Mt. Abram senior Lincoln Dyar sends a bounce pass under the net while being defended by Kyle Hutchinson of the Dirigo Cougars. Mt. Abram played a good game against a very tough Dirigo team for their season opener. (Heidi Murphy photo) DIXFIELD –- The Mt. Abram boys’ varsity team traveled to Dirigo last Friday for the regular season opener. Although they walked away with a 72-53 loss, they’re feeling pretty good about their game right now.

Dirigo is the defending western C champions and MTA battled for the majority of the game. In fact the buzzer rang to end the first with the Roadrunners in front by the score of 9-5.

Mt. Abram also was missing 6’ 3” senior Joey Lampron from the lineup who sat out the game with a wrist injury.

“Tenacious,” was the Roadrunner defense throughout the game, head coach Mike DeRaps explained. “We had a good game against a very good team.”

Foul trouble came early for the Roadrunners and the Cougars went on a 23-14 run to end the half.

Senior MTA point guard Jim Barker led the game in scoring tallying 27 points on the evening which featured five three-pointers from outside. In four quarters, Barker never went to the line once. Jarrod Blood was second in team scoring with seven points on the night.

Senior Tyler Chiasson led his Cougar squad by putting 19 on the board, five of which came from the foul line.

With five minutes remaining, MTA battled back to bring the game in reach trailing by just six points.

“This is as good a game as I’ve ever seen them play since I’ve been coaching them,” DeRaps said. “We are hoping for better things to happen. We have a good group of kids to work with which makes it pleasant for a coach.”

DeRaps said there are a few things they need to overcome, and he was opportunistic that they’d achieve it. “Once we get over a few things, we’ll see what we’re made of.”

Earlier in the day, the MTA junior varsity took a pretty hefty loss against a tough Cougar team.

On Saturday, the Lady Roadrunners traveled to Dirigo and suffered a 47-20 loss. Junior Hannah Knight led the game in scoring with 14 points. For the Ladies, Mykayla Luce and Jill Howard each scored four points a piece.

The boys’ and girls’ varsity teams had their home openers on Monday night against Livermore Falls after the Irregular went to press. On Thursday, the boys will host Winthrop and on Friday the girls will take on the Ramblers at the Runnerdome. Junior varsity action starts at 5:30 p.m. followed by varsity action at 7.