It’s championship season! This weekend, all 10 soccer champions will be crowned, and football semifinals will whittle us down to the 16 teams set to play in the Super Bowls at Gillette Stadium next month.
Before we get started: See schedules for the soccer finals and football semifinals here. Check out our tournament brackets here. Now, let’s get caught up on what you might have missed with a quick recap on each of the teams to be crowned champs so far.
Girls’ volleyball
Division 1: Franklin snapped Newton North’s three-year streak with a dramatic 3-2 win. The Panthers rallied to capture their first state title in program history, and the first Division 1 crown for the Hockomock League.
Division 2: Oliver Ames completed its perfect 25-0 season and secured its first state title with a 3-2 reverse sweep win over Wayland. Chelsea Wagner and Taylor Donohue had monster performances at the net.
Division 3: Bellingham rode a clutch performance from Mia Milani to a win over Joseph Case for its first program title.
Division 4: East Bridgewater, just six years after the program was founded, is a champion. The Vikings took down Bourne, 3-1.
Division 5: Hopedale cruised past Smith Voke to become another first-time champion. It was both teams’ first appearance in the state final.
Field hockey
Division 1: Walpole won a third-straight title (and 15th overall) behind a goal from Emily Hagan in its 1-0 victory over Franklin.
Division 2: Somerset Berkley went back-to-back by besting Hingham with three goals in seven minutes in the third quarter.
Division 3: Uxbridge won four straight Division 4 titles, and had no trouble with its first season in Division 3, taking down Sandwich, 3-0, to win again.
Division 4: Dennis-Yarmouth snapped a seven-year title drought with a 2-1 win over Frontier on the back of two Alania Manuel goals.
Cross-country
Division 1: In the boys’ race, Brookline won its fourth-straight title thanks to top-five finishes from Theodore Butty and Liam Hartmann. On the girls’ side, Lexington put four runners inside the top 10 to win.
Division 2: In a stunning turnaround for a program that was dormant a decade ago, Boston Public Schools won the boys’ and girls’ championships, with the boys edging Longmeadow by just 1 point.
Division 3: The Greater Lowell girls won their first state championship. Parker Charter in Devens captured its third consecutive boys’ title thanks to its first individual champion, Nathaniel Henshaw.
Boys’ soccer: Rockland got an equalizer from Kaiky Araujo in the 63rd minute. It took Tyler Comman’s shootout goal to determine the Division 4 finalist. … Football: No. 12 Malden Catholic became the lowest seed to reach the semifinals by upsetting No. 4 Hingham on Anthony Wadland’s three TDs. … Girls’ soccer: No. 10 Concord-Carlisle took down No. 2 Bishop Feehan in the Division 1 quarterfinals on a goal by Ainsley Siefer, who scored two winners in her first two games back from injury. … Field hockey: While the other three No. 1 field hockey seeds reached the finals, Frontier took out No. 1 Monomoy in Division 4.
See the full scoreboard here.
Greater Lawrence senior Gustavo Varela has made the state vocational playoffs a must-watch. After running for 369 yards and five TDs on 18 carries in a 48-13 quarterfinal win over Southeastern, Varela sits at 6,383 career rushing yards — good for third in state history and just 306 shy of Cedric Washington’s record of 6,688, which he set 1992-95 at Holyoke. ( East Longmeadow standout Mike Maggipinto is second all-time with 6,462 from 2012-15).
Varela has at least two more games to reach the mark, starting with Thursday’s semifinal tilt vs. Diman at 6 p.m.
Austin Prep’s Fope Ayo has made her decision: On Monday, the four-star recruit from Methuen announced she will play basketball at Michigan, choosing the Wolverines over offers from Stanford, Miami, and South Carolina. Ayo is ranked 45th nationally in her class by ESPN. 247Sport has her as the No. 9 center in the country and the top Mass. recruit in 2026.
Ayo also plays for Mass Rivals with reigning New Hampshire Gatorade player of the year Elyse Ngenda, who recently announced her commitment to Stanford.
Coach of the week: In his 24th season at the helm, Ray Pavlik led the 13th-seeded Concord-Carlisle boys’ soccer team all the way to the Division 1 semifinals. He picked up his 350th career win with a 2-1 OT victory over Brookline in the quarterfinals, which came on the heels of a double-OT win over Needham.
Honorable mentions: St. John’s Prep junior running back Maxwell Parent rumbled for a school-record 354 rushing yards and five TDs to carry the top seed to a 48-32 quarterfinal win over Leominster. … Jayden McGuffie set Malden’s single-season rushing record (1,727 yards) with a 238-yard performance in a 28-26 nonplayoff win over Lexington. … Triton senior Carl Lucy set program records for single-game rushing yards (328), single-season rushing (1,835), single-season TDs (30), and all-time points (262) in a 34-20 nonplayoff win over Salem. … Junior Lyla McDonough orchestrated Oliver Ames girls’ volleyball’s Division 2 final reverse-sweep with 57 assists, 35 service points, 4 aces, and 3 kills, surpassing 1,000 career assists in the process.
🏈 This one-handed, behind-the-head catch – with no gloves! – by Bridgewater-Raynham junior receiver Finn Kelley against Woburn made it on ESPN’s “You Got Mossed!” segment.
⚽ Luke Dougherty’s overtime goal sent Natick past BC High, 2-1, and into the Division 1 boys’ soccer semifinals.
⚽ Tyler Comman sent Rockland to the Division 4 boys’ soccer final with this shootout goal, delivering a 3-2 win over Northbridge.
🏈 A little brotherly love on this 75-yard connection from Blake Pileski to his brother, Cole, as Walpole took on Scituate.
Meet the 50 standouts from quarterfinal playoff matchups and non-playoff action across Eastern Massachusetts.
Hampshire Regional student photojournalist Teddy Overtree captured this proud moment for Avon Old Farms as it celebrated a 35-21 NEPSAC Drew Gamere Bowl win over Williston on Saturday. Check out more photos from student journalists from recent games.
Interested in joining our free student photojournalism program and get your photos published by the Globe? Find out how to sign up.
Email your answers to brendan.kurie@globe.com and we’ll shout out the winner in next week’s edition.
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Thursday: Football, Diman at Greater Lawrence, 6 p.m., vocational Large semifinal
Friday: Football, St. John’s Prep vs. Central Catholic, 6 p.m., Division 1 semifinal at Burlington High
Friday: Boys’ soccer, Bromfield vs. Rockland, 4:45 p.m., Division 4 final at Doyle Field in Leominster
Saturday: Football, Springfield Central vs. Xaverian, Noon, Division 1 semifinal at Milford High
Saturday: Girls’ soccer, Duxbury vs. Longmeadow, 2:30 p.m., Division 2 final at Doyle Field
Saturday: Boys’ soccer, Norwell vs. Greater New Bedford, 4:45 p.m., Division 3 final at Curry College
It’s championship season! 🏆
