By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

The Hopedale boys basketball team’s 2024-2025 season was one to be remembered for a long time. The Blue Raiders finished the regular season with an 18-2 record earning a two seed in the Division 5 State Tournament where they cruised their way to the State Championship game. 

Patrick Madden

Along the way, Hopedale dispatched the Hampton Charter School of Science 72-44, Monson 72-25, New Mission 54-50 and edged Westport 57-56 to earn their first State final visit since 2000 where they would fall to Newburyport 50-43. In 2020 Hopedale was named Co-State Champion with Abington when the finals were cancelled due to Covid. 

Looking to capture the Division 5 State Championship is not going to be easy. In order to do so, Hopedale was going to have to slay the undefeated number one seed in the tournament in Pioneer Valley Regional, a team that not only averaged 70.6 points per game during the regular season but was beating up on their tournament opponents by an average of 39.5 points per game. 

Hopedale knew in order to take home the title they were going to have to play solid defense and keep Pioneer Valley from scoring in transition, a staple of their game. The Blue Raiders opened the scoring with junior Keigan Murphy hitting a 3-point shot leading Hopedale to an 11-10 lead after the first quarter. Unfortunately, things would go downhill from there as the Panthers went on a second quarter 15-2 run, including the last 12-point heading into the half with a 25-13 lead.

Brayden Thayer would lead all scorers with 26 points while teammate Alex McCelland would add 13 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists as Pioneer Valley took home the title with a 49-28 win. Hopedale would shoot themselves in the foot, killing all hope shooting 5-20 from beyond the three-point line.

Robbie Manning

“If you told me that we were going to be able to hold Pioneer Valley to 49 points in the State Championship game, I would have taken that and felt good about it,” said Hopedale Coach Tony Cordani. “But they are an extremely good defensive team that forced us to shoot from the perimeter and unfortunately our shots were not falling. The experience was great for our kids and hopefully something they will take with them for the rest of their lives.”

Prior to the season getting underway, Cordani and his coaching staff knew that they had a competitive team, but never in their wildest dreams did they think about making the State Finals. According to the Blue Raiders coach, this year’s squad was a talented group that came together as a team with the aid of the senior leadership.

Senior captain and four-year athlete Patrick Madden was not only Hopedale’s leading scorer, but also led the Dual Valley Conference in scoring this year, averaging 17.6 points per game.  

“He is the heart and soul of our team,” Cordani said. “He is an ultra-competitive individual who pushes his teammates to be better. He is the biggest part of the equation.”

Keigan Murphy

 Hopedale opened the season rattling off eight wins before they lost to DVC rival Nipmuc. Following the loss, they would win five straight before once again hitting a wall and falling to Nipmuc before closing out the season with another five straight wins. Nipmuc was a nemesis and definitely had the number of Blue Raiders this season. Thankfully Hopedale did not have to face them in the tournament. 

As the Blue Raiders were accumulating wins, the team started to realize they actually had something special brewing. However, all good things must come to an end and the magical run the Hopedale team put together came to an end with Pioneer Valley at the Tsongas Center in Lowell.

In addition to the DVC’s leading scorer, Hopedale will lose another three members of the starting lineup. The three senior starters and the final senior departing are co-captains Robbie Manning, Mike Rutkowski, Brayden Lewis and Danny Carroll. 

Juniors Trevor Lachiatto, Wyatt Bliss, Dyland Plouffe, JJ Douglas and Murphy as well as sophomores Nathan Montville and Nathan Rutkowski will all be back next winter.

Cordani believes the Blue Raiders will be returning a good core of players and if they put in the time and effort over the off-season then they will once again be competitive next year and looking to make another run at the State Championship, hopefully with a different ending.