FALMOUTH — A 17-year-old Falmouth High School hockey player was killed, and his teammate suffered life-threatening injuries, when the car he was driving Thursday night crashed into the woods off a road, officials said.
Neither teen was identified by Falmouth police. The driver was from East Falmouth, police said in a statement.
The second player was extricated from the car by rescue personnel and flown to a Rhode Island trauma hospital, the statement said.
Falmouth school officials confirmed that the victims were members of both the school’s hockey team and the school’s Division 2A state championship football team.
Hockey coach Paul Moore called the students “two outstanding kids in the community.”
The two were “best buddies,” he said, and the crash occurred about a half hour after a team practice at an arena that is less than a mile from the crash site.
“It’s a tragedy here tonight for this community,” Moore said. “I’m just trying to wrap my mind around it.”
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The second player was being treated at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, he said.
“We’re pulling for him right now,” Moore said just before midnight.
“I’m hoping and praying,” football coach Derek Almeida said in a brief telephone interview.
School Superintendent Nancy Taylor said officials are working on a plan to assist the Falmouth High community.
“It was horrific and we’ve done a lot to support our students and our families,” Taylor said.
The crash occurred at about 6:42 p.m. on Thomas Landers Road, between Geggatt Road and Turner Road. State and local emergency vehicles responded to a report of a one-car crash on the roadway, police said.
“Once on scene, emergency personnel found a car in the woods with two occupants trapped inside,” police said in a statement.
Aside from the presence of the emergency vehicles, all that was visible was a driveway of a private home on Thomas Landers Road, set off from the street.
The whir of passing cars on nearby Turner Road occasionally interrupted the quiet in the remote area as investigators continued working the scene. The cause of the crash remains under investigation by Falmouth and State Police.
Police reopened Thomas Landers Road at around 11:10 p.m.
Andersen can be reached at Travis.Andersen@globe.com. Gross can be reached atsamantha.gross@ globe.com.
