Bennett twins help Panthers to their just rewards.

PositionSports

Northbridge High twins Sarah and Casey Boucher led the Rams to their first district title last fall, and now Quabbin Regional is getting in on the trend.

Junior twins Collin and Griffin Bennett lead the Panthers at both ends of the field, and on Thursday they helped come up with the program's biggest win in years.

Griffin, the team's leading scorer, buried his fourth goal of the season 12 minutes in against top-ranked Westboro as No. 10 Quabbin pulled off a big upset over the unanimous No. 1 team in Central Mass., as voted by 10 longtime area coaches.

"A lot of people were questioning like, 'Well, you guys are undefeated, but you haven't played as tough of teams as Westboro had,' '' said coach Rick Lindsten, whose Panthers (5-1-2, 1-1 Midland B) absorbed their first loss of the season Saturday against two-time reigning Division 2 state champion Groton-Dunstable.

Lindsten said the Panthers' 1-0 upset of the Rangers created a buzz in Barre on Friday.

"It was kind of the talk of the school and everybody was getting congratulated,'' said Lindsten, who works at the high school. "The kids were so excited.''

It was the first loss of the season for Westboro (6-1-1, 1-1-1), which already had beaten three ranked opponents in Wachusett, Shrewsbury and G-D.

While Lindsten called Collin Bennett "the backbone'' of a quick and cohesive defense that had allowed just three goals going into Saturday, the Panthers have another top contributor in captain Lee Crowther, a do-it-all central midfielder.

"He's a good-size kid and he can shield people off and find somebody open,'' Lindsten said. "He's a good playmaker in the middle and he's vocal.''

Quabbin graduated last year's leading scorer, Ryan Wine, but otherwise returned the entire team, which includes eight seniors. Along with Crowther, the other two senior captains are goalkeeper Jake Laperle and emotional leader Riley Beaupre.

After a combined 11 wins over the past two seasons, the Panthers are finally reaping the rewards with a workmanlike team that Lindsten said shows up early to practices and competes.

If anything, Thursday's win taught Quabbin it can compete with anyone.

"We just looked at it like, hey, we're the underdogs and we know we've got a good defense, and we'll give it our best shot and see what happens,'' Lindsten said.

Gaels are game

Clinton remains undefeated, and with a lineup that includes eight juniors, the Gaels could set the standard in Wachusett D for the near future.

At 6-0-1...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT