Marc's High School Sports Blog

Boys soccer: Griswold looks for redemption

2010-09-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

The common theme when talking to Griswold High boys soccer coach Vin Laraia on Thursday could be described in one word; redemption.
The Wolverines are looking for that in more aspects than one this season.
Griswold downed Montville, 2-1, Thursday afternoon which Laraia thought could serve as a confidence boost for a team that came so close last season to winning the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division title.
"Our guys are really happy about this win (Thursday) because they were questioning themselves after last year," Laraia said.
That's because the Wolverines only lost to Lyman, a team which has never lost an ECC Small Division game in its three-plus years in the league, 1-0 twice last season.
"Our goal this year is to win the ECC Small and beat Lyman," Laraia said. "They want to go into the Lyman game undefeated and they want to beat Lyman this year. They're very bitter about those 1-0 losses and they feel they can beat Lyman."
The Wolverines will get two opportunities to do so, on Oct. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at Lyman and again on Oct. 27 at 6:30 p.m. on the football field in Griswold.
Laraia said the team is not the only ones looking for redemption, there's also an individual with something to prove this year; keeper Brandon McNeil.
The senior captain kept Montville at bay after the Indians took over the momentum halfway through the second half courtesy of a penalty kick. McNeil shut them down thereafter, turning aside seven consecutive chances including a pair of bullets by Tyler and Connor Leeman.
"He's got something to prove, he finished second in the (ECC) voting last year for All-ECC and he wants to be that," Laraia said. "He worked hard over the summer and he's trying hard out there."

Note

HS Football

Last week's Killingly-Wolcott game was the last scheduled football game between the two long-distance opponents.
The two schools had a home-and-home agreement and there was talk on the sidelines last week that a new two-year deal had been struck, but nothing is official yet.
"I don't have an answer for that," Wolcott coach Patrick Russo said last Saturday night. "There's been talk but we won't (finalize) anything until the end of the season. People here have been great to us, I take my hat off to coach (Chad) Neal and the hospitality both last year and this year. We've built a little relationship with him, we've been to the same coaching clinics with him and hung out with him and had dinner. There's good people here in Killingly, we really respect what they do."

HS Cross Country: Plainfield's Ruffo growing up

2010-09-22T04:47:00.000-07:00

She used to be a young, little girl running among adults in local road races, winning some of the female events despite being just 12 and 13- years-old.
She's still young and small, but Plainfield freshman Keri Ruffo is growing up.
Now a high school freshman, Ruffo ran her first official high school dual meet on Tuesday afternoon in Central Village, winning it with ease.
"I love it," Ruffo said when asked how happy she was to be a part of the Plainfield Panthers cross country team. "It's so much different from middle school, much better, more fun, more competition."
Ruffo is a chip off the old block. Her father, Pat, used to be an athlete at Plainfield in late 1970's and early 80's, known for his prowess in baseball. On Tuesday, he was on the sidelines watching his daughter run past and thinking the same thing as her coaches, Ben Bowne and Kevin Grant, "don't go too fast, it's still the first race of the season."
That's hard to get through to a freshman running her first race at home as Ruffo sprinted out to a lead and never looked back, with the exception of once.
"I looked a little behind me at the (football) scoreboard (about three-quarters of the way through the race) to see if they were behind me," Keri Ruffo said.
She didn't have to worry about that, there was not a Griswold runner within a minute of her.
"I was shocked," Ruffo said.
Griswold coach Mike Flynn - knowing his runners had just completed competing in the Windham Invitational over the weekend - had asked his team to go out as a unit and stay ahead of St. Bernard, don't worry about winning the race.
Those were the same orders issued to Ruffo who had run in the freshman race at Windham; Hardly winded at the finish, she said she also complied with those wishes.
"It's a long season, she's young, we had an Invitational last Saturday and have another one this Saturday, she's running the freshman race there and we want her to have a shot at those big meets," Grant said about the strategy of asking Ruffo to restrain herself a bit. "Our team is pretty strong this year, we figured we could use thise as a workout, just like the Griswold girls did."
Grant said he thought Ruffo's tempo was a "little more on target" than the Griswold girls who he thought "were going a little too slow for their ability."
"Keri did a great job," Grant said.

Whalers on the road

The Killingly High football team got a little break.
It will still have to play New London in November, but it learned on Tuesday that the game between the Redmen and Whalers will be played in Danielson rather than New London on November 12. The Whalers continue to have trouble with the new turf at Canamella Field as was reported in the Norwich Bulletin on Tuesday and likely will not be able to use the new field at all this season.
Only two games, Oct. 22 against Fitch and on Thanksgiving Day versus Norwich Free Academy remain unchanged at the moment.
"It's a challenge for the kids, I know they were hoping for a new field," New London Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Nick Fischer, said Monday, "but coach (Jeff) Larson has done an outstanding job prepping the kids under difficult circumstances."
Not only has New London had to shift most of their games from home to away with the one exception being the game at the Coast Guard Academy against Montville, the team has also had to practice on a make shift field behind the school.
"It's a challenge the kids will have to learn how to deal with, it's disappointing, but it's not a crisis," Fischer said.

Grove returns as head coach in Montville today

2010-09-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Montville coach Tanner Grove was re-instated immediately after the Indians win over New London, he met the busses on their return to the high school Saturday and will be back on the job today (Monday). Grove was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs in August and was suspended for the first game of the season. Thus, he had to miss the 21-19 win over New London at the Coast Guard Academy.
Rob Alves and Gary Wilcox served as co-head coaches in the interim while Grove had to stay away from the team.
Alves admitted prior to the game on Saturday that there was a lot of pressure taking over the team for its game against the Whalers.
"I'm very happy, it's a lot off my chest, it really is," Alves said about the return of Grove as head coach. "At the same time, it was a great learning experience and, hopefully, I kept the team going in a positive direction."
After the game, Wilcox said it was nice to see how the team came together and overcame the distractions.
"This whole team stepped up big and overcame adversity," Wilcox said. "We started the season with an issue and these coaches and kids stepped up so big, myself and coach Alves literally focused this group of coaches and kids to overcome all of the nonsense to overcome all of this. Even in the second half (when New London scored 13 of its points) when we had that adversity coming, we held together, we bent, but we didn't break."

Notes

Where were the rosters this weekend?
I went to four high school football games and only one, the Killingly-Wolcott game, had rosters out for the public to bring with them into the game.
Quinebaug Valley-Plainfield had only two copies of team rosters, both of them in the press box. The Norwich Free Academy-Windham game had some made up, but they were in a box inside the ticket booth and there were almost none available at the Montville - New London game (I was fortunate to come away with two of the few that existed).
I realize it was the first game of the year, but when you are charging the public to see a game, the least you could give them is something to follow it better with. It doesn't have to be a complete program, but one sheet with rosters on both sides is better than nothing.

Interesting soccer pairing today, the Lyman and Norwich Free Academy girls and boys play a doubleheader at Lyman Memorial in Lebanon. The girls play in the first game at 4:30 p.m., the guys play in the nightcap at 6:30 p.m. The Norwich Bulletin will be covering both games. Also coming tomorrow, the first fall notebook of the high school season - look for it in your mailbox, newsstands and on-line.

Windham had good start, poor finish

2010-09-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

It was almost like it was 2009 again in Willimantic on Friday night.
That was when Tim Doyle fielded Steve Calitri's opening kickoff near his own goal line and found his way up field for a season-opening 99-yard kick off return that spurred the Windham Whippets on to a win over Norwich Free Academy.
On Friday night, after the kick off and a four-yard run by Shane Doughty, it was Alex Partosan who played the option to perfection and then kept the ball, turned it upfield, and went the 75 yards to give Windham the early eight-point advantage.
"It felt familiar to last year at the beginning of the game," Windham coach Brian Crudden said.
Anthony Facchini felt the same way and on the Norwich sideline, that was not a good feeling to have.
"That was letdown and it was like, here we go again," the NFA running back said. "But I know that we're not last year's team, we're a lot better than that. We've worked so hard in the offseason and preseason that I knew it wasn't going down like that, not like last year."
The Wildcats did answer the touchdown later in the first quarter, but then allowed Windham to score again right before the half. The Whippets put together 231 yards of offense in the first half and held on to the ball for 15 minutes, 48 seconds of the 24-minute half.
Still, NFA coach Jemal Davis wasn't overly concerned.
"They got the coin toss, got the ball and they were able to stop us early," Davis said. "It's tough any time you come up to Windham, especially for the first game of the season, Brian just does an excellent job of preparing his kids and giving you stuff that you can't prepare for."
The turn in fortunes came early in the second half when Windham, thanks to a penalty for coming out of the locker room late and a misunderstood call on the kick, gave NFA the ball on the Whippets 40-yard line. Facchini scored to make it a two-point game and, after a windham turnover, the Wildcats scored again to take the lead for good.
Facchini, who only had 60 yards in eight carries in the first half, finished with 199 yards in 23 carries.
"We obviously know that Anthony is an exceptional athlete, a big, physical kid and he's got some big guys up front, and with that combination, we felt that if we just don't turn the ball over, get some stops, we can control the tempo of the game and run the clock out," Davis said.
NFA won, 25-14.

Notes:

The running game may be old news in the NFL, but not in high school ball. Windham passed the ball seven times Friday night, the Wildcats only five. The longest pass completion of the night was by Windham's Alex Partosan for nine yards. The only completion for NFA's Erik Washburn was good for only a yard.

Penalties and turnovers haunted Windham.
The Whippets were flagged 10 times for 95 yards, the worst being a holding call that negated a 38-yard touchdown run by Shane Doughty in the first quarter that could have put the Wildcats in a big hole early.
Windham also turned over the ball four times, two on fumbles, two on interceptions.
"From the staff on down to kids, we were disorganized and undisciplined, that's disappointing," Windham coach Brian Crudden said.

