Plymouth Regional Reaches Granite State Challenge Finals In Squeaker Against Bishop Guertin

DURHAM, NH — Plymouth Regional High School has earned a place in the Granite State Challenge SuperChallenge final after defeating Bishop Guertin High School 395-380 in a semifinal game match on New Hampshire PBS.

The Bobcats built a large early lead, then held on as the Cardinals surged in the final round.

Plymouth was captained by 11th-grader Abe Hankens. Team members were 11th-grader Yuriy Paul, 9th-grader Cam Cawley and 11th-grader Ezra Amsden, with alternates Leif Eisenbarth, Aurora Ricker and Olivia Brayfield.

Bishop Guertin was led by 12th-grader Mohid Khan, with Declan Pyles, Teddy Bond, and Aidan Coffey on the team and Grant Leonardi and Carter Rick as alternates.

Plymouth controlled the opening round and finished it with a 175-40 lead. In the second round, played in a three-strikes-and-you 're-out format, Plymouth answered two of 10 questions correctly, and Bishop Guertin got four of 10. Both teams improved in the 60-second rapid-fire round, with Bishop Guertin answering six of 10 correctly and Plymouth answering eight of 10, leaving the score at 275-140.

The match tightened in Round 4, when point values doubled. Bishop Guertin mounted a comeback and briefly moved ahead before Plymouth reclaimed the lead in the closing questions to secure the win.

“I thought maybe we were able to pull away with it,” Khan said. “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 scored 200 of his team's 240 points in the final round.

Bishop Guertin Coach Jeanette Riendeau praised her team after the loss.

“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 players and coaches said the late rally made for their toughest match so far.

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

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

Plymouth will face Nashua South High School in the Granite State Challenge SuperChallenge at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 21, NHPBS. The final will also stream on the PBS App, the NHPBS YouTube channel, and at nhpbs.org/gsc.