On Thursday, Dec. 8, both the Silver Lake High School track teams, boys’ and girls’, started their seasons against the Duxbury Green Dragons at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Both teams showed encouraging results as the boys Lakers squad edged the Green Dragons, 51-49, and the girls Laker team fell in a close one, 54-40, to the Green Dragons.

Although they won, it might come as a surprise that the boys’ team did not sweep one single event. There was not one event where they finished in the top-3 spots.

In the 55-meter dash, Christian Moran (6.87 seconds) and Max LaFerrara (6.93 seconds) had a first and third place finish respectively.

For mid-distance events, Max Shirikjian (37.75 seconds) won the 300-meter dash and Willi D’Entremont (1:31.50) took first and Tristan Arendt (1:37.82) took third respectively in the 600-meter dash.

Logan Arendt (2:55.54) finished second in the 1000-meter dash, William Felix (4:53.15) came in second in the 1-mile run while Cameron Dwyer (5:09.95) finished third. Felix also took third in the 2-mile run (10:48.89).

John McCarthy (8.90) and Brian Sherry (9.57) had top-2 finishes in the 55-meter hurdles while Gabriel Roy (34 feet and 3 inches) and Jared Dwyer (33-11) came in second and third in shot put.

LaFerrera finished second in the high jump (5-03.00). Shirikjian (21-05 and Kevin Donahue (17-05 ½) took first and third respectively in the long jump.  The Laker boys won the 4×200 Relay (1:37.33).

On the girls’ side, Alison McDonough (7.87) won the 55-meter dash and Grace Gilmore (48.60) came in third in the 300-meter dash.

In long-distance events, Alison Gavigan had a strong performance in the 1-mile run (5:55.03) as she finished first in the event and Alexandra Tonsberg (13:27.40) came in second in the 2-mile run.

Jackie Damery (10.68) won the 55-meter hurdle and Nora Frizzell (11.37) came in third place in the event.

Eleanor Swanson (26-03) had the best shot put throw of the day and her teammate, Allison White, (24-10) came in third. 

The Lakers finished first (McDonough, 4-07) and second (Tonsberg, 4-01) in the high jump. Tess Lally (14-00) and McDonough (13-06) finished second and third respectively in the long jump. The girls’ 4×200 relay team (2:00.44) ousted the Green Dragons’ best run in the event.

This team looks a little different than it did in the past.

But despite losing a handful of players to graduation last year, the Silver Lake girls’ basketball team lives on. And Lakers head coach Bob Morgan notes his team has a little bit of everything this year.
“I think our biggest strength this year will be our speed and our balance throughout the roster,” he said. “We are not big so our ability to up-tempo and play strong defense will be crucial to any success we hope to achieve.”
On the younger side for a varsity team, the Lakers return just four varsity players, two of whom are seniors. Madi Gillen, a senior captain, worked her way into a starting role last season and Morgan said she has worked hard in the offseason. Senior Olivia Macomber missed all of last season with an injury and her return is critical for this young Lakers squad.
Juniors Sydney Kehoe and Alyssa Nelson are also varsity returners. And  Morgan said the two gained valuable experience throughout that year which should serve them well this year.
Senior Emily Critch, who was not on the team the past two seasons returns to the team. And her classmate Nina Whidden, who played well on JV last season, will likely see big minutes for the Lakers this season.
Morgan also said juniors Emily Hapgood, Annabelle Boudreau, Alex Bachelder and Brenna Welch, who are first-year varsity players, worked hard in the offseason to make it onto the team. 

As far as younger players, Stephanie Bennett, a sophomore who had a strong year on JV last year, will be a key asset in the paint. And Morgan said he likes what he sees in freshman Holly Reeder-Morning.

“She comes to us with tremendous amount of potential and we are looking forward to her being a very important part of our growth and success,” he said.

Through the first week of the season, Morgan has been happy with his team’s attitude and work ethic.
“To this point nothing has surprised me more than these girls’ willingness to do whatever it takes for each other and for the team to be successful,” he said. “Their energy and enthusiasm has been top notch in trying to prepare for the season.“
There are really no games in our schedule that are more important than others,” Morgan said.  “Being such a young team We will do our best to try and get off to a good start and hopefully gain some confidence as we go along.”

The Lakers open their season at home on Friday, Dec. 9, against Plymouth South at 5 p.m..

The Silver Lake High School football team had a chance to finish their season 8-3. They took advantage of that situation.

At home on Thanksgiving this year against their annual rival, the Pembroke Titans, the Lakers prevailed again this year with a 40-20 win. As a result, they finished the year 8-3.

It took awhile for the Lakers to get going. But once they did, their offensive attack was potent.

In the first quarter, they would not score. But midway through the second quarter, they struck. Driving downfield, Alec Snell took it in himself for a two-yard score. The two-point conversion attempt was no good.

As the first half expired, Snell connected with Drew Neal for a 14-yard touchdown pass. It put the Lakers up, 12-0, headed into the locker room as they continued playing stout defense. And then, it broke open in the second half.

