Feting fall’s most fantastic
There’s nothing like All-Scholastic weekend, when that special keepsake edition of the Globe hits newsstands with a thud Sunday morning. It features 16 pages celebrating the best of fall sports in Eastern Mass.
You can read about all 250 All-Scholastics, 40 athletes of the year, and 39 coaches of the year here.
Meet the All-Scholastic teams
▪ Boys’ soccer All-Scholastics
▪ Girls’ soccer All-Scholastics
▪ Field hockey All-Scholastics
▪ Girls’ volleyball All-Scholastics
▪ Boys’ cross-country All-Scholastics
▪ Girls’ cross-country All-Scholastics
| First Up |
|
Follow the puck
This girls’ hockey season has not been kind to our beat writers, Mike Puzzanghera and Matty Wasserman, who each week are tasked with the preliminary draft of our Globe Top 20 poll.
After some early stability from Hingham, the top of the rankings has become a revolving door, with Tuesday’s release featuring a new No. 1 for the fourth straight week.
This is not to say the entire Top 20 has been in turmoil. In fact, 16 of the 20 teams from the preseason rankings are still there, albeit shuffled, and only one pick from the preseason top 16 has fallen out: Marshfield.
But the No. 1 spot? That’s been a rough ride.
Coming off a Division 1 state title over Bishop Stang, Hingham opened the year in the No. 1 spot and held it for three weeks, until a 6-2 loss to Milton in the semifinals of the Tenney Cup.
That lifted Milton, last season’s Division 2 runners-up, to the top spot with a 5-0 record, including a 4-3 win over then-No. 6 Bishop Feehan.
Then the No. 1 curse struck. On the day Milton rose to the top, the Wildcats were defeated, 3-1, by Duxbury in the Tenney Cup championship.
At that point, the Dragons had raced out to a 6-1-1 start, the lone loss coming, 1-0, to Norwell/Scituate/Abington and the tie coming against Notre Dame (Hingham), two ranked squads. The Dragons were elevated to No. 1 and promptly lost the next day, 3-2, to an unranked but dangerous Nauset/Monomoy squad. Three days later, Duxbury fell again, 2-1, to No. 12 Westwood, dropping the Dragons to 7-3-1 and out of the top spot.
That spot now belongs to Methuen/Tewksbury, a D1 semifinalist last season that opened this winter’s campaign at No. 3 and has taken care of business en route to a 9-0 record, outscoring opponents 28-3. The Rangers have been in the Top 3 all season, and finally ascended to the top spot.
Will it last more than a week?
We shall see.
| Scoreboard |
|
| Boys' hockey | ||
|
||
| Girls' hockey | ||
|
||
| Boys' basketball | ||
|
||
| Girls' basketball | ||
|
Boys’ hockey: Nico Santella netted the overtime winner as No. 2 St. John’s (Shrewsbury) took down Xaverian, which had been promoted to No. 1 in the Globe’s Top 20 poll the day before . . . Girls’ hockey: Duxbury also lasted just one day at No. 1 before falling to a Nauset/Monomoy team that entered with a deceptive 2-5 record. Three days later, Duxbury once again lost, this time 2-1 to Westwood . . . Boys’ basketball: In Catholic Conference action, unranked Catholic Memorial ratcheted up its defense in overtime to knock off No. 14 BC High . . . Girls’ basketball: Frankie Mazzini scored 27 points as No. 12 Braintree handed No. 4 Natick its first loss.
| Shoutouts |
|
Athletes of the week: Central Catholic’s Javi Lopez and Hingham’s Eileen Lowther
|
For nearly a dozen years, former Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year Tyler Nelson stood as the all-time leading boys’ basketball scorer at Central Catholic. That was until Sunday night, when Raiders senior guard Javi Lopez dropped 33 points in a 67-60 win over BC High to vault him into the top spot in school history with 1,505 points and counting. “He’s a special player,” Central Catholic coach Mark Dunham said of Lopez. “He’s the ultimate team guy, and we’re very fortunate to have him.” Entering Wednesday’s game at Brewster Academy (N.H.) Lopez is 13 points shy of the school’s all-time record of 1,518, owned by Katie Zenevitch.
