LAWRENCE, Mass. — Moments after Central Catholic’s huge win over rival Lowell on Friday night, head coach Mark Dunham stood outside his team’s locker room. With his assistants alongside him and his players waiting inside, he was ready to get the party started.
“We try to do these for the big ones,” Dunham said before he pushed open the door and walked inside, where the locker room erupted into a wild celebration that could be heard down the hallway at Memorial Gymnasium.
This was certainly no ordinary event, but Central Catholic’s 72-63 victory over Lowell – a game that lived up to the hype between two top five teams in our power rankings – passed the qualification for such a celebration. Led by junior captain Javi Lopez’s 25 points, the Raiders fought back from a double-digit second-half deficit to hand the Red Raiders their first loss this season in what could prove to be a critical game in the Merrimack Valley Conference title race this winter.
Central is now 10-2 overall with a 6-0 mark atop the MVC, while Lowell is 9-1 with a 7-1 league mark. Lopez said the Raiders entered the season with three goals: win the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic, win the MVC and win the Division 1 state championship. They came up short on the first goal, but after Friday’s win, the other two are well within reach.
