
Canton’s Ryan Cuniowski, shown last season, had 10 points in Thursday night’s season-opening win over Stafford.
CANTON, Dec. 19, 2024 – Senior David Grabowski scored a game-high 22 points and senior Tate Bemis added 17 as the Canton High boys basketball team beat Stafford, 65-56 in a North Central Connecticut Conference (NCCC) game and the season-opening contest for both schools. Bemis sank a team-high five shots from three-point range.
It was also the first game for new head coach Dan Goscinski, who took over for Craig Archambault, who left Canton after 12 seasons to coach at Farmington.
Goscinsk, a teacher at Avon Middle School, was previously the head coach at Litchfield High for 11 years, leading the Cowboys to the nine CIAC state tournament appearances. In its final season, Litchfield advanced to the Division IV semifinals last March.
Litchfield High and Wamogo Regional (Warren, Morris, Goshen) each closed in June. Litchfield and the schools from Region 7 formed a new regional school district (Region 20) and students will be attending Lakeview High, which opened in September.
Former Wamogo basketball coach Gregg Hunt was named the head basketball coach at Lakeview.
Canton, who has prevailed on opening night for the tenth consecutive seasons, returns to action on Saturday when they host Aerospace at 1 p.m.
Canton 65, Stafford 56
At Canton
Stafford (56) Colin Tozier 4-5-13, Tyler Murray 1-1-3, Gavin Iacobucci 8-0-17, Bryce Gudeman 2-1-5, Gioanni Pardiso 5-0-12, Nate Kozaczuk 1-0-2, Luca Houle 2-0-4. Totals 23 7-12 56
Canton (65) Tate Bemis 6-0-17, Jayce Tucker 0-0-0, Ryan Cuniowski 2-5-10. James Canny 0-0-0, Brayden Keefe 1-3-6, Jayden Young 3-0-6, David Grabowski 9-3-22, Mike Valenti 2-0-4. Totals 23 11-15 65
Stafford (0-1) 12 14 14 16 — 56
Canton (1-0) 13 10 24 18 — 65
Three-point goals: Iacobucci (S), Pardiso (S) 2, Bemis (C) 5, Cuniowski (C), Keefe (C), Grabowski (C)
Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.


High School
2025 NCCC Winter Tournaments

High School
2025 CCC Winter Tournaments