One might have thought when Hingham’s Eileen Lowther posted 21 points, 17 rebounds, and 5 blocks in a 45-33 girls’ basketball win over crosstown rival Notre Dame Academy last Monday, it was going to be her top line of the week, but the junior post followed it up with a monster 18-point, 21-rebound, 11-block triple-double Friday, snagging the game-clinching steal on an inbounds pass to defeat Duxbury, 36-34. Not done yet, on Tuesday she compiled 15 points, 18 rebounds, and 7 blocks to beat Plymouth North 50-36. Lowther has the Harborwomen, who were 9-14 last year, sitting 8-2, their best start since 2021-22.
Coach of the Week: Larry Tremblay was once the winningest high school wrestling coach in New England. Now he is again. The Melrose bench boss improved his career record to 879-127-5 with a 4-1 showing at the Southland Duals in Southington, Conn., pushing him past former St. John’s Prep coach Manny Costa, who had 876 wins when he left the region for Florida, where he has since eclipsed 900. Tremblay, now in his 46th season, had been ahead of Costa until the COVID-19 pandemic. He started at North Reading in 1979, also coached Winchester, and has captured four state championships.
Honorable mentions: Lynn Tech junior Allison Morales exploded for 38 points in a 65-54 girls’ basketball win over Lowell Catholic and is averaging 25.5 points per game . . . Argosy Collegiate senior Eric Coward dropped a season-high 40 points in a boys’ basketball win over Codman Academy, giving him 800 career points . . . Melrose wrestling senior Johnny Moraes (120 pounds) picked up his 150th career win . . . Carver senior wrestling captain Coleson Tully (126 pounds) surpassed the school mark for wins with 177 . . . Westford sophomore goalie Sloan Costa turned away 49 shots, and the Raiders needed every one of them in a 1-1 girls’ hockey draw with Westford . . . Attleboro boys’ basketball coach Mark Houle picked up his 400th career victory in a 75-51 win over Franklin . . . This week’s 1,000-point scorers: Beverly senior Jacob Klass, Wareham senior Johnny Tompkins, Frontier junior Addie Harrington, and Avon senior Thomas Edwards.
The Big Moment: Watch these highlights 🎥
🏀 Brockton’s Nyisah Miranda provided the shot of the season. With the Boxers trailing Arlington, 57-54, with 1.6 seconds left, he grabbed a rebound off a missed free throw and fired away from three-quarters court as time expired, drilling the 3-pointer to tie the score, and Brockton won, 65-59, in overtime.
🏀 Beverly’s Jacob Klass reached 1,000 career points on a pair of free throws.
🏀 Wachusett girls’ basketball raised its 2024-25 Division 1 state champions banner.
🏈 Tabor senior defensive lineman Carter Gooden came up with a strip sack in the Navy All-American Bowl in San Antonio.
| Top Reads |
|
Fall 2025 Globe All-Scholastics
Meet the Boston Globe’s All-Scholastics for the fall 2025 high school sports season
|
| Photo of the week |
|
Ajay Devendran captured this image of the Roxbury Latin fan section erupting for freshman Ethan Budreau after he scored in a 70-59 win over Pomfret. Check out our photos from the latest student photo gallery here.
Interested in joining our free student photojournalism program and get your photos published by the Globe? Find out how to sign up.
| Overtime |
|
Trivia: Which two schools have the most MIAA girls’ hockey championships?
Email your answers to varsitynews@globe.com and we’ll shout out the winner in next week’s edition.
Last week: In addition to Lynnfield’s Craig Stone, who are the other three high school coaches in state history with 1,100 combined wins across multiple sports? The answers: Leominster’s Emile Johnson, Frontier’s Vi Goodnow, and Old Rochester’s Bob Hohne.
Plan your week
Wednesday: Girls’ basketball, No. 5 Needham at No. 2 Bishop Feehan, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday: Boys’ hockey, No. 17 Billerica at No. 12 Arlington Catholic, 6 p.m. (Ed Burns Arena)
Saturday: Wrestling, Cape Cod Invitational at Sandwich High
Monday: Girls’ hockey: Notre Dame (Hingham) at Hingham, 3 p.m. (Pilgrim Arena)
Sign in to read the full article.
Sign in with Google