The Blue Devil’s Mascot holds the Division IV State Champtionship trophy awarded following the game last Saturday. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News Dreams can come true! Just the Blue Devil’s boy’s basketball team or any of their legion of fans that were on hand at the Barre Auditorium last Saturday for the “Shootout at High Noon” against undefeated and top seeded Proctor. The Blue Devils halted Proctor’s charge for a fifth straight Division four title with a stunning (exciting , thrilling, heart stopping, unbelievable – you provide the adjective) 47-41 victory over a team that had won 48 games in a row and 95 of their last 96 games.

To say that the Blue & White boys came in as underdogs would be a classic understatement. But in addition to a very talented team on the floor and an outstanding coaching staff (Jack Carrier and his assistants, John Pelligrini, Kalin George and Nick DuBois) the ’Devil’s had a secret weapon. And it most assuredly was not a stealth weapon!

The Blue Devils give the high sign following the presentation of the Division IV trophies after taking previously undefeated Proctor 47-41. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News The crowd. The village and town of Williamstown were for all intents and purposes closed on Saturday from noon to three. If you had to do business in Williamstown during those hours you had to go to the Barre Auditorium to do it. There was a sea of blue-“Blue Devil Blue” all over Vermont’s 2200 seat high school basketball “Mecca” and the sound started well before the teams took the floor and never let up until the tournament staff had to clear the building so they could get ready for the next game. “The crowd was unbelievable,” said Troy Laughlin, the Blue Devil’s 6’4” center. “ To feel the support was great. Our fans are the best.”Coach Jack Carrier also acknowledged the contributions of the fans. “ For a small community they have been amazing. They just pour their hearts out for us,” the coach said.

Williamstown Senior Bethany Carrier made this banner that flew over the entrance of Williamstown High School after the Boy's basketball team won their Div. IV Semi- Final game over Twin Valley last Wednesday night. The Banner worked! On Saturday the Boy's upset to seeded and undefeated Proctor to bring home the Div. IV Trophy. Photo courtesy of Karen Brown In order to get to Saturday’s championship game it was first necessary, on Wednesday night, to get past third seed Twin Valley, a team that had an impressive 19-3 record. (Two of their loses had come at the hands of

Proctor) And just like on Saturday, fan support was an added advantage for the Blue Devils. There many ways to get to the Barre Auditorium but nearly forty Williamstown High students did it the old fashioned way.

The Blue Devil's Steven Manwaring (#33) goes up against heavy Proctor defense fires up a Jump shot for two of his nine points in the Div. IV championship game at the Barre Auditorium last Saturday afternoon. Steven ended an outstanding high school career as the team took the trophy with a 47-40 win over the Phantoms. The big forward had strong performances in all four of Williamstown's tournament games. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News They walked! It took two and a half hours (including a brief stop at the South Barre McDonald’s) to make the 6.8 mile trek down route 14 but they still had enough left in the tank to sprint the last 200 yards up the hill to the auditorium and then pour out the rest of their energy rooting for their beloved Blue Devils as the boys pulled out a 63-60 overtime victory over Twin Valley in the Semi- Finals. “They were really tired the next day. But they felt it was really worth it,” said Karen Brown, the mother of Kristin Brown, one of the students who made the long walk.

Ray Burgos (#1. in white) dribbles through the tough Twin Valley defense in last Wednesday nights Div. IV Semi-Final at the Barre Auditorium. Ray had 16 points for the night including the "buzzer beater" that sent the game into overtime and the first Blue Devil hoop in the O.T. THe Blue Devil's downed Twin Valley 63-60 and advanced to the Div.IV Championship game. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News Tournament basketball is a series of one game seasons and for a while on Wednesday, in the Semi-Finals against Twin Valley, it looked like the Blue Devil’s season would come to a close. At least until Ray Burgos and a little Devine inspiration stepped in with time running out.

Williamstown trailed 18-17 after one quarter and the second quarter started out like it would be all Twin Valley. The Wildcats opened up a

13 point lead at 28-15 but Ray Burgos and Steven Manwaring led a second quarter comeback that cut the twin Valley lead to 31-23 at the intermission. Troy Laughlin really began to go to work for Williamstown in the third. The lanky Blue Devil center dropped in 10 of 17 ‘Devil’s points in the third stanza as Williamstown out-scored Twin Valley 17-9. And when they were three quarters of the way through the ball game things were evened up and leveled off at 40.The lead changed hands three times in the fourth and it all came down to the final 23 seconds.

