Williamstown's John Scholtz (#32,in white) pops in a shot against West Rutland's Adan Garcia in last Friday afternoon's Div. IV playoff game at Parks Memorial Gym. John was one often Blue Devils that found their way into the scoring column as Williamstown cruised past The Golden Horde. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News It was a Charles Dickens kind of week for Williamstown Boy’s basketball last week. But, instead of a “Tale of Two Cities” it was a tale of two ball games.

The Williamstown fans that packed the Parks Memorial Gym last Monday for the 5p.m. Boy’s Div. IV quarterfinal on Monday knew that there was a lot of truth in the old Vermont saw- “You can’t get there from here.

You’ve got to go somewhere else and start”.

It’s only about six and a half miles away by the usual route but the Williamstown faithful knew full well that the road to the Barre Auditorium had to run through South Royalton.

Williamstown's Steven Manwaring puts up the shot that would give the Blue Devils the lead for good with 4:40 to go in the Div.IV Quarterfinal game against South Royalton at Williamstown on Monday afternoon. Manwaring had 22 points in the 60-50 Blue & White Victory. Photo by Bill Croney,The Northfield News Last Friday the Williamstown boys powered their way past West Rutland

88-32 in their quest to reach to Vermont’s High School Basketball’s Mecca. And that set up Monday afternoon’s matchup with traditional foe, South Royalton. The Blue and White Boys pulled out a 60-50 win but the game was much more than a speed bump on their way to the granite capitol of the world.

The first step to the Barre Auditorium was a win in the first round of the playoffs, and the Williamstown Boys didn’t walkthey drove. The big Blue Machine that is the Blue Devils Boy’s team was in high gear as they rolled over West Rutland 88-32 at the Parks Memorial Gym last Friday afternoon. The game wasn’t as close as the score might indicate.

The Blue Devii's Steven Manwaring (#33,in white) gets off a shot despite heavy pressure from the West Rutland defense in last Friday afternoon's Div. IV playoff game at Williamstown. West Rutland's Golden Horde had no answer for the big senior who poured in 21 inside points as Williamstown rolled to a 88-32 victory. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News A large crowd was on hand for the unusual 4p.m. start of a game that had been twice postponed as a result of late winter weather.

West Rutland was in trouble from the opening tip. (possibly sooner) Before anybody’s popcorn had a chance to cool the Blue and White Boys had burst out to an 8-0 lead in the first 56 seconds of the game. Then they started to pull away.

Ray Burgos scored early and often and Steven Manwaring was a force to behold on the inside as The Blue Devils stretched the lead out to 29-0.

The half court trap was giving the Golden Horde fits and time after time Williamstown either came away with the steal or forced the young West Rutland team to turn the ball over. And the Blue Machine converted most of those turnovers into points at the other end.

West Rutland finally got on the board with an Emmett Ackerman free throw with about a minute to go in the first and then added an Adan Garcia layup with :20 left in the first stanza to make it 29-3, Williamstown after one.

The Blue Devils went to the banch in the second quarter but that didn’t mean a lot to the Golden Horde. By halftime the Blue & White lead had ballooned out to 51-18. West’ Rutland’s Adan Garcia accounted for 11 of

the golden Horde’s 18 first half points but he was no match for the well oiled Blue Machine. This type of game may be harder on a coach than a competitive game but the ‘Devils coach, Jack Carrier, knew that his team had to do what they had to do. “ Today was kind of tough for us coming in. We have been off for two weeks but we came right out of the gates the way we wanted to play. At halftime I told them to stay focused. Stay focused especially on defense and let the offense come to us. I told them to keep working on what we have been doing all year long and that’s get ready to play another game,” the coach said.

The “Devils took their coach’s words to heart and posted another 37 points in the second half. Ten Blue Devils broke into the scorebook led by Ray Burgos’ 29 and Steven Manwaring’s 21 and everybody played outstanding defense as the rout continued in the second half. When the final Buzzer sounded the large home crowd was buzzing as well and they marveled at the Blue Devil’s 88-32 victory. But the crowd also knew this is the time of year for one game season and they knew that South Royalton was the lone obstacle between the Blue Devils and the Barre Auditorium.

When the Royals came to town the large home crowd was ready. At least they thought they were. But both teams came out at a tentative pace in the first two minutes and the home crowd seemed to say –“when will they open it up? “ Both teams seemed to suffer from tournament jitters and after one quarter South Royalton held on to a 7-6 lead. The Williamstown fans were scratching their collective heads, “ What happened to the offense,” they seemed to be asking themselves. “We just couldn’t get it to go down in the early going,” said coach Jack Carrier. “Usually we have been getting the Roll. But South Royalton played tough,” he added.

In he second quarter Ray Burgos took control of the Blue Devil offense as he poured through 10 of the Blue &White’s 15 points but it was an nice Nick Gagnon hoop that was the result of a Troy Laughlin block and a great feed from Johnny Earls that let the ‘Devils take a 21-20 lead into the locker room at the intermission.

The third quarter saw a battle of two different styles. The Royals used the bombing attack and registered two three pointers from Tyler McShinsky and Logan White on their way to posting 14 third stanza points while,even though it seemed to take a while, the Blue Devils fans saw a sleeping giant start to awaken. Steven Manwaring, who has been a Blue Devil force all season, picked up a pair of field goals and four free throws for Williamstown in the third . South Royalton out-scored The

Devils 14-13 to erase the single digit Blue & White halftime advantage and they headed into the final eight minutes of regulation all even at 34.

The opening seconds of the fourth quarter belonged to South Royalton.

Tyler McShinsky buried a three ball to give the Royals a 37- 34 lead.

And it was pretty even for the next four minutes. Then Steven Manwaring decided that the

Devils needed to move on.

The big senior had said prior to the West Rutland game that he didn’t like losing in the quarterfinals last year and that he was on a mission to get to the Auditorium. He put his money where his mouth was,

Manwaring racked up 12 of his club’s 26 fourth quarter points with an intense and very impressive effort at both ends of the court as the Blue Devil defense created lots of opportunities for points in the final stanza. With 5:40 to go Williamstown took the led for good on an outstanding Manwaring effort inside(see photo) and the rest of the way it was strong Blue Devil defense and foul shots (mostly by Manwaring) that gave the Williamstown Boy’s a 60-50 win over South Royalton and a shot in the semi-finals.

Steven Manwaring’s 22 points led the Blue Devil scorers while Ray Burgos dropped in 14 and Troy Laughlin contributed 12 in the Williamstown win. Senior Nick Gagnon had six points that seemed to all come at key points and fellow senior Johnny Earls added four points and played a terrific game on defense. Kyle Benway added the only bench points with and once again he and Justin Beaudet were invaluable off the bench. Both big guys may not have scored a lot but they recorded very impressive and valuable minutes down in the paint when the Blue Devils needed them .

The 22-1 Blue Devils now advance to the State Semi- Finals at the Barre auditorium where their opponent will be Twin Valley, a high school that combines students from the towns of Wilmington and Whitingham from the far southern reaches of the Green Mountain State.