Massachusetts high school sports playoffs highlights

Canton, meanwhile, is a win away from its sixth state championship appearance since 2019 after defeating Walpole, 1-0. The Bulldogs won outright titles in 2019 and 2023, and shared a title in 2020.
The hockey semifinals were solidified Thursday, with 16 boys’ teams and eight girls’ squads left hoping to punch their ticket to TD Garden for March 15.
We also saw a sprinkling of quarterfinal basketball, with a trio of games before the bulk of the slate plays Friday and Saturday. Scroll down for some our basketball bracket analysis after two rounds.
Find all of Thursday’s scores here, sign up for Varsity News here, and check out everything we wrote:
Boys’ hockey roundup: No denying Cam Melone, Hanover in Division 3 quarterfinal win over Essex Tech
Basketball roundup: Freshman Sysy Emmanuel spurs St. Mary’s girls with big second quarter
Girls’ hockey roundup: With Ella Faherty’s OT winner, Notre Dame (Hingham) squashes Bishop Stang upset bid
Arlington boys’ hockey absorbs first blow, answers the bell vs. Archbishop Williams to reach D1 semis
Meet the man behind the scenes who makes wrestling tournaments run, in Massachusetts and nationwide
▪ Tewksbury defenseman Jake Cunha reached 100 career points as a junior during an 8-0 Division 2 quarterfinal win over Milton.
▪ With No. 6 Westwood boys’ hockey’s 3-2 Division 2 quarterfinal win over No. 3 Falmouth, coach Matt Sebet earned his 100th career victory. A Westwood alum and longtime assistant, Sebet took the reins in 2018.
Thirteen of Thursday’s 14 games were won by the higher seed, the lone exception coming in Division 2 girls’ hockey where No. 9 Medfield took out a top-ranked Westwood team for the second year in a row. Despite dropping both regular-season matchups by a combined score of 9-2, the Warriors rode Leah Carlson’s overtime winner and Kamryn Perachi’s 33-save shutout to a 1-0 win over its Tri-Valley League rival.
Two of the night’s three girls’ hockey quarterfinals went to overtime, with top-seeded Notre Dame (Hingham) fending off another upset bid from No. 8 Bishop Stang to win its 2-1 on Ella Faherty’s goal with 5.5 seconds left in the extra session. Stang had knocked the Cougars out of last year’s Division 1 tournament in the second round.
As noted above, No. 9 Medfield needed OT to stun top-seeded Westwood, 1-0.
Brooke Hanley, Duxbury — The freshman picked a good time for her first career hat trick, adding an assist in the Dragons’ 5-0 Division 2 quarterfinal win over Auburn.
Cam Melone, Hanover — The senior captain scored three of the Hawks’ four goals, including the final two, in a 4-3 Division 3 quarterfinal win over Essex Tech.
Kamryn Perachi, Medfield — The senior, committed to Michigan State, stopped all 33 shots she faced in a 1-0 blanking of top-seeded Westwood in the Division 2 quarterfinals.
Michael Roof, Walpole — It was a 1-0 loss to Canton in the Division 2 quarterfinals, but don’t blame the senior netminder, who stopped 49 of the 50 shots he faced.
Gavin Werling, Littleton/Bromfield — The senior was finding his teammates with regularity, dishing four assists and scoring once himself in a 6-1 Division 4 quarterfinal rout of Martha’s Vineyard.
Heading into the quarterfinals Friday and Saturday (with one exception, No. 3 Georgetown defeating No. 3 Blue Hills, 66-53, in a Division 4 quarterfinal Thursday), here are six seeding thoughts:
Divisions 2 and 5 went to chalk, with the top eight seeds advancing.
All 10 No. 1 and No. 2 seeds are still dancing.
The highest seed to lose thus far is No. 3 Needham, which was bounced by No. 14 Bishop Feehan in the Division 1 second round, leaving the Shamrocks the lowest-seeded team remaining.
The only other top-4 seed to bow out thus far is Swampscott, which lost in heartbreaking manner on a still-hard-to-believe buzzer-beating 3-pointer from nearly halfcourt by No. 13 Norwell’s Nick Fein.
Outside of the top four, the seed to be is No. 12. Three of the four No. 12 seeds have survived — Springfield Central in D1, Greater Lawrence in D3, and Clinton in D4.
