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Central Catholic's hockey team gave malden Catholic, the No. 1-ranked team in the state, a good battle before falling short, 3-1. Sean Brown scored for the Raiders (6-4-1) on an assist from Jake Wise.

Whittier's wrestling team remained on the upswing (8-2) with a convincing 56-24 win over Malden Catholic. Josh Garzone had the fastest iof five first-period pins, in 29 seconds.

Aidan and Dylan Walsh, along with Frank Zhou, were each double winners for the North Andover swim team and also helped take first in two other relays as the Knights beat Malden Catholic 96-74 on Tuesday. 

Freshman Phillipas Menihtas (22 seconds), Matt Stamas (32 seconds) and Kelly Howard (55 seconds) had quick pins as Andover and new coach Mike Bolduc opened with a 68-12 drubbing of Malden Catholic.

On the same week that his beloved grandfather passed away, Haverhill junior Reece Millington didn't let up. The Hillies' 145-pounder had two pins and a major decision as Haverhill won two of three meets, falling only to Westford. Millington is now 28-1 on the year with 21 pins.

Pat Schena had a terrific game with 33 saves but four-time defending Super 8 champion Malden Catholic downed Central Catholic 3-0. The Lancers are again the top-ranked squad in the ESPNBoston statewide poll.

ANDOVER — With Reid Bryant throwing strikes and an offense delivering clutch, two-out hits, the postseason couldn't have gotten off to a better start for Andover — finally.

Breaking a four-game losing streak in sectional openers, the eighth-seeded Golden Warriors rode Bryant's arm to a 4-0 shutout over ninth-seeded Malden Catholic in yesterday's North first round. The victory marked Andover's first postseason win since a 23-1 rout of Boston English in the 2009 prelims. The Warriors next hit the road to play top-seeded Peabody at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"We're excited, but we're not satisfied yet," said Bryant, who allowed two hits and improved to 3-0 on the season with his 97-pitch, complete-game effort. "We've always said this is the year. We have a pretty good team, and we can make a run in states. That's been our goal since day one."

Bryant was in trouble only once — stranding runners on second and third in the third — while striking out four and walking two. Allowing only three runners past first, he went to a three-ball count to just one batter during the first five innings.

"I don't throw very hard, so I just pitch to contact," Bryant said. "The team makes all the plays, and that's how I pitch."

Andover (13-8) broke through in the third with four consecutive, two-out singles. The biggest hit was Frank Potts' blooper to left that plated Tim Awiszus and Quinn McCarthy, who scored from first. McCarthy also had a huge single on a hit-and-run with a line-drive single to the hole vacated by the second baseman headed to second with Awiszus running on the pitch.

The Warriors added two more in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Jack Cox and Awiszus' two-out RBI single up the middle.

"I can't emphasize enough this being a team," Andover coach Dan Grams said. "I have some very good players. I don't have outstanding players who work well together. I'm very proud of these guys."

Bryant used his breaking ball liberally during the game, inducing Lancer batters to put the ball in play. The infield recorded 11 assists, including an inning-ending double play in the sixth and a pair of putouts.

"He was working the offspeed today, so they were rolling over my way," said third-baseman Potts, who had five assists and a putout. "I made the plays and did what I had to do. It was like Reid did what he had to do on the mound, too. We were definitely solid. That was a tailor-made double play that was huge. And our outfield was huge too."

Haverhill and Methuen both won four meets in a multi-team meet at Haverhill. For the Rangers (19-6), Christian Monserrat remained unbeaten at 138 and Billy Wehring and Rafael Caceres was also 4-0. For the Hillies (18-6), Danny Dejesus, Reece Millington, Orlando Rojas, Jake Prescott and Jordan Faulkner were all 4-0.

Whittier Tech senior Dave Sachs may only weigh 215 pounds, but he's throwing his weight around effectively as a heavyweight.

Sachs had four pins yesterday as the Wildcats went 3-1, defeating Danvers (48-30), Triton (48-27) and Malden Catholic (47-30) while losing to Arlington. Sachs, who enjoyed a fine season in football, is 14-3 on the year, with one of the losses coming at 220.

The St. John's Prep wrestling team continued to trample its competition, routing Duxbury (74-0, Marshfield (67-6), Southeastern (76-6) and Pembroke (72-9) to improve to 10-1. Among those winning four matches were North Andover's Ben DiNatale (160), Ian Butterbrodt (220) and heavyweight Jay Carnevale. Andover's Solomon White was also 4-0 at 170.