It's never easy picking winners in the first week of the season and I struggled on Friday night's games. The East Lyme/Torrington game I considered a toss-up so I went with the local folks and Torrington bit me on that one. There was no question that Stonington versus Waterford could go either way as well and that came down to a flip of the coin. I went out on the limb to pick Capital Prep/Hartford Classical over Griswold, the charter school teams have an assosrtment of athletes that changes on a yearly basis and you really don't know what they have before they play. At least, I got the NFA and Ledyard picks right and wasn't far off on either. I said 42-7 Ledyard, the Colonels won 43-7 and I picked NFA to win 24-13, not far from the actual final of 25-14.
I have Fitch, Bacon, New London, Lowell Catholic and Wolcott winning today.

HS football: Gleim looked good for Quinebaug Valley

2010-09-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Plainfield may have won the football game, 22-19, but the star of the show was Quinebaug Valley running back Shane Gleim.
The former Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech back had a pair of 60-plus yard runs that kept the Pride in the game against the young Panthers in the season opener for both on a rainy night Thursday night in Putnam.
Gleim carried the ball just 11 times, but rushed for 151 yards, 68 of those came early in the second quarter.
Plainfield had just scored on the last play of the first quarter to take the early lead. The Pride took over on their own 25-yard-line after the kickoff and moved up five yards on an encroachment call against the Panthers. That's when Quinebaug Valley coach Shane Szydlo called Gleim's number. Running out of the right wing in the Pride's double-wing offense, Gleim hadn't gone anywhere in his first two carries of the game, that changed this time when he spied a hole and made a quick decision.
"It was originally a sweep where I was supposed to run all the way to the (left) side, but if the cutback lane was there, we take it," Gleim described. "I had three blocks in front of me, I saw the opening with only a defensive back and I just cut it back, had one man to beat."
Unfortunately, he couldn't shake that one man and was finally taken down at the two-yard line. On the next play, Mike Seifert (14 carries, 60 yards) took it in for the score to cut the deficit to one point.
Plainfield scored again before the half and there was concern the game would not be finished when the two teams came out of the locker room to be greeted by heavy rain and lightning which delayed the contest for 30 minutes.
Gleim had seen his yardage total go down in the two carries since his 68-yard burst, he went negative-6 in those. But he made up for that midway through the third quarter after Quinebaug Valley had climbed out of a hole of its own making following a penalty that pushed it back to its own 11-yard -line. Shane Herlihy (5 carries, 35 yards) went 12 yards and a facemask penalty pushed the Pride up to their own 38-yard line. On a wet field, with rain pouring down, Gleim took advantage of the slick conditions by reversing the field, again to the left side, and found daylight for a 62-yard touchdown.
"I got two blocks, one from Norman Henry, and another pancake block right in front of me, so I had no to beat except the one kid that I stiff-armed and then it was just a touchdown- it was all about the blocking," Gleim said.
But even those two runs were not enough to lift the Pride to a victory in their first outing as a combined Putnam/Tourtellotte/Ellis Tech unit.
"As a team, yes, I'm happy; personally, I expected better," Gleim said. "As a team we came together in the second half. In the first half, (Plainfield) was kind of throwing us around, doing whatever they wanted."
The good thing for Quinebaug Valley, it gets a week to rest and think about this game as its next game doesn't take place until Saturday, Oct. 2 at home against Abbott Tech.

NOTES

Although some may have thought it a bad decision to play a game on Thursday night due to the threat of bad weather, it worked out for Plainfield and Quinebaug Valley.
The predicted rain came and came down hard for a time from late in the second quarter to the beginning of the fourth. There was also the one flash of lightning that prompted officials to clear the field for half-an-hour prior to the start of the second half. The predicted damaging winds never materialized and, due to the lack of rain in the area, the field absorbed most of the water and never got real sloppy.

It doesn't look like New London's home field is going to be ready any time soon.
The Whalers this week announced that the game with Waterford on Oct. 8 has been moved from New London to Waterford. The chairman of the building committee for the new turf field in New London, Peg Curtin, had originally indicated that she had hoped the field would be finished by that time.
New London has also asked for the home game against Wilton on Oct. 1 to be moved from Friday to Saturday, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m. The Whalers hoping to play the Warriors on Waterford's home field.

The New Haven Register preseason poll has Notre Dame of West Haven predicted to be the top team in the state again this year. The West Haven school took 12 of the 18 first-place votes from a panel of sportswriters with Masuk - led by former New London quarterback Casey Cochran - getting two and Xavier, New Canaan, Staples and New London getting one each.
Xavier, New Canaan, St. Joseph and Staples rounded out the top five in the balloting followed by Masuk, Cheshire, New London, Berlin and Bridgeport Central. Other ECC schools getting votes included Montville, who finished just out of the top 10, Ledyard and East Lyme.

HS Volleyball:Griswold looking to improve mental approach

2010-09-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

They have five seniors in the starting lineup, three strong juniors and a freshman who played well in her debut in a Griswold volleyball uniform.
The Wolverines have plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the year, especially after kicking it off with a, 3-2, win over Norwich Free Academy Wednesday night.
"We're all returning players, we have a freshman who's doing really well, I really think we can go far in the ECC's and even states," Griswold senior setter Tessa Velasquez said.
There were some iffy moments on Wednesday when they started to doubt themselves and the Wildcats, despite being young and inexperienced on the varsity level, took the opportunity to rally back after losing the first two games of the match.
The Wolverines settled back and relaxed after winning 25-15 and 25-14 in the first two games, then found it hard to recover that same intensity to finish up the match, despite leading 13-3 in the third game.
"We were shanking balls, we weren't focused like the first two games that we had played," said senior Nina Wojtkiewicz who finished with 16 kills, 15 digs, and four assists.
Wojtkiewicz, the emotional leader of the Wolverines, found herself hitting shots back into the net and the euphoria that she had exhibited in the first two games, suddenly turned to wrinkles of worry upon her expression-filled face.
"We lost those two games and I was like' this can't happen, we're not going to let this go,' ", she said.
As Wojtkiewicz goes, so go the Wolverines.
"She gets a little too hard on herself at times and she has to know that she's our senior leader on the court," Griswold coach Jamie Bruno said. "She has to play steady no matter what, she has to be our rock. If she loses her head and she's not as focused, the rest of the team loses its focus."
Fortunately for Bruno, the Wolverines regrouped in the fifth game and played "smart", something they hadn't necessarily done in the middle two games.
"We were trying to get kills, when we really didn't need them, NFA was just playing safe," Bruno said. "We just had to put the pressure on them by using smart shots."
The little hiccup in the middle didn't take away from the fact that it was still a Large Division team that Griswold had beaten and Bruno, like Velasquez, feels the team certainly has the potential to turn some heads this fall.
"We definitely can go places, we just have to get through the mental blockades that we set for ourselves," Bruno said. "We can be our own worst enemy at times, that's our biggest hurdle to get over, and we can do it by just staying focused through the whole match."

Boys cross country: NFA employs different strategy

2010-09-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

It was at the Class LL state cross country championships three years ago that Norwich Free Academy coach Chad Johnson realized he had pushed his team too hard in the regular season. They stood before him on that October day at Wickham Park and just didn't have anything left to give; their legs shot.
It was at that time that Johnson decided to adopt a new strategy, run less earlier on and build to the state championships and State Open competitions.
On Tuesday, he went one step further.
Saying his team had potential to do something in October, he sat his top five runners. On top of that, his No. 6 runner had to sit out with an injury. He was relying on the depth of his team to beat an Eastern Connecticut Conference opponent, East Lyme.
The gambit turned out to be a call he probably would like back after his Wildcats lost to the Vikings, 24-32.
"The front guys set different goals for the season and the East Lyme meet wasn't one of them," Johnson said. "I felt confident in our seven through 14 guys that they would be able to get the job done, we didn't want to give it away. But East Lyme ran an inspired race and our guys didn't perform as well as I thought they would."
It puts NFA behind in the conference, a loss that they need some help to recover from if they're going to get anything more than a share of the ECC Large Division title come October.
"That's fine," Johnson said. "We need to run with a true team mentality and when you're asking your guys to get up for a race 13 times, you have to ask for different guys to get up. I expected the guys that we had out there to perform better than they did, but I also think East Lyme ran a heckuva race as well. They ran confident, we ran scared."
Johnson added that, contrary to what some may think, that's not a bad thing. It's part of the maturation process as those runners, who had never been in that situation before, now have experienced it.
"Next time they're in that situation, maybe they will know how to handle it," Johnson said. "We'll get better from this race."

Grove's punishment was the right one

2010-08-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

There were those who thought that Montville head football coach Tanner Grove would be suspended for the season or even removed from the position after he was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, reckless driving and disobeying the signal of an officer early last Friday morning in Waterford.
The punishment that was handed down on Tuesday, however, seems to me to be the correct one. Grove will meet with the team on Monday, the first official day of practice, and will then be suspended until after the first game of the season.
This is not to condone his actions; to use Montville senior Tyler Girard-Floyd's words, it was a "stupid decision to get behind the wheel."
It's also a stupid decision that many have made and it has not cost them their job. Grove did the right thing when he alerted his superiors, Montville superintendent Pam Aubin and high school principal Tom Amanti about the situation on Friday following his arrest.
Grove then paid the price on Tuesday and Wednesday when the story of his arrest was all over the newspapers in Eastern Connecticut.
Now, he has to apologize to his team and its parents on Monday and, probably worst of all, not coach in one of the biggest games of the year against New London on September 17.
If anything, Grove has already taught his young players a valuable lesson; foolish decisions can cost you, on both the field and in real life.

