RallyNorth.net: High School Sports – Merrimack Valley and Southern NH

I think calling them the team to beat next year is a bit over zealous. However, I will say I never count LHS out of any match-up vs CCHS or Andover or anyone for that matter. They always have great athletes on their teams and as long Paul is coaching them you know they will play hard. It is not an easy situation at LHS for many different reasons but they are always a threat to beat you.
My favorite LHS team of all time has to be the Rigo Nunez/Ellington Rasario team-they were a nasty squad. I believe LHS also added a CCHS alum to their sidelines-we know that is a winning formula!

One observation though-as nice as the new LHS field house is they lost some of that “home court” advantage that the old gym provided–that old LHS gym was a tough place to win.

Read your game story in the paper this morning…and understood the problem to be Lawrence's lack of ability to drive forward against the trap. Too many turnovers.
Not a single mention of the free throw disrepency. 36-9 was not worthy of a mention in the game story?! Strange.

Great news about the switch to Sunday for the quarters. But, from the glass half full department, I would bet there will now be a conflict with the Gold metal hockey game, facing off at 3, I believe. US/ Canada final could truly be one for the ages.

Hec..the only issue with Sunday/ Wedensday is that it would turn into Sunday/Wed/Friday…with the north Final being in the Garden on Frdiay night, the 5th.

To Sp0rtsfan, from today's Eagle-Tribune game story:

Lawrence fought, with Jaylen Alicea, Dawrin Pereyra and Arias all knocking in 3's, but the Jets, who spent the better part of the night on the foul line (21 of 36 compared to the Lancers 4 of 9) made them when it counted, locking up the win.

Central vs C-Town was as expected. Not too much to take away from the game that we didn't know before the tip.
I will say I have grown to really like MA for CC. What a great player he is-in terms of letting the game come to him–he never forces anything but yet can do almost everything when needed.
Can't stress enough how important our backcourt defense will be come Sunday night.
CC looked good vs the press last night–probably more a function of a bad press than anything but I like how CC pushed it up the floor on the pressure instead of waiting and walking it up as they were doing early in the season.
What an opportunity Andover has this Sunday–one game can erase 4 years or torment–not sure they have manpower to do it but if Central turns the ball over and makes mistakes rest assured Andover will be ready to capitalize on it.
I think composure will play a big factor in the first half Sunday-CCHS has to stay composed and avoid a fast Andover start.

Hey Hector – Can you fill us in on when/where tickets for Andover at Central on Sunday night go on sale?

Very solid effort on Thursday night by CC. Guard play was fantastic, JZ felt it from early on (nice thrown down!), and CD made sure that C-Town knew that driving to the hole would be a lesson in futility.
The student section continues to amaze me. I had never seen “the Roller Coaster” (I guess that is what it is called), but that certainly needs to come out again for the Andover game.
It was great to see in the fourth quarter, as Nault emptied the bench, the starting five, all sitting together on the bench, laughing, and enjoying the student section…just getting to be high school kids for a few minutes. I saw CD actually requesting the Roller Coaster routine (thru hand signals), and got a kick out of the bench actually joining in as The Wave made it's way around the building. Also great to see them encourage the freshman (sorry, forgot the name) as he started firing down 3's. Very nice that they got this moment of fun in during the tourney, before what promises to be a very stressful week.
Just my opinion here….maybe for Sunday night, the students could bring back the “Parting of the Red Sea”. It brought us plenty of good fortune the first Andover home game, so maybe stick with it.
Although CD participating in the pre game rituals has been fun, maybe skip it for the Andover game??? I just don't think you need to give them any extra motivation. Plenty of time to join in the fun once the victory is secure. Bring back Moses, and let him handle things after the teams are announced.
I believe the only thing that could slow this team on Sunday night is foul trouble. That's it.
Can't wait.

This morning's paper had a small item in the notes column, saying tix would go on sale at 4PM.
I just can't imagine anyone getting to this game later than 5 and expecting to find a place to park.
I'm thinking 4:15…time to watch one period of USA/Canada, thrown down a couple of cocktails, and head over.

Hec, how come nothing north of the border? Some great ball games going on… Pinky is looking like a very diff. team this year. Miss your input… really!

Fan, I couldn't agree more with the observation of allowing kids to enjoy the moment. I credit Coach Nault for that. He gets it, in a very broad way. Central has had some stars over the years that were not fully integrated into the student body. Clearly that's not the case this year.

