Plymouth Regional Defeats Newfound Regional High School

(DURHAM, March 8, 2024) - Newfound Regional High fell to Plymouth Regional High in Round One of Granite State Challenge.

Playing for Newfound Regional High were team captain and senior, Nick Mazur,  junior Kinsey Boardman, and seniors Evan Foster and Lauren Paige. The alternate for the team was senior Kailea Ladeau. The coach for the team was social studies teacher Amy Doolin. Newfound Regional High is located in Bristol and enrolls around 387 students from Alexandria, Bridgewater, Bristol, Danbury, Groton, Hebron, Hill, and New Hampton.

Playing for Plymouth Regional High were the team captain and junior Reagan Sutherland, and seniors Khalil Dakhlia, Paul Mason, and Ethan Savage, The team alternates were juniors Norman Sackett and Max Shamansky. The coaches for the team were programming, drafting, and engineering teacher Jay Fogarty and Spanish teacher Troy Harris. Plymouth Regional High enrolls around 647 students from Plymouth, Ashland, Holderness, Campton, Rumney, Wentworth, Ellsworth, Waterville Valley, and Thornton.

ROUND ONE

Khalil Dakhlia put the first points on the board for Plymouth on a question about the board game Monopoly. Khalil was dominant in the round, answering 12 questions correctly. His teammate Ethan Savage added another 20 points and Paul Mason picked up 10 points. Evan Foster scored 30 points for Newfound, and at the end of the round Plymouth held a commanding lead of 150-30.

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. Newfound Regional was quickly kicked out of the round when it answered the first three questions incorrectly.  On the Plymouth side, Reagan Sutherland answered two questions correctly, Khalil Dakhlia answered three questions correctly, and Paul Mason added another 10 points, giving Plymouth 60 points in the round and bringing the score to 210-30.

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. Newfound chose the category "Ten to One." All of the answers were the numbers 10 -1,  in that order. They answered four questions correctly and picked up 40 points.  Plymouth chose the category "Seeing Red." All of the answers began with the word red. Plymouth almost had a perfect round, but they missed a question about the red eft and added 90 points to their score. The round ended with Plymouth in the lead by a score of 300-70.

FINAL ROUND
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. Plymouth dominated the round and picked up an additional 160 points with Reagan Sutherland picking up 40 points, Paul Mason adding 20 points, and  Khalil Dakhlia finishing the round with a whopping 100 points, which included 40 points he picked up on the Unitil Power Question, which is worth double points. The game ended with a 460-50 win for Plymouth.

Plymouth Regional High now moves on to the Quarterfinals where they will meet the winner of the next Round One Game between ConVal High and Nashua High South airing on Thursday,  March 14 at 7:30 pm on NHPBS.

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.

Pressroom Contact

Carla Gordon Russell
Director of Communications
crussell@nhpbs.org
(603) 868-4339