The Profile Patriots Stage a Come-From-Behind Victory over the Bow Falcons

Granite State Challenge

Durham, NH (March 21, 2025) - The Profile Patriots staged a fourth round come back against the always tough Bow Falcons in Round One of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE on New Hampshire PBS.

Playing for Bow High were team captain and 12th grader Thomas Sargent along with 12th grader Trevor Abel, 11th grader Matthew Kropp and 12th grader Cole Cochrane. Team alternates are 12th graders Liam Miller and Jack Noce. The team was coached by humanities teacher Michelle Hlavaz. Bow High School enrolls 625 students and serves the towns of Bow and Dunbarton.

Playing for Profile High were 11th grader and team captain Maddie Perkins, 12th grader Isaac Reeder and 11th graders Moses Rolfe and Raiden Valentine. Profile team alternates are 12th grader Travis Locke and 11th grader Marcus Hamilton.

With an enrollment of 141 students from the towns of Bethlehem, Easton, Franconia and Sugar Hill,  Profile High is the smallest school competing on GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE this season.

ROUND ONE

Bow’s Matthew Kropp started the round with a correct answer about the musical group, Destiney’s Child and Profile came right back with a correct answer about Boris Yeltsin and the round was underway.  Bow picked up points on a civics question about the length of a New Hampshire governor’s term asked by 2025 NH Kids Governor, Jade Adams and Profile picked up points on questions about bowling and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Both teams were stumped by questions about children’s author and illustrator Richard Scarry and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Bow picked up 20 points on the Unitil Power Question about the president who used the phrase “knowledge is power” in at least four letters he wrote about the establishment of the University of Virginia. The round ended with Bow in the lead by a score of 130-80.

ROUND TWO – THREE STRIKES AND YOU’RE OUT

In the Three Strikes and You're Out Round, each team gets 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. 

 Bow went first in this round but answered two of their first four questions wrong before using any of their passes. Matthew answered both of his questions correctly, but the team only picked up 30 points in the round.

Each member of the Profile team answered one question correctly before striking out, and the round ended with Bow hanging on to a lead of 160-120.

ROUND THREE – 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.

The Patriots went first and chose the category “Animal Attraction.” The answers were words or phrases that included the name of an animal.

The Profile team convened, and they successfully answered six questions correctly after missing the first two. They correctly answered questions about where the movie Dirty Dancing was set (Catskills), what it is called when you illegally cross a street (jaywalking) and the city that is home to the Kremlin (Moscow) along with three other questions, picking up 60 points in the round.

“We’re pretty comfortable with animal-themed questions. So yeah, I think it was just a fortunate category, and we were all on the same wavelength. Those were really good rounds,” said Profile’s Moses Rolfe.

Bow chose the “What’s Cooking” category where each answer was a thing whose name contained a kitchen appliance used while cooking. They were able to name the square part of Texas (panhandle), what you might face when two paths diverge (fork in the road), and what you use to knock down ten pins (bowling ball) and picked up 30 points in the round.  The round ended with Bow hanging on to a slight lead of 190-180.

FINAL ROUND – TOSS-UP

In the final round of the game, 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.

With a close score, both teams had to be very careful with their answers. Isaac from Profile got one right, and then Cole drew Bow even, but erred on his next question, allowing the Patriots to go ahead by 10 points.

After that, the Patriots found their pace. Maddie and Raiden were on a roll and four questions correctly and picked up 80 points and taking their team to their first lead of the game.

Profile continued to answer correctly on music, astronomy and geography questions and did not make a single incorrect guess. They completed the comeback won the game by a commanding score of 380-130.

“Right before the fourth round, I just whispered to the team, ‘Don't answer unless you're sure,’ and then we just didn't answer anything wrong,” said Profile’s Maddie Perkins.

“It feels incredible. When Profile took the lead in the fourth round, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we could actually maybe do this,’ and then the team just did awesome,” said Profile coach Brewer.

Catch the next game of GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE as Bedford High takes on Hopkinton High on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 8:30 p.m. on NHPBS. You can also stream it on the PBS App, the NHPBS YouTube channel, or online at nhpbs.org/gsc.

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 Bangor Savings Bank, Safety Insurance, NEA New Hampshire and Aroma Joe’s.

About Host Jon Cannon: GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE is hosted by Bow High School teacher Jon Cannon.  Cannon has a long history with GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE. You might say he grew up with the game.  He was a member of the Belmont High team when he was in high school, was a member of the NHPBS GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE crew when he was in college at UNH and was the coach of the Bedford High GRANITE STATE CHALLENGE team.

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