Teams and Games of the Week for quarterfinal week

Here are my thoughts on the top teams and games from Week 8 of the Vermont High School football season.

Teams of the week

• Division I: After tough losses to Rice and Hartford in its last two D1 games, St. Johnsbury received no favors from the QPR with a quarterfinal matchup against a tough Rutland team. Collin Urie and the Hilltoppers (7-2) answered the test, however, overcoming a halftime deficit and halting a late Rutland threat for a 22-14 victory. Now SJA faces a CVU team it routed in the regular season with a berth in the championship game on the line.
• Division II: Round 1 to Bellows Falls. Shane Clark led a balanced attack as the Terriers pulled away from Fair Haven for a 32-12 victory in the regular-season finale Friday night. The win gives BFU (8-1) the second seed for the semifinals, where No. 3 Fair Haven (7-2) will get an immediate chance for revenge Friday night.
• Division III: All four favorites won comfortably in the quarterfinals, but after posting a shutout I'll give Otter Valley the nod. In a matchup of the last two state champions, the reigning titlist Otters scored a 35-0 victory over BFA-Fairfax on Saturday. The task gets a lot tougher for third-seeded OVU (7-2) in the semifinals at Woodstock, but the Otters have momentum -- a five-game winning streak -- as they look to avenge a 41-14 loss to the Wasps in Week 3.

Game of the week

• Middlebury 17, Essex 14: The fifth-seeded Tigers dominated the first half and held on to knock off Essex, avenging a 17-0 loss during the regular season. Middlebury (6-3) scored all of its points in the first 24 minutes, tacking on a field goal seconds before intermission for a 17-7 edge. That was key as the Hornets scored on their first possession after the break to put the pressure on. But the MUHS defense held firm, earning a eighth consecutive trip to the semifinals and a shot at top-seeded Hartford.

Week 10 Game to Watch

• U-32 at Windsor (1 pm Saturday): Five of the six semifinals are rematches of regular-season games, and at 28-21, these teams' first meeting was by far the closest. The Wasps (9-0) won that matchup en route to the top seed, but if the No. 4 Raiders (5-3) show the balance they did in back-to-back wins over Mill River in weeks 7 and 9, they're more than capable of making this one interesting.