Both of Maple Grove’s basketball teams are having their Section VI playoff experiences impacted by COVID-19.

The boys team played at Brocton on Tuesday night only to learn Wednesday that one of the Bulldogs tested postive for COVID-19 that morning.

Every player, except for three who played for the Red Dragons in that 54-18 victory, was then contact traced and required to quarantine for 10 days. The same was true for the Panama boys, who played against Brocton on Monday night.

“I was at O’Charley’s in Erie eating lunch when (athletic director) Kathy Burnett called,” Maple Grove coach Al Roller said Thursday evening. “We could try to throw together a team to play Frewsburg (Friday), but we want to do a pause for three days to make sure we don’t take Frewsburg out if somebody comes down with something. … I didn’t want to do that to anybody.”

Brocton, which would have been the No. 8 seed in the Section VI Class D playoffs, has also ended its season.

Maple Grove’s three varsity players who were not required to quarantine all had tested positive for COVID-19 in the previous 90 days and therefore are still eligible to play in next week’s sectional playoffs. Since Brocton does not have a jayvee team this year, Roller had already called up a few of his jayvee players to play in Tuesday’s game.

“My seniors are heartbroken,” Roller said of co-captains Drew Kelemen and Gehrig Myles, Greyson Maloney, Ryan Samuelson and Adam Marsh. “They didn’t get to play in their last game of high school.”

Roller was still hopeful early Thursday that the county Health Department would reconsider the quarantines and even used video evidence to show how little some of his players played in the game in his argument.

“We were hoping with Hudl Assist we could show how much time each kid played down to the second,” Roller said. “They did try. Christine (Schuyler) did everything she could. She talked to a lot of people.”

Now the Red Dragons, who are currently the No. 3 seed, are looking at a Section VI Class C quarterfinal Monday night at home with three regular varsity players — only one of whom has been a starter — and as many as eight jayvee players taking the floor.

“We had a really good chance. I think we match up well with Randolph and Ellicottville from what I’ve seen,” Roller said. “We just started gelling. … I had a bad feeling. We’d been so lucky, and then boom.”

Likewise, Panama will be without any of its seven varsity players who played Monday night against Brocton. That left the Panthers with nine jayvee players to play Frewsburg on Thursday night. The Bears then forfeited that game leaving Panama — with a starting group of five eighth-graders — to play Westfield tonight and in next week’s Section VI Class D postseason.

For the Maple Grove girls, the circumstances are a little different.

The Red Dragons were scheduled to play Dunkirk on Monday night, but the game was canceled due to contact tracing within the Marauders’ program. A victory against the winless Marauders would’ve moved Maple Grove — currently the No. 10 seed in the Section VI Class C postseason — up to as high as No. 7.

“No win is guaranteed,” Maple Grove coach Bill Price said. “You have to show up and play, but I liked our chances.”

Due to a shorter season and compacted schedule as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the section is only taking eight teams into the sectional playoffs.

“We’re going to prepare like we’re going to play again. When we can’t, we’ll have that conversation,” Price said. “I feel bad, especially for the seniors who don’t get a chance to play that final game. It’s fortunate that we were able to have Senior Night (March 11) against Fredonia. If we pushed it, they never would’ve had Senior Night.”

The Red Dragons lost three straight games to open the season and had another three-game losing streak Feb. 27 to March 4, but have won five of their past eight games.

“This team, for never having played together, came together pretty quickly and we were playing our best ball at the end,” Price said. “You never know in the postseason. It doesn’t look like we’re going to have that opportunity, which just stinks for the girls.”

Absent of an upset loss by Portville or Gowanda — both teams that are ahead of the Red Dragons in the standings — Maple Grove is likely to be left out of the postseason.

“If Al Michaels is around,” Price added, “we could use a miracle.”