The Silver Lake High boys’ lacrosse team met one of the toughest challenges they will face this season in their second game.

The Lakers went up against Duxbury, a perennial powerhouse on the South Shore, and were unable to get much going. Ultimately, the Lakers dropped the contest 15-3 on the road to fall to 1-1 on the season.

Early on in the game, the Lakers stayed competitive, trailing 4-2 after the first quarter. They made it 4-3 in the second quarter with another goal but from there, Duxbury was the dominant team. Duxbury scored three unanswered goals to go up 7-3 at the half. And in the second half, Duxbury shutout the Lakers and continued scoring at about the same clip they did in the first half. Their offense exploded for five straight goals in the third quarter and slowed down a bit in the fourth and final one.

Brendan Dean shined for the Lakers in the loss, scoring a pair of goals; Sean Daly scored the Lakers other goal of the game. In net, Michael Masterpolo made a number of stops for the Lakers.

If the Lakers first contest of the season, their 13-5 victory over Barnstable two days prior, is any indication, their offense should be strong this season.  In that one, Matthew Dole, Brendan Dean and Gregory Wolff led the way, scoring three goals apiece. Dole also had two assists, putting his point total on the day at five. Plus, Jake LaFerrera netted a pair of goals while Sean Daly and Dhruva Nugent each added one more. Masterpolo also picked up the win in net and received the team’s Hard Hat Award for his performance.

The Lakers next contest is on Tuesday, Apr. 16. They will host North Attleboro in a game slated to start at noontime.

The Town of Halifax is in the process of updating its Housing Production Plan (HPP) with technical assistance provided by the Old Colony Planning Council, the Regional Planning Agency for this area. 

Residents can help participate by completing the following survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BD7Z3QZ

A Housing Production Plan is a proactive strategy for planning and developing affordable housing.  

The State’s regional planning statute, Chapter 40B, is a law that seeks to ensure that all 351 of the Commonwealth’s cities and towns provide for the creation of new homes for individuals, families and older adults, across a range of incomes. 

The goal of the statute is for every city and town to have 10% of their year round housing units qualify as affordable to households making up to 80% of the area median income.   The statute helps communities meet the Commonwealth’s housing needs, by providing a flexible zoning approval process (comprehensive permit) for developments that include 25% affordable units.  At the same time, Chapter 40B provides opportunities for municipalities to control their own housing growth.  

The law enables agencies like MassHousing to deny 40B project eligibility to projects that are inconsistent with local planning priorities in localities that have demonstrated commitment to planning and delivering housing growth.  That is why it is important to have an up to date Housing Production Plan and have it approved by The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).  

HPP’s give communities that are under the 10% threshold of Chapter 40B, but are making steady progress in producing affordable housing on an annual basis, more control over comprehensive permit applications for a specified period of time. Communities that demonstrate planning and production for affordable housing may also be eligible to receive priority scoring for Commonwealth Grant Programs as well as access to capital grant programs and technical assistance.  

Community input is a key part of the planning process and this survey will help provide a better understanding of the needs of Halifax residents. It is important to understand who currently lives in the community, demographic trends affecting future growth, existing housing stock, and future housing needs.   

By engaging the community in discussions about the need for affordable housing and taking a proactive approach in updating its Housing Production Plan, Halifax is more likely to achieve its long range housing and community planning goals, allowing for more diverse housing opportunities for residents of all income levels.  

With the amount of talent that exists in the league, it has become a tradition for players from several different schools to come together to compete in the Patriot League All-Star basketball games.

The games, that take place on an annual basis after the teams wrap up their regular season, feature the best competition the league has to offer with Patriot League Keenan Division teams taking on those of the Fisher Division. Both games took place on Friday, Mar. 8, at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School and the Lakers had representation in both of them.

On the girls side, Holly Reeder-Morning got the nod for Silver Lake. She was one of nine players on the Keenan team this time around. The team featured three players from Plymouth North, another three from Duxbury and two from Whitman-Hanson. The Hingham girls did not have any representatives there, however, as they were still competing in the Division 2 South playoffs.

Ultimately, the Keenan ended up winning that contest over the Fisher, 71-70.

Lily Gustafson represented the Lakers well in the three-point contest as well prior to the game. She exemplified her ability from beyond the arc and lasted three rounds into the contest.

The Silver Lake boys had three participants in their respective All-Star game: Danny Duggan, Josh Gilbert and Josh Murphy. Murphy was also the team’s participant in the three-point shootout, and he made seven of them.

Since none of the boys’ teams were still in the playoffs, all of the teams competed in the All-Star game, and the Fisher Division boys beat the Keenan Division 110-90.

