By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Sports Correspondent
Last week, the regular seasons for basketball and hockey drew to an end and the playoff brackets were released. The boys’ hockey team won their final game against Plymouth North High School on February 16th 5–1 and ended up in the 31st seed with a 9–11 record. They were slated to play their first postseason game on Monday against 34th-seeded Medford (11–10) in the Preliminary after the Raiders knocked them out last year as the 32nd and 33rd seeds respectively, but the schedule would likely have been affected by the snow storm. The winner of their matchup will face 2nd-seeded Xaverian Brothers (15–4–1), with an original date of tonight, Thursday, February 26th, at the Canton Ice House at 5:00. Last year, the Raiders were knocked out of the playoffs by 1st-seeded Pope Franics Prep. This year, Pope Francis is the 7th seed, and if they were to face each other again it would be in the quarterfinals.
Girls’ hockey finished in the 44th seed with a 5–13–2 record and did not qualify for the playoffs this year. Last year, as the 32nd seed, they beat 33rd-seeded Ursuline Academy in a high-scoring game 11–5. In the next round however, they faced 1st-seeded Hingham who knocked them out and went on to win the championship. This year they beat Needham 4–3 in the regular season after losing to them 3–4 last year and beat Newton North 6–2 in their second matchup of the season after losing to them 2–3 a few weeks previously.
Girls’ basketball ended up with a 5–15 record, improving on last year’s 3–17. Placing in the 37th seed, they unfortunately did not qualify for the Division 1 playoffs.
Boys’ basketball landed in the 42nd of their 66 seeds, also not qualifying for their playoffs. They had a fair season with a 9–11 record, winning their final game against Medway on February 18th 61–46. They also beat Newton North 53–48 on January 30th after a 38–44 loss early in the season, and similarly beat Brookline 42–36 a few weeks ago after losing 40–52 back in December.
The Raiders’ schedules can be found online at: www.arbiterlive.com. The tournament brackets can be found under the Tournaments section on www.miaa.net.
