Todd Rose | Daily Press Rapid River’s Chris Platt (24) goes for a layup off a fastbreak as Forest Park’s Adan Brazeika (5) watches Thursday night in Rapid River.

RAPID RIVER — The Rapid River Rockets boys’ basketball team (7-8) put on an offensive showcase to defeat the Forest Park Trojans (4-8) 56-22 Thursday night in Rapid River.

As the final home game for the Rockets, it was also senior night.

“(I’m) definitely happy to send the seniors off at home with a win,” said Rockets coach Richard Poma. “That’s pretty big.”

It was a senior, Parker Dausey, who got the scoring started for the Rockets with two free throws just shy of three minutes into the first quarter. From there, the Rapid River offense kept on rolling.

On defense, they excelled as well as they held the Trojans to single digits in all four quarters.

Poma was surprised with the direction the game took.

“I did not expect this to go the way they did,” he said. “(The Trojans) are long and athletic. They’re a better team than they showed tonight.”

“But, the guys played awesome. I’m so proud of the way they played defensively … our defense was awesome with rotations and the way we closed out and rebounded the ball. I can’t say enough about it.”

The lead allowed Poma to get all of his players off the bench and into the game.

“To see those guys pushing our starting five or top seven day in and day out and to see it be rewarded is awesome,” he said. “There is no words for it. Really, it was just a team effort. They did a fantastic job.”

Rease Dawley (14), Mason Kudlick (11) and Max Lenaker (10) all hit double digits scoring for the Rockets.

Trojans coach Kurt Lehmann looked to a false sense of security from a successful JV game –which the Trojans won — as a possible reason behind the outcome.

“Obviously, they hit a lot of shots and stuff, but we didn’t help our cause at all,” Lehmann said. “I think (our team) saw the JV game, saw how good our JV played, and we thought it was just going to be easy in the varsity game.

“They have to understand that it’s two games. They can get excited all they want but bring that energy, but they didn’t bring any energy at all.”

Heading into districts, the Trojans take on their first-round opponent in a preview of the district opener tonight as they take on the North Dickinson Nordics in Felch.

“I’m just glad we get to play (again) before districts,” said Lehmann. “That’s a big thing. We’ll see how they respond and go from there.”

For the Rockets, it was the last regular-season game of the season. They now take a week-long break before taking on the Mid Peninsula Wolverines at Superior Central in Eben next Thursday in the district tournament.

Forest Park 2 6 7 9 — 22

Rapid River 11 17 16 12 — 56

Forest Park — Stacy 5, Emmers 3, Rintala 3, Alder 3, Johnson 2, McKissack 2, Scarlassara 2, Quevedo 2; F: 11; FT: 4-8; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Rinatala.

Rapid River — Dawley 14, Kudlick 11, Max Lenaker 10, Snay 6, McCarty 6, Dausey 4, Ben Lenaker 3, Platt 2; F: 13; FT: 5-9; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Kudlick 3, Dawley 2, Ben Lenaker, Max Lenaker.