Easton rallies for home victory

    EASTON – Bear and Tiger fervor matched in the bleachers and on the courts in the boys season opener Friday night at Easton. The scoreboard showed 21-29 Fort Fairfield at the half. However, Easton gave their home court fans a reason to cheer pacing their way to the 67-59 final score.

    MAKING A JUMP SHOT, Easton center Jeremy Brock hopes for two points in last Friday’s season opener against the Fort Fairfield Tigers at Easton. From the left, Tigers Ryan Noyes, Cody Closson and Andrew Forsman look for the rebound. Senior Brock tallied a total of 31 points to help Easton come back after the half.

    Jeremy Brock led the Easton offense with 31 total points, almost half of which he made in the pivotal fourth quarter, scoring 12 points. Sam Bacon and Nate Sanders aimed right for an additional 10 points each.
    “Last year we lost to them in overtime by one point,” commented Easton’s head coach, Travis Carter. “So it was a positive way to start the season. They’ve really improved from last year.”
    The Bears outscored the Tigers by 16 points in the second half. “We just started getting to the post and pounded the inside,” said Carter.
    Carter believes the two squads match well in speed and intensity, making them a treat for bystanders to watch. “We came back and really stuck to it against a very fast team,” noted Carter about the second half statistics. Easton dominated offense with 46 points in the second 16 minutes.
    Tigers Josh Booth and Austin Dufour claimed top scoring for Fort Fairfield with 20 and 13 points respectively. Booth made triple three-pointers in for the FFHS effort, proving his worth behind the arc.
    “They came out and hit a couple good shots, well defended shots,” commented Tiger head coach Todd Alley about the second half of play. “We gave up some points to a talented team and you can’t do that.”
    The game gave coaching staff a new team goal for the boys to keep their opponents to 50 points.
    “I couldn’t have been prouder,” explained Alley. “it wasn’t for lack of effort or composure that we lost. We’re right on the edge of where we need to be.”
    The Bears continued their winning run into Monday night, defeating Greater Houlton Christian Academy in their second home game of the season, 76-27.
    “Greater Houlton is a very young team,” explained Carter about the high Easton score. “We came out with a press and they had no answer.”
    Eleven of Carter’s 13 Bears scored as the coaching staff had the opportunity to give younger players some varsity minutes. Bradley Trask claimed the team high score with 21 points. Brock and Sanders both hit double-doubles with 14 points and 11 rebounds for Brock, and 10 and 10 for Sanders.
    The game gave Easton a boost in team morale. “It’s what everybody wants to do,” said Carter about the younger players. “It really makes a young kid happy when they score at the varsity level.”
    The Easton girls opened at home on Monday against Greater Houlton Christian Academy. The Bears put up a hard fight but GHCA dominated in scoring from the first quarter with an 18-point lead that Easton couldn’t make up. Easton fell 62-30.
    Kristen Boxwell led scoring with eight points.

    LOOKING FOR A LUCKY TOSS, Wildcat Adam Kingsbury takes the ball underneath against John Bapst’s Ethan Cushman who stands at 6 feet 8.