By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
BANGOR — The Viking boys started their regular season in strong fashion Saturday, putting together a dominating performance in a 65-41 victory over John Bapst.
The Caribou girls were unable to achieve the same result, falling to the Crusaders, 40-27.
In dissecting his team’s performance, it was difficult for Caribou boys’ coach Chris Casavant to find much wrong in what his team accomplished. The Vikings held a large rebounding advantage over Bapst, scored numerous points off turnovers while limiting their own miscues and received good offensive balance with three players in double figures.
“For the first game, I was very pleased,” Casavant said. “We got a lot of our points on putbacks, so our offensive rebounding was excellent, and we took control of the game early.”
A 16-2 run which began late in the first quarter and extended into the middle of the second gave Caribou a 25-9 lead. The cushion was 17 at intermission and then the Vikes scored 11 unanswered points to begin the second to put the game away.
Derek Richardson had 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and added 12 rebounds, while Matt Milliard went 7 for 9 and finished with 15 points. Dayne Savage scored 14 points to go along with five assists and Cody Herbert and Kameron Manter each grabbed seven rebounds.
Sam Brown scored 18 points to pace John Bapst.
Caribou faces a difficult test Saturday when it makes the trip to East Machias to take on a Washington Academy team coming off a season-opening upset win over Mount Desert Island.
“We’ll need to be ready for their press and I’m hoping we can shoot the ball a little better down there than we did Saturday,” Casavant said.
The Viking girls played at Fort Kent last night and will play their third consecutive road game when they also play the WA Raiders Saturday. Caribou is hoping to bounce back from a 40-27 loss to John Bapst.
The game was tied at 20 to begin the fourth quarter, but the Crusaders put 20 points on the board in the final eight minutes while holding the visiting Vikes in check.
Caribou struggled offensively throughout the game, according to coach Ryan Deprey, but especially in the third quarter when the team only managed four points.
“The offense just wasn’t there for us,” he said.
Rebecca McDougal scored eight points and Katelynn Tardie and Alexa Massey followed with six each. Two of Tardie’s field goals were three-pointers.
Hannah Philippon scored 12 points to lead John Bapst.
