Trinity High Defeats Souhegan High

Granite State Challenge - Quarterfinals

((DURHAM, April 15, 2024) - Souhegan High fell to Trinity High in the second Granite State Challenge quarterfinal game.

Playing for Souhegan High was the team captain and junior Kasen Fox joined by juniors Caleb Brower, Morgan Hallett, and Emma Crisman along with team alternates freshman Maya Gascoyne, sophomore Sami Hogan, and freshman Aaron Coleman. The coach for the team was social studies teacher Nicholas Drinkwater. Souhegan High is located in Amherst and enrolls around 750 students from Amherst and Mont Vernon. Souhegan defeated Dover High on their road to the quarterfinals.

Playing for Trinity High were the team captain and senior Hayden Becker, senior Matt Salafia, and juniors Desmond Lee and Tyler Welch. The team alternates were senior Rob Mokua and sophomore Long Nguyen. The coaches were social studies teacher Andrew Lavoie and math teacher Louis Sievers. Trinity High is a parochial school located in Manchester and enrolls around 300 students from Manchester, Bedford, Goffstown, Hooksett, and surrounding towns. Trinity beat Oyster River High in the opening round of Granite State Challenge.

ROUND ONE

Souhegan's Emma Crisman opened the round with a correct answer about Pinocchio. Desmond Lee of Trinity picked up the next 10 points with a question about Hans Christian Anderson and his teammate Hayden Becker correctly answered the next question about golf. Kasen Fox of Souhegan tied the score on a question about Thor. Hayden Becker of Trinity broke the tie with a question about the Statue of Liberty and his teammate Tyler Welch extended the lead to 40-20 by correctly spelling Connecticut. Matt Salafia took Trinity out to a 50-20 lead on a question about Booker T. Washington. During the rest of the round, Souhegan's Kasen Fox picked up 40 points, and his teammates Caleb Brower and Morgan Hallett each answered one question correctly. On the Trinity side, Hayden Becker answered three questions correctly, including the Unitil Power question worth 20 points, Matt Salafia and Desmond Lee each picked up 20 points, and Tyler Welch scored 30 points. At the end of the round Trinity held a lead of 160-80.

THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE OUT ROUND

In 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. Souhegan went first. Caleb Brower and Morgan Hallett each picked up 10 points in the round adding 20 points to Souhegan's score. Hayden Becker and Matt Salafia picked up 20 points each in Trinity's round, Desmond and Tyler Welch each added 10 points, and Trinity ended the round with a lead of 220-100.

60-SECOND ROUND

In the 60-Second Round alternates join their teams. Each team picks a ten-question category and has 60 seconds to answer the questions. If they answer all ten correctly, teams get a 10-point bonus. Team members can confer in the round, but the captain answers.

Souhegan chose the category "Road Trip." All the answers in the category included the word road or rhode. Souhegan answered six questions correctly and added 60 points to their score

Trinity chose the category "Old English." In this category, the players were asked to give the American version of a word used in England. Trinity answered nine questions correctly and picked up 90 points in the round, bringing the score to 310-160

FINAL ROUND

In the game's final round, each correct answer is worth 20 points, but teams lose 20 points with an incorrect answer, and a lead can be easily lost or gained in the round. Souhegan's captain Kasen Fox picked up the first 20 points of the round. Trinity's Desmond Lee picked up the next 20 points on a question about Juneteenth. The next question was a video question about the Beatles asked by Captain Jack Pikora from the 2023 Championship team, Merrimack High. Kasen Fox picked up the 20 points for Souhgan and the score was now 330-200. Matt Salafia, Hayden Becker, and Desmond Lee added 30 points to Trinity's score on the next three questions. The game's video civics question was from Hannah McCarthy from the NH Public Radio podcast, Civics 101. Unfortunately, neither team knew that rules against piracy are found in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Matt Salafia of Trinity picked up the next 20 points in the round on a question about geometry, and with just a minute left in the game Trinity had a commanding lead of 410-200. Kasen Fox picked up 40 points for Souhegan, but it wasn't enough, and Trinity won by a final score of 410-240.

Trinity High now moves on to the semifinals where they will meet defending champ Merrimack High on Thursday, May 2 at 7:30 pm on NHPBS.

The next quarterfinal game pitting Plymouth Regional High against Nashua South airs on Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 pm.

Hosted by Bow High School teacher and former Granite State Challenge coach (Bedford High), contestant (Belmont High), and Granite State Challenge crew member, Jon Cannon, Granite State Challenge features some of New Hampshire's brightest high school students 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 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, D.F. Richard Energy, and HRCU.

Major funding provided by