Weather threatening CIAC title games

2010-06-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

There is some rain in the area in Stratford and it's sprinkling in Middletown, but the CIAC state championship games are on as scheduled for this Saturday.
No. 6 Waterford is playing No. 4 Montville today for the Class M state baseball championship at Palmer Field in Middletown. Brian Girasoli is covering that game and we will be providing updates both on this blog and on Norwich Bulletin.com.
The Class S softball championship, like Montville-Waterford, is slated to start at noon time. The No. 1 seeded Kangaroos bring a 22-1 record to DeLuca Field in Stratford, No. 6 St. Bernard is 19-6.
It would only seem fitting that the Class L state title will be under the threat of rain, No. 6 Bristol Eastern and No. 1 Waterford were postoned until Sunday the last time they played a state title game in 2007.
Norwich Bulletin.com will also provide continous updates on the two softball state championship games throughout the afternoon.

An All-ECC battle?

2010-06-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Montville is in, can Waterford be far behind?
The Indians qualified for the fourth state championship game in their baseball program's history Tuesday with a 9-2 win over North Branford in a Class M state semifinal game at Beehive Field in New Britain.
It seems whenever Montville makes it to a title tilt, it brings along one of its Eastern Connecticut Conference buddies. Montville beat Bacon Academy, 6-2, in its last state championship foray in 2006. It also lost to Waterford in 1998, 5-1. The only time the formula didn't hold true was in 2003 when the Indians lost to Notre Dame-Fairfield, 7-0, in 2003.
"Does this mean Waterford wins, I have no idea," Montville coach Phil Orbe said with a smile.
Would he rather play haddam-Killingworth than his old rival next door?
"I'm just happy for our kids, our fans and our community," Orbe said. "Our community gets beat up sometimes and I'm just glad we did something that will make our community proud."
Second-seeded Haddam-Killingworth and No. 6 Waterford are underway in the second game of the day at Beehive Field. The winner plays Montville either Friday night or Saturday.

Montville leads North Branford in Class M semi

2010-06-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

Justin Brachas threw five innings on Saturday, the right-hander is back on the hill today. The Indians are hoping Brachas (8-0) can get them into a Class M state championship game this weekend and so far, he's done the job.
Montville scored two runs in the first inning and another in the third and now owns a 3-1 lead over North Branford through four innings.
Tyler Contillo drew a one-out walk and Brachas followed with a single. The two runners advanced on a balk and Kyle Holland brought home both with a single to center. The Indians added another run in the third when Contillo reached on an error, moved to second on Brachas' second single of the day and scored on a Holland base hit.
North Branford (14-9) scored its only run in the fourth on a single by pitcher Danny Esposito, a double by Sage Leonard and a sacrifice fly by Marc Notile.
The Montville-North Branford semifinal is just one of six semifinals that the Norwich Bulletin is covering today.
St. Bernard and Somers are also playing a Class S softball semifinal in West Haven. That game is scoreless through three innings.

ECC boys tennis: Rain wins at ECC championship

2010-06-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

You can’t fault the effort put in by the coaches and volunteers to try and get the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys tennis championships in at Waterford High School on Monday, but the elements won out in the end.
The boys singles and doubles championship matches will be resumed today at 3 p.m. at Waterford. Top-seeded Brandon Roode of Griswold won the first set against No. 2 seed Andy King of East Lyme, 6-1, and was leading the second 2-1 when a second line of storms moved into the area. Stonington’s top-seeded doubles team of Dan Banker and Devin White were also enjoying a 6-4, 3-2 lead over the Waterford doubles team of John Stockman and Schuylar Whiting when play was called.
The two championship matches started two hours late thanks to a line of heavy thunderstorms that moved into Waterford area shortly before the scheduled start of 4 p.m.
Once the storms cleared, the Waterford coaching staff, players and volunteers manned the squeegees and even enlisted a leaf blower to clear the court of water and dry it.
Banker and White took a quick 3-0 lead in the doubles match which began prior to the singles competition. Stockman and Whiting, however, rallied to close within one game, 5-4, but the Bears duo was able to pick up the decisive sixth win.
Roode, the two-time defending ECC champion, won the first five games against King before the East Lyme player prevented the sweep in the first set. Roode came back to win the seventh game, but time was not on the players’ side as storm clouds began to gather.
Tournament director Chris Coderre stopped play when those clouds, which failed to produce any lightning, did let loose another torrent of rain that rendered the courts unplayable.

It's an ECC championship Friday!

2010-05-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

The last time these two met, bsck on May 6, East Lyme beat New London, 17-3.
The Whalers are not looking for a repeat of that tonight when they meet the Vikings in the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship game at Dodd Stadium at 7 p.m.
"It's a different day," New London coach Mike Wheeler said after his team beat Plainfield, 4-1, on Wednesday in the semifinals to put the eighth-seed into the championship game.
"When we played them last time, they hit the ball better than any team we've faced this year," Wheeler said. "Hopefully, we can keep the ball down and play some defense."
A complete game effort from sophomore Reynaldo Sierra saved the Whaler's pitching staff, they will go with a lefty, Edgar Santiago tonight against the Vikings. He will be going on his normal week's rest and the Whalers are "hoping that he will do a good job" according to Wheeler.
The baseball championship is just one of five championship events in the Eastern Connecticut Conference today.
The number one and two seeds will meet for the softball championship tonight at Griswold High School as the host Wolverines meet top-seeded Waterford. Not only are the Lancers the No. 1 seed in the tournament, they're also the top ranked team in the state. Griswold, however, hoped for another shot at the Lancers having lost to them by a 1-0 score early in the season at Waterford.
The boys lacrosse championship will be decided at 5 p.m. at East Lyme High School when undefeated Ledyard takes on the host Vikings. East Lyme has normally been the favorite in this battle, but when the two met on April 10, it was Ledyard who scored the 16-6 win.
After the boys game, the girls lacrosse title will be decided with St. Bernard playing at East Lyme. The top-seeded Saints lost to the Vikings in last year's championship game, but beat East Lyme this season.
The first championship to be decided, however, will be in girls tennis where the singles and doubles titles will be played for at 3 p.m. at Stonington High School.
The top-seed, East Lyme's Victoria Santoro, will play Stonington's own Emilie Burgess, the third-seed, for the singles title.
The doubles will feature the top-seeded pair of Amy Whitehouse and Nicole Stevens from East Lyme against second-seeded Ali Risley and Haley Mather from Windham.
The Norwich Bulletin will cover all of these events, complete with photos, in tomorrow's newspaper.

ECC championships: Saints ready for Vikes

2010-05-27T05:34:00.001-07:00

St. Bernard had its work cut out for them against Waterford.
Now, it gets to go into the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship match against an even hotter club, East Lyme.
That's fine with the Saints.
The top seed in the ECC tournament survived an 11-10 overtime thriller with the Lancers on a very hot Wednesday afternoon in Uncasville, but were already thinking ahead to the title game on Friday night in East Lyme.The Vikings advanced with a 9-6 win over Norwich Free Academy also on Wednesday.
"This will be the second time playing East Lyme this season and we know that they're going to be hungry, just as hungry as we are for them, because we're (both) looking for the ECC championship this year," Saint wing Catherine Brown said.
What she means is, the motivation is clearly there for both.
The Saints still clearly remember their 10-8 loss to the Vikings in last year's ECC championship game and the Vikings, winners of 11 straight remember their last loss this season; it was to St. Bernard by a score of 12-9.
"I'm so excited," St. Bernard senior Chelsea Phillips said of Friday's showdown with the Vikings at 7 p.m.
The key for taking on a club like the Vikings, according to Phillips, is just keeping their composure.
"I think we just have to settle down, make sure we have possession of the ball," Phillips said. "We just have to slow it down on offense, make sure we make good passes and if we play like we can, we'll be OK."
St. Bernard coach Tonya Acosta admitted she would have probably liked to have played NFA in the title game for only one reason, the Wildcats had beaten the Saints already this season and it would have been a chance to avenge that loss. But she agrees with Phillips when it comes to the key for the Saints against the Vikings.
"I think we just have to play our game," Acosta said. "We have a way we play and we don't really change it up for a team. It's not like we focus on one or two players, we play our game 100 percent and we let (the opponent) conform to us."
The East Lyme-St. Bernard championship is just one of five ECC title tilts scheduled for Friday.
The girls tennis title is slated to be decided some time after 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon in Stonington.
The ECC boys lacrosse title game between East Lyme and Ledyard will be played at 5 p.m. in East Lyme, followed by the girls title match.
The ECC baseball championship between second-seeded East Lyme and No. 8 New London will be played at Dodd Stadium on Friday night at 7 p.m. and just up the road a bit, also at 7 p.m., the ECC softball championship will be decided at Griswold High School.
The softball quarterfinals and semifinals will be played today with the quarterfinals starting at 4 p.m. in Griswold (two games on their two fields), East Lyme and Waterford. The winners then meet at 7 p.m. in East Lyme and on the main Griswold softball field to decide who gets into tomorrow night's finale.
The ECC golf championship will also be decided today at the Quinnatissett Country Club in Thompson with the first golfers teeing off at 12:30 p.m. Woodstock, the host team, is the favorite to win the team title with Killingly's Fletcher Babcock and Woodstock's Cody Semmelrock battling for the individual crown.