Max LaFerrera started the third quarter just about as well as anyone could have hoped. He ran for a 65-yard touchdown to put the Lakers up, 18-0. But the Titans quickly countered and took their kick return to the end zone for a touchdown.

A few minutes later, the Lakers pieced together a quality drive. It ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Snell to Laferrera.

With 4:20 left in the third, the Titans scored again, on a quarterback run. Their extra point try was good, which put them within 11 — the closest they would come to a comeback. 

Snell had another touchdown pass to Neal late in the third quarter to give the Lakers some breathing room. The 29-yard TD pass along with a successful LaFerrera two-point conversion bumped the Lakers lead back up to 19 points.

With that kind of a deficit headed into the fourth quarter, the Titans were not able to orchestrate any sort of a comeback.

Last year, the Lakers came out with a 50-6 win over the Titans on Thanksgiving. But since it was a closer game this year and the Lakers are stronger this year than they were in the past, it implies the Titans have also grown.

This marks the third straight time the Lakers have topped the Titans on Thanksgiving. In the all-time series, the Lakers hold the edge, 8-3.

The 2016 football season also holds significance to the Lakers because it was the first time they had won a playoff game since 1980 — which was 36 years ago. They did so in the first round of the playoffs against Scituate, 28-26, on Oct. 28.

Regardless of what happened, neither team was going to win the Patriot League Keenan Division Championship, nor would either be eliminated from playoff contention. Perhaps the biggest takeaway was playoff seeding.

And if playoff seeding was the most important aspect of the game, then consider the Silver Lake high school football team (6-1, 4-1 Patriot League Keenan Division) winners — twice.

On Friday, the Lakers task was to try to defeat the Whitman-Hanson Panthers (4-3, 2-3 Patriot League Keenan Division). In that, they were successful. They came away with an 18-7 win at home. But seeing how they entered the weekend projected as the No. 3 seed in the Division 2A South Sectional tournament, the real win for them might have been securing a home playoff game.

Early on in, it was the Lakers who had momentum. In the first quarter, they had a pair of scores. Driving down field, the Lakers scored first — on a 10-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Alec Snell. He threw it to his twin brother, Carson, a wide receiver, for the score. The 2-point conversion attempt was no good.

As the quarter progressed, the Lakers found themselves on another scoring drive. And this scoring drive was capped off by senior running back Josh Chapman. He ran it six yards into the end zone, putting the Lakers up, 12-0, late in the first quarter. The conversion attempt was no good.

Defensively, the Lakers did what they had to do and made stops when needed. Regardless, they allowed Panthers quarterback Ethan Phelps to throw for over 100 yards and run for over 100 yards. In all, the Lakers allowed over 200 rushing yards. That might sound like a team struggling on defense but for every big play they allowed, there was a big stop preventing the Panthers from scoring later in the drive.

The Lakers let up a touchdown in the second quarter, despite not scoring one themselves. Phelps reached the end zone on a 15-yard run. The extra point attempt was good. But the Lakers still led, 12-7.

While the Lakers held momentum in the first half, it really came on their side in the second. They shut the Panthers out in those two quarters and while their offense did not score, Chapman returned the second-half opening kickoff for a 90-yard touchdown. And the Lakers 2-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful.

Most people don’t use drones for spying.

In fact, many who fly them competitively prefer the term multirotor because of the negative connotation attached to the word “drone”. And in Halifax, the Wingbusters Rotor Racers, are establishing themselves as a go-to spot for competitive “drone racing”, as some may call it.

They are members of the MultiGP (Grand Prix) and they keep standings on a points system dependent on how many laps one finishes in any given meet. They wrapped up their regular season this past Sunday at their home field off River Street in Halifax.

Originally though, the group started out with remote control airplanes. But when the opportunity for a first-person experience came about, they could not pass it up.

“I would say the biggest appeal of what we’re doing now is it feels like you’re sitting in the aircraft flying around,” race coordinator Adam Proulx said.

“You put the goggles on your face and it seals off the outside world. Some of the drones even have microphones; you could even have the sounds of it. It’s a completely immersive experience. It’s about as close to flying an aerobatic aircraft as you can get.”

Their average event this year had around 15 to 20 competitors. But an event to qualify for regionals had 27. And the top four finishers from the event advanced.

While the racers tend to be local, not all of them hail from the South Shore.

“Pilots come from all over,” Proulx said. “We get a guy who comes from Uxbridge. Pretty much from Western Mass, up north and down to the Cape. We even get guys from Connecticut coming in.”Proulx said they have even had people join who had no experience flying remote control aircrafts.

“They see these things flying around on YouTube, on ESPN even and they want to do it,” he said. “And they can start doing it. There’s a lot of resources to help people get started.”

“It’s still in its infancy right now,” Proulx added of multirotor racing.

“But it’s growing very quickly. And I’m very excited to see where it goes. I mean, ESPN has picked this stuff up. Who knows who else will come on board.

“They’ve got some big sponsors like Mountain Dew and Red Bull,” he added. “It’s a real rush when you’re going back and forth with somebody. It’s a lot of fun.”

For more information on the Wingbusters including upcoming events, contact information and event locations, visit Wingbusters.org.

Page 1 photo credit: Steve Grenon