University of Vermont laid down a marker in the rain Friday with a convincing 42-12 defeat of their main NACR conference rivals, Norwich.
The Catamounts got big games from their lock pairing of John Henry Beling and Jack Worobel, who got some hard yards and played strong in the rucks. Hooker Harry Missing was a terror with the ball.
But they also had some flash and dash, with center Justin Kasper taking smart lines and being very difficult to arm-tackle, while flyhalf Matthew Tevnan set his teammates up and fullback Colin Green showed skills, too.
It all came together in a key win. A snappy pass from Kasper to Missing almost produced a try and while Kasper and Worobel got them closer, it was scrumhalf James McGovern who scored on the dive-over.
A long counter from Green got UVM on the front foot again and ultimately it was prop William O'Shea who twisted and shouldered his way to scoring.
Back came the Catamounts with a nice offload setting up Kasper for one. Tevnan was excellent with his kicking and it was 28-0. Norwich answered with one of their own only for Tevnan to send a wide kick for wing Luca Race to gather and score.
As the rain intensified the scoring dropped off a bit. Jake Peterson was, as always, strong at No. 8 and he scored his second try after a long period of the Cadets controlling possession.
But Missing charged one for another big break and offloaded to Worobel to set up the score, and Vermont remained undefeated in-conference.
