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Methuen stuns St. John's Prep

Methuen picked the perfect time to exorcise a couple of demons that were hanging around for a while.

The No. 10 Rangers upset No. 3 St. John's Prep, 3-0, the Division 1 North semifinals, marking their third-straight tourney upset. Prior to last night's win, Methuen (14-9) had knocked off No. 7 Westford Academy and No. 2 Lawrence.

The win advances Methuen to its first North sectional final in six years, where it will meet the winner of Haverhill and Cambridge Rindge and Latin match, which takes place tonight (6 p.m.) in Haverhill. 

The victory was also the first over St. John's Prep in 14 years.

"We played a tough and gritty game tonight," said Methuen head coach Matt Twomey. "Whatever St. John's, did - we had an answer for."

Senior Kyle Mansour (17 kills) was the first Ranger to come up with the answers as he registered two key blocks in the first game, which shifted the momentum over to Methuen.  Mansour's blocks in game one sparked a Methuen comeback as they won a 25-23 thriller. 

"After that (the two blocks), we had them (St. John's Prep) thinking," said Twomey. "At that point they realized that we were not there just to put on a good show - we were there to win the game.  We played a solid all-around game — defense, passing and we were on point the whole time."

Mike Molloy had six key blocks in teh final two games (wins by Methuen of 25-18 and 25-20) and Pat Hamilton enjoyed a fine game defensively.

Ryan Freeman led Methuen with seven blockswhile Zach Branchaud dished off 27 assists.