Girls’ Basketball Qualifies for State Tournament

Here is a look at the ninth week of scheduled games for Old Rochester Regional High School winter athletics.

            Boys’ Basketball: The Bulldogs suffered their second loss of the season in their lone game of the week against non-conference Martha’s Vineyard. The Bulldogs were down 35-32 at the half, and the deficit increased in the third quarter when the Vineyarders outscored ORR by nine points. However, the Bulldogs fought back to put up an impressive final quarter. With just a minute left to play, the game was tied 61-61, and it looked as if ORR was going to pull off the impressive fourth-quarter comeback. However, the Vineyard capitalized on a Bulldog turnover to take a 64-61 lead, and the Bulldogs were never able to recover. Noah Fernandes was the lead scorer for the Bulldogs, recording 18 points. Ryan Beatty also played well, scoring 16 points. With the loss, the Bulldogs’ record stands at 13-2, with a perfect 13-0 conference record.

            Girls’ Basketball: The girls’ basketball team had a fantastic week, defeating two tough teams to improve their record to 10-6 and officially qualify for the state tournament. The Lady Bulldogs first defeated non-conference New Bedford 44-36. The girls got out to an early 31-18 lead at the half and managed to fight a New Bedford comeback in the fourth quarter to secure the victory. Olivia Labbe was the lead scorer on the night, recording 11 points to lead the Lady Bulldogs offensively. Later in the week, the girls defeated Dighton-Rehoboth 39-34 to win their tenth game of the season and officially qualify for the MIAA state tournament later this winter. Senior captains Kaleigh Goulart and Morgan Browning led ORR with 10 points apiece.

            Boys’ Track: The boys’ and girls’ track teams competed in the annual SCC Championship this week, and both teams posted impressive results. On the boys’ side, seniors Kevin Saccone and Ben Rounseville were the stars of the day, going 1-2, respectively, in both the high jump and the 55-meter hurdles. Together Saccone and Rounseville provided 36 pivotal points to help the Bulldogs to a second-place finish with 72 overall points, with only Seekonk edging out ORR by 5 points. Other impressive performances for the boys included Hunter Parker in the mile (3rd, 5:04), Will Hopkins in the 300-meter dash (2nd, 40.45 seconds), Hunter Cooney in the 55-meter dash (3rd, 7.01 seconds), and the 4×400 relay team, which was comprised of Hopkins, Saccone, Ben Dion, and Kyle Sherman, and placed second overall.

            Girls’ Track: The girls’ team also competed in the SCC Championship this week and claimed their fifth consecutive title, scoring an incredible 159 points, which is believed to be a meet record for the most points ever scored by one team. The girls outscored their nearest competition, Wareham, by 110 points thanks to several first place finishes. Winners for the Lady Bulldogs included Arden Goguen (55-meter dash), Zoe Smith (55-meter hurdles, high jump), Nina Bourgeois (1000 meters), and Nicole Mattson (600 meters). Junior Emily Josephson led a girls’ sweep in the mile, as ORR took the top five spots in the distance race to provide 30 points to the Lady Bulldog’s championship. With the conclusion of league races, the ORR track teams now look towards the Division V State Meet, which will be held at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston on Sunday, February 15.

            Ice Hockey: The ORR/Fairhaven Bulldogs wrapped up a productive week, defeating two tough teams by large margins to advance their record to a strong 13-3. The boys first defeated GNB Voc-Tech 5-0, with five different Bulldogs scoring: ORR’s Zach Peterson and Landon Goguen, and Fairhaven’s Jeremy Lawton, Mike Lygren, and Evan Stanley. Goalie Chase Cunningham made seven saves in net to earn another shutout in his impressive debut season as starting goalie. The Bulldogs then easily defeated Dartmouth 8-1 thanks to strong offensive performances by Lawton and Lygren, who each scored twice. Other goals for the Bulldogs came from Peterson, Sam Henrie, Shane Mathews, Cam Sylvia, and Dan Renwick, who notched his first varsity goal in the game.

Below are the overall winter team records, followed by the conference records in wins, losses, and ties as of February 8.

Boys’ Basketball: (13-2-0) (13-0-0); Girls’ Basketball: (10-6-0) (8-5-0); Boys’ Track: (8-1-0) (7-1-0); Girls’ Track: (9-0-0) (8-0-0); Boys’ Swimming: (1-5-0) (0-5-0); Girls’ Swimming: (2-4-0) (1-3-0); Ice Hockey: (13-3-0) (8-1-0).

By Michael Kassabian

 

Leave A Comment...

*