Last Friday night, an odd equinox in Notre Dame athletics occurred: all three winter sports of girls’ basketball, boys’ basketball and hockey played against archrival Bay Port on the same night. All three games had the same result: a Triton victory.

Starting with the defending state champions in the girls’ basketball, they continued their early success on the season taking down the Pirates on the road 69-32. 

After a relatively slow start to their standards, they went into the half up 35-24. In the second half, they turned on the burners, winning the half 34-8.

“Bay Port came out with a lot of energy in the first half and we just didn’t match it,” Head Coach Sara Rohde said. “In the second half our effort was much better and that allowed us to hold them to 8 points. 

Hope Barington led the Tritons with 15 points, and Trista Fayta had 14 points as well.

At the Triton Center, boys’ basketball played host to the Pirates on youth night, coming out with a 74-56 victory. In a series that had been previously dominated by Bay Port, the Tritons pulled out only their fourth win against the Pirates in boys’ basketball since 2002.

However, the last two games in the series have been extremely dominated by the green and blue, winning them by a combined 42 points, with the Tritons beating the Pirates in February of 2021, 89-65.

“It’s a huge rivalry game for our school and those are fun ones to be a part of,” Head Coach Brian Bobinski said. “Obviously, we have a little win streak going as well, so it was very gratifying to see our players play so well and win that game.”

On the stat sheet, Chris Mitchell led the Tritons with 22 points on 7/13 shooting, with Daniel Hornacek scoring 13 on 6/9 shooting and Keegan King picking up a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

As well for boys’ basketball, they beat the Pirates on all four levels, including the JV teams, which Bobinski said he believed was the first time in program history.

Finally, in hockey, the Tritons and Pirates faced off in the latest installment of one of the best rivalries in high school hockey on senior night for the Notre Dame hockey team. 

The Tritons got on the board quickly as Brenden Gruber slotted one in just 27 seconds into the game. The Pirates answered to tie the game two minutes later in the first but Bryce Dahl  scored in the seventh minute to make the game 2-1 at the first intermission.

In a penalty-filled second period, with a total of 13 minutes, only one goal was scored — by Bay Port’s Sam Lyons, to tie the game at two apiece going into the third, setting us up for another classic finish in the rivalry.

In the third, it was all Notre Dame as two goals were scored by the Tritons, as Brendan Gruber scored his second on the night, and Isaac Reentmeester put one in with less than eight minutes left.

At the end of the night, all three sports came out with convincing and meaningful wins on their resumes. Not only individually, but collectively, not one, not two, but three varsity wins over Bay Port in one night is a statement.

For Bobinski, this is his 21st year working as a teacher at Notre Dame Academy but his first year as the boys’ varsity coach, after stops as an assistant coach with the Tritons and other programs like Xavier, Ashwaubenon and De Pere, as well as a stint as the girls’ varsity basketball coach in the 2006-07 season. He also is the head coach of the boys’ and girls’ golf programs.

“Notre Dame has a proud athletic history,” he said. “For many years, we had teams winning state championships in multiple sports every year, so it’s great to see us reassert ourselves school-wide athletically.

Going forward for all three teams, they will be in action this week in conference play, including both basketball programs squaring off with De Pere on Tuesday.

For the girls’ squad, they will travel on the road to take on the Redbirds, in a rematch of the unofficial conference championship from a season ago.

“De Pere has a really strong player in Jordan Meulemans, and we will need to contain her,” Rohde said. “They are a solid team, and we will need to be ready to compete.”

For the boys’ squad, they will be facing off against the #1 team in the state at home. Bobinski spent the last seven years as an assistant coach under Brian Winchester, but he says this game is entirely about the players.

“It’s a great opportunity for our guys being a first-place conference game and against the number one ranked team in the state,” Bobinski said. “Many of their players went to school in the Catholic grade school system, and many of our players participated in youth basketball with De Pere. These are kids that know each other very well.”

Be sure to get out and support your fellow Tritons as they compete this winter season!