With CC's perimeter defense I don't see Andover getting a lot of open looks. If Carson and JZ can stay out of foul trouble I believe Central will be fine, though it would be a career-maker for the Andover seniors. Couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the Charlestown kids the other night. They bring about 15 fans into a gym that's rocking, then find themselves down 17-2 to a team looking to keep them under 10 points for the half. It was truly a mismatch from the get-go. I did like the kid who's name I won't attempt to pronounce (#1) who's just a soph. Very athletic, good size.

You have to like CC's chances against either A-B or Cambridge if they get past Andover. And, who knows, LE will have it's work cut out against either Eastie or the Prep. It would be nice if the powers that be in RaiderLand could set up a tv for the many hundreds of early arrivals to watch the hockey gold medal game.

LE/SJP Tuesday night in Salem. CC/Andover winner same time in Woburn. Wish there was a way to see both of these games. A shame they are taking place at the same time. But it probably makes it fair for the advancing teams.
The LE/SJP could actually be THE game of the entire tourney. But my guess will be the car will take me to Woburn.

Just in from the North Andover game. If you look at the definition of heartbreaker in the dictionary, Lynn classical vs North Andover will come up. North Andover kids played there hearts out and its a shame that they came up short.
They erased a 15 point 4th quarter deficiet to 2 with 40 seconds left. They caused a backcourt violation but then put up an ill advised three and Lynn classical got the ball to there best free throw shooter who had hit 8 in a row. He missed the first and then in frustration fouled Scott Rickets who calmly went to the line and sank 2. Then with 5.4 seconds left lynn classical called timeout. Somehow they then inbounded took 6 dribbles a cross court pass and two dribbles and threw up a forty footer with still 1.5 seconds left. Seems like a long time to me. The kid banked in a 40 footer to seal the deal.
One of the best comebacks ive seen in a long time and its a shame it wasn't sttled in OT

Many, many thoughts I want to share here about CC 20 point victory, and the entire day, from 3PM on , but it will have to keep until tomorrow.
I just want to post tonight, that today, at the CC gym, the Andover students disgraced themselves. Disgusting. And NOONE will tell me other wise. They went there to be thugs, and look for a fight. It took CC staff, the Andover AD, and finally the Lawrence police to stop them. A bunch of foolish punks! Many examples of what they did later…but if you did not go, or could not see the stage, know that many of the students embarrassed themselves and their school. Terrible terrible terrible.

Fan, Agreed on the Andover students. And please, Hec, don't attempt to tell us that both schools were represented “…with class.” The Andover girls dressed in their funky-but-likeable AHS gear, while the males conducted themselves like morons. Thank you Lawrence PD. Gotta like the CC student section in their new warm up routine. As an old fart I looked around, and every other old fart was smiling in admiration of the Central kids.

On the court, the story line is clear: Faz's game plan was to make Central's guards prove it. And they did, in spades, with 3's from every angle. When is the last time you saw a Central team open the game with four consecutive 3's? This one was over after the first quarter, a quarter in which Central scored 27 pts. which might be a high water mark for the season. Neither Carson nor Jimmy ever got into the offensive flow but it didn't matter. Yes, a pretty good chunk of the second half got sloppy but the lead never got under 14. No, Andover never quit. But neither did Central who extended the halftime lead to a 22-pt. win. So much for Hoops for Hope.

So now the boys' hoop team must conflict with either the girls or the hockey team. Brilliant, MIAA. Does anyone else see a CC-Prep rematch?

Great win! Some random thoughts…The supposed weakness of this CCHS team clearly is not a weakness anymore. The guard play (defense was relentless from LP & Co.) was nice to see-the boys are working hard-moving their feet-keeping people in front of them. The quarterback came in and made some plays (Oullette)-nice spark off the bench. Alverez came to play-looked focused in pre-game. Carson seems to be playing with more emotion lately-I like it. Z was solid.
Refs let it to much go in the first half (extra elbows here and there) I think led to the tension flare up. Overall they were good though.
On the Andover fans…it is true what they say about a “few” bad apples-I think most were fine but for a hand full of dopes. The Andover AD seemed to have a good handle on them.
Great memories for those kids in that gym this year-student fans and players-great way close out the home gym with a 4 year exclamation point victory over Andover.
9-6 early first qtr-all 3 pointers–that was an amazing start.

Central girls and boys play at Lawrence Tuesday night 6 and 8 starts respectively.