The Chelsea High boys basketball team crushed two more opponents this past week and moved into prime position to claim a Commonwealth Conference championship.
The Red Devils disposed of Northeast Regional Vocational School, 84-48, last Friday, and then dispatched Shawsheen Tech, 66-28, on Tuesday.
Coach Jay Seigal and crew now stand at 16-2 on the season and are undefeated in the Comm. Conference, two games ahead of Lynn Tech, with two league games to go. A victory in either of those games will clinch an outright title for the Red Devils.
Cesar Castro was high scorer in both contests, hitting for 21 against Shawsheen and 29 against Northeast. Will Hernandez and Craig Szalkowski also reached double figures against Shawsheen with 13 and 10 points respectively. Felix Crespo (13 points) and Joe Rivera (12) joined Castro in double figures in the Northeast tilt.
Friday’s encounter with Northeast was close for a quarter, with the teams tied at 15-15 at the first buzzer. However, the Red Devils outscored Northeast 25-10 in the second period to take a commanding 40-25 edge into the locker room at the intermission. Chelsea soon enlarged its advantage and cruised to the win.
The Shawsheen matchup was a runaway from the outset as Shawsheen proved no match at all for the Red Devils, giving Seigal an opportunity to give all of his players some extended playing time.
The Red Devils will close out what has been a brilliant season with a home game Friday against Whittier that will be highlighted by Senior Night festivities. On Tuesday Chelsea will travel to Greater Lawrence for their final game of the campaign.
“Obviously, we want to win these games in order to win the league title and have a perfect league record,” said Seigal, “but we also want to give ourselves a high seeding in the state tournament.”
The Red Devils long ago punched their ticket for a Journey to the Tourney, but a final mark of 18-2 will all but assure Chelsea of at least two homes games in the tournament.