SouthCoast Teams Battle Through MIAA State Tournament

As we reach the final stretch of the local winter sports high school season, plenty of teams will be battling it out in the MIAA state playoffs— reaching for Gold like both the U.S women’s and U.S men’s hockey hockey teams just did simultaneously for the first time ever. Now, local programs across the SouthCoast are chasing their own championship dreams, knowing that one hot streak— or one bad night of performance—can decide who survives and who goes home.

Bishop Stang & Dighton-Rehoboth girls co-op hockey team is giving it their absolute all in hopes of booking their second straight trip to the TD Garden for the MIAA State Championship game. The girls were ranked 8th in the MIAA Division 1 MIAA State Rankings heading into the playoff tournament, and took on the 25th seeded Bishop Fenwick on Saturday February 28th in an absolute barn burner of a hockey game. To ignite the flame in the team’s playoff run, Alexis Pettinato scored the only— game winning goal in overtime to secure a 1-0 victory to send her team to the “Sweet 16” round! The girls will take on the team ranked one spot behind them, #9 ranked North Andover, at 4:30 P.M. on Monday, March 2nd at home again in Hetland Arena.

While the Somerset-Berkley & DRS (Dighton-Rehoboth/Seekonk) co-op boys hockey team’s season has ended their regular season 9-10-1— going 1-3-1 in their final five games— the Raiders managed to squeeze their way into the MIAA D2 State Tournament as the #32 seeded team. They took on a dominant 19-1 Canton at Metropolis Ponky Rink in Canton on Saturday night, February 28th— but fell 9-0 to the Canton Bulldogs. The Raiders also met Canton in the first round of the 2018 MIAA playoffs with Canton skating by with an 11-0 victory. As a matter of fact, the Canton Bulldogs went on to win the MIAA D2 State Championship the next year in 2019, putting up an insane  undefeated 25-0 season to claim the state title. Despite many great performances from the team in its 2nd year as co-op hockey program, the Raiders have struggled with consistency throughout most of the season. Their last two regular season games came against two always tough opponents— Dartmouth and Holliston— but they’ve had strong wins over key rivals like Taunton, Bourne, Plymouth North, and Apponoquet. Under their first year with nearly 28 year old head coach Justin Couture, this Raiders hockey team showed plenty of promise for a successful future that is to come very soon.

Swooping over to the Dighton-Rehoboth Falcons boys basketball team, they ended their regular season with a record of 11-9, and even though the team lost 61-79 to Medfield Sachems in the consolation round of the Warrior Classic— that didn’t matter. The boys still earned their way into the MIAA state tournament, and D-R’s star senior Josh Reidy put up an impressive 30 points against Medfield. Reidy helped lead his team to the MIAA Division 3 tournament as the 26th-seeded team. The Falcons took on the #38 ranked North Middlesex in the preliminary round on Saturday February 28th. Even with Reidy and Maddex Mendoza putting up 19 points a piece, they lost 55-67 to end the team’s season. Reidy actually transferred to D-R from Somerset-Berkley as a junior, right before the SB Raiders basketball team won their first MIAA State Championship Title since all the way back to 1954; Reidy has made a significant impact on this Falcons boys basketball team.

On the D-R girls side of the court, this young squad finished their season with a 9-11 record, ending the season on a high note with a decisive 52-23 win over Fairhaven. The girls also finished as the 38th ranked MIAA Division 3 girls basketball team. Former Bishop Connolly basketball captain Michaela Deady was in her first season as the team's head coach, doing her absolute best to build up this young program of majority underclassmen players for a prosperous future.

Going across towns, the Seekonk boys basketball team finished their season at 9-11 while going 4-2 in the month of February. The team started the first half of their season at 3-8— visible improvements were made on the court with a much better second half of their season. The boys last game of the season came with a strong comeback victory, taking down Norton 67-61 in exciting overtime fashion to reclaim the Willow Cup. Elliott Baldizar led the Warriors with 31 points, making 6 three pointers from the field. While Gavin Pereira had 15 points & 12 assists, and Josh Bien had 8 points and 7 rebounds.

The girls Warriors basketball team finished their regular season 14-6. The girls have had lengthy win streaks this season including a seven game win streak in January, then carrying a four game win streak into the beginning of February. They were ranked as the 25th seeded MIAA Division 3 team going into the state tournament, and faced off against the 45th ranked Monomoy Sharks Thursday, February 26th in the preliminary round— they took down the Sharks 40-33. Then, the girls met #8 ranked Pentucket Regional in the Round of 32, unfortunately losing a close battle to the Panthers 33-40 ending their season; a successful season for the Lady Warriors basketball team to say the least. 

Additionally, a couple of weeks ago the Lady Warriors had stellar performances and results in the school’s pool and track competitions: Lydia Craft (3-times), Emily Tonino, Bonnie Arrigo, Avery Abreu, Hayden Robinson, and Julianna Dutra (2-times) all placed first in at least one of their events earning themselves a Divisional MIAA State Championship title! Senior Julianna Dutra nearly carried Seekonk to the team title with her double win in the 55 dash (7.34) and 300 m (41.19). Senior Hayden Robinson added a victory in the 1,000 m (3:02.08) for the Warriors.