Here is a look at the twelveth week of scheduled games for ORR winter athletics.
Boys’ Basketball: After a first-round bye, the top-seeded Bulldogs faced off in their first MIAA playoff game of the season against ninth-seeded Joseph Burke High School. In an exciting game that came down to the wire, the Bulldogs were able to pull out a 64-61 victory to win their first playoff game in over a decade.
Playing without senior Paul Graves, who was controversially ejected from a game against Case and was forced to sit out for the entirety of the tournament game, the Bulldogs played aggressively and were forced to compensate for the loss of a key player. The Bulldogs got off to a good start, and led Burke 17-13 at the end of the first quarter. The game took a turn in the second quarter, where the Bulldogs could not seem to make a shot, only going 1 for 13 from the field and scoring a mere 7 points to Burke’s 14. At the half, Burke led 27-24.
The game remained close during the third quarter, with the Bulldogs trailing by four points going into the final quarter. With 2:09 to play, ORR was down 59-59. Senior Haydon Bergeron stepped up big for the Bulldogs, scoring a layup, stealing the ball on a key Burke possession, and then grabbing a major rebound before getting fouled. Cheered on by ORR’s avid cheering section, the Sixth Man, Bergeron sank both of his free throws to give ORR a 62-59 lead with 22 seconds left. Jordan Menard secured the victory, sinking another two free throws to advance the Bulldogs to the South Sectional Semifinal.
Bergeron, Menard, Jeremy Bare, and Raekwon Phillips all scored in double-figures for the night, recording 14, 10, 11, and 10 points, respectively. Ryan Beatty, who took Graves’ place in the opening lineup, had a great game, recording seven points and continually drawing the foul to get ORR to the free-throw line.
With the win, the Bulldogs advance one step further in the tournament. Next, they will face fourth-seeded Westport in the Division 3 South Sectional Semifinal.
Ice Hockey: Like the boys’ basketball team, the ORR/Fairhaven ice hockey team participated in their first playoff game of the season this week. Unfortunately, unlike the basketball team, they were unable to secure the victory, losing to twentieth-seeded Dartmouth, 4-3, in a thrilling nail biter.
The Bulldogs, who were seeded thirteenth, started off strong, with Mike Lygren recording the first goal and pushing them to an early 1-0 lead. Dartmouth countered with a goal with a minute left, but ORR/Fairhaven’s Alex Silva scored a buzzer-beating goal to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period.
From there, Dartmouth got stronger, and the Bulldogs were not able to keep up. Dartmouth scored three consecutive goals over two periods, and even though Fairhaven’s Kam Silvia shortened the gap with a goal late in the third period, there was simply not enough time for the Bulldogs to equalize the score. Goalie Chris Nadeau made 25 saves on the night to lead the ORR defense. Unfortunately, this ends the season for the Bulldogs, who despite having a very young team were able to claim their second SCC title and earn a playoff berth this winter.
Below are the overall winter team records, followed by the conference records in wins, losses, and ties as of March 2.
Boys’ Basketball: (17-4-0) (13-3-0); Girls’ Basketball: (6-15-0) (6-10-0); Boys’ Track: (6-2-0) (5-2-0); Girls’ Track: (8-0-0) (7-0-0); Boys’ Swimming: (1-7-0) (1-7-0); Girls’ Swimming: (4-2-0) (4-2-0); Hockey: (13-10-0) (9-1-0).
By Michael Kassabian