ECC softball and baseball tournaments not set in stone

2010-05-25T05:29:00.000-07:00

The Eastern Connecticut Conference baseball tournament begins tomorrow, the softball tournament on Thursday, but not all that much is set in stone yet.
Take for instance, softball.
Waterford plays Fitch tonight at 7 p.m. at Washington Park in Groton. If the Lancers win, they're the top seed in the tournament and will play at home against the eighth seed on Thursday afternoon an, should they win, play at home again in the semifinals against the winner of the 4th and 5th seeded game who will play at East Lyme. Griswold, currently the second seed, will host the No. 7 while the three and six seeds play on the other field at Griswold. The winners then meet in the semifinals at 7 p.m. also at Griswold. A win by Fitch over Waterford tonight would flip that all around.
"Who knows what's going to happen when the two of them play," Griswold coach Rick Arremony said about tonight's game."Waterford just doesn't give up any runs (three in 19 games), they're good, they're really good. They have players that make plays everywhere and a pitching staff to help them. I think that's a big asset for them come Thursday when they have to play two games and they have two or three pitchers they can use, they probably will use two, but they could use three. Nobody else has that."
Still, the Wolverines feel as if they're ready to take on the challenge and would like nothing better than to avenge their 1-0 loss to the Lancers back on April 20.
"All of our girls, even our young girls, know what we're up against and we can't take anything lightly," Griswold pitcher Taylor Lane said. "I know it's the ECC's in this little small corner of Connecticut, but these teams are tough. We have two of the top 10 teams in the state (Waterford and themselves) and Fitch is on our heels, we know we have a fight."
On the baseball side, Wheeler got a boost from Griswold on Monday as the Wolverines win over Lyman means a Wheeler win over St. Bernard today in North Stonington gives them the outright ECC Small Division title, the first-ever ECC title in a boys sport for the Lions.
East Lyme's doubleheader win over NFA on Monday clinched them at least a share of the ECC Large Division title, Waterford can grab a piece of that tonight with a win over Fitch.
The baseball tournament begins Wednesday with games at Dodd Stadium, Stonington, Ledyard and Norwich Free Academy, with the semifinals Wednesday night at Stonington and Dodd Stadium.
The championship games for both baseball and softball will take place on Friday, baseball at Dodd Stadium, softball at Griswold High School.

HS track: A nice day for the ECC in Montville

2010-05-22T18:04:00.000-07:00

Montville High athletic director Walt Sherwin sat down in the press box and marveled at the people surrounding his track and football field.
"What a view from up here," he said several times.
Indeed, it was a pretty impressive one.
The first Eastern Connecticut Conference track championship at Montville High was blessed with great weather; sunshine along with a few clouds to dim its effects from time to time and a nice little breeze that kept everything just a little more pleasant especially for the athletes.
The press box view that Sherwin enjoyed was an active one. Athletes on the track and on the football field, either participating or warming up for their different events.
Behind each football end zone, both jump pits were busy while the field events ringed the entire complex.
And best of all, everything went off without a hitch, at times running ahead of schedule, something that's not often said at large track meets. It finished just about on time with the javelin competition holding up the final results for about 15 minutes.
Down on the track, it was Norwich Free Academy's day to celebrate as both the boys and girls brought home ECC championships.
It was the third time in a row for the Wildcat girls, the NFA boys were happy to re-take the title after Fitch went home with it a year ago. NFA boys coach Jemal Davis said winning the title, however, was not the primary motivation that his Wildcats came in with.
"What we were focusing on was getting back to a level of expectation," Davis said. "If we compete at a certain level, we know we're a very difficult team to beat. We got the numbers which help us, but we still have to come out and perform. (The championship) wasn't a focal point, but we did want them to realize the importance of this meet."

HS softball: Fitch picking up where it left off

2010-05-21T17:47:00.001-07:00

If there’s one thing that set apart Fitch from the rest of the Class LL softball world a year ago, it was their ability to hit.
Just ask Rachele Fico.
The Masuk High graduate dominated just about everyone in her four-year tenure at the Monroe-based school, with the exception of the Falcons who beat Masuk in the LL final last June.
The faces have changed, but the story remains the same, the Falcons still can hit the ball.
Just ask NFA coach Bryan Burdick after his team fell to the Falcons on Friday, 5-3, in Groton.
“Three runs against this team is not enough, they hit,” Burdick said after his team had seen a three-run advantage disappear in the sixth inning. “We did a good job of keeping Brianna Turgeon (two singles) contained, she absolutely mashed the ball against us last time, but if they don’t get you one way, they get you another.”
Turgeon still was the key.
The junior shortstop set the stage for Fitch’s five-run sixth inning rally with a single. After that, Megan Bondy tripled her home and scored on an error. Cassie Mancini and Taylor Noel singled and winning pitcher Alana Luzzio, a freshman, had the game-winning, two-run single.
“It’s been a lot of work, we have worked so hard on hitting,” Fitch coach Kate Peruzzotti said. “We dedicate so much time in practice to hitting, we do every drill imaginable and I have to say, that most of these kids have come so far from where we started.”
Peruzzotti is obviously pleased with the improvement of players like Mancini and Kassidy Manley in the middle of the order, but the team still rotates around one key bat; Turgeon.
“She’s our go-to player, there’s no one you would rather have up with runners on base,” Peruzzotti said.
The offense and the improvement of Luzzio (9-2) in the circle has led the Falcons to a 14-3 record and the win over NFA clinched second-place in the ECC Large Division for the Falcons.
But can this team repeat what last year’s team did?
Peruzzotti’s answer to that was “Why not? Why not us?”
“I think we have a very good chance to go far in the state tournament,” Bondy said. “We have the ability, we have the skill, as long as we bring our ‘A’ game every time, we have a chance.”
One thing the Falcons have going for them; no pressure.
“I don’t think that we’re the same team by any means, but in some ways, I think we’re better,” Peruzzotti said. “We don’t expect to not give up a run, so when we do, it doesn’t phase them and last year it did a little bit I think, because they were good and people weren’t supposed to score runs against them. These guys, they’re like ‘Hey, they’re going to score runs, we just need to score more.’ “

HS softball: Tourtellotte has been snakebit

2010-05-20T08:09:00.001-07:00

There were plenty of things that the Tourtellotte softball team did right on Wednesday, but those things aren't generally reflected in the final score.
The Tigers slipped to 9-8 on the season after they fell to St. Bernard, 1-0, in Thompson on Wednesday.
What the score doesn't reflect is that the Tigers threw out three Saint runners, allowed just six hits and committed just one error before losing the game when St. Bernard scored its lone run in the top of the seventh inning.
Unfortunately, that has been the case for much of the season for Bill Rahall's club.
"This is our sixth loss by one run, it's also our fifth loss in the seventh inning," Rahall said after the game. "We've been up 5-1, 4-1, and 3-1 and have lost it in the last inning. It was 0-0 going into the last inning (Wednesday) and we lost it. I would like to have some of those games back."
The Tigers hung in against a team that had beaten them, 7-1, just six days ago thanks to some nice defensive play.
The Tigers cut down Melissa Halloran at the plate attempting to score on a base hit by Mena Buscetto in the third inning.
In the fifth, first baseman Alyson Santerre made a good decision in throwing behind runner Lindsay Rolfe at third base, they eventually caught Rolfe in a rundown and in the sixth inning, catcher Stephanie Vogel throw out Buscetto as she attempted to steal second base.
"We're playing really good defense," Rahall said. "Laura Durand made a great throw from the outfield (Wednesday). I don't think there's anyone better than Haley Anderson at shortstop, Steph Vogel and Jess Mason do a great job behind the plate."
If there's one thing the Tigers didn't do very well, it was hit. Tourtellotte was limited just three hits by St. Bernard pitcher Alexa Gospodinoff and had runners on base in just three of the seven innings.
"We didn't string hits together," Rahall said. "We kind of juggled up our lineup hoping to get some kids some better looks, but (Gospodinoff) is good."
Rahall was also pleased with Stephanie Girouard (1-5) in the circle, limiting the Saints to the six hits with four strikeouts and just two walks.
"They've been beating up on us for the last four or five years," Rahall said. "We've played great games against them and then allowed four or five runs in the sixth or seventh inning. (Wednesday) we gave up only that run in the seventh, but that's all it took for them."
The win gave the Saints at least a share of the ECC Small Division title for the first time since 2007. St. Bernard can clinch the title for its own against Wheeler on Monday.

HS golf: Wildcat provides change of pace for local girls

2010-05-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

It was a nice change of pace for many of the 19 athletes who participated in the girls portion of the Wildcat Invitational golf tournament at the Mohegan Sun Country Club at Pautipaug in Baltic on Monday.
Norwich Free Academy, Woodstock and Bacon Academy all have girls programs, but for players like Toni Malerba of St. Bernard, Albriana Farnum of Fitch, Becca Lynch of Ledyard and Kiana Hainesworth of Williams, it was a breath of fresh air.
Instead of competing from the back tees against male players for the most part, they got to compete against their female peers – one of only two times that will occur this season.
“Both Albriana and Toni have played No.1 for their respective teams, so I think it was nice for them to be able to go out and play against the girls in equal competition I guess you could say,” Fitch coach Glen Graham said.
He added, “They’ve been pretty dominant on the boy’s team, so I had her playing in the girls division just to get her some personal accolades.”
For the longest time, it looked as though Graham’s strategy would work out just perfectly as both Malerba, a senior, and Farnum, a junior, brought in identical 46 scores.
Afterwards, however, Malerba was not happy with that score.
“I missed a three-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole and got a five on it,” Malerba said with a wince. “I started off slow, got a little better, but I’m majorly disappointed.”
The twin 46’s stood for much of the tournament until the next-to-last group when Ledyard’s Becca Lynch came in three strokes better.
“I was really happy, I play a lot better from the women’s tees,” Lynch said. “It’s a lot easier to play with the girls, we get along better, and it’s easier to talk to them.”
Lynch’s lead was also short-lived.
In the last group was Kiana Hainesworth from the Williams School. The sophomore, who’s swing reminds her coach of Michelle Wie’s, shot a smooth 41 to take home the individual championship.
“I’m thrilled, absolutely thrilled with how well she played,” coach Tom Crowell said. “I know how well plays, it’s making her understand how well she plays.”
Hainesworth said the key for her was a simple game plan, keep focused on her game and take it one stroke at a time.
“I would like to play in college one day, but I’m going to have to practice more if I want to do that,” Hainesworth said.
That and add a little muscle to her long and thin frame as Crowell said the key for the sophomore might be to go on an offseason workout plan to add a little strength to her game.

