The Blue Devil boys picked up a pair of wins last week and they did it in two entirely different ways. Last Wednesday night at home, the Blue and White guys rolled over Cabot like an Abrams tank going over a speed bump, cruising to a 62-8 victory. But on Friday night on the road at Twinfield it was fasten your seatbelt time as the 9-1 Blue Devils defeated 8-3 Twinfield 61-54 but had to come from one point down in the third quarter to do it.

From the opening tap to the final buzzer intensity was the name of the game at both ends of the floor. Just like at the girls game against Twinfield, the crowd was large and loud. Everybody got involved.

It was basket for basket in the first half and Williamstown clung to a slim 28-26 halftime lead. But that slim margin didn’t last long. The Trojans went on an 8-2 run to start the third quarter and things weren’t looking good for the old Blue & White. But the third quarter has belonged to the ‘Devils in most game this season and the offense got back on track midway through the third stanza. Ray Burgos keyed the ‘Devil’s comeback from the field and the foul line to put the ‘Devils up by a digit at 39-38 late in the third. Williamstown had stretched the lead to 43-40 when the third quarter buzzer sounded. Williamstown outscored Twinfield 18-14 in the fourth but Twinfield did close to 52-49 with about three minutes left. But the Trojans lost 6’-5” Chad Copeland to fouls, giving the ‘Devils a slight edge in the inside game.

And that proved to be enough as the Blue Devils held on for the 61-54 victory. Coach Jack Carrier put things very simply “It was a big win for us,” he said.

The Blue devils got 21 points from Ray Burgos and solid inside performances from their two big guns, Steven Manwaring and Troy Laughlin who tossed in 10 points each. Point guard Johnny Earls ran the attack and added 12 points of his own. The bench contributed important points. too. Kyle Benway had two field goals for four points while Justin Beaudet and Mitch St. Onge added two points each. The bottom line is that the Blue Devil Boys picked up their ninth win of the season and it was against a very talented Twinfield team.

Against Cabot last Wednesday night things were a little more laid back to say the least. About two eye blinks after the opening tap the Blue Devils had jumped out to a 6-0 lead on the strength of steals that lead to uncontest- ed layups by Johnny Earls, Nick Gagnon and Ray Burgos. It was all downhill from there for the Cabot Huskies. The Blue Devil lead ballooned out to 26-0 after one quarter. “We came out with a good level of intensity on defense and played it very well. When the lead built we decided to pull back from the press and go into a man to man defense just inside the three point line. It was great defense by Ben Villa off the bench, He’s been waiting for some minutes off the bench.

He’s been very patient and I’m very pleased to see that he got on he scoreboard with five points tonight. Almost everybody on the team got into the scorebook tonight. That’s nice to see,” said coach Carrier.

The Huskies did finally get on the scoreboard in the second quarter and at the half the Williamstown lead stretched to 38-4. There were a lot of bench player minutes for the “Devils in the second half as the Blue & White ran on cruise control and rolled to the 62-8 win. Troy Laughlin with 16 points and Justin Beaudet with 10 were the only Blue Devils in double figures. Ray Burgos was close with nine and Johnny Earls had 8.

Nick Gagnon got a layup off a steal for two and Steven Manwaring added 4 to cap the starters scoring. The bench accounted for 23 of the 62 ‘Devils points. In addition to Beaudet’s 10, Ben Villa had 5, Kyle Benway had 5, and John Scholtz had 3. Mitch St, St. Onge and Logan Clark saw action but did not score. The Blue Devil Boy’s will take their 9-1 record on the road to South Royalton this Friday for a 7 p.m.

contest.