It would be hard to imagine a more rewarding first Patriot League game of the season for the Silver Lake High girls’ basketball team.

In their first Patriot League matchup on Tuesday, Dec. 11, they managed to beat the Pembroke Titans, 51-49, on the road. With the win, the Lakers improved to 2-0.

Pembroke struggled to hit their shots at times, giving the Lakers a good opportunity to take the game from them. In the last two minutes of it, they did just that.

Senior guard Annabelle Boudreau hit a 3-pointer with 1:35 remaining in the contest to give the Lakers a 50-49 lead. From there, the Lakers were able to play stout defense, preventing the Titans from going ahead before Allie Crawford extended the lead. She hit a free-throw with about 30 seconds left in the game, putting her team up by a full basket.

After that, Pembroke had a couple chances to tie the game or take the lead, but none of them were successful. Their final shot–from 2-point range–bounced off the glass as time expired.

Albeit the Lakers did fall behind in the fourth quarter, they were in the lead for much of the contest. They were up by six, 13-7, at the end of the first quarter. They also went into halftime up by four points, 25-21. At their peak, they were up 41-34 at the end of the fourth quarter, but Pembroke surged for the first six minutes of the final quarter. They took a 49-47 lead on a pair of free throws with 2:40 remaining.

Sydney Kehoe scored a team-high 16 points for the Lakers while Allie Crawford (11 points) and Holly Reeder-Morning (10 points) also shot well for the team in the win.

The Lakers next game is next Thursday, Dec. 28 against the Brookline Warriors at home (12:30 p.m. start time).

Seeing the success the Silver Lake High varsity athletic teams enjoyed over the course of this past fall season, it should come as no surprise that a handful of its athletes rank among the best athletes on the South Shore.

This statement was affirmed by the Patriot Ledger All-Scholastic selections. Although they have not officially come out yet and will not for another month most likely, the official Silver Lake Athletics Twitter account announced which of their players made the cut on Monday this week. In all, the Lakers had five selections in four different sports. Here is a look at who was chosen for it.

Football

Phil Lashley — Lashley was the Lakers primary running back these past two seasons and he rushed for well over 1,000 yards in each of them and averaged roughly seven yards per carry this past season. The senior helped the Lakers to two straight playoff appearances his junior and senior years as the Lakers continue moving in the right direction.

Boys’ Golf

Dillon Brown — Brown was a major asset to the Lakers boys’ golf team for several years. He shot under par on the season this year and qualified for the Division 2 state tournament twice in his Lakers career. Brown is committed to the University of Maryland for golf.

Soccer

Allie Crawford — Crawford was a highly-skilled midfielder for the Lakers who helped lead them to a playoff appearance this season. The senior did an excellent job of helping the team move the ball downfield, had over 20 points on the season and led the team in assists.

Patrick McMahon — Only a junior this year, the midfielder gives the Lakers reasons to be excited for the future. This is his second straight All-Scholastic selection after putting up a team-high 14 goals this past season for the Lakers, who made the playoffs both years he was selected.

Volleyball

Abigail Gallagher — Gallagher was on the court for all 76 of the Lakers sets this past season and was a major reason why they were able to make it to the playoffs for the first time in several years. The senior led the team with 254 kills and 154 digs.

The Silver Lake High football team played a highly-contested bout on Thanksgiving this season, but this year it was the town, who used to be a part of the school district which came out on top.

Both teams battled, but Pembroke came out with a 25-28 win over the Lakers at Pembroke High School on Thursday morning. 

Early in the contest, the Pembroke Titans controlled the game. They scored a pair of touchdowns to go up 14-0 in the first quarter.

With about five minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Lakers responded when Diamani Williams took a punt return to the end zone for a touchdown. This and an extra point kick from Tyler Duggan made it a 14-7 game. On the final play of the first half, Tyler Boyd rushed for a 10-yard touchdown.

The Lakers also hit their extra point kick, tying the game at 14 apiece.

Boyd gave the Lakers the lead with 6:29 remaining in the third quarter on a quarterback sneak from the 1-yard line. Their PAT was successful, putting the Lakers up 21-14.

With 9:24 remaining in the ballgame, Pembroke took the lead. They intercepted Boyd and took the ball to the end zone. Pembroke also had a successful 2-point conversion pass to go up 22-21. Just five minutes later, the Titans had another rushing touchdown to go up 28-21.

The Lakers reacted quickly, however, with a 65-yard run from Phil Lashley that put the team in the red zone. From there, Boyd ran in the game-tying touchdown and Duggan kicked the extra point, tying the game at 28-28 with under two minutes remaining.

After this, the Lakers went for an onside kick–but they were not successful. With the ball, the Titans were able to find some success on the ground. This included a 30-yard run that put them in Lakers territory. With 35 seconds left, they rushed in a 5-yard touchdown and kicked an extra point to go up 35-28.