HS track: Gazlay, Brown take Plainfield wins

2010-05-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

The roots of the Plainfield Invitational track meet started with two very different events, the spring decathlon and heptathlon.
The expansion to a track invitational didn't stop those events from happening on Friday and Saturday at Plainfield High School with St. Bernard's Will Gazlay and Old Saybrook's Nora Brown bringing home the title.
16 male athletes, including one unattached collegiate competitor, and nine female athletes took part in the two events.
"Those are good numbers especially since at this time of year, there are not a lot of kids ready to compete in something like that," Plainfield coach Jeff Parkinson, a former collegiate decathlete himself, said.
"It's fun, I enjoyed it, but it's a tough thing to do at this time of year," Parkinson said.
The only caveat to that is that, outside of the Plainfield competition, there are really no opportunities to experience a live decathlon or heptahlon prior to the CIAC championship in June.
"Most of these kids are never going to get the chance to try these events, let alone in a decathlon," Griswold girls coach Chris Morth said. "It's a very valuable experience for kids who are thinking about doing the decathlon and kids who know they want to do the decathlon and want to see where they're at."
Gazlay was a tweener, he didn't know about the decathlon and therefore had no choice when his coach told him to give it a try. The first-year track athlete finished with 4,745 points.
"I absolutely had a blast," Gazlay said, "some of the most fun that I've had in my life. Usually playing football and basketball, running was a punishment- now it's a sport. I totally regret not doing this since my freshman year."
The pole vault was the biggest challenge and one that he couldn't conquer as he failed to get over the bar.
"My form was terrible," Gazlay said with a smile. "I cleared the opening height, but crashed into the bar and got a nice little cut (on his lower left leg). I knew it was going to be tough, it didn't disappoint."
Gazlay led going into the ninth event, the javelin, but stumbled into third after that event. He made up for it in the 1,600-meter run when a late surge helped him finish second and bring home the victory.
"I had a feeling i would be able to do well, because I've tried several of these events," Gazlay said. "We were thinking about 4,300 points; I never expected to finish with this many points and winning the whole thing."
Woodstock's Kyle Wickiser was second (4,661 points) and Killingly's Zach Hadjer (4,443) was third.
Old Saybrook dominated the girls event with Brown finishing first, her teammates Brianna Hanley and Katie Beezer finished second and fifth.
"Having a heptahlon before the state one (is an advantage) because we usually don't do these events in practice," Brown said. "Having people to compete against is an advantage, too."
Brown's biggest stumbling blocks, the javelin and the 800-meter.
Killingly senior Lauren Hultzman was the top local finisher, she was fourth-best in the competition.
"It's a fun thing to do, gives you more practice, and you get to do events that you normally don't get to do," Hultzman said after her first-ever heptahlon competition.
The decathlon and heptahlon competitions took place in between the Plainfield Invitational events. Parkinson said the addition of the Invitational to the specialy events was a good move.
"It was time for it, time to do something a little bigger," the Plainfield boys coach said. "Schools have been asking us to do it, so we figured we would and year one went well."

HS girls track: Montville makes it a three-peat

2010-05-14T19:36:00.001-07:00

In the past two years, it has been relatively easy for the Montville girls track team in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Medium Division.
Not so this season.
“We had a little rough start to the season and were trying to figure out what kind of team this would be,” Montville coach Joel Finnegan said.
“The last two years, we’ve taken hits through graduation and are not nearly as deep as we were,” he added.
But what they lack in depth, they have made up for in talent and determination.
Shatajah Wattely has provided the talent.
She helped Montville to 20 of its points in its 83-66 win over Bacon Academy that gave the Indians their third-straight Medium Division crown.
Wattely won the 100m, 200m and 400m races and was a member of the winning 4x400m relay team. In the process, she broke her personal best by almost a full second in the 200-meter. The success this year, she’s the top-seeded sprinter in all three races going into the ECC championship next Saturday at Montville High, has her thinking big.
“I want to run in college, I want to go to the Olympics — that’s my future, future goal,” Wattely laughed.
The determination has been provided by the likes of runners like Rachael Skinner.
“We used to be able to throw a number of distance runners out there, (Friday) we had Rachael running the 4x800, the 1,600m, the 800 and the 3,200. That’s asking a lot from a kid and she never complains, just gives us everything she has.”
Mandy Joyce also provided some points with second-place finishes in the javelin and high jump — where top performer Amanda Giroux was unavailable due to an injury suffered in the hurdles — and a third in the triple jump.
“We’ve had to rely upon fewer kids and they’ve really responded,” Finnegan said. “A month ago, Bacon was better than us and we’ve really made tremendous strides in the last month.”

HS baseball: Lyman cools Wheeler's run through ECC Small

2010-05-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

East Lyme baseball coach Jack Biggs, after his team beat Wheeler by a meager two runs on Tuesday night, said he thought the Lions had a good chance to make a title run not only in the Eastern Connecticut Conference, but in the Class S tournament.
Lyman coach Marty Gomez, after his team narrowly got by the Lions, 5-4, Thursday afternoon in Lebanon, was inclined to agree with his East Lyme counterpart.
“With those two pitchers (Ben Pearson and Conor Gleason), absolutely,” Gomez said. “It’s good to see Wheeler baseball being very, very competitive with a shot to win the division.”
In fact, if Wheeler had beaten Lyman on Thursday, it would have been very difficult for anyone to catch the Lions and coach Jason Mellow said that’s a credit to his players.
“We’ve been striving for this for the last four years,” Mellow said. “I have seven seniors who were on that 2-18 team and we’ve been waiting for this, we’ve been working for this. We’re here, we’re playing tough, meaningful games.”
What got to the Lions a bit on Thursday was the lack of experience in those tough, meaningful games.
Many of the Lyman players have had that experience, not necessarily in baseball, but certainly in soccer where the Bulldogs finished as state runners-up this past fall. That experience is invaluable and it’s something the Lions didn’t have to fall back on.
The result — Wheeler fell behind quickly when Lyman scored three first-inning runs.
“Ben (Pearson) got away from using his change up, he was just going fast ball, fast ball, fast ball and (Lyman) was teeing up on him,” Mellow said. “He’s effective when he changes speeds and comes from different angles. But he came around and we battled back.”
The Lions tied the game at four in the fourth inning with a pair of runs, but again saw their confidence shattered by a pair of events. Lyman re-took the lead with a run in the bottom of the inning and Wheeler left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth.
“That was tough to come out with nothing there,” Mellow said.
Despite the loss, the upstart Lions still have plenty to look forward to although the road still has some large bumps, namely Griswold and St. Bernard.
Not that Lyman is wishing any ill will on the Lions, but they also have never won an Eastern Connecticut Conference title in baseball and a Wheeler stumble wouldn’t be unwelcome.
“Our kids want a division,” Gomez said. “We got one (title) in the Quinebaug Valley Conference and we dominated the Charter Oak Conference in baseball for years. This is something that we’ve talked to the kids about and something that they want.”

HS softball: Plainfield quietly celebrates win over NFA

2010-05-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

It’s never easy for a quality Medium Division team to beat a quality Large Division team in the Eastern Connecticut Conference.
But Plainfield’s motivation on Wednesday coming into its game with Norwich Free Academy was not the David versus Goliath theme.
The bigger concern for the Panthers was that they had lost their last two games; Lyman beat them 4-3 and Stonington delivered them a 5-4 defeat.
More so than the losses, it was how those losses came about.
“The last two games we got walked off on,” Plainfield coach Jim Langlois said with a shake of his head. “Lyman left us on the field and then Stonington did the same thing.”
But rather than sulking, the Panthers wanted to turn the negative into a positive.
“I told them we’re really close, we’re close to teams that people don’t think we can beat,” Langlois said.
NFA probably would have been included in that conversation until recently. The Wildcats have their own share of hard times, including a loss to an ECC Small Division team, Killingly, earlier this week.
“That kind of sent us mixed signals,” Plainfield shortstop Taylor Smith said.
That was because Griswold beat Plainfield, 7-0, yet barely got past the Wildcats in nine innings, 1-0.
Anotherwords, what NFA team would show up?
“You can’t come into any game underestimating a team,” Smith said.
Fortunately for the Panthers, the Wildcats continued to fight their own inner demons, could muster just two hits and lost to Plainfield, 2-0, on Wednesday in Norwich.
“We have to work our way out of this,” NFA coach Bryan Burdick said. “We made only one error (Wednesday), we don’t typically make errors, and it cost us a run. Our bats are colder than ice cold.”
When you’re not hitting, you’re not scoring and that puts pressure on the rest of your game.
“It carries over mentally from one play to the next and therein lies a major problem; when you don’t score, you press in the field, come back in and press at the plate,” Burdick said. “Hitting is a very organic process, it needs to be fluid. When you’re pressing, you’re not hitting.”
And when you’re hitting, you’re having fun.
That’s the side of the coin that Plainfield (9-5) was on Wednesday as it touched NFA pitcher Tess Rubega for four hits in the first three innings. The biggest, however, came in the fifth inning when Smith looped a triple to right field to score Lindsey Lehtonen, who had drawn a two-out walk, and came around herself on an error to give the Panthers the win.
“It’s a great win,” Langlois said and then pointed to his team who was beginning to board the bus for the ride back home. “It’s a big win for the program and, more importantly, it’s a big win for them. We’ve had big wins before, but this is for them, they’re quietly smiling. That’s not a rah-rah team, but they’re going to go home (Wednesday night) and say ‘that’s pretty good.’”

