Wow, was Central Catholic impressive in decimating Lawrence on Friday night, 81-55?
With sharpshooter Billy Marsden in sweats, the Raiders weren’t really threatened.
Marsden, by the way, is day-to-day most likely with an ankle sprain he suffered Monday in practice and re-aggravated Tuesday at Chelmsford.
According to coach Rick Nault, he is out for Monday’s home game with Methuen and questionable for Wednesday’s clash of the unbeatens with Lowell.
Talk about a way on the horizon. Lowell is clearly as good as advertised.
The Red Raiders showed a little grit, knocking off the kings of grit, Andover at the cozy confines of the Dunn Gym last night.
Back to Central for a second. The rotation is so deep right now. You just don’t know which Raider will deliver.
It was a pretty touching and heartfelt moment at Central tonight pre-game when a prayer was said to honor the memory of the late Ryan Bourque, the Raider student-athlete why died tragically in a preseason accident.
The Raiders and many of their fans wore T-shirts remembering Bourque. The shirts donned his No. 45, with the inscription “the real sixth man” on them.
Very, very emotional.
Some other random thoughts on the sports scene:
I’m with fellow staffer Bill Burt. The Pats crush Jacksonville Saturday night. I just feel a beating coming on.
The one Raider I’m rooting for most is Central junior Tim Wheeler, who is clearly taking one for the team, sacrificing his offense for the good of the club, while providing all the grunt work on the defensive end and on the glass.
Wheeler’s struggling some offensively, but you need kids like him to win. It’s great to see Rick Nault stick with him.
And I’m still planning on Wheeler to have the breakout spring with Marc Pelletier’s Raider baseball team. He’s a big lefty, with pop and a nasty slider. But that’s on hold for a while.
Speaking of Pelletier, he reports that fleet-footed outfielder Roberto Valenti is down to two choices on the college front, Southern Maine or Bentley.
How do you figure Lawrence at 4-5? And how can you not help but root for a group of kids like this? Hopefully, Justin Nieves and Mariano Fortunato can acclimate with a bunch of newcomers and the Lancers can put on a second-half charge. As it is, the state tourney could be in jeopardy. Knowing Paul Neal and the heart his kids have, they won’t miss out because of a lack of hard work.
Big win Friday night for Methuen, with Romeo Diaz returning. The Rangers need every W. There is no back door to the tourney in the MVC small this year as Dracut, Chelmsford and Methuen all look like potential title chasers.
And for those of you, especially up on the North Shore, who rapped our RallyNorth.net Power rankings, all I can say to you is bring the noise and call me on it.
Those of you in that weak Northeastern Conference were all over this corner for mentioning Masco in the rankings, only because they didn’t beat Danvers by enough?
Which one of your teams up there is better?
Remember, any comments you have are welcome.
