Imperial Highway. Some of these are outside the city, but Metro plans to widen L.A.’s 90-feet-wide Central Avenue by 11 feet to add more car capacity. The Mobility Plan calls for narrowing Central to 70 feet and adding protected bike lanes, which are not in Metro’s plans.

East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor

MP2035 designates Van Nuys Boulevard for protected bike lanes for the entire 6+mile length of phase 1 of East San Fernando Valley light rail. Two miles of Van Nuys have existing unprotected bike lanes that appear to be slated for removal in Metro rail plans.

Florence Ave bus lanes

Metro plans to add about five miles of new bus lanes on Florence Avenue mostly in L.A. City (plus a short stretch in unincorporated L.A. County). The project was initially expected to be completed in 2023, but has been delayed multiple times. The project website now forecasts a Winter 2025 opening. Under Measure HLA, the L.A. City part of the project is now required to also add new bike lanes and pedestrian enhancements.

K Line Northern Extension

Planning is underway to extend the K Line north. Depending on the final alignment, the project will trigger numerous MP2035 upgrades, likely including:

• Crenshaw Boulevard: bus lanes, bike lanes, and walk enhancements
• Adams Boulevard: bike lanes and walk enhancements
• Venice Boulevard: bus lanes, bike lane upgrades and walk enhancements
• San Vicente Boulevard: bike lane upgrades and walk enhancements 
• Fairfax Avenue: bus lanes, bike lanes, and walk enhancements
• La Brea Boulevard: bike lanes and walk enhancements

Wilshire D Line Subway

Prior to HLA, Metro asserted that D Line subway construction is not subject to the city’s Mobility Plan, as the full three sections of the project were environmentally cleared prior to 2015 MP2035 approval. Measure HLA makes no exceptions based on project approval dates, but applies to when street work (resurfacing, striping) takes place. Section 1 D Line subway construction street reconstruction (currently nearing completion) was perhaps too far along for HLA to trigger upgrades on Wilshire Boulevard, La Brea, and Fairfax. Section 2 construction could trigger Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars upgrades. Section 3 may trigger upgrades to Wilshire, Gayley Avenue, and Westwood Boulevard.

LinkUS Union Station Run-Through Tracks

Metro’s LinkUS project includes changes to North Main Street that appear to ignore Mobility Plan designations for bus lanes, protected bike lanes, and pedestrian enhancements.