State of Sports: Dover needed a goalie, so Brett Davis volunteered. The rest is history.
Mar. 14—TWO noteworthy leftovers from last weekend's NHIAA championship games:
—The penalty shot that gave the Bishop Guertin boys hockey team a 4-3 overtime victory over Bedford in the Division I championship game made for a great story, but an even better story belonged to goaltender Brett Davis, who helped Dover defeat Merrimack 4-2 in this year's Division II championship game.
Davis hadn't played goalie at the varsity level until this season, and he played much of the season with a broken right hand, his stick hand.
"How much time do you have?" Dover coach Mike Young said when he was asked about Davis's story following Saturday's win. "For those who don't know it, he played a couple years of house league (recreational hockey) and didn't play the position of goalie. Didn't play freshman and sophomore years — didn't play hockey at all. Came out last year and after the first day of practice asked me about maybe playing some JV games, but he still practiced as a defenseman.
"We saw something there as far as he's a natural athlete. Had some conversations with him over the summer as far as he wanted to step up and fill the void (in goal). He took it very seriously and he put in the work. ... He gave us a chance to win most every single night. He played every single minute of every single game for this team this year."
Dover lost six of its first 10 games, but finished the season on an 11-game winning streak.
Davis, a senior, is a three-sport varsity athlete (baseball, football and hockey).
"I started (to play hockey) really just to stay in shape," Davis said. "But when I joined the team last year, they said they needed a goalie, so I volunteered. And here we are."
—If you didn't see the game and studied the final stat sheet, you might wonder how the Bishop Guertin girls basketball team beat Bedford in Sunday's Division I title game. The Cardinals shot 34% from the field (16 of 47), didn't make a 3-pointer and committed 19 turnovers (Bedford had six). Plus BG trailed 38-28 after three quarters.
BG prevailed 51-45 on the strength of a dominant fourth quarter in which it outscored Bedford 23-7. Bedford's seven points in the quarter included a desperation 3-pointer by center Lana McCarthy.
BG won the game at the foul line. The Cardinals made 19 of their 25 free throws, while the Bulldogs were 7 of 22 at the line. BG point guard Brooke Paquette scored 14 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter, when she was 8 of 10 from the line. Paquette didn't attempt a free throw in the first three quarters.
The New Hampshire roster for this year's Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, which will be played Saturday, Aug. 5 at Castleton (Vermont) University:
Anthony Amaro (Londonderry), Trey Baker (Timberlane), Aiden Brierley (Kingswood); Noah Blake (Concord), Cam Bonner (Hanover), Austin Bouch (Bow), Sean Carrier (Kennett), Matt Cleary (Plymouth), Zack Doward (Concord), Jack Drabik (Londonderry), Ned Drena (Spaulding), Kyle Dunn (Merrimack), Jordan Espo (Epping-Newmarket); Danny Farnham (Fall Mountain), Hayden Froumy (Exeter), Hollis Jones (Bow), Samuel Jones (Salem), Michael Kitto, (Gilford/Belmont), Ethan Labbe (Bishop Guertin),
Also, Ryan Lover (Bow); Danny McGonagle (Merrimack), Aidan Monaghan (Merrimack Valley), Derek Muise (Pelham), Jake Pantelis (Laconia); Devon Paquette (St. Thomas), Zach Patch (Fall Mountain), Joe Pickett (St. Thomas), Karter Pollari (Newport), Joel Poltronieri (Bedford), Brad Richards (Exeter), Caden Sanborn (Plymouth), Colby Shepard (Spaulding), Owen Simon (Exeter), Lucas Smith (Stevens), Dylan Welch (Plymouth), Austin Wells (Concord) and Luke Weston (Monadnock).
Plymouth coach Chris Sanborn will serve as New Hampshire head coach.
Lee University (Cleveland, Tennessee) defeated Lynn University (Boca Raton, Florida) 63-52 Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament's South Regional. The game featured Merrimack's Meghan Cramb, a guard for Lynn; and Hudson's Addison Smith, a forward for Lee.
Cramb and Smith were teammates at Bishop Guertin and helped the Cardinals win the 2017 Division I championship.
The Great Bay Community College men's basketball team advanced to the Elite 8 of the USCAA Division II Small College National Championship by beating Villa Maria (Buffalo) 79-67 on Monday. Guard Kingsley Breen, a Dover resident, had 27 points and eight rebounds for Great Bay in the victory.
Great Bay, which is located in Portsmouth, was scheduled to play Penn State Mont Alto Tuesday night with a trip to the semifinals on the line. This is the first time Great Bay has qualified for the USCAA national tournament.
Guard Dylan Derosier (Epping), guard Sean Chanakira (Danville), guard Ethan Arnold (Wakefield), guard Jackson Rutland (Dover), forward Turner Sykes (Salem), guard Alex Tavares (Portsmouth), guard Cam O'Brien (Dover), center Matt Einarson (Danville) and forward Keith Landry (Belmont) are the other New Hampshire residents on the Great Bay roster.
