NANTUCKET vs. VINEYARD
A historic high school matchup
BY STEVE SHEPPARD INDEPENDENT SPORTS EDITOR
To think they used to play each other twice a year. That was before it became the rivalry it is today, back when Kennedy was president, and

Vineyard coach Don Herman (right) hopes to hang onto the Cup this Saturday, while Vito would like nothing better than to see his team take the Cup back home.

continuing through the flower power years until the last dual hookup in 1971 (when Nantucket, as was its wont, took both games: 8-0 and 28-6). During those years, Martha's Vineyard, believe it or not, was just another opponent on the schedule.

"The biggest rivalry was with Provincetown," former assistant coach and current TV broadcaster Dick Herman recalled. When the Mayflower League was formed and schedulers were "trying to look for the big game," Herman noted, it seemed only natural to pit Nantucket and the Vineyard as Thanksgiving Day foes. To add flavor to the proceedings, and to solidify its standing as a true rivalry, the Island Cup was instituted in 1978, a year after a rare 14-12 victory by the Vineyard. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the now celebrated Island Cup, retained by the victor until the next season's contest.

It could have been called the Nantucket Island Cup in the beginning, however, as the Whalers took the first 7 contests, 10 of the first 11, and 16 of 21 Island Cup matches. That dominance ended in 1998 - since then, Nantucket has won just one interisland game in the last eight meetings, a 25-20 home win in 2002.

The Vineyard has won the Cup for four successive years, and in eight of the last 10, while Nantucket's last three Cup victories were in 1996 (a 13-7 OT thriller), 1998 and 2002. Nantucket hasn't won on the Vineyard since 1995, when the Whalers rolled, 30- 13. Last year, with both teams sporting similar records - Nantucket entered the game 6-4, 4-1 in the Mayflower Small; the Vineyard had a 7-3 record, 4-1 in the Mayflower Large - the purple men endured as 41-14 victors.

While the game has often held post-season implications, this will be the fourth straight year that a Super Bowl berth doesn't hinge on the outcome, although the Vineyard will earn a share of the Mayflower Large crown, and a chance to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2003, if Bristol-Plymouth defeats Blue Hills on Thanksgiving.

This will be Vito Capizzo's 52nd game against the Vineyard in his 44-year tenure and, hard to believe, Vineyard coach Don Herman's 20th Cup game since he began coaching on the other island in 1988. Herman's record in Cup games is 11-8, while Vito is 17-12 in Cup games and 30-19-2 against the Vineyard overall. He has suffered only 3 shutouts at the hands of the other island since 1964, while his teams have shut out the Vineyarders 13 times in his career.

The teams alternate home games, with Nantucket playing host during the even-numbered years.

There have been some memorable Cup moments over the years, from a deep freeze on the Vineyard in 1983 (where the Channel 3 cameras stopped working), to the infamous "water boy" game of four years ago.

Dick Herman, who has witnessed every Island Cup game, remembered that one well, a home game for Nantucket. "The Vineyard scored a field goal with 10 seconds left to go ahead 21-20," he recalled. On the ensuing kickoff, Brennan Dooley took the ball down the right sideline as time expired. Some players on the Vineyard sideline, however, (perhaps encouraged by the excitement of the water boy) forgot the play was still on and rushed the field, preventing Dooley from further progress upfield. "They should have been called for too many men on the field," Herman said, "and there would have been one more play for Nantucket."

Another Herman favorite is the 1996 overtime game. "Nantucket had a 7-0 lead for most of the game, but the Vineyard tied it up late in the game. We scored first in the overtime, and then they had four downs to score but we stopped them on fourth down" for the 13-7 final. Herman's son, Rik, was co-captain of that team.

Herman's other son, Peter, played in what Herman calls "probably the hardest loss ever," 1992's 14-12 heartbreaker won by the Vineyard in the game's final seconds. "We were up, 12-0, in the fourth quarter before the Vineyard began its comeback."

The Whalers have pulled out last second victories as well. Herman recalled one game at the Vineyard in the early '70s, "before they had a scoreboard," when Jamie Cabral caught the winning touchdown pass - "lying on his back in the endzone. The pass was thrown to Glenn DaSilva, but it got deflected off his hand and went up into the air. The closest to the ball was Cabral, who caught the ball on his back."

The fun began back in 1953, a game won by

Nantucket, 33-20, against a team of Vineyard allstars. I

The teams played to a 0-0 tie in 1954 before