Island Cup

Vineyard Loses to Strong Nantucket Team; Islanders End Season with Proud 7-3 Record
Friday November 25, 1994
Jason Gay

NANTUCKET - The Vineyard football team wasn't even supposed to be here, the gridiron gods tell us. They weren't supposed to be playing for the Island Cup, the Mayflower League conference title and a Super Bowl berth versus Nantucket. Heck, they were supposed to be playing for third place.

But here the Vineyard was, on a warm Saturday in Whaler country, and they ran smack into an oncoming train. Nantucket powered its way to a 23-7 win, providing a dose of reality to the Vineyarders' overachieving 7-3 season.

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Superbowl-Bound Nantucket Football Team Defeats the Vineyard
Friday November 24, 1995
Jason Gay

They came, they saw, they squished.

Using their clumsy "Squish the Grapes" battle cry, the Nantucket Whalers rumbled into Oak Bluffs Saturday and pounded the Martha's Vineyard high school football team 30-13 in a predictable, impressive triumph. The victory before 2,500 Island fans marked the third consecutive Island Cup win for the Super Bowl-bound Whalers.

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Vineyard Eleven Ends Season Without Defeat
Friday November 22, 1963
Vineyard Gazette
 
The Vineyarders wrapped up their fourth football season last Saturday and marked it, in proud red letters, “undefeated.” Traveling to Nantucket, the Vineyard team upset the Whalers for the second time, with a score of 8-0, and brought home the finest football record the school has yet achieved.
 
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Nantucket Lambasted
Friday October 18, 1963
Vineyard Gazette
The Vineyarders chalked up their second win of the gridiron season last Saturday in a clear-cut 36-0 score over Nantucket High School. The regional’s outstanding defensive line, led by co-captain John Bunker, Tony DeBettencourt, Lennie DonAroma and Bob Norton, proved too much for the Nantucket gridders.
 
Offensively, Vineyarders took most of their yardage through straight drive plays. The Vineyard score consisted of five touchdowns, with Niemiec kicking for two extra points and Manny Nunes rushing for four.
 
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Island Eleven Ends Its Best Season So Far
Friday November 16, 1962
Vineyard Gazette
The Vineyarders closed out their most successful season to date with a sparkling 5-2 record, beating Nantucket, after beating them soundly the week before on the Vineyard. Gordon Bassett and John Bunker rushed the Nantucket quarterback, Vaughan Machado, in a second period pass play from the Nantucket 30. In a play described by Assistant Coach Francis Pachico as “The most unbelievable play of the year,” Machado threw the ball away, from about his own fifteen. Only he got turned around under pressure, and threw to his own goal line.
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Football Team Too Slow in Warm-Up
Friday November 10, 1961
Vineyard Gazette
The Regional High School football team went down to its fourth defeat of the season Saturday in a game with Nantucket at War Veterans’ Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven. The score was 14 to 8.
 
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Vineyard Wins Moral Victory in Holiday Game
Friday November 12, 1954
Vineyard Gazette
For the Vineyard footballers, the outcome of yesterday’s game with Nantucket in a scoreless tie was a moral victory. The young Vineyarders held the experienced Nantucketers down to an even-stephen nothingness all the
way.
 
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Apathy Aside, Purple Fans Turn Out in Noisy Numbers
Friday November 25, 1977
Mary Breslauer
Multi-colored confetti burst through the cold fall air whenever the Vineyard gained or Nantucket slipped. Orange plastic horns delivered toots of approval at touchdowns and penalty calls. Pompoms waved wildly and feet stomped the bleachers in loud, chaotic support.
 
All signs at the Saturday afternoon battle with Nantucket said this was a football Island: a community which cheered or jeered every play and never missed a game.
 
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Season Ends on Downbeat in Drubbing at Nantucket
Friday November 24, 1978
Anne Carmichael
 
There are times when every reporter figures there must be another angle from which to look at something. When the score ends up 36-0 for the bad guys, it’s one of those times. Fortunately, the Vineyard-Nantucket clash is a story in itself, beyond the football field.
 
Saturday morning, you may recall, was a bit on the blustery side. Not to mention soggy. I called Lois DeBettencourt hoping for a cancellation in the flight plans, but she said, “We’re going!”
 
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Island Fans Face Chilling Winds, Traditional Foe
Friday November 23, 1979
Joseph B. White
 
The end-zone boys were the only ones in or around the high school field Saturday afternoon who didn’t flinch at the negative-five windchill factor.
 
These hardies stood under the goal posts dressed in light sweatshirts and watched the Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard football teams battle up and down the hard-packed field. When the Vineyard broke a big gain, they threw their fists into the air and shouted approval.
 
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