By Mohammed Ramzanali
The Rangers boys’ basketball team is on a hot streak this season with an overall record of 9-3 (2-3 in Mid Wach B). The season opener and home opener for the Rangers was on December 14 against Shrewsbury High School. With a lot of hype surrounding the team made up of only sophomores and seniors, the Rangers had a lot to prove especially when facing off against the Colonials in their first game.
It was a close game with both teams still trying to get rid of some off season rust but the Rangers prevailed with a 69-61 win. Senior captain James Coffey had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, while senior A.J Nowak added 12 points to help the Rangers top the Colonials.
Unfortunately, a week later the Rangers lost in their second game of the season to Marlboro High School at Marlboro. In a hard fought battle against the Panthers, the Rangers would fall 86-72. Marlboro’s junior Chris Doherty scored a game high 35 points with senior Joao Mendes adding 16 points. For the Rangers, senior Ryan Hughes’ team high 21 points and sophomore Mike Doherty’s 20 points weren’t enough to propel the visiting Rangers. This game had bigger implications for the team seeing as it was a league game and they fell 0-1 in Mid Wach B.
Since then, the Rangers haven’t missed a beat going 8-2 in their last ten games and having two 3-game win streaks in that span. With losses coming to Groton Dunstable and Nashoba, which were both league games, they have had a lot of success against some really good teams such as Hopkinton and Leominster and especially Marlboro, a team which they lost to earlier in the season. Not to mention that when the Rangers played the GD Crusaders, they were 5-0 and #1 in Mid Wach B.
With a big 57-42 win against Fitchburg Friday night, the Rangers earned their first league win of the season. Twin sophomore brothers Matt and Mike Doherty combined for 32 points to boost Westborough over Fitchburg.
“Our main goals this year was to make the Clark Tournament and the District Playoffs. We are headed in the right direction for both of those tournaments right now, but we got to keep our heads down and keep moving forward,” said Coffey. He then went on to say, “This year has been a great start for us so far. We are just over halfway through our season and have gotten off to a hot start, which we knew would be key because we still have the hardest part of our schedule coming up.”
Their league record is a solid 2-3 with two wins against Fitchburg and Marlboro and 3 losses against highly ranked Groton Dunstable, Nashoba, and Marlboro. They get to rematch Groton on January 27 and and Nashoba on February 13. Both games are away.