HS baseball: Plainfield downs Stonington, 6-4

2010-05-11T20:09:00.001-07:00

There were plenty of smiles in the Plainfield dugout after the Panthers 6-4 win over the Bears in Stonington on Tuesday afternoon.
They didn’t know it yet, but the Plainfield players had given their coach, John Schiffner, his 450th career victory.
What was important at the time was that the win continued the Panthers comeback from a rather dreadful start.
“We’re above .500 now and we weren’t expected to win more than two games this year,” shortstop Nik Ververis said.
The Panthers climbed to 7-6 overall thanks to a 16-hit attack and some solid pitching from Connor Green and Barry Maily.
“This team in particular has been a great deal of fun,” Schiffner said. “They have got better and I, honestly, thought we had a chance of going 0-20.”
The Panthers got their revenge for a 7-1 loss to Stonington at home with four runs in the first inning. Ververis (4-5, 3 runs scored) keyed the uprising with a two-run double, Nate Bedard added a run scoring two-bagger and Jeff Buchert knocked in the other with a single.
The Panthers made it a five-run lead in the fourth when Ververis tripled and scored on a Devin Kotulsky (3-4, 3 singles) base knock.
But the Bears put a little scare into the Panthers when they scored one in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Joe Sartor.
Green (1-2) was touched for three more in the fifth when losing pitcher Jay Hespeler and Cody Candelet singled and centerfielder Tyler Tavares put one over the fence in the field he patrols, a three-run shot to cut Plainfield’s lead to one.
“My number two hitter had a nice home run,” Stonington coach Duffy Grace said, “but, we didn’t hit the ball like we can.”
Plainfield got an insurance run in the sixth off reliever jake Berkowitz on a Kotulsky RBI single.
Maily did the rest as he came on in the sixth for the Panthers and allowed just one hit in the last two innings.

H.S. Baseball: Battling the elements in Montville

2010-05-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

Just ask Terrance Farina how bad the wind was on Monday afternoon at Montville High School.
The Waterford shortstop called for a pop up that looked like it would fall into his glove on the shortstop side of the pitcher’s mound. By the time he finally tracked down the wicked, wayward ball, it was almost on the first base line and his long trek resulted in it trickling out of his glove and on to the ground.
It was that kind of day for infielders and outfielders alike in Montville’s, 12-4, high school baseball win over Waterford.
“The wind was just whipping — it was swirling all over the place — you couldn’t get a read,” Montville outfielder Max Hart said.
The leftfielder had it easy, he was only challenged once late in the game; others weren’t so lucky.
Montville (12-2) had its own field betray it in the second inning when a fly ball by Pat Rogers got caught in the jet stream and blew over Tyler Seeley’s head for an RBI triple.
“You want it to be caught,” Indians’ winning pitcher Tre Gonzalez said. “Any time a pitch goes over your head, you cringe a little bit and want it to be caught, but you can’t be mad at anyone.”
The Indians got a measure of revenge in the bottom of the third when Hart slapped a long shot of his own to center field that resulted in a two-run triple and ignited a six-run inning for the Indians.
The wind was bad for the players; the fans had their own complaints about the weather. The game started at 5 p.m. due to testing in Waterford and when the sun went down, those left watching the game huddled close for warmth.

HS track and field: Sun, warmth greets Ledyard competitors

2010-04-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

The Ledyard Relays had built a reputation.
"Usually it's raining or snowing, and cold," NFA girls track coach Kara Kochanski said.
But for the second year in a row, blue skies and comfortable temperatures in the mid-70's greeted the coaches and participants at Ledyard High School on Saturday.
"The Ledyard relays is great," Griswold girls coach Chris Morth said. "You never get weather like this so when you come here and it's 75 degrees and sunny, the kids all get really into it."
That's because, according to the Griswold coach, that the athletes get to do some things they don't get a chance to do during dual meets.
That includes running relays which are sometimes skipped in the duals due to a lack of numbers as well as some other fun events such as the 4 x 1600 meter relay and the weight person 4 x 100-mter relay.
The other thing about the Ledyard Relays, as almost all coaches agree, it's the last "fun" event of the season prior to the tough and serious stretch that follows.
"You want to see them pop out a really good time here, but you also want it to stay under the radar," NFA assistant coach Chad Johnson said.
There were some performances that may find the radar.
Chris Antoine of NFA set a Ledyard Relay mark when he cleared six-feet-six-inches in the high jump. That was an inch better than NFA alum Mike Elliott, but there's another Elliott record that Antoine is really shooting for, his six-foot-eight mark at the ECC championship.
The only other record that fell came in the 4x1600-meter where the NFA quartet of Molly Kalla, Cassy Hunter, Kathleen O'Brien and Sarah Eagan, all seniors, breezed to victory.
The Wildcats also had Wahnetah Carty (long jump), Yana Babbitt (javelin), and Kaylan Pickford (pole vault) pick up individual firsts.
"I'm very pleased," Kochanski said. "I like the way it started out when we got the record in the mile race and then Wahnetah comes in and jumps her best in triple jump and Yana had a personal record in the javelin."

HS girls lacrosse: NFA happy with win over St. Bernard

2010-04-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

NFA coach Eric Page had his team practice a little game of keep away.
“We practiced that for the last few days, up by one, down by one, what are we going to do,” Page said.
He had expected the Wildcats game with St. Bernard, after all, to be a “nailbiiter”.
Fortunately for Page, he didn’t have to chew his nails as his Wildcats posted a 15-12 win at Norwich Free Academy on Thursday.
His Wildcats (4-2) built a six-goal lead late in the game and then practiced what he had preached, kept the ball away from the Saints.
The Wildcats got a little helping hand from the Saints (4-1) who weren’t as aggressive as coach Tonya Acosta wanted.
For example, with a minute and a half left in the first half, the Saints had the ball behind the Wildcats net. They worked the ball front and back, but Chelsea Phillips could only get a desperation attempt as time ran out. It allowed the Wildcats to go into the half with a 7-5 lead, a lead they would build on in the second half.
“That was huge,” NFA senior Lucy Fernandez said of the early lead. “The most important part of the game is winning the draws so once we got the momentum and the lead and realized that we could win and that’s what kept us motivated.”
Fernandez added that once the Wildcats built the lead to five goals, that the Saints “got a little flustered”. To their credit, St. Bernard recovered and made it a three-goal difference with five minutes, 12 seconds left in the game.
The Saints momentum, however, disappeared when thunder and lightning suspended the game for 90 minutes,
NFA put the game away just two minutes after play resumed when Abbie McNomee put one past Saints keeper Erin Amarello.
“That was the real play of the game,” Page said. “Coming out after the rain, winning the draw and scoring the goal. It was a big confidence boost for us.”

HS baseball: Lyman struggles against another Large school

2010-04-21T17:34:00.001-07:00

It was a battle of unbeatens that didn’t exactly go the way Lyman wanted.
Unfortunately, that’s been the norm rather than the exception for Lyman when it comes to playing crossover games against Large Division schools.
Wednesday was just another example as East Lyme handed Lyman its first loss in five games, 6-0.
“I knew it was going to be a tough game, but I feel like we’re where we want to be,” Lyman coach Marty Gomez said.
“We want to beat some of these (Large) teams and I think we have a team that can do that,” the Lyman coach added. “We always compete against them; we’ve beaten NFA, have never got to Fitch, have come close with Waterford, but it’s time that I think these kids want to win some of these crossover games against good baseball programs.”
Gomez added that Wednesday’s loss “was disappointing”, but he took solace in the fact that after East Lyme scored four runs in a first inning rally, the Bulldogs held them to two the rest of the way.
On the other side of the field, Vikings coach Jack Biggs was happy with his team which played well in all facets of the game. East Lyme failed to commit an error and turned two double plays defensively. Senior pitcher Alec Christian (2-0) allowed just three hits and the Vikings produced 12 hits, all of them singles.
“(Lyman starting pitcher Jared)Szuba is one of the best pitchers in the league, he’s been around for awhile, and he throws some good pitches,” Biggs said. “We did pretty well (Wednesday).”
The tests only get tougher for the Vikings this week as they travel to Groton on Friday for a 3:45 p.m. showdown with the Fitch Falcons.

HS softball: Waterford players happy with lofty ranking

2010-04-20T19:43:00.001-07:00

Some of the Waterford players thought it was pretty cool.
“It’s a nice feeling, a little unexpected too and it gave us some extra motivation (Tuesday),” Waterford sophomore pitcher Kelli Connors said after the Lancers shut out Griswold, 1-0, for their fourth straight win.
Waterford coach Liz Sutman was not exactly in agreement with that statement about the latest New Haven Register poll which has Waterford ranked third in the state.
“I was joking with my Athletic Director (Dave Sousa) that when you see that in the paper, you get the target on your back,” Sutman said. “I kind of like the team flying under the radar and surprise teams with our good fundamental play.”
Forget it, the secret’s out.
Not that the Sutman and the Lancers didn’t expect it anyway. They’re off to a 4-0 start, have their No. 1 pitcher back and have beat some respected programs in Bacon Academy, Southington and Griswold.
“Surprised? I wouldn’t say that,” Waterford shortstop Katelyn Sykora said of the early respect. “It’s a good feeling, though, we’re playing strong, we’re playing well.”

HS Baseball: New London struggling early

2010-04-19T17:06:00.001-07:00

New London baseball coach Mike Wheeler wasn’t all that happy on Monday afternoon.
In the midst of a game that his Whalers would eventually lose to Montville, 10-3, his Whalers weren’t executing even the most basic of plays.
Montville had Kyle Holland on first base and Casey Zalagens on third with two out in the fifth inning when Montville coach Phil Orbe called for Holland to attempt a delayed steal.
The object was to draw the throw to first and have Zalagens score before Holland was thrown out. The ploy worked as Zalagens scored, but what made it worse was the New London couldn’t execute the rundown properly and Holland was safe at second. It was part of a four-run fifth inning that guaranteed Montville the win.
“We’re working on all these things in practice that we made mistakes on (Monday) and a lot of these mistakes are mental,” a frustrated Wheeler said after the loss. “I would say we had five or six mental mistakes in addition to the three errors we had; taking bad angles to the ball, not knowing what we’re doing and we work on these things every day.”
Wheeler said he wasn’t sure if it was fallout from last year’s state title game that has helped New London lose three of its first four games.
It hasn’t helped that Yohendy Gonzalez – counted on to be a key player this season – has a hamstring injury which kept him out of the first two games and even limited his play against Montville on Monday when he was noticeably limping.
The Whalers will try to turn things around on Wednesday when they send Gonzalez to the hill against Bacon Academy.

