It was the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory Tuesday night in New Haven.
The Bolton-Coventry-Lyman boys hockey team did not have a successful experience at Yale University as they lost a Division III semifinal to New Milford 8-2 but just about five minutes down the road, Waterford's boys basketball team was jumping for joy as they beat Joel Barlow High School in a Class M basketball semifinal that featured just about as much scoring as the hockey game, Waterford winning 34-33.
Even though you do try to remain somewhat neutral as a sportswriter, you can get caught up in the emotion that is surrounding a team like Waterford right now. Face it, the Lancers are on a Cinderella run, no one, not even themselves, expected to be here but the stars were aligned just right and Lady Luck has shown her light on them a bit as well as all the hard work they've put in. Tuesday's game may have been a yawner on the court but it had to be one of the fastest games of the year as it ended in just over an hour.
The next task for Waterford- a state title game Saturday morning at CCSU in New Britain.
Didn't we just write that some place?
The B-C-L boys didn't have as happy a finish but the Whalers might get the consolation prize- experience.
B-C-L didn't have a senior on the team but still made it to the final four in Division III hockey, one can only hope that they make it back again next season.
New Milford was just too darn good in this one, the Division II school by enrollment numbers, scored three times in the first period and, in hockey, that's more than hard to overcome.
Three more goals in the second period by the Green Wave closed the books on the Whalers season but for this team there is always next year.