Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News Johnny Earls cruises to the hoop under the watchful eye of the Big Blue Devil in Williamstown's 76-18 win over Cannan in a home game last Saturday. The entire team got into the act led by Ray Burgos' 17 points, Troy Laughlin's 16, and a 14 point, 10 rebound performance off the bench from Kyle Benway as the Blue Devil Boy's advanced to 13-1. Williamstown’s Blue Devil Boys had absolutely no trouble advancing their record to 13-1 in their lone game last week. The ‘Devils demolished Cannan 76- 18 in a total mis-match. Williamstown took command at the opening tip and never let up. The “Devil’s zone trap defense gave the Eagles fits in the opening minutes at players in white uniforms took turns stealing the ball at half court and by the time fans had gotten settled in their seats Williamstown had a commanding lead. The guys in Blue and White pitched a shut-out in the first quarter taking a 23-0 lead by the time the buzzer sounded. First it was Ray Burgos with a steal and a layup and then it was Johnny Earls with a steal and a swoop to the hoop. On and on it went.

That covers the first three minutes. Then the Williamstown’s set pattern offense took over. If it wasn’t Troy Laughlin putting in a bunny it was Steven Manwaring right there for the put-back. By halftime it was 44-3, Williamstown. And it wasn’t as close as the score might indicate.

“Before the game I told the guys that we can’t let up. We’re heading into a stretch in our schedule where we should dominate. Realistically the toughest game should be Twinfield on Feb. 9th. But no matter, for the next seven games we are preparing for the playoffs. If we let up and don’t do the things we have worked so hard for somebody could surprise us. Each and every team would like to be the one to knock us off. We Can’t go out there and give minutes just to kill time,” said coach Jack Carrier.

In the third quarter Williamstown went to the bench and the Eagles found some wings- sort of. The Blue Devils out-scored Cannan 15-10 to take a 59-13 lead into the final stanza. “I wanted to work on our man to man defense in the second half,” said “and I wanted us to work on some of the little things in our offensive sets and work on our rebounding skills. Everybody got some minutes and all but one player got into the scorebook,” the coach added. The fourth quarter saw the Devils continue to take it to the Eagles,

out- scoring Cannan 17-5, and at the final horn it was a 76-18 win and time to log in the Blue Devils 13th win of the season.

Ray Burgos led the Blue Devil scoring parade with 23 points including a pair of thre pointers and Troy Laughlin added 16 points and eight rebounds. Once again, Kyle Benway was big off the Blue Devil bench with 14 points and 10 rebounds. “I said it before and I’ll say it again.

Kyle Benway has been very valuable to us. It’s like having a sixth starter. When he comes of the bench we don’t lose a thing,” coach Carrier said.

The Blue Devil Boys will host Craftsbury this Saturday, Jan. 30 at 4 p.m.