Royals Improve to 6-8

By Nathan McShinsky

In the last week and a half the South Royalton boys have had two convincing wins over Rochester and Whitcomb that were split up by an upsetting loss to Rivendell.

Win @ Rochester

The Royals took the trip over to Rochester on January 24 and won its second straight game on the road in a very convincing manner. The Royals used a 14-7 first quarter to catapult them to a 69-43 win.

In the second quarter the Royals offense got all wheels rolling as they had perhaps their best offensive quarter of the year where they reeled off 25 points. In the process they held the Rockets to 14 giving SoRo a 39-21, 18 point lead at the break.

The Royals were led by Peter Doyle-Braman with 17 and Walker with a dozen, but all 11 players contributed to the big win on one side or the other of the ball. Brian Dunbar finished the game with 10 for the Rockets.

Loss @ Rivendell

The Royals took the trip across the border and the river to Orford, NH to play the Rivendell Raptors on the 26th of January. SoRo played a very good game defensively, but their offensive was lacking, ending in a six point loss, 38-32.

In the first quarter the Royals started out with a bang and led 11-9 with Miles Ellis scoring seven of those points.

In the second quarter the Royals put up identical numbers offensively with 11 and held the Raptors under double digits again with seven to put the score at 22-16 for the break.

The third quarter was the start of a rough half offensively for the Royals where they watched shot after shot bounce around the rim and their lead slowly dwindle away. The Royals only managed to hit two shots in the third while Rivendell added nine points. With just 8:00 minutes to play the Royals were hanging on to a 26-25, one point lead.  

In the fourth the Royals collapsed as they managed to put together just six points bringing there second half total to 10. Along with this came a defensive let down as well. The Raptors went on a 6-0 run that included four points in the final minute to close the deal, 34-32 Rivendell with 2:17 left.

The Royals were led by Ellis with 10 and Enright who added 8. The Raptors were lead by Karl Faessler with 10.

Win @ Whitcomb

The Royals traveled next door to Bethel to play their rival the Whitcomb Hornets in last Friday’s snow and came out with what looked like an easy win at 50-20. However unless you were at the game and saw the run put on by Jamie Kinnarney’s Hornets you wouldn’t have known what was going to come of the game.

In the first quarter the Hornets put up six fast points in the first two minutes of play while holding SoRo to zero. SoRo got on the board with an Enright foul shot but the Hornets went up 10-3 with 2:33 left. The Royals finished the quarter on 4-0 run to close the gap to 10-7, Bethel.

In the second quarter the Royals offense woke up and they put together a convincing 24 point quarter led by their bench players Dale Manning and Joey Kinnarney. Manning put up 11 points in the quarter with two threes and Kinnarney added one from the line and some great defense. The Royals finished on a 19-2 run for a halftime edge of 31-15.

Both teams struggled in the third offensive, either that or excelled defensively. SoRo led 39-17 after three.

The Royals put up 11 points in the fourth, while Bethel still struggled to get anything going.

The Royals were led by D. Manning with 14, the only player in double figures, and Enright who added 8 and had countless assists. But every Royal committed something to this game and 10 of the 11 players scored at least 2 points. Mike Ennis led Coach K’s Bethel team with 10 points on the night.

The Royals (6-8) continued their march to .500 on Wednesday night when they played visitor to the Thetford Panthers, which could prove to be a big Division III matchup. The Royals then host the Hornets at the Royal Palace on Friday the 9th for a makeup game.

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