By Roger Brown
MaxPreps.com
The Winnacunnet High School girls' basketball team has won the last two Class L championships, and the Warriors appear capable of winning the next two as well.
Featuring a starting lineup that included four sophomores, top-seeded Winnacunnet beat second-seeded Manchester Central, 60-47, Friday in the Class L title game.
Sophomore point guard Tiffany Ruffin, who is widely considered to be the best player in the state, led the Warrior offense with a team-high 17 points. Forward Conley Burns, the one senior in Winnacunnet’s starting lineup, scored 16 and Lindsay Mahoney finished with 11.
“Who knows what can happen next year,” Winnacunnet coach Ed Beattie said. “We could have an injury or someone could move and that chemistry might not be the same. So I just said, ‘We’re here, let’s win it.’”
Winnacunnet, which finished the season with a 20-2 record, beat Bishop Guertin to win last year’s championship.
Central (19-3) led 25-24 early in the second half, but a 14-2 run gave Winnacunnet a 38-27 lead with 1:10 to play in the third quarter. Central, which received a game-high 21 points from guard Christiana Bakolas, failed to get closer than four points the rest of the way.
“Winnacunnet is a very, very good team,” Central coach Michael Wenners said. “We handled the pressure well, it just came down to some missed shots and some bounces that didn’t go our way.”
Boys Basketball: Monadnock Completes Title Run
Senior guard Jeff Pelkey and his Monadnock teammates made the most of the program’s first trip to the Class I championship game.
Pelkey scored a game-high 18 points to lead the 10th-seeded Huskies to a 42-35 victory over fourth-seeded Hanover in this year’s title game.
Monadnock (15-7) knocked off the No. 7 seed (Lebanon), the No. 2 seed (Portsmouth) and the No. 3 seed (John Stark) to earn a spot in the championship game.
“We wanted it the most,” Pelkey said. “We had never won a state championship, never been to one. We were determined to make history.”
Hanover, which was the No. 10 seed when it won last year’s championship, led 23-16 at halftime, but was held to 12 points in the second half. The Marauders completed their season with an 18-4 record.
CLASS S: Third-seeded Colebrook led by as many as 20 points in the first half and upset top-seeded Wilton-Lyndeborough 68-52 in Saturday’s Class S championship game.
It was Wilton-Lyndeborough’s lowest offensive output of the season.
Ryan Rossitto scored a game-high 19 points for Colebrook (21-1). He scored 14 of those 19 points from the free throw line.
Wilton-Lyndeborough (21-1) received a team-high 18 points from Zach Rolke.
Boys Hockey: Dover Coach Exits in Style
Freshman defenseman Kyle Dubois scored with 46.9 seconds remaining in regulation to give Dover a 3-2 victory over Spaulding in Sunday’s Division II championship game.
It was the final game for Dover coach Ray Terrell, who informed his team of his decision to resign before the championship contest.
“I guess I was trying to get a little emotion out of them,” Terrell told the Manchester Union Leader. “And I wanted them to be the first to know.”
Spaulding (16-3-2) trailed 2-0 after two periods, but scored twice early in the third. Dover (16-3-0) received 21 saves from Richard Siirala.
DIVISION I: Eric Harries, Kyle Curry and Derek Morgan each scored a goal, and goaltender David O’Brien stopped 23 shots as Bishop Guertin beat Bishop Brady 3-0 to win the Division I title.
BG (16-3-0) also beat Bishop Brady (18-3-0) in the 2007 championship game. Bishop Brady hasn’t beaten BG since 1996.
DIVISION III: Forward Paul Caso scored a power-play goal 38 seconds into overtime that handed Souhegan a 3-2 triumph over top-seeded Kennett in the Division III championship game.
It was the third consecutive championship for Souhegan ((17-3-0). Kennett (18-2-0) trailed 2-0, but pulled even when Brad Hauser scored a power-play goal 48 seconds into the third.
Girls Hockey: Hanover Completes Perfect Season
Hanover scored five first-period goals and capped an 18-0-0 season by beating Concord, 5-3, to win the first NHIAA girls hockey championship.
Josie Fisher scored twice for the Marauders, who also received goals from Megan Cronkite, Katie McLaughlin and Laura Sanderson. Melissa Lehtinen scored twice for Concord (12-6-1).