HS boys lacrosse: Growing pains hurt East Lyme

2010-04-15T20:04:00.001-07:00

East Lyme is not as explosive as it has been in the past.
“Not at this point,” East Lyme coach Gary Wight agreed after his Vikings downed Norwich Free Academy, 10-5, in an Eastern Connecticut Conference Large division match Thursday night.
But can it become just as explosive as it was last season when it made it all the way to the Class M semifinals?
“I’m optimistic, but I think we definitely can,” Wight said.
The Vikings had to overcome not only losses from graduation, but early injuries and that cost them in their first two games against Guilford and Ledyard.
Now, it’s just a case of working together to get better.
“We have to get on the field and practice more, but things are starting to come together,” Wight said. “We need to get our timing down.”
The two losses, although they certainly won’t help come seeding time for the state tournament, weren’t all that detrimental. Ledyard was a non-divisional league matchup and Guilford was a non-league game.
“A lot of it has just been a learning curve and both Guilford and Ledyard are good teams, give them credit,” East Lyme senior captain Mickey Fiorillo said. “We’re working really hard in practice, especially on moving the ball, so we’re looking forward to seeing where things go.”

HS Baseball: Large Division title up in the air

2010-04-14T18:13:00.000-07:00

Woodstock surprised a lot of people last year when it came from just about out of nowhere to capture a share of the Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division title.
After a close, 5-4, loss to Fitch on Wednesday in Groton, Woodstock coach Dave Austin wasn’t about to rule out another run at the title in 2010.
“I would like to say we’ll be competitive,” Austin said. “They’re a good team and we proved a lot to ourselves and (his team) proved a lot to me and I’m very happy with them. We will show up to play and compete. I would like to say we would like to defend our share of the title and that we’re more than capable of doing that.”
The coach in the other dugout, Fitch’s Marc Peluso, wouldn’t be surprised if that that happened. In fact, he feels just about anything can happen in the Large Division this season.
“It’s wide open and it’s been like that since I started three years ago,” Peluso said of the battle for the title in 2010.
It certainly appears to be that way considering the team that many thought was the team to beat, Waterford, lost with its ace on the mound on Monday. Colin O’Keefe pitched a no-hitter into the sixth inning, but tired and the Lancers fell to East Lyme, 7-4.
All I can say is, stay tuned.

HS Baseball: Montville gains from loss to Fitch

2010-04-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

There are times when a loss may not be all that bad a thing.
Not that any coach, player or team likes to lose, but sometimes it can be a learning experience.
That’s what Montville coach Phil Orbe qualified his Indians’ 15-2 loss to Fitch on Monday after his team came back on Tuesday to down Norwich Free Academy, 4-3.
“I thought the kids learned from it, really came on (Tuesday) and put it behind us,” Orbe said.
There were times the Indians certainly could have done that, like in the fifth inning when the Wildcats scored all three of their runs.
Zach Beckwith’s two-run triple was a solid hit, but the two batters who preceded the NFA shortstop got on with a little help from Montville. An infield error allowed Dan Simoneau to reach and a good throw could have got Kevin Kneer who reached on an infield single.
“We gave them those three runs on the six outs we gave them and the one mental error, we could have hung our heads,” Orbe said.
The Indians, instead, rallied when Tyler Contillo doubled and scored in the fifth and sophomore Max Hart (2-3, 1 run scored) started the game-winning, two-run rally with a double to lead off the sixth inning.
“Max really put a great at-bat on hitting the ball the other way and used his legs from there,” Orbe said.

HS Baseball: Bobcats looking for mound help

2010-04-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

Bacon Academy will be tough to reckon with when UConn-bound senior Dave Mahoney takes to the mound.
But as Waterford proved on Monday, the Bobcats are vulnerable when he’s not.
“We have to find a No. 2 and a No. 3 pitcher,” Bobcats coach Dave Shea said. “We’re going to put some other guys out there on Wednesday (at home against Griswold) and see what they can do.”
Bacon Academy lost their second and third pitcher from last season to graduation and “have to keep experimenting” according to Shea.
The Bobcats found themselves in trouble early against the Lancers, the No. 5 ranked team in the state in the New Haven Register’s preseason media poll.
Waterford scored three runs in the first inning without a hit and added three more prior to the fifth inning. That’s when they put nine batters to the plate without making an out , getting help from four Bacon errors which broke open a close game.

HS Baseball: Plainfield struggling early

2010-04-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

The issue for the Plainfield Panthers is pretty simple; they don't have the arms they would like to have.
That's not an easy problem to overcome when you are playing in the Medium Division of the Eastern Connecticut Conference.
The Panthers lost their second straight game Saturday as Griswold beat them, 11-4. Plainfield also took it on the chin earlier in the week when they lost to Montville, 8-2.
"We have to learn how to pitch backwards a little bit more," Plainfield coach John Schiffner said. "We can't afford to walk anybody, we can't afford to make any errors, we need to rely on our defense."
It doesn't make it any easier that Plainfield, due to its school enrollment, has been bumped up to the Medium Division.
"Well, what are you going to do," Schiffner said of the bump up. "Baseball is baseball. In other sports, it might be a bigger factor, but we'll play with anybody and try to keep getting better."
If there's any consolation, it's just a one-year engagement as the Panthers - thanks to Putnam's departure from the ECC - will drop back into the Small Division next season.
"We're working hard, we have a really good group of kids, so we'll see what happens," Schiffner said.

Woodstock sophomore perseveres in debut

2010-04-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

Woodstock Academy sophomore Gen Cohen had a little baptism of fire on Wednesday in the season opener for the Centaurs in Waterford.
Cohen, who was named All-Norwich Bulletin as a freshman doubles player for the Academy last season, is now the No. 2 singles player for Woodstock. In the season opener, she matched up with Emily Qian of the Lancers and it took more than a little while to decide, like 3 ½ hours.
“It’s an honor to play singles, but it’s just so much harder,” Cohen said. “I could never even imagine playing 3 ½ hours.”
Fortunately for Cohen, it was 3 ½ hours that turned out to be time well spent. She beat Qian 6-7, 7-4, 6-2, 7-5 to help her teammates down Waterford, 5-2.
“You don’t even realize how long that is,” Cohen said. “Even when the professionals play, it rarely goes to that unless its (Roger) Federer and (Rafael) Nadal playing. It came down to who was going to get the volley.”
You can read more about the Woodstock Centaurs girls tennis program in this Sunday’s Norwich Bulletin.

All-Norwich Bulletin selections revealed Sunday

2010-04-06T18:42:00.001-07:00

For the many who are wondering when the all- Norwich Bulletin section is coming out, the wait is almost over.
The full-color, 16-page section complete with the best athletes who competed in basketball, indoor track, wrestling, hockey, gymnastics and swimming, will be on your doorstep and on the newsstand this coming Sunday.
How do we choose the all-Norwich Bulletin athletes?
The Bulletin sports staff has seen just about every team play this past winter and we use that information, statistics, and input from coaches (when we feel we need even more information) to make the choices.
There may be a few surprises and I will be able to write more about some of the selections after we reveal them on Sunday.
In the meantime, the high school spring sports season begins today, but our spring sports previews continue. In today’s edition, check out the girl’s lacrosse preview including a story about the new coaching staff at East Lyme.
On Thursday, we preview the boy’s tennis season as well as give you all the results from the first day of spring competition.

Montville hanging tough with St. Joseph's

2009-12-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

St. Joseph has had the edge in possession, Montville in position in the first half of the Class SS state championship game in West Haven.
The Indians have had more than their share of big plays, but turnovers have been costly.
A 52-yard pass from J.P. Morales to Jesse Sutherland got Montville down to the 33-yard line of the Cadets. A fumble by Tyler Girard Floyd was then picked up by Sutherland at the 13 and he moved it to the two. But the Indians fumbled into the end zone one-play later to end the threat.
The Indians also got a 44-yard run by Skyler McNair (4 carries, 46 yards), to the St. Joseph 29-yard line, only to fumble it back to the Cadets three plays later.
The Cadets, meanwhile, have not been able to get much against the Montville defense. Tyler Matakevitch has 58 yards on the ground, but it's taken him 14 carries to get it. Quarterback Joe DellaVecchia has completed 4-of-10 passes for just 19 yards.
The game right now rests on the leg of Montville kicker Ben Middel who kicked a 47-yard field goal on the last play of the first half to give the indians the 3-0 lead.

Wilcox says 'Montville is ready'

2009-12-05T10:38:00.001-08:00

"This is Montville weather!," Montville assistant coach Gary Wilcox said as the indians left the field from pregame warmups.
The rain continues to come down at West Haven High School where Montville and St. Joseph's will square off for the Class SS state championship in just about 20 minutes.
Along with the rain, a stiff breeze has started to develop, blowing left to right across the field and it's definitely getting colder. Montville running back Skyler McNair went to find his gloves on the sidelines as he "couldn't feel his fingers" after about 20 minutes of warmup work.
Still, Wilcox thought the weather will work in Montville's favor as St. Joseph comes out of the spread offense.
"The kids are excited, they're up, they're pumped and they're just happy to be here," Wilcox said. "Now, we just have to go play against a very good opponent."

Bundle up

2009-12-05T10:06:00.000-08:00

The game between Montville and St. Joseph's will take place today, but the conditions are far from ideal.
A steady, cold rain is falling at West Haven High School and the wind is beginning to pick up as evidenced by the umbrellas getting inverted in the stands.
The 2 p.m. games, including the Indians and Cadets and New Canaan against East Lyme will be played today. The two night games, however, will not take place until tomorrow at 2 p.m. as today's rain is expected to turn into snow by nightfall.
The Indians arrived at West Haven well in advance of St. Joseph's which came in around 12:30 p.m. this afternoon. The Cadets do have the proximity advantage as their school is just a short 20-minute ride away.

