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Central Catholic recap North finals recap …

Mar 9th, 2009 by Hector Longo

So it’s over. The ninth and final North playoff entry from our region, Central Catholic, has bowed out.
Hey, Lynn English was good, quick as that mid-afternoon thunderstorm at Disneyworld.
One quick sub-note here: If you can’t make it to the Garden tonight for the Central girls game with Brockton and you’re looking to keep up with the action, crank your AM radio up to 980 WCAP of Lowell where Teddy Panos will be calling the action live.
And log onto to this blog with your computer to get my colleague Alan Siegel’s insight live from courtside.

On to some observations.
1. I may have erred grotesquely, way back in January. From an outgrowth of my column stating that Carson Desrosiers is the greatest player ever from the area (a statement I firmly still believe and continue to defend vehemently), I blogged on about my personal alltime top 10, eventually top 12.
In case you missed it,
I had Desrosiers, Scott Hazelton, Gary McLain, Ted Kelley and Leo Parent as my starting five.
Off the bench were Chris Vetrano, Rigo Nunez, Barry Spears, Paul Neal, Jonathan Cruz, Tim Perry and Bobby Licare.
I admit it, I stiffed Billy Marsden.
One number makes me thing Billy belongs. 67-10. That’s the Raider record in the three years he started.
After that, it’s all about intangibles. The kid was so good in the clutch.
I think we showed the tourney heroics in the Eagle-Tribune on Wednesday. His postseason play has been scary.
I’m a big believe in limiting numbers. I can’t go more than 12 deep on my all-time team. Something’s got to give. Billy belongs there. He is among the area’s alltime top 12 in my eyes.
And I mean what I told him. He was truly a joy to watch.

2. When all is said and done, Central really has to look at three simple facts from the loss.
a. 30 turnovers.
b. They simply had too many non-Carson, non-Marsden shots.
c. After Carson and Marsden, nobody scored more than six points.

3. Ryan Woumn might be the best-kept secret in EMass, well the Lynn English slasher was until Sunday night. Wow, he was tremendous off the dribble. Central threw everyone at him, and he broke them down.

4. I’ll go on the record now and say that Jose Pena goes on and play an impact role at some Division 3 school. Pena was caught in a numbers game behind Carson at Central, but he showed too much athleticism not to be a factor in college.

5. Great crowd, great atmosphere at Tsongas. Super stuff from both schools. The CC student body rarely disappoints.

6. And finally, I don’t get it. Why the cheap shots headed my way?
Waiting around for the Raiders outside the locker room area a noted area official wisely queried, “You’re not going to sleep tonight are you Hector?”
Not sure why. I mean, I’ve seen this former area sports figure 400 times in my life probably. I’m not sure he’s ever uttered a word to me.
Yet he picks now to call me out as a Central homer.
Hmmmm.
I get more guff from the Central faithful than anyone. I’m no cheerleader. Funny thing about my job and this whole newspaper thing.
A team wins and they get a lot of glowing stuff written/said about them. I can’t help it if Central wins.
I think I treat Andover High pretty well, too. Oops, a good friend and Central guy is the coach there, that must be why.
I’ve been pretty good to Pinkerton and Salem, too.
Darn … I’ve got friends, again Central guys, who have kids on those teams.
Funny thing, though. Those are all winning programs.
I write glowing stuff about Pelham hoop too. Don’t know anyone from Adam there.
And how about Andover baseball? They win all the time and I write good things. Wow, another revelation.
Big fella, I’ll ask you to look back at the coverage I consistently give your alma mater, Lawrence High.
I’m a pretty big fan of your school too. Ask Paul Neal, Mike Yameen and Brendan Neilon if you don’t believe me.
To answer your question, I’ll sleep like a baby.
My job has cost me sleep time exactly once my man, the night I found out Hector Paniagua got shot.
Other than that, I get into this stuff, but I’m no cheerleader. For anyone.

Sorry I don’t have much more than this. Grab Monday’s Eagle-Tribune newspaper for all kinds of coverage. I guarantee you it’s worth the 75 cents.

