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Readers of Friday’s story about the newest statewide high school football playoff proposal moving forward should definitely read the proposal in its entirety.

Here are the links: Full Proposal and also the Full Alignments of where teams will land.

While we’re linking, here’s the evolution of the call for statewide football playoffs, from the pages of The Salem News.

Feb 23, 2012: The most recent plan picking up steam

March, 25 2010: Story before the vote on the previous plan
Mach 26, 2010: And the end result when it failed.

One thing I enjoy about covering baseball in the Northeastern Conference is that at almost every trip to the ball park, I learn something new. That’s just about always the case when Peabody’s Mark Bettencourt and Danvers’ Roger Day get together; you’d be hard pressed to find two more active, prepared baseball men in the state.

You can read more about the game here.

First, let’s expand on an interesting situation that unfolded in the top of the 7th. Twitter followers (@MattWilliams_SN) might remember a discussion between Bettencourt and Day before the frame began…Peabody wound up pinch-hitting Steve Leavitt, who drew a lead-off walk and scored the winning run.

Due up was designated hitter Frank Lowry’s spot. Lowry had reached and been pinch run for earlier, and the question was if he could re-enter the game. The coaches agreed that NEC rules prohibit the pitcher from being pinch-run for then re-entering the game, but they weren’t sure about the DH spot.

“Roger Day is a classy guy and I give him a lot of credit for asking me about it before it happened. He could have let (Lowry) hit, protested the game, and who knows, we could have been back here playing tomorrow,” Bettencourt said afterwards.

The umpires weren’t sure either, because its a league specific rule. Bettencourt said the Catholic Conference definitely has a rule about the DH re-entering, so it wasn’t out of the question. Rather than risk a violation and protest, he opted send Leavitt to the dish.

**Second, Danvers’ Ray Arocho might have the best move to first in the league. His ability to control his delivery, hesitate and still go to first is unparalleled and he caught Peabody runners 4 times. Bettencourt, however, pointed out that 1B Scott Hovey is an important part of the process, too, something these eyes wouldn’t have otherwise noticed. Hovey’s athletic and confident enough to sneak up on runners, even at first, and has a gun of arm…so he’s likely to nail a runner who gets caught and takes off. Think of it as a pitch out, except to first instead of the catcher.
“We’re trying to run on the catcher and the ball doesn’t even get to the catcher,” said Bettencourt. “We tried everything…bunt and run, hit and run and it didn’t work. At some point in the game, we had to just lay off and let the boys swing away.”

**Pat Ruotolo’s scoreless innings streak ended at 22 in the first, but he started up another with 6 straight scoreless frames after Arocho’s blast in the first. Great stat: Ruotolo threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of the 26 batters he faced, and only went to a 3-ball count once.

**It was definitely a playoff atmosphere and the intensity brought out the best in both teams. Day felt his team played better than it had in many wins, and was very encouraged by what he saw in terms of execution on both offense and defense.
“We had some better at-bats and better swings than we’ve had against guys not the caliber of Ruotolo,” he said. “We’re coming around. I’m starting to see some things.”

WORCESTER — Air Force Academy head hockey coach Frank Serratore knew if his team was going to upset Boston College tonight during the Northeast Regional semifinals here the DCU Center, they’d have to do so in a low-scoring affair.

Tonigh’ts game was just that, with only one player scoring for either team.

Unfortunately for Serratore and his squad, that player was Chris Kreider, the Boston College junior star from Boxford.

“The kid who scored the two goals for BC, where’s he going to be playing in three weeks: New York?” asked Serratore, alluding to the rampant speculation that Kreider will join the NHL team that drafted him in the first round three years ago, the New York Rangers, when his college season is over. “That’s what special players do.”

The 20-year-old Kreider certainly performed like a special player tonight. With a jump in his stride and a burst towards the net seemingly every time he hopped over the boards, he was easily the best player on either team, dominating at times with his skating and brushing off defenders with his strength down the walls.

The two goals give the former Masconomet star and 2007 Salem News Player of the Year 22 this season, increasing his team lead in that category as well as total points (43).

Asked if he felt he had ‘it’ on this particular night, Kreider deflected the attention towards his linemates, sophomore center Kevin Hayes and freshman right wing Destry Straight.

“I don’t know if you’d say that,” Kreider mused after the question was posed to him. “Once again, I think my linemates played unbelievable, and when you’re got your linemates going it’s not hard to cap off some of the chances they give you.”

Kreider’s first goal, coming 7:39 into the first period, came with Kreider in the slot and taking a behind the net dish from Hayes to snap a one-timer past Air Force netminder Jason Torf. His second, coming with just 1:21 remaining in this tightly-contested matchup, was a power play strike that salted the game away for the top-ranked Eagles (30-10-1).

“I think he’s an outstanding athlete,” BC head coach Jerry York said of the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Kreider. “He rises to the competitive level. He’s had a tough stretch here as far as points the last 10 games, but his play has been pretty good. But tonight, I think two goals, it’s a testament to his competitivness he’s shown us over (his) three years.

