photos by McKella Sylvester
The Scotch Plains-Fanwood Raiders won its first home game against Edison’s Eagles on Thurs. Dec. 22. The score was 35-28.
Within the mix of dribbles, passes, and slips, intensive defensive playing and team effort contributed to the team’s victory. Coach Steve Siracusa seems to think so too.
“I think defensively, we played pretty well,” said Siracusa. “ But offensively, honestly, today was a rough night. We’re going to have those in a season, as we defend as we did, but fortunately, we managed to escape with a win tonight. But we’ll take it, a win’s a win.”
Compared to the away game at Summit, the Raiders had struggled offensively this time around, but were consistent in defense. There’s always room for improvement. “Last game we shot pretty well. We’d scored 25 in the first quarter, we shot over 60 percent from the field and it was kind of the tale of two games,” said Siracusa.
Despite the difference in plays, the team as a whole retained more development and skill. During the game, SPF’s fan section, Raider Nation, was hyped with many students and alumni coming to support their peers.
In order to prep for this season, the team has kept busy with an rigorous training regimen and remained active during the offseason. “We had open gym three days a week, we lifted afterwards each of those times,” said Siracusa. “Then we were in the summer league and we went to Albright Team Camp.”
No doubt, the boys basketball team is going to have a successful season. Key players to watch out for include seniors Teddy Willmott and Nigel Nelson and junior Jack Brady. “I’d say, we honestly have a lot of players who can be big for us,” said Siracusa.
The next game will be a holiday tournament against South Plainfield on Wed. Dec. 28.
