Bishop Guertin High School lost a hard-fouth battle against Plymouth Regional High School in the semifinals of the Granite State Challenge. Courtesy photo/Mark Bolton

DURHAM – Bishop Guertin High School came out on the losing end of a very close game against Plymouth Regional High School in the semifinals of the Granite State Challenge.

Despite taking an early lead, the Plymouth Bobcats found themselves on the ropes after an impressive late charge by Bishop Guertin. Plymouth held on to win 395 to 380.

Bishop Guertin was led by Captain Mohid Khan, a senior. The team also included seniors Declan Pyles, Teddy Bond and Aidan Coffey. The team alternates were sophomore Grant Leonardi and senior Carter Rick. The Cardinals were coached by English teachers Kate Graham and Jeannette Riendeau.

The Bobcats were captained by junior Abraham Hankens. Team members included junior Yuriy Paul, freshman Cam Cawley and junior Ezra Amsden. Alternates were sophomore Leif Eisenbarth as well as freshmen Aurora Ricker and Olivia Brayfield. The team was coached by Drafting teacher Jay Fogarty and World Languages teacher Troy Harris.

Plymouth dominated the first round of the game, beating Bishop Guertin on the buzzer on almost every question. The round ended with Plymouth taking a commanding lead of 175 to 40.

In the second round, the Bobcats stumbled getting only two questions correct out of a possible 10. The Cardinals didn’t fare much better, getting four correct answers out of 10. In the rapid fire 60-second round, both teams improved with Bishop Guertin answering six out of 10 questions correctly and Plymouth answering eight of 10. By the end of the two rounds, the score stood as it had before at 275 to 140.

Throughout the season, Bishop Guertin had proven to be a deeply competitive team. During the first half of the fourth round, the Cardinals slowly but surely pulled ahead for a brief time. As correct answers bounced back and forth between the teams, Plymouth ultimately emerged with a 15-point win.

“I thought maybe we were able to pull away with it,” said Khan. “But there was that one question about Turkey, we were just a millisecond off. I think if we got that right, we could have pulled away the victory.”

Khan’s performance in the fourth round was exceptionally strong as he scored 200 of team’s 240 points in the final round.

Despite the outcome, Riendeau was more than happy with her students’ performance.

“I’m incredibly proud of my team,” she said. “I think we came in 11th seed, so to come this far and to go against incredibly talented schools, they did a great job.”

Plymouth Regional was open about being caught off guard late in game.

“That was definitely our most stressful game yet,” said Hankens. “But we won in the end, a lot of good buzz-ins from my teammates.”

“We talk about heart attack games,” said Fogarty. “That was clearly a heart attack game. I don’t like being in them, but I do love the feeling coming out of them.”

Relieved by the outcome of this game, Fogarty is looking forward to facing Nashua High School South in the finals on May 21.

“They are a really worthy opponent,” he said. “We’re excited to be in the finals because that itself is an honor.”