POULTNEY — The Mill River football team has gotten hot at the right time.

There are dream starts and then there is what the Rutland football team did Friday night against fellow Division I heavyweight Hartford.

With district championships in the books, the Harwood girls cross-country running team enters the weekend as the No. 1 team.

They’re back.

Outlined against a late October sky at Abatiell Field, state title contenders Mount St. Joseph and Enosburg battled through a boys soccer game that saw MSJ knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 3-1 loss.

Over two months of preparation will culminate with a lot of make-or-break moments when girls soccer playoffs kick off next week.

The Rutland boys soccer team knew that with a young squad it would take a bit for the team to find its stride.

The West Rutland girls soccer team came to Abatiell Field determined to protect its No. 2 seed in the Division IV playoffs. But it was Mount St. Joseph earning a 3-1 victory and, possibly, setting itself up for the No. 2 seed when the playoff pairings are posted on Oct. 25.

If you want the playoffs to run through your home field, there’s one thing you have to do – win.

CHESTER — The Green Mountain girls soccer team got on top of White River Valley early, scoring just five minutes into the game on a corner kick by Chloe Ayer, using the early score as a springboard to a 3-0 win.

When author Roger Kahn took over the New York Penn League baseball team the Utica Blue Sox as controlling stockholder and president in 1983, he wrote a book about it: Good Enough to Dream.

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield field hockey player Molly Tennis had her 16th birthday on Wednesday but nobody celebrated the day quite like Windsor’s Gwen Ambrose. The sophomore scored the first, second, third and fourth goals of her varsity career in a 7-0 victory over the Cosmos.

WESTMINSTER — The Southern Vermont League A Division boys championship is staying in Rutland.

When the one-loss Enosburg boys soccer team comes to Rutland’s Abatiell Field to square off against Mount St. Joseph on Friday, it will be one of the most attractive games of the season. It pits the Division IV favorite for the state crown in unbeaten MSJ against a red hot contender for the …

Teams are going to go through rough patches in their season and not everything is going to go their way, but how will they respond in those adverse situations?

WHITE RIVER JCT. — Mill River’s Annika Heintz won the individual crown in the girls race at the Southern Vermont League B Cross Country Championship hosted by Hartford High School.

Sloppy weather conditions for Vermont playoff soccer can be a powerful equalizing force, turning the beautiful game into more of a Slip N’ Slide.

BRANDON — Thirteen has the reputation of being an unlucky number, especially during spooky season, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth for Springfield girls soccer senior Ari Cioffi.

PITTSFORD — Two days later, the Fair Haven boys soccer team erased the Taranovich Field jinx with a 3-2 victory over Proctor.

BRANDON — On second down in overtime, the skies opened up and rain started to pelt Markowski Field. It was go time for the Otter Valley football team.

BRANDON — On second down in overtime, the skies opened up and rain started to pelt Markowski Field. It was go time for the Otter Valley football team.

PITTSFORD — The Jimmy T Memorial Showcase has become an annual highlight of the high school soccer scene and Saturday showed that two-thirds of the “Jimmy T” is still a special event.

Winning has become the Rutland girls soccer team’s middle name over the last month. The Ravens picked up their ninth win in a row, beating rival Brattleboro 6-0 Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field.

A lot is made of the Rutland football team’s offense. It’s explosive and can turn the tides of the game in an instant. But what about those guys on the other side of the ball?

PITTSFORD — There was only 1:39 remaining in the final overtime. It looked as though the Proctor boys soccer team was about to endure its third tie of the season.

Norwich might be getting a little sick of seeing the top rushing attacks in Division III football.

There can be no debate. The career mark of 100 goals in soccer is much more difficult to attain than the 1,000-point plateau in high school basketball.

Almost everyone loves an underdog that has nothing to lose in the playoffs.

MANCHESTER — Family was at the heart of the Division II boys golf state championships on Thursday at Manchester Country Club.

WEST RUTLAND — Wrap up West Rutland’s Senior Game in green paper, put a gold bow on top and give it to Serena Coombs and Anna Cyr, the team’s only two seniors. They had as much to do with the Golden Horde’s 1-0 victory over Poultney on Thursday as anyone.

Rutland’s Courtney Collins and her family turned the famed Heartbreak Hill into Heartfelt Hill during Monday’s Boston Marathon.

Rutland’s Courtney Collins and her family turned the famed Heartbreak Hill into Heartfelt Hill during Monday’s Boston Marathon.

The 1980s Lakers against the Celtics. Joe Frazier throwing punches at Muhammad Ali. The list goes on and on. It always means more when each side is at the top of their game.

BARRE — Thunder Road takes its second crack at the 59th Northfield Savings Bank Vermont Milk Bowl this Saturday and Sunday. Despite a two-week delay due to Mother Nature, drivers are still excited about tackling “The Toughest Short Track Race in North America.”

FAIR HAVEN — There are landmark days in the building of a successful program, games where you can look back and see the narrative changing right before your eyes. Wednesday was one of those days for the Fair Haven field hockey team.

When you have won five of the last six state championships and are unbeaten this season as field hockey goes into its stretch run, the community embraces the team. The field hockey team at Bellows Falls is a source of community and school pride.

Mount St. Joseph athletic director Dan Elliott, filling in as ball boy, remarked the next goal will be huge with MSJ boys soccer leading Twin Valley by two early in the second half.

A football team wants to be playing its best when the games matter the most.

When Bill Bowes was coaching the Castleton University women’s ice hockey team, he was recruiting an international player by the name of Nicoline Jensen.

WOODSTOCK — Green Mountain’s Everett Mosher joined a very small circle of players with his 100th goal in Tuesday’s boys soccer game, a 1-1 tie with Woodstock.