The Lakers had one more chance at scoring after that, but Pembroke intercepted them again, hampering their comeback effort.

With the loss, the Lakers finished their season at 6-5.

Last week Silver Lake Regional High School wellness teacher Marlene Lopes along with Karen Triangle the principal’s secretary, dropped off a check to Dana Faber South Shore Hospital Breast Care Center for $9875.    The amount is the result of two weeks of fundraising activities and events that brought awareness to Breast Cancer. Along with the check was a basket full of pink painted rocks with inspirational messages created by the soccer team for the patients of the Dana Faber South Shore Breast Care Center.

Photos by Marlene Lopes

Karen Tringale, Marlene Lopes present a check and rocks to aid patients of the Dana Faber South Shore Hospital

Pink inspirational rocks created by the Silver Lake Soccer Team

The Silver Lake boys’ soccer team made a strong playoff run, but it came to an end last week. On Wednesday, Nov. 15, the Lakers fell, 4-1, to the Brockton Boxers in the Division 1 South Sectional semifinals at on the road at Marciano Stadium in Brockton. With the win, top-seeded Brockton advanced to the Div. 1 South finals, which was hosted at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School on Saturday, Nov. 10.

In their game against Brockton, Silver Lake fell behind by a goal eight minutes into the contest. This caused the Lakers to be more aggressive during the game. It also gave them a strong scoring opportunity with about four minutes left in the first half, but they were just shy of the score.

In the second half, Brockton started pulling away and took away the Lakers opportunity to make a comeback. Brockton put up three unanswered goals in the period to go up 4-0 but with a few minutes left in the game, the Lakers made their mark on the scoreboard. Owen Nally made it a 4-1 game, scoring a goal on a free kick. By that point, however, the Lakers did not have enough time to make a comeback, even though they were playing well.

The Lakers, who finished the season at 15-4-2, played well in the postseason. Their opening game against Durfee resulted in a 4-3 win on penalty kicks. In their next bout, they faced a Bay State League powerhouse, Braintree, and beat them 1-0. The win over Braintree in the quarterfinals got the Lakers to the Div. 1 South Semifinal game against Brockton.

Now that their season is over, the Lakers will lose nine seniors to graduation: defenders Brian Reilly, Michael Carey, Connor White, Casey Grindle, Keagan Nocher and William d’Entremont plus forwards Michael Donovan and Andrew Corcoran.

On Monday night, the Silver Lake High girls’ soccer team started off their postseason campaign with a strong home win in the first round of the Division 2 South playoff bracket.

The Lakers, who had a lot of momentum granted the immense success they enjoyed for much of the regular season had one of their best games of the season as they shut down Dartmouth, 4-0. With the win, the Lakers improved to 15-4-1 on the season and advanced the their section’s quarterfinal against Notre Dame Academy.

The first half of the game was tightly contested since Dartmouth’s defense and goalkeeping were sharp. Due to this limitation, the Lakers were limited to one goal in the first half. This score came from Morgan Wohlgemuth off a strong pass from Melanie Coughlin. Other than that, however, the game was close in the first half. It also stayed that way for the first 15 minutes of the second half before the Lakers broke out.

With 25 minutes left in the contest, Hannah Vogt doubled the Lakers’ lead with her first of two goals of the game. Just a few minutes later, Holly Reeder-Morning scored her first goal of the game to put her team up by three, and Vogt kicked in the team’s final goal of the game with four minutes left.

Allie Crawford had four assists while Caity Smith had a strong performance in net. Smith earned the shutout in the win.

A major reason why the Lakers have enjoyed so much success this season is because they are such an experienced team. They have 13 seniors on their roster.

In order to prepare for the postseason, it helped the Lakers that they played some tough Patriot League competition during the regular season. They faced the likes of Duxbury, Hingham and Whitman-Hanson, all of whom made the postseason. 

The Silver Lake high volleyball team’s persistence over the past few years paid off for them last week.

On the final day of the regular season, the Lakers got their 10th win of the season to improve to 10-10 on the year. Since they had a .500 winning percentage thanks to their 3-1 win over a struggling Scituate Sailors team on Wednesday, Oct. 25, they clinched a playoff spot in the MIAA Division 2 South bracket. It will be their first playoff appearance since 2011.

In the first set, the Lakers quickly fell behind, 4-0. But for the rest of the set, they were downright dominant. They went on a 6-1 run to take the lead and thanks to some strong serving from Michelle Vaughan (three aces) and Abigail Gallagher (four aces), they were able to win the set 25-10.

The Lakers also went down by a couple points in the second set before they flat out dominated once again. They ended up winning that one 25-12. Although the Sailors won the third set, 25-23, they could not overcome the Lakers. Silver Lake ended up winning the final set 25-15.

Sarah Russo (five digs), Kristin Heath (four digs), Gallagher (four digs) and Catherine Donovan (two blocks) were a few players of the many players who excelled defensively in the win.