Evans not bothered by today's signing

2009-11-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

Norwich Free Academy senior Kastine Evans is making one of the biggest decisions of her life today.
She didn't let that affect her on the volleyball court Thursday night.
Evans had 18 kills and 11 assists to help NFA defeat Fitch, 3-1, for its first-ever ECC championship in the sport Thursday night at Griswold High School.
This afternoon at 3 p.m. on the NFA campus, Evans will make her decision known as to what school she will attend to play Division-I college basketball, CiCincinnati or Kentucky.
"I already know," Evans said when asked if the announcement was weighing heavy on her mind Thursday night. "It's just there, everybody else is waiting, I already know."
Evans sounded pretty confident about the decision that she has made.
"Very comfortable," Evans said. "I know that where I go, I'm going to be in the right place. I think it's going to be the right fit for me."

Power and Ziegler are a handful

2009-11-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

Woodstock Academy coach Jason Gerum came over to me at midfield as we watched his Centaurs battle the East Lyme Vikings in a boys soccer game on Wednesday and had one question.
"I wonder what their goal-to-shot ratio is?," Gerum questioned.
I only had a two-word answer for him, "pretty good."
The Vikings, at one point in the second half, had only three shots on goal- two of them found their way into the net.
That's what happens when you have players like Phil Ziegler and Gary Power. Ziegler is noew the school's all-time leading scorer and , not surprisingly , Power is now the all-time playmaker. Put that together and it spells more than trouble for opponents.
What's worse, the Vikings continue to put things together and could be primed for a run like last season. A run that carried them into a state championship game.
"We've had a very tough schedule and the only game we've lost in the past three weeks was to Waterford," East Lyme coach Paul Christensen said.
"We've fought back and started the momentum going again- we've played our best soccer in the last three days," he added. "We've come together as a team - it took a little while longer than I hoped - but this is the time of year that we want to play."
Ziegler finished with two goals on Wednesday to give him 26 on the season. Power helped on one of those to give him 23 assists on the season.
"This was a great way to end the season and go into the tournament on a high," Ziegler said of the Woodstock win. "Hopefully it ends like last year, in the finals."

Tournament time

2009-11-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for something else to do other than just checking election results, there will be some good volleyball being played at Griswold High School.
The Eastern Connecticut Conference volleyball semifinals get underway at 4;30 p.m. with the Plainfield Panthers taking on Fitch in the first semifinal. The second matchup will pit the top seed, NFA, against No. 4 East Lyme.
One thing the Wildcats will not be able to do this season is sneak around. NFA is, of course, the defending Class LL state champ and that means the bullseye will be large, not only in the ECC tournament, but in the states which begin next week.
"It's tough to repeat, but we're hungry," NFA coach Bill Howard said. "People didn't know about us last year and we kind of flew under the radar. They will be expecting us this year."
That includes the Vikings who lost to NFA, 3-0, just a week ago but look like they have recovered with their bout with the flu bug that took place last week.
The Panthers have a tough task today as it will be their first appearance in a match at this level. The three-year old varsity program advanced with a little revenge -match win over Lyman Monday night.
"Fitch is a really good team and a well-established program," Plainfield coach Bob Arremony said.

Young offensive line coming together for Bears

2009-10-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

Nick Burton anchors the middle with Henry Williamson and Ben Macko on his left and right andx the duo of Alex Mitchell and Luke Brogno at tackles.
The five comprise the offensive line for the Stonington Bears and without them, the double-wing could not hope to be as successful as it was against Killingly Friday night.
The Bears had the ball eight times at home against the Redmen and on seven of those occasions, they found the end zone in a 48-13 win. The win guarantees the Bears at least a share of the Eastern Connecticut Conference's Small Division title .
"Our offensive line really stepped up," Jim Connelly said. "Everyone blocked well, everyone played extremely well (Friday night)."
Connelly should know as he was one of the big beneficiaries, recording 149 yards on just nine carries. Josh Whitford added 101 yards in only 13 carries and scored twice for the Bears.
The nice thing for coach A.J. Massengale, that offensive line is comprised of almost all juniors and sseniors.
"They did a great job," the Stonington coach said. "They really opened up some good holes, we went right after people and for some young kids, they've come a long way."

Practice makes perfect for Lyman

2009-10-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

Seniors on the Lyman Memorial volleyball team are used to success in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division, but it hasn't always been that way.
The Bulldogs captured their second Small Division title in the last three years on Wednesday afternoon with a 3-0 win in Putnam. But this group also remembers when it finished 4-6 in the Division just four short years ago.
The difference between then and now; practice.
"I think that most of our players are doing something in the offseason," senior Kyla Bielert said. "Everyone's doing club ball or something over the summer that helps you get in shape for the season. Our coach (Stephen Lewis) has also adjusted to the times, making sure he's up to date with everything that can help us out."
Fellow senior Kena Perry said it's a world of difference between what is now and what was when Lewis first came on board.
"There's been so many big improvements since four years ago," Perry said. "It's fantastic how the girls are working in the offseason to get better. It's turned things around."
Putnam coach Curt Hull knew his Clippers didn't really have much of a chance against the Bulldogs on Wednesday. That was not only due to their youth, but also their commitmentto the game and most times, it's not their fault.
"A lot of our girls don't have the ability to travel distances to go play in leagues outside of the season ," Hull said.
"The family doesn't have the financial wherewithal to send them to those leagues and every girl on the Lyman squad is playing in those leagues - that makes a huge difference., " Hull added.

Just the beginning for the Wildcats

2009-10-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

You had to like the camaraderie shown on Monday night in Norwich.
The Coventry girls volleyball team hung around and shared the Senior Night celebration with their Norwich Free Academy counterparts after the Patriots had just beaten the Wildcats, 3-0.
It's not like the result was unexpected as Coventry had posted 86 consecutive wins coming into the matchup between the defending Class S champion Patriots and Class LL champion, Wildcats.
Both teams have bulked up for the final week of the regular season with NFA set to play East Lyme on Wednesday and RHAM on Friday. Coventry was also bulking up its schedule as the Patriots still have to play Southington, Avon and Ellington.
"This is the best stretch of volleyball, in terms of opponents, that we have played- ever," Coventry coach Matt Hurlock said.
What's even tougher for Coventry is that they will be playing those teams on the road and most of them, like NFA, will be celebrating their Senior Nights.
"NFA is much improved," Hurlock added as his team beat the Wildcats, 3-0, earlier in the season. "We saw them at the beginning of the year and we played the way we play and it wasn't even a ballgame. They went on a run and dominated the ECC and they're going to be a tough out in the (Class) LL tournament."

A look ahead to Tuesday

2009-07-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Montville and New London will battle one another to decide who remains in Bristol and who comes home.
That's the result of Montville's 4-3, 10-inning loss to Branford in the winner's bracket of the American Legion State Tournament earlier this morning.
The Norwich Bulletin will cover that game in Bristol this afternoon with John Shishmanian coming along to provide the photos.
Joe Perez will continue our coverage of Jewett City's quest for a Little League softball state championship. Jewett City faces a must win tonight at 6 p.m. when they play Milford at Waterford South Little League. Milford won the first game between the two, 4-3, in nine innings on Sunday.

A look ahead

2009-07-26T09:30:00.001-07:00

Jewett City's Little League softball All-Star team begins its quest for a state title tonight at 6 p.m. in Waterford as they open a best-of-three series against Milford at the Waterford South Little League complex.
The series is starting a day later than planned thanks to a rainout earlier in the week in the Section II finals. Jewett City coach Archie Drobiak was concerned that if the series had started yesterday, as originally planned, his pitching rotation would have been compromised. (Little League softball pitchers must have a day of rest between outings). Thus, the first game was pushed back to tonight, we do plan to have complete coverage for you in Monday's Norwich Bulletin.
The Connecticut Defenders are back at home and Joe Perez will be on hand to report on today's game.
Matt Stout also has a look back at yesterday's WNBA All-Star game especially the lady of the day, Most Valuable Player Swin Cash.

What tomorrow brings

2009-07-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

You can call this a little preview of what to expect in Saturday's sports pages of the Norwich Bulletin.
Joe Perez will be in Rocky Hill tonight covering the Little League softball 11-12 year-old Section II championship. Jewett City takes on Vernon in the game slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. (You can check Thursday's sport section for directions to the park). A win for Jewett City sends them to the state championship against the Section I champion. That series is slated to begin Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Waterford South Little League complex. It's a best two-out-of three series for the state title.
Matt Stout and I have been working on a special preview for the WNBA All-Star game that takes place tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. at the Mohegan Sun Arena. We'll have a complete rundown of the members of both teams as well as several features.
We'll also have the results from Montville's rain-delayed American Legion play-in game (Montville trailed Stamford 5-1 in the fifth inning when it was suspended) and our weekly NASCAR page.
We hope you enjoy.

State championship odyssey

2009-06-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

I always love to see where state championship Saturday will take me, because it's always an adventure.
This year is no exception as I begin this Saturday at Palmer Field in Middletown where the New London Whalers are playing the Knights of Ellington for the Class M baseball championship.
I love Palmer Field, it's a great baseball venue, I just hate getting here. Coming from my home in Killingly, there's only one route that's even semi-direct and it's two-lane blacktop all the way on Route 66. It's a great road through the middle of the Connecticut countryside, but you don't get any where very fast.
From here, provided the weather doesn't go downhill, it's off to West Haven for the Class L girls softball championship game between Waterford and Darien at 3:30 p.m.
We finish off tonight at 7 p.m. in Stratford at DeLuca Field