With five seconds left in the biggest game of his life, with crazed
fans screaming at him from every direction and with everything riding on
his right foot, E.J. Sylvia delivered.
With less than four minutes left in the Martha's Vineyard-Nantucket football game Saturday, several Vineyard players snuck up behind special teams, linebacker and tight end coach Stephen Barbee and doused him with a large Gatorade bucket full of ice water.
The traditional prank was a fitting end to the afternoon for a coach who saw all three of his units play a starring role in the Vineyard's convincing 27-12 win over the archrival Whalers on a bright but chilly day at McCarthy Field.
With all the hype surrounding tomorrow's Island Cup game between the Vineyard and Nantucket, it's easy to overlook that at its core, it's only a game.
Unlike in previous years, when the contest often determined whether the Vineyarders or the Whalers made the playoffs, the only thing on the line this year is bragging rights until the two teams lock horns again next November.
Even before the 30th annual Island Cup game began on Saturday, things didn't look good for the visiting Whalers from Nantucket.
When the players in blue and white stormed the field before the game and tried to plant their flag, the wooden mast snapped in half and the Whalers' banner fell onto the ground.
Things only got worse for the Whalers after that.
The Vineyard exploded for 28 second quarter points, all fueled by Nantucket turnovers, to put the game out of reach early en route to a 48-6 drubbing.
The Nantucket varsity football team is a formidable foe. When the Whalers come to the Island tomorrow, they bring with them the state’s best coach and a lead in wins for the Island competitive trophy. Nantucket leads the series 35-22-3 since the rivalry began in 1953.
Their weakness is that they aren’t defending the trophy. And they are behind the Vineyard in wins and losses this fall. This has been a tough year for the Whalers. They are 3-5.
The Vineyard rolled over Nantucket Saturday in the annual Island Cup game by a final score of 48-6 in a contest that was easily decided by the second quarter and even more lopsided than the final score indicated.
With the win, the Vineyarders continued their recent string of dominance over the Whalers in the storied rivalry. They have won five straight Island Cups and eight out of the last nine.
The Vineyard high school football team may have suffered a disappointing finish to the season — losing 40-19 to Amesbury in the Division 3A state championship game — but there has been much to be positive about in recent weeks as the postseason awards continued to pile up.
It was a cold day for Nantucket in more ways then one Saturday, as the surging Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team easily defeated the once mighty Whalers by a score of 43-22 in a game not nearly as close as the final score indicated to take the Island Cup for the sixth year in a row.
Vineyarders coach Donald Herman emptied his bench at the start of the second half and the Whalers got two touchdown passes late from quarterback Chris Welch to make the score respectable, but the outcome of the game was never in doubt.
There was a noticeable feeling of loss around the Vineyard this week.
“I can’t believe we’re not playing Nantucket this weekend,” one man lamented Monday while waiting for a haircut at Bert’s barber shop in Vineyard Haven. “What is the world coming to?”
For the first time in nearly 50 years, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard will not play the Island Cup football game this weekend, one of the most celebrated and storied traditions for both Islands that was cancelled this year for financial reasons.
The Island Cup, the storied inter-Island battle between the Vineyard and Nantucket high school football teams that comes around every November, will have a markedly different feel this year. Nantucket coach Vito Capizzo, who is as storied as the rivalry, announced this week he is retiring after 45 years.
