Blue Devils End Decade of Frustration at Hoosac Valley
CHESHIRE, Mass. – The Drury Blue Devils are ringing out the old year by exorcising some old demons.
Two nights after breaking an 11-game losing streak against Wahconah that went back to 2016, Drury downed Hoosac Valley, 55-30, breaking a 19-game skid that also goes back 10 years.
Ella Bond scored 20 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, and Delaney Hayden added 13 as Drury earned a win in Hoosac Valley’s gym for the first time in 13 years.
“I invited some of the former players back in the locker room, because I wanted to stress that this win doesn’t happen without the former players building some type of foundation,” Drury coach Ian Downey said. “That’s why Hoosac has been winning for so long: The former players have built a foundation of winning.
“And in order for us to beat a Hoosac, we had to build and start somewhere. You wish it could happen overnight. It unfortunately didn’t happen overnight for us. … It’s been nine years for me, so I invited the former players back to just acknowledge that they’re the ones who built a foundation to get us in a position to win tonight.”
Friday’s win also might not have happened without lockdown defense.
For the second time this week, the Blue Devils held in check one of the top returning players in the county.
On Wednesday, the Blue Devils limited Wahconah’s Madison McCarthy to four points in a 37-31 win. On Friday, Drury held Hoosac Valley’s Reagan Shea to seven points.
“It’s no secret,” Downey said. “Everyone knows what Reagan Shea can do. Frontier came in here and beat [Hoosac Valley] the other day – but not without stopping her.
“I’m sure there are different ways you can approach trying to win games, but [we] pride ourselves on trying to stop the other team’s best player. And we’re not going to always be able to do it. But tonight was a team effort. We had a game plan going in, and we executed pretty well.”
Drury held Shea to just two points in the first half as it built a 22-14 lead.
In the first quarter, neither team was able to get going offensively, and Downey said that a combination of nerves and heightened energy may have led to missed shots for both sides.
The Blue Devils held a narrow, 8-6 lead eight minutes in but hung 14 points on the board in the second quarter.
Drury took control of the game with an 8-2 run to end the half.
Bond and Megan McGrath (seven points) each had a 3-pointer during the run, which ended when a Hoosac Valley turnover caused by Drury’s pressure defense led to a trip to the foul line for McGrath.
The Hurricanes had their best offensive stretch in the third quarter, scoring 12 points, including three apiece from Shea and Gianna Witek. But Drury was able to stretch its lead to 37-26 going to the fourth.
The Blue Devils then delivered the knockout blow, a 13-0 run that included three triples from Bond to make it 50-26 midway through the quarter.
Despite Hoosac Valley’s decade of dominance in the North County rivalry, it was Drury who appeared to have the upper hand even after the tipoff. The Blue Devils came in 3-0 with wins over 2025 Division 5 state semi-finalist Lee and Wahconah, which went to the Sweet 16 in D4 a year ago.
But Downey was quick to point out that only one Berkshire County team entered the 2025-26 season with a state title to defend.
“They hung a banner before the varsity game,” he said, referring to the pregame ceremony that brought back players from the Hurricanes’ 2025 title run. “They’re gonna be Hoosac until they’re not Hoosac anymore.
“For us, it was about: We’ve got to beat Hoosac. There was no cockiness coming into today’s game. There’s no assuming. Do we think we have a good team this year? We do. But that is a team that is back-to-back state champion, and they have players on that team that returned [from last March]. They’re well coached.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
Drury (3-0) hosts Frontier on Tuesday.
Hoosac Valley (1-2) goes to Pope Francis on Tuesday.
Photos from this game to come.