This past season, the Silver Lake boys’ team finished the year at 13-9 and beat Stoughton in the preliminary round of the Div. 2 South playoffs before falling to Tech Boston in the first round. The girls’ squad was on the younger side and finished the year at 4-17.

Facing tough competition early in the season, the Silver Lake High girls’ basketball team had a hard time picking up wins at the beginning of their season. However, they continued to grow as a unit as the year progressed and ended up enjoying more success in the second half of the year.

Six of the first seven teams the Lakers faced at the start of the season ended up being tournament teams: Bridgewater-Raynham, East Bridgewater, Duxbury, Pembroke, Plymouth North and Falmouth. While they started the year off by losing their first five games, the team coached by Olly deMacedo did pick up wins against New Mission, North Quincy and Quincy in the final month of the season to finish the year at 4-17.

Once Holly Reeder-Morning come back to the team from her ACL injury midway through the season, they saw an uptick in their offensive production and their overall success. A junior this season, she will be back again next season for her fourth year on varsity.

This season, the Lakers had a healthy mix of veterans and younger players, so experience should not be a big issue for them next season. This time around, they had five seniors on their roster: Izzy Ruprecht, Jessica Stas, Brianna Villanova and Stephanie Bennett.

On the other hand, they will have plenty of players coming back next season, who are varsity contributors. These include players such as Molly Turbush, Riley Dunphy, Erin Demacedo, Lily Gustafson, Lilly Noonan, Kiley O’Brien and Natalie Bouchard, as well as Reeder-Morning.

That said, the Lakers have the foundation set so that they can keep working hard in hopes of enjoying more success in the future–and it is certainly attainable. After all, the team won 16 games and made it to the tournament in the 2017-2018 season.

Eight — that is the number of games the Silver Lake High boys’ basketball team had won in a row. At the midway point in the season, the team had a losing record and their playoff chances were in doubt, but they have been dominant ever since. The latest example of this came in their home Valentine’s Day bout against the Hingham Harbormen. In it, the Lakers overcame a double-digit point deficit in the second quarter and picked up a 70-58 victory. The win improved their record to 12-6 on the season.

With the team trailing 30-17 a few minutes into the second quarter, Josh Gilbert hit a three-pointer and Josh Murphy followed it up with a fast break to cut Hingham’s advantage to single digits. The team continued playing sharp defense and early in the third quarter, a Murphy three-pointer made it a 37-33 game.

Hingham then hit a three, but the Lakers responded with a 13-0 run of their own. Nolan Hughes started the run with a bucket. Murphy followed up with a layup. Then Gilbert hit a three to tie it at 40-40; Gilbert then gave the team the lead on a trey. At the end of the run, they led 46-40.

The fourth quarter was hard fought, but the Lakers got hot towards the end of it and ended the game on a 12-4 run to secure the victory.

Gilbert led the team’s offense, scoring a team-high 23 points against Hingham. In addition to the points, he also grabbed eight rebounds and dished out four assists in the winning effort.

The Lakers excelled from three point territory in the win, hitting 47 percent of their shots from outside the arc.

This weekend, the Lakers will likely find out who they are set to face in the playoffs next week.

Matthew Will, 37, of Halifax, owner of Five Star Discount Roofing, appears in Plymouth District Court Feb. 11, 2019. (Photo by Abram Neal/Express News)

PLYMOUTH — Two of roofer Matthew Will’s five larceny-related cases– those with alleged victims in Kingston and Hanson– were continued for a month by District Court Judge Franco J. Gobourne at the request of Plymouth-based Attorney Jack Atwood.

Atwood told the judge that bank records turned over by the commonwealth in the discovery process were in “very small print” and that they were “too small to read.”

The discovery compliance and jury election hearings, where issues with evidence discovery are discussed before the court, were not held, although Gobourne said, “Let’s get this case moving,” to Atwood and the assistant district attorney.

Will, 37, of Halifax, owner of Five Star Discount Roofing, stands accused of victimizing 23 area households in at least three communities across Plymouth County by beginning contracting work and not completing it, or not doing work at all, after accepting deposits. They claim they have lost a combined $153,197.34, with individual losses ranging from $695 to $15,569.

Most of these victims are over age 55, and many are elderly, according to police reports. The alleged victim who lost the most money is 78 years old.

Will continues to hold construction supervisor licenses, according to state records, and continues to work according to a source who hopes that outstanding work will be completed by Will.

Dressed in paint-spattered pants in the Plymouth Trial Court hallway after the hearing, Will said, “I’ve been in business for 22 years without a problem. I don’t know why I’m even in court … There’s a very good reason this happened. I just had a bad year and couldn’t get the work done. I’m a good guy.”

Both matters were continued to March 12, 2019, at 9 a.m. for discovery compliance and jury election hearings. The case has been moving its way through the district court system since early August 2018.