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.
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 weekend before Thanksgiving will be noticeably less festive on the Vineyard this year as school officials this week confirmed that the storied Island Cup football game with inter-Island rival Nantucket has been cancelled for the first time in almost 50 years.
Sandy Mincone, the new athletic director for the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, told the Gazette this week that Nantucket pulled out of the long-standing tradition due to 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.
The Island’s oldest and youngest high school football teams met, not for a match but for a meal last Friday night at the school cafeteria. Nineteen members of the 1960 team met the 2010 team before the big Saturday game with Nantucket. Add to that six members of the 1960 cheerleaders, who also shared stories with the current squad.
On Saturday, after two years of frustration and delay, Nantucket finally came back across the Muskeget Channel and down the placard-lined mean streets of Oak Bluffs to rekindle a rivalry that, simply by geography, is unlike any other in sports. It was worth the wait.
The scouting reports are in and Whaler Pride is back. The last Nantucket team the Vineyard faced finished the season 0-10, capped by an embarrassing 43-22 Island Cup thrashing that saw Vineyard coach Don Herman pull most of his starters by halftime.
Vineyard football fans can dust off their cowbells and Harpoon the Whalers signs, because the Island Cup game is back.
After a brief one-year hiatus, the fabled football game between the Vineyard and Nantucket will return this year, scheduled to be played on the Vineyard the Saturday before Thanksgiving. School and athletic officials from both Islands have been busy in recent weeks hammering out an agreement to bring back the game, which was canceled last season for the first time in nearly 50 years.
The varsity football team defeated the Nantucket Whalers 10-7 Saturday afternoon, ensuring that the Island Cup’s visit to Nantucket would be nothing more than a day trip. A large crowd gathered on Saturday night at the Steamship Authority to greet the returning victors, who hoisted the trophy above their heads.
