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Ashley Evangelista scored Central Catholic's lone goal in a 1-0 victory over Billerica. Marielle Elie also played well for the Raiders.

Lucy Francisco played well at midfield and Edgar Escalante played well at defense, but Lawrence fell to Billerica 1-0 on a second-half penalty kick.

Central Catholic senior Stephanie Matayer finished first on the Raiders’ home course, running a career-best 20:28 for 3.1 miles, but Billerica prevailed with a season-opening 22-36 victory. For the Raiders, Allie Hillner and Christine Schaffer finished sixth and seventh and Beverly Wang was 10th.

Central Catholic topped Billerica 15-48. Central scored the top five times with Kevin Soucey (17:44), Nate Webber (18:24), Tyler Burke (18:44), Adam Gidley (18:46) and Nick Morris (18:59).

Methuen rallied from two games down to beat Billerica 25-22, 23-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-13. Rebecca Guselli dished out 30 assists and totalled 20 digs for the Rangers. Rashidat Agboola hammered 17 kills and five blocks up front, and outside hitter Taylor Gillette added five kills and 19 digs for the winners.

It was almost an hour before Mark Scalise emerged from the locker room, looking beat and still hobbling from the sprained ankle that sidelined him for 10 days during the St. John's Prep lacrosse team's tournament run.

Lawrence's KB Oshodi has been one of Central Catholic's best and brightest track stars. And he has the Raider football program to thank for it.

"In my freshman year, the football coaches wanted to get us to do track," Oshodi explained. "They said it would be good to try and do a lot of different stuff. In the triple jump, in my first year, I was doing better than the varsity guys. I did well and I just continued to improve."

PEABODY | The past two seasons, the Peabody High girls basketball team has been a victim of first round upsets in the state tournament.

Not this season, though.

The Tanners cleared their first postseason hurdle with a 64-38 win over Billerica last night in the first round of the Division 1 North playoffs at Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse.

The seeds had Andrik Cruz primed for a third straight sectional final disappointment.

Cruz would have none of that. The Methuen High senior, wrestling at 145 pounds, made his third North championship try a winning one, heading up an area contingent of two champs and 15 places moving on to the Division 1 North championships in Bridgewater next weekend.

Billy Marsden scored a game-high 29 points and Carson Desrosiers had a fine game with eight blocks, 14 rebounds and six points during Central Catholic's season-opening 80-37 win over Billerica. Mike Alvarez added 16 for the Red Raiders.