“I love how he talks about his linemates making a good play. He’s a pretty humble kid. But he’s had a history of having really good tournaments, so we hope it continues.”

Later on, Kreider said he likes to work up a strong dislike for his opponents, trying to find a nugget he can use to his advantage in a particular game. That’s easy against rivals like Boston University and Maine, but not so much so against an unfamiliar opponent — one that has a much greater goal awaiting them down the road.

“I can’t hate those guys,” Kreider admitted of the Falcons. “I have so much respect for those Air Force guys and what they do — and will have to do, to protect our country.”

Kreider and the Eagles will take on No. 2 seed Minnesota-Duluth, a 5-2 victor over Maine in last night’s other Northeast semifinal, back at the DCU Center tonight (8 p.m.) for the right to advance to the Frozen Four in Tampa in two weeks.  Boston College won the national championship two years ago when Kreider was a freshman, 5-0 over Wisconsin, a game in which he scored in.

The schedule of our winter sports all-stars is as follows (subject to change)*:

Monday, March 26: Girls winter track

Tuesday, March 27: Boys winter track

Wednesday, March 28: Girls hockey

Thursday, March 29: Boys hockey

Friday, March 30: Boys basketball

Saturday, March 31: Girls basketball

Monday, April 2: Wrestling

Tuesday, April 3: Swimming

Wednesday, April 4: Gymnastics and skiing

Thursday, April 5: Winter Coaches of the Year

*Please note that if breaking news or other circumstances require changes, they will be posted here the night before an all-star team is slated to appear in the newspaper. You can also follow our Twitter account, @SalemNewsSports for the latest updates for both all-stars and the entirety of the local sports scene.

Salem News Sports Editor Phil Stacey and Sportswriter Matt Williams talk about how North Shore teams fared in high school playoff hockey.

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Peabody senior distance ace Nick Christensen signed a Letter of Intent to run at Merrimack College next year. The senior was Eastern Mass. Division 1 cross country champion, holds school records in the 1000 and mile and ran a mile on ESPN as part of a USA Track event at Madison Square Garden earlier this winter

You can read the definitive story on Christensen here: http://www.salemnews.com/sports/x431320128/The-Evolution-of-a-Runner-Success-a-long-road-for-Peabody-distance-ace-Christensen/print

Catarina Rocha won her 4th overall EMass D1 title with a 4:55 mile, outpacing the field by 15 seconds and running the best time across all divisions so far this year.

Also for the Peabody girls, Pam Zabala placed fourth in the shot.

For the boys, St. John’s Prep senior Bryan Browne won the 300 with a time of 35.72.

Peabody’s Zach Grube was third in the high jump and 8th in the hurdles, while the Prep’s Deklan Robinson was 5th in the high jump. The Eagles also went 4-5 in the shot put with David Roy and Morgan Johnson each topping 47 feet.

The Hamitlon-Wenham girls 4×800 relay won the Division 4 EMass title on Saturday, with Emily Weigand, Emily Horgan, Emily Senning and Meg Blatchford combining to run 9:36.

Also for H-W, Senning was third in the 600; the 4×400 relay was fourth. The Generals were 6th as a team.

For the boys in D4, Newburyport won the boys title but there wasn’t much in the way of individual highlights locally.

Looking back on Friday night’s D3 meet, a pair of NEC champs won state titles as Danvers Joe Manson won the shot and Swampscott’s Peter Hale won the mile. Marblehead’s Nolan Raimo also won a gold medal, winning the high hurdles.

The Marblehead boys 4×200 relay was second; and, Danvers’ Catalina Dominick was fourth in the 1000;

D4 results: http://coolrunning.com/results/12/ma/Feb18_MIAADi_set1.shtml
D3 results: http://coolrunning.com/results/12/ma/Feb17_MIAADi_set1.shtml
All that remains is Sunday’s D1 state meet (Peabody & St. John’s Prep locally) and we’ll post results here as we hear them.

For Beverly’s girls: Katie Pietrini was fourth in the dash and the 4×800 relay was third.

For Masco’s girls: Freshman Lauren Dorohsky finished 4th in the 300; Mackenzie Shelgren was third in the mile and Lily D’Agostino was third in the 2-mile;

For Ipswich’s girls: Sarah Keiran finished third in the 1000; Hannah Steele was fourth in the high jump.

The only boys unit that placed was Beverly’s 4×200 relay in fifth.

You can check out the full results here: http://miaa.ezstream.net/index.cfm?itemid=6809

As a reminder, Division 3 competes at the Reggie Lewis center Friday night (That’s Marblehead, Swampscott and Danvers), Division 4 (Hamilton-Wenham and Fenwick) runs on Saturday and Division 1 (Peabody and St. John’s Prep) run on Sunday. The placers and additional top times advance to next weekend’s all-state meet.

Salem News Sports Editor Phil Stacey and Sports Writer Matt Williams discuss North Shore High School Hockey.

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