This Week In The Big East – With Orono’s Ed Kohtala

Big East Notes for 12/13 to 12/18:

- The Old Town girls picked up two conference wins this week including a 52-41 win on the road over Hermon.  Saige Evans has led the way for Coyotes averaging 19 points and 7 rebounds per game.  The Coyotes have strong guard and post players.

- The MDI girls are also 3-0 after wins this week at Ellsworth and at home vs Orono.  Olivia Gray is off to a fast start this year for the Trojans.  She is averaging 13 points and 10 rebounds so far for MDI.

- The Houlton and Foxcroft girls also picked up conference wins in their first games of the season.  Foxcroft was led by a pair of Juniors, Annie Raynes and Abby Knapp combined for 24 points, 14 rebounds, 9 steals and 3 blocks.  Raynes also added 9 assists.  The Houlton girl's were led by Mia Henderson who notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

-  Recent Husson University commit, Faith Sjoberg, of Presque Isle scored 15 points for the Wildcats in their conference win over John Bapst on Saturday at Presque Isle.

- Hermon picked up a conference road win at Caribou on Saturday.  The Hawks, who moved to 2-1 in the conference, were led by Maddie Lebel and Elizabeth Wyman who scored 24 and 15 points respectively.

-  The Foxcroft Academy Boys are off to a fast start as they improved to 3-0 on the year with a non-conference win at Central and a conference road win at WA on Saturday.  Senior Filip Brkic scored 25 points at Central and backed that up with a 26 point performance at Washington Academy to lead the Ponies. Caden Crocker also scored 15 points for the Ponies at WA as part of their 59-40 victory over the Raiders.

- The Ellsworth Eagles and Orono Red Riots also sit at 3-0 this year. The Eagles had conference wins over rival MDI and on the road at Houlton.  They were paced by the play of Chance Mercier and Hunter Curtis.  Mercier had 15 points and 3 assists in the win over MDI and he had 12 points and 7 rebounds in the Eagles win at Houlton.  Curtis averaged 11 points and 8 rebounds in the two wins.

- Orono picked up a couple of hard fought road wins this week.  First they knocked off the Hermon Hawks 45-41 and then traveled to MDI and beat the Trojans 55-44.  Freshman Will Francis led the Riots at Hermon with 16 points and 13 rebounds.  Sophomore Pierce Walston exploded for 24 points, 9 assists, and 5 rebounds in the Red Riots win at MDI.

- The Presque Isle Boys complete the list of undefeated teams in the conference.  They went 2-0 this week handing Old Town and John Bapst their first losses of the year.  Noah Yarema, Xavier McAtee, and Malachi Cummings look like they could prove to be a very solid Big 3 for Presque Isle.  Cummings averaged 12 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 5 steals, Yarema averaged 13 points and 4 rebounds, and McAtee averaged 12.5 points and 9 rebounds in the two Wildcat wins this week.

- John Bapst picked up its second conference win of the year Thursday when they beat Washington Academy at the Cross Insurance Center. The Hermon Hawks and the Houlton Shiretowners each picked up their first conference wins at Caribou this week.

-  Games on the schedule include the MDI and Ellsworth vs Caribou and Presque Isle back to back games.  The games will start in Aroostook County on Wednesday when the Ellsworth Eagles travel to Presque Isle and the MDI Trojans travel to Caribou.  The Ellsworth vs Presque Isle Boys game will be a battle of early season undefeated teams.  Then on Thursday the games will take place in Hancock County.  The Caribou Vikings will travel to Ellsworth and the Presque Isle Wildcats will travel to Bar Harbor and take on MDI High School.

- The other big early season game is scheduled for Tuesday night.  This game will be a boys game between undefeated Foxcroft and undefeated Orono.  Both teams sit at 3-0 after the first week of the year.  This game will be in Dover at Foxcroft Academy.

1. Old Town 3-0

2. MDI 3-0

3. Houlton 1-0

4. Foxcroft 1-0

5. Hermon 2-1

6. Washington Academy 1-1

7. Presque Isle 1-1

8. Bucksport 0-0

9. Ellsworth 0-1

10. Orono 0-2

11. John Bapst 0-3

12. Caribou 0-3

1. Foxcroft 2-0

2. Ellsworth 2-0

3. Orono 2-0

4. Presque Isle 2-0

5. John Bapst 2-1

6. Old Town 1-1

7. Hermon 1-1

8. Houlton 1-2

9, Bucksport 0-0

10. Washington Academy 0-2

11. Caribou 0-3

12. MDI 0-3

Monday on The Drive, the guys were joined by Ed Kohtala, head coach of the Orono boys team. The Red Riots are off to a 3-0 start and led by a young core. Hear what their coach had to say about the return to action.