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By Chris Thayer VSN Staff Writer
Rutland VT. When Derrick Webb of Rutland High School and Jason Foster of Mount Saint Joseph Academy step onto the football Friday night at Rutland’s Alumni Field for the annual Rutland MSJ football game it will be the seventy fourth time it has been done by the two schools and more importantly countless times friends have faced each other on different sides of the ball in the biggest rivalry game in the state of Vermont. This is the game that all others are measured by; the games are legendary, the history is rich in flavor and if you’re not sleeping under a rock somewhere in Rutland you probably have been to at least one MSJ- Rutland game at some point in your life.
The two senior ball players are not any different than any other friends that have played this game against one another, what is a little different is the way the pair are coming into this particular game and the medical scares they both had faced this season. Back in a pre season scrimmage game in Exeter New Hampshire Derrick Webb (one of the states premier tail backs) injured his elbow so severely many thought he would not see the football field this season. On the other side of the ball Jason Foster (one of the states top five linemen) fell victim to a level three concussion that had him in the hospital the night it happened and his prognosis was not too good for future play either.
Foster lost three games due to the injury and he will be the first to tell you how lucky he is to be on the field playing at the moment. “I thought my football life as I knew it was over for good, I had no movement in my lower body after the hit and I was scared to death” said Foster of that night in Essex. “I don’t remember that much about it except for the moment I realized I was hurt everyone was looking at me funny and they were all standing over me”. The hit and injury was one of the scariest in recent memory that occurred in the Rutland football region as Foster laid motionless for about ten solid minuets before the paramedics strapped him to a gurney and transported him to Fletcher Allen Hospital in Burlington. The six foot four two hundred twenty pound Foster is one of those kids that team’s game plan against and do special things during games to try and stop him. The mere fact that he is back on the football field at any capacity is just amazing to him and many people around him. The biggest thing that helped Foster back onto the field was time and patience to get healed.
Webb was just about in the same boat as Foster. In August he went down with his injury it was a week in a half before any games took place for the Raiders and as luck of the 2006 schedule would have it, the Raiders had three non league games to start the season and Webb did not miss any action that counted in the league standings. “I really thought this was it for me and I was done for the year” said Webb of his injury. “When it happened I was thinking about all the work that had gone into getting where we are today and it was perhaps over for me now”. Derrick Webb is no ordinary kid and that’s an understatement, many will tell you just how hard this young man worked to get back on the football field and to be part of this team. Football is so important to Derrick he worked his rehab twice as hard to get where he needed to be. He never missed a practice, a team meeting or any aspect of the Raiders daily regiment; he was going to be ready to play when the time had come. The Hartford game was his triumphant return to the Raiders lineup and it was in grand fashion leading the Big Red Machine to a huge division win and he helped get the season on track for Rutland.
There are many stories just like this one of friends playing against each other and there will be many more to come as the years go by. Webb and Foster have played football together for years before high school first in the city’s recreation department flag football program and then the pair we’re two of the pioneer Falcon Football full contact junior high players here in Rutland. “I always thought we would play together forever back in those days of Falcon Football” said Foster “It was so much fun back then we learned what team work really was and we took it to the next level” Webb echoed the sentiments of Foster about those days but added when the pair separated to different high schools their friendship didn’t end because of that. “We have been friends for a long time and that will never change, Friday night we will be very competitive on the field and after that, friends like before” said Webb.
Going into this week’s game between the two storied schools of Division One dominance they each have taken very different path to get to this point. The Mounties are for all intents and purposes playing their state title game against Rutland and as for the Raiders it’s another game on the road to the playoffs as Rutland clinched the number two seed in D-I last week at Essex. Last years divisional champion MSJ has not beaten Rutland in the past five tries. Some would even say that winning a state title and not beating Rutland is like the emptiest feeling ever. “Winning the title last year was great but not beating Rutland in the only game that matters is something you will carry with you forever” said Foster. “I would rather beat Rutland than win the title, it’s that simple” It’s sometimes amazing how the two look at things in the same light. “He’s right, beating MSJ is forever and will be a memory that will be with you always, they can never take that away from you” said Webb.
Both schools are going into Friday night on highs as the Mounties beat a very good St Johnsbury team last Saturday on the road and the Raiders beat Essex rather handily on the road as well. “We will not be taking MSJ lightly at all” said Raiders Head Coach Mike Norman following the Essex game. “They are playing some good football right now, those kids are coming in hungry this is a big game for them and we have to be ready to play four quarters of football to beat them”. Norman went onto say this is the one you can throw out the record books for as it’s an intensive game that has a life all its own.
If you have never played in one of these games you can never really know what its like to be out there competing with your friend’s on the other side of the ball. You didn’t have to be the star of the game it for some was just great to be there and part of it all. MSJ-Rutland football games have like a fraternity feeling, a common bond that can never be taken away from you win or loose. The stands are filled with past heroes and just plain players, wives of past heroes and players, children of past heroes and players and friends of just about everyone that’s ever played in the game. Put simply, this for some folks is the only game most people look forward to all season long in the Rutland area. This Friday night the game will happen like it has for the past 74 years. There will big plays, big hits, and big pats on the back after its all said and done. Make sure you don’t miss out on the fall classic here in the Rutland region known only as “THE GAME”
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