It was a good day for the Lakers to clinch the playoff spot too since the win came on senior night–and the Lakers are a senior-heavy squad. This year’s team has strong leadership with seven seniors on the roster: Lauren Hamilton and Abigail Gallagher, Heidi Banden, Sarah Russo, Alyssa Nelson, Michelle Vaughan and Kristin Heath. Making it to the playoffs this year was important for the Lakers because of how much varsity experience this team had accumulated.

The Lakers have some momentum headed into the postseason. They won three of their last four matches of the regular season

The Silver Lake High football team met another one of the Patriot League Keenan Division’s top teams last Friday night on the road, and they were unable to stop the team’s potent dual-threat quarterback: Ethan Phelps.

The Lakers fell, 43-20, to the Whitman-Hanson football team in their last game. As a result, the Lakers finished the regular season at 4-3, but have lost three of their last four games.

Their opponent scored two touchdowns in the first quarter to go up 14-6 by the end of it, but the Lakers had a pick six from Gavin Hamilton on defense that got them on the scoreboard.

While the defensive touchdown appeared to indicate the Lakers might have an answer for their opponent in the second quarter, the read-option offense was too much for them to handle.

Their opponent would score three touchdowns before the end of the first half to take a 35-6 lead.

The Lakers offense showed some life in the second half, however. On their first drive of the third quarter, they were able to score on a 33-yard touchdown run from Dan Collins. Then, quarterback Tanner Boyd ran in the 2-point conversion to make it a 35-14 game.

It would not take the Lakers much time to get on the scoreboard again. Cam Danahy recovered a fumble at the Lakers’ 38-yard line, giving his team solid field position to start their next drive.

They drove the ball down-field and Phil Lashley finished the drive with a touchdown run from a yard out to make the score 35-20 midway and The Lakers move on to face Dighton-Rehoboth at home in the first round of the MIAA Division 4 South playoff bracket (Friday, Oct. 27 at 7:00 p.m.).

Right now, it is hard to stop the Silver Lake High boys’ soccer team.
Last Saturday night, the Lakers were not able to keep their winning streak going, but they improved their unbeaten streak to eight games when they took on the Whitman-Hanson Panthers at home. The game was tightly contested for its majority and by the end of it, both teams got a point in the standings in the 2-2 tie. The tie put the Lakers at 11-2-1 on the season.

The first half of the game was rather unproductive, although both teams played quality defense, neither team scoring until the second half.
Whitman-Hanson ended up scoring the first goal of the game; 11 minutes into the second half, they got the ball in the net off a header from the right side of the field. It would not take the Lakers much time to respond.

Just two minutes later, Casey Grindle kicked in a goal to tie the game at one apiece and on the Panthers’ next possession, Justin Keating made a strong one-handed save to preserve the tie.

In the 65th minute of the game, the Panthers were able to regain the lead. The Lakers had a defensive lapse–and it resulted in a breakaway and a goal for their opponent.
Despite falling behind, the Lakers would not go down without a fight. With 6:30 left in the game, Alex Lloyd scored the game-tying goal to prevent the Lakers from receiving their third loss of the season. Colin Caniff had the assist on the score.

With three minutes left, it appeared as though the Lakers had taken the lead on a score off of the head, but it did not count due to an offsides call.

The Lakers’ next game is this Saturday, Oct. 21 on the road against Weymouth, 6:30 p.m. start time.

Last Friday night was far from pleasant for the Silver Lake High football team.

For the second straight week, they met one of the toughest opponents from the Patriot League and because of that, they were handed their second straight loss of the season. This time, the Lakers fell, 61-7 to the Duxbury Dragons at home. The Lakers are now 3-2 on the season.

The Dragons, who are one of the top teams in the state, were dominant in the first half. They scored three touchdowns in the first quarter and three more in the second quarter to take a 40-0 lead headed into halftime. On the other hand, the Lakers struggled to do much of anything when they had possession. On each of the Lakers first six drives of the game, they were unable to get a first down. In fact, they only had two first downs in the first half.

Although the Lakers were overmatched in the bout, they were able to enjoy a moment of success in the loss. Dan Collins had a two-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter. Earlier on that scoring drive, he had a 57-yard run to give his team the ball in favorable field position. A successful extra point kick made it a 47-7 game at that point.

The Dragons kept playing hard for the rest of the contest, so they were able to add two more touchdowns to further pad their lead. They also continued to prevent the Lakers from doing much offensively.

The Lakers move on to face Plymouth North (1-4) on the road this Friday, Oct. 13 (7:00 p.m. start time). While their upcoming opponent may have a losing record, they have played an exceptionally tough schedule, losing games to Hingham, Duxbury, Whitman-Hanson and Dennis-Yarmouth, who is the best team on Cape Cod.

A win this Friday would essentially guarantee the Lakers a playoff spot.