In all, seven double-digit seeds made the quarterfinals, including No. 10 Xaverian (D1) and No. 10 Cathedral (D3).
With two quarterfinal games down — No. 3 Wachusett beat No. 6 Natick, 63-26, in D1; and No. 3 St. Mary’s topped No. 6 Walpole, 75-43, in D2 quarterfinals Thursday — and 18 to go, our observations:
Across Divisions 1, 2, and 3, only one team seeded outside the top eight, No. 9 Needham in D1, has survived.
Only two double-digit seeds reached the quarterfinals: No. 12 Cohasset in D4 and No. 12 Lenox in D5.
That means the highest-seeded teams bounced in the first two rounds were No. 5 Wahconah (D4) and No. 5 Lee (D5).
All 20 top-four seeded teams are still standing, as are 30 of the 35 top-eight seeds.
▪ Gloucester announced it has promoted longtime assistant Brian Anderson to head football coach. Anderson, a Salem State graduate, has been on the Fishermen staff for more than 15 years, and previous coach Dan O’Connor, who had been in the role since 2019, will shift to serving as an assistant in a role reversal.
Gloucester is coming off an 8-3 season and an appearance in the Division 5 quarterfinals.
▪ Norwell announced Jessica Davos will serve as interim girls’ lacrosse coach for the 2026 season. Davos has been an assistant in the program the last two seasons after one year as an assistant at Hingham.
She brings extensive collegiate coaching experience, including stints as interim coach at Union in 2022 and Albany in 2018. She also was head coach at Bentley and Bryant and was an assistant at Harvard.
Norwell, which has captured nine state titles since 2005, is coming off a Division 4 championship, won 9-8 over Cohasset under coach Laura Callahan, who had succeeded Kara Connerty, who departed for Cohasset after a 16-year run.
A four-year player at Syracuse, Davos has also coached at the youth level in Bethlehem, N.Y., and Norwell, and coaches with Mass Elite.
▪ Dan Goldner will be the next coach of Acton-Boxborough baseball, the school announced.
“He brings experience in player development and is well-positioned to continue building a strong programmatic culture, while preparing our student-athletes for success,” said athletic director Jim Scanlon in a statement.
Goldner has coached the Revolution’s girls’ indoor and outdoor track teams, winning a Globe Coach of the Year award in 2012.
Westwood senior attack Sam Cochran announced his commitment to play men’s lacrosse at Coast Guard Academy. Cochran scored three times in the quarterfinals last spring as Westwood advanced to its first semifinal appearance in program history.
Two Wellesley graduates competed recently at the USA Curling Women’s Nationals in Charlotte. Sisters Julia Pekowitz (’23), who attends Wellesley College, and Alexa (’25), who attends Minnesota, went 3-4 as Team Pekowitz, joined by Lila Farwell of Colorado and Kalina Petrova of New Jersey. The Pekowitz sisters will compete at the U21 Nationals in Bismarck, N.D., later this month.
Brooke Hanley, Duxbury, 3
Cam Melone, Hanover, 3
Jason Shreenan, Tewksbury, 3
Toby Beaulac, St. Bernard’s, 2
Pheonix Fortier, St. Bernard’s, 2
Conor Glew, Littleton/Bromfield, 2
Blake Hannon, Littleton/Bromfield, 2
Sam Mayhew, Nauset, 2
Nick Tulipano, Burlington, 2
Evan Walker, St. Bernard’s, 2
Gavin Werling, Littleton/Bromfield, 4
Gavin O’Leary, Monomoy/Mashpee, 2
Nolan Russell, Arlington, 2
Michael Roof, Walpole, 49
Vivienne Melo, Bishop Stang, 39
Kamryn Perachi, Medfield, 33
Erin Kral, Notre Dame (H), 31
Jacob Dangel, Littleton/Bromfield, 28
John Snider, Arlington, 27
Colin MacLeod, Burlington, 23
Cole Abruzi, Tewksbury, 18
Matt Wright, Canton, 12
Tyler Anderson, Blue Hills, 32
Sysy Emmanuel, St. Mary’s, 26
Teegan Lanpher, Wachusett, 25
Brendan Loewen, Georgetown, 23
Jaelynn Scott, Wachusett, 22