Fall Mountain Regional High Defeats Littleton High

Granite State Challenge - Round One

(DURHAM, February 27, 2022) - Fall Mountain Regional High defeated Littleton High in the fourth game of the 40th season of Granite State Challenge.

Playing for Fall Mountain High were captain and senior Jacob Bradly and seniors Marcus Flynn, Colin Regan, and Enrique Ingram-Mendez. The team alternate was junior Grace St. Pierre. The team was coached by Nick Belsky. Fall Mountain Regional High is located in Langdon and serves the towns of Alstead, Acworth, Charlestown, Langdon, Walpole, Goshen, Lempster, and Unity. Fall Mountain enrolls 496 students.

Playing for Littleton were Captain and senior Vincent Silva, junior Allyson Demoras, and sophomores Rebecca Colby and Camden Cook. The team alternates were juniors Gordon Chau and Tye Simon. Littleton High was coached by Jackie Hyson and enrolls 224 students.

Granite State Challenge is played in four rounds. In the first round, correct answers are worth 10 points and there is no penalty for an incorrect answer. Marcus Flynn of Fall Mountain kicked off the game by correctly identifying Portugal as the country the Azores are a part of. Enrique Ingram-Mendez added 10 points to Fall Mountain's score by naming Cyclops as a one-eyed giant in Greek mythology or one of the X-men. Vincent Silva scored the first 10 points for Littleton by naming leprechauns as figures from Irish folklore that might lead you to a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Both teams missed a question about singer and actor Ethel Waters, but later in the round, Fall Mountain captain, Jacob Bradly was able to correctly spell one of the most misspelled words in the English language, misspell. At the end of the round, Fall Mountain led by a score of 190-70.

In the second round, correct answers are worth 20 points, and like in the first round, there is no penalty for an incorrect answer. Jacob Bradly of Fall Mountain picked up the first 20 points of the round by knowing that monarch butterflies migrate yearly from Canada and the U.S. to winter in forests in central Mexico, and Enrique Ingram-Mendez put an extra 40 points on the board by answering the Unitil Power Question correctly by naming Back to the Future as the 1985 movie where Marty McFly skateboards to school to the song "Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News. Rebecca Colby put the first 20 points in the round on the board for Littleton by naming Eleanor Roosevelt as the future first lady who did not have to change her surname when she married. Allyson Demoras added another 20 points to Littleton's score by identifying Jill Biden as the only first lady to have earned a doctorate. Neither team could identify Big Boi as the second member, along with Andre 3000 of the group Outcast in the 40 for 40 Question. The 40 for 40 question, worth 40 points, honors the 40th season of Granite State Challenge and is taken from a past season of Granite State Challenge. Fall Mountain held its lead, and the round ended with a score of 390-230.

The third round of the game is the Three Strikes and You're Out Round. Each team picks a 10-question category and each team member, starting with the captain, gets one question. The team continues to answer questions until they miss three questions. Each team also has three passes in each round. If a team answers all 10 questions correctly, they pick up an additional 10 points.

Littleton choose the category "The Ball's In Your Court" in which all of the answers included the word ball. Littleton answered four correctly, passing three times and missing on blackball, Lucille Ball, and ballet. Fall Mountain chose the category "Gooey O" in which all answers included the letters G-O-O, in that order. They missed questions about the song "Good Vibrations", the movie "Good Will Hunting", the only New Hampshire resident executed for witchcraft, Goody Cole. They answered five questions correctly and picked up 50 points. The round ended with Fall Mountain still in the lead by a score of 440-270.

In the final round, correct answers are worth 20 points, but an incorrect answer will cost a team 20 points and leads can be quickly lost or gained. Enrique Ingram-Mendez of Littleton picked up the first 20 points in the round by naming purple, orange, and green as the secondary colors. Camden Cook of Littleton picked up 20 points for his team by knowing that Posiden carried a trident. In the end, Fall Mountain held on to their lead and won the game by a score of 560-390.

Fall Mountain now goes to meet Nashua South High in the second game of the quarterfinals airing on Saturday, April 2, 2022, at 6 pm on NHPBS.

Granite State Challenge features New Hampshire's top high school academic quiz teams as they demonstrate remarkable teamwork, quick thinking, and smarts to beat the clock and buzz in first on this iconic New Hampshire game show. The game emphasizes quick recall of math, science, social studies, language arts, and fine arts facts - along with questions about current events, entertainment, sports, and New Hampshire.

You can follow your favorite team, test your own knowledge with GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE online quizzes, and more at the GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE web page or try your hands at daily brainteasers on the GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE Facebook page.

GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE is funded by lead sponsor Unitil; with additional funding from NEA New Hampshire, Safety Insurance, New Hampshire Lottery, D.F. Richard, Cognia, and HRCU.

Major funding provided by