Rutland Herald Fall Sports Guide
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defense but Wallett likes the depth in his 31-player
roster.
Ward and Roberts will lead the linebackers
and Kapusta will be on the D-line with Josh Ray,
who impressed the coaching staff with his play
late in the 2016 season. He’s only a sophomore
but Wallett, a former lineman at Rutland High,
is confident he’ll hold down the nose position.
“The last couple of games last year we plugged
him in there and he did a nice job,” Wallett said.
Ethan Stoodley will play a linebacker and /
or defensive end and Wallett also has Eaton and
Shelvy slotted into playing D.
POULTNEY/MSJ
Poultney/MSJ head coach Dave Capman thinks
there will be an extension of the two-year experi-
ment that co-opted the schools’ football programs
last year. What that means for this year is that the
combine will be more competitive than last year’s
2-6 regular-season record.
“I think it’s going pretty well. The MSJ kids had
to learn a new offense last year and things are
going quicker than they did last year. Even the
kids have commented,” Capman said.
Capman’s goal is to be in the top four and have
a home playoff game.
If Capman’s crew pull things together they
might be in a better position numbers-wise than
some of their contemporaries; they have nearly
40 players out with 22 from Poultney and 16 or
17 from MSJ.
The quarterback competition is between sopho-
more Caden Capman and Leo Caranza. Whom-
ever is not taking snaps will be one of the team’s
top receivers.
Capman may have a leg up after a solid perfor-
mance in last year’s playoff game, when an injury
to the starter forced him to step in behind center
for three periods. He also took most of the snaps
for the JV team.
Third-year starter Jacob Allen will be at fullback
and his younger brother Levi, a good athlete, will
likely be halfback.
Other skill players include versatile James Mars,
Colman Shum, Thomas Dunbar, Nick Moise, Jona-
than Kendall and Lucas Gloss.
The team has some experience in the lines with
Dominic Ezzo, Mason Hutchins, Zach Gelbar,
Jacob DeBonis, Jacob McMahan and Cameron
Wescott and Matt Fox ready to form a rotation.
It’s a physical group with decent size.
“I think our defense is solid,” Capman said.
That defense has looked good in scrimmages
and the team will have another against Milton
before opening the season at home against
BFA-Fairfax.
— Compiled by Bob Fredette
This article was originally published at the start of
the fall season.
Friday, October 6, 2017