BCAT News

After ending a historic season in a heartbreaking loss to Norwood in the semi-finals of the MIAA playoffs as reported by BNEWS Sports last spring, the Red Devils’ bounced back with a resounding 54-31 win over Winchester High School to start off the 2022-23 campaign. Check out the highlights 

The Devils’ offense came out firing as junior Cedric Rodriguez led the team in scoring with 15 points. He shot three 3-pointers, two 2-pointers and had two free throws.

Junior Jaden Brehm wasn’t far behind him with his 14 points four 3-pointers, two 2-pointers and added two free throws. In his Red Devil debut, senior Ben Poehler scored 11 points against the opponent, making three 3-pointers and two free throws. Other athletes who contributed on the court were senior Eric Sekyaya with 7 points and junior James Ellis with 5.

The Burlington defense held its opponent  to 31 points, with Winchester seniors John DeMichaelis scoring 10, Tommy Lambert scoring 7, Matt Hu 6, sophomore Riley Clark 6 and juniors Eli Prophete and Wes Kaunas-Quinn both had 2 points.

After a rocky start in the game, Red Devils head coach Phil Conners is glad the team got the win, but there are still areas that need improvement.

“We didn’t have a good offensive game for the first three quarters at all,” he said. “We weren’t shooting the ball well, but our defense was great. We held them to four single-digit quarters and did a great job moving the ball in the fourth quarter.”

As mentioned earlier, Poehler made his debut in the Devils’ opener. Conners is happy to have him this year on the team and is looking forward to seeing what he will bring to the court this season.

“He had a great fourth quarter and I thought for his first game he did a great job,” he said. “He’s going to take off and he is super skilled, super strong and super dedicated, so I’m excited.”

The Red Devils (1-0) and will have its first away matchup of the season at Stoneham High School against the Spartans on Dec. 16 at 6 p.m.