Posted in Basketball, Hector Longo | View Comments

  • Jim Arnold

    Central – incredible run. You won countless big games. Every team is up for you every night. And Marsden and exit of senior teammates does not mean that tendency will end.
    Speaking of Marsden, he belongs in and near the top of all time team.
    Starts for me.
    And Hector, if you did not have most of your readers riled up most of the time, you wouldn't be doing your job.
    Too many days include too much struggle for folks right now. We cherish the distraction of sport and the opportunity to shout it out with you.
    Instead of kicking the dog, or worse, we vent at you! It's therapeutic, it's more fun and cheaper than going to the gym !
    So take a deep breath, then start letting us know who has what in baseball!

  • GWarrior92

    I guess they just weren't as good as SO OFTENLY advertised in the Tribune. Ha!

  • granitom

    This one was simply painful to watch. Central was never really in it and appeared sluggish from the time they took the floor. English pressured Central's guards with their own taller and athletic guards with suffocating double and triple teams, resulting in countless tipped passes, stolen passes, and passes landing in the third row. How many English 2 on 1's going the other way were there in the first half? 10? 12? Carson mustered very little offensively vs. a much smaller front court because he got very few entry passes in a position to do anything. And consistent and reliable play at the point, a Central staple all year, was just not there. But give English credit. They executed their game plan perfectly and were the better team last night.

    The radio guys did have an interesting observation concerning all the hype and meteoric expectations of this Central team (e.g. “Greatest team in area history”). They get everybody else's best game, and the target on their back has been huge all year. It can wear on 17 and 18 year old kids. Great job by Coach Nault and his staff all year who represented the school well.

  • David in NH

    Hey Hec,

    The one thing about that Lynn English Team that stood out to me was how loose they were and how they looked like they were having so much fun. I was outside the entrance to the court at halftime and their team came back on the court and all they were doing was laughing, joking and checking out the Central Cheerleaders. I was amazed. Also, #20 or #22, I am not sure, had a questionable call against him and he starts to joke around with the ref juggling the ball between his legs and laughing, not taunting, just enjoying himself. This is something you unfortunately don t see that often. This to me this was huge in their victory. English played like they had nothing to lose and really seemed to pay off for them.

  • raiderforlife

    Maybe not as good as some people said but lets not forget how MUCH better they were than your warriors.

    Hec, love the live blog…great for those who could not make the game or get reception on the am dial.

    Tough weekend for Central but now its time for the CC Girls to break out the boys shadow and get the W tonight.

  • bighec711

    Good call Dave.
    The Woumn kid, #1, did a great job handling the moment. He was smooth, like he wanted to play in front of that crowd.

  • mvcdude

    It was a great run for Central tough loss. In my opinion this Central team was not the best in area history. There were at least 3 other central teams that were better than this team. I think Central truly got exposed in the tourney . They ran into to trouble when they faced tougher more physical teams. They didnt have the fire power or star quality to neutralize that. That is why last years team was so successful . Adrian G and Wilfredo Pagan were tough gritty kids with alot of talent, throw Marsden in there with a 6-10 center thats a hell of a team. Thats why they won the championship. The 1999 team with hazelton, Qualter ,Sherry,Hall,Faris was a big team ,very physical , and had a star in Hazelton. They had the fire power and the heart to go along with it . They also won a State Championship with very good talent in the mvc and the state. So you could make a claim for them being one of the greats. How about Cruz's frosh year Jeremy Shannon, Marquis Victor, Tom Sipsy,Dan O'shea, Cruz,and carlos brown . 7 guys from that team go on to play college ball. They went underfeated and lost in the championship. Just my opinion

  • Border town

    See, now if you asked me to judge your “Homer-o-meter” I would have bet a tray of Tripolis you were either Kress' long lost brother or Hojlo's uncle. Pelham's coverage far out weighs their presence in the true basketball world. Their ink is close to the failing economy's coverage.

  • bighec711

    Priceless!!!

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