AHOSKIE – Landon Larabee and Elijah Goldsby scored 15 points each Friday night.

That, along with an even dozen from Max Boone, gave the Ridgecroft Rams all they needed to top visiting Brunswick Academy 53-40.

The Rams were near perfect in the first quarter. They scored 14 points on offense while giving up nothing on the defensive end.

Boone started the game with a three-pointer that was followed by a free throw from Larabee. Goldsby then hit back-to-back buckets before Larabee scored again to make it 10-0. Goldsby provided a field goal and two shots from the charity stripe as Ridgecroft grabbed a 14-0 advantage after one quarter.

“In the first quarter, we played good defense,” second-year Ridgecroft Coach Chris Hill said. “We backed up in the zone and didn’t let them get it inside.

“In the second half we showed great effort as we created turnovers and made some easy baskets,” he added. “The team is playing hard.”

Goldsby added one final bucket to provide a 16-0 lead early in the second quarter before Tyler Hoffman finally stopped the spurt with a field goal. That was followed by an Eli Haws bucket before Boone scored again from behind the arc to push Ridgecroft ahead 19-4.

Dominick Jenkins and Dylan Alen had successive buckets for the Vikings, but Larabee and Goldsby answered with the same for the Rams as they maintained a 15-point edge (23-8).

The rest of the half belonged to the visiting team, however, as they scored eight of the final 10 points to close the gap to 25-16 heading into the locker room at halftime.

The margin got slimmer when Hofman had a three-point play to open the third quarter, but the Rams answered with successive buckets by Goldsby and Larabee and a triple from Boone as they surged back in front 32-21.

The teams continued to exchange hoops throughout the remainder of the quarter, leaving the Rams in front 44-34.

Ridgecroft started the fourth quarter with a 7-2 spurt that gave them a comfortable 51-35 advantage. From there, the Rams held on for the victory.

In addition to those in double figures, the Rams got four from Jordan Harrell, three from Thomas Riddick and two each from Brendan Steiner and Nikola Javanovic.

Hofmann and Jenkins had 12 each to lead Brunswick.