Twin Valley’s Skyler Duncan nailed a free throw to put the Wildcats up 54-50 and things didn’t look good for the Blue Devil’s. But Troy Laughlin Blasted a three ball from deep in the left corner with 13 seconds left to close it to 53-50. Williamstown fouled scott Hayford immediately on the inbound pass and the Wildcat’s 6-3 senior only hit one of two making it a 55-53 twin Valley lead and the Blue Devils got the ball back. There were 2.8 seconds left on the clock when Ray Burgos took the pass and fired up a shot that was blocked by Twin Valley’s Scott Hayford. Before Williamstown’s fans hearts had a chance to sink the ball went right back to Burgos and he got off an UNBELEIVABLE twisting shot that somehow found the mark. And the game was at least tied. The only silence in the auditorium all night was for the few seconds it took to for the officials to decide if the shot was worth two points or three. It was confusing.. Ray Burgo’s shot was proven later by video replay to be from outside the arc but it was ruled to be a two pointer. Nobody complained on either side and they headed to a four minute overtime all tied up at 55.

It looked at first as if justice would be served. The Blue Devils ran off the first six points in the overtime. But then they had to hang on tight as the wild cats came back with a five point run of their own o close to 61-60 on a Gerrge Molner 3 pointer with 53 seconds left. Ray Burgos gave Williamstown some breathing room with a nice baseline drive with 18 seconds to go. He hit the layup and drew the foul but missed the free throw. The ‘Devils got the rebound and kept the ball until there were only 2. Point 3 seconds left. Twin Valley did get a long attempt off but it didn’t come close as the buzzer sounded and the Blue Devils were headed to the championship game with a 63-60 victory over the Wildcats. In a building that has seen more than it’s share of miracle finishes the Barre Auditorium will add the Williamstown comeback and Ray Burgos’ game tying shot to it’s high school basketball legend. “These kids never gave up. They never gave up. They haven’t given up on me all year,” said a tearful Jack carrier after the Semi-Final win. “coach told us to just go out and play like we did against Hazen earlier this year,” said Nick Gagnon. “And that fired us up,” he added.

Saturday’s championship game wasn’t scheduled to begin until noon but Williamstown fans started arriving by 9:30 in the morning. Once the doors opened and the fans flooded in it was apparent that the Williamstown fans dominated the Aud. The Williamstown student section overflowed into the Proctor section and across the way at least three quarters of the bleachers and the balcony sections were filled with people wearing “Blue Devil Blue”.

Even before the teams took to the floor the fans from both sides got involved. The Proctor “Phantom” got things started by getting his side shouting and then the “Little Devil” really got the roof raised when he went out on the floor and fired up the Williamstown fans. The screaming never stopped for the next two hours.

The Blue Devils gave their fans something to cheer about when the game got underway. Nick Gagnon nailed a 3 pointer to open the scoring and it seemed like the roof would come off the venerable edifice. Williamstown jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead but Proctor called for air support. The Phantom’s Nate Salgo and Josh Taranovich totaled 3 three balls from a collective distance of seemingly about two miles and when the first quarter buzzer sounder Proctor was up 15-14.

In the second quarter it seemed for a little while that the heavily favored Phantoms were ready to claim what has seemingly been their birthright.

Although Proctor came on strong in the second The Blue Devils went on an 11-2 run keyed by a Burgos steal as Williamstown tightened up the defense. They went to the locker room with The Blue Devil’s up 25-24.

“That was the turning point to me,” said Nick Gagnon. “We knew we could play with these guys”. Proctor bounced back to take a 35-34 lead after three but the Williamstown faithful still had high hopes. The fourth quarter was all about the Defense. And, the Blue Devil Offense.

Williamstown out-scored the Phantoms 13-6 and survived a scare when Proctor closed to 45-41 with under a minute to play. But Jack Carrier called a timeout and calmed everybody down. Then Ray Burgos made a steal and hit the layup that clinched it for the Blue Devils.

Williamstown had won their first championship in 24 years as they upset top seeded and previously unbeaten Proctor 47-41. Jack Carrier this year’s coach and a player on the 1986 championship team put it very succinctly, “It’s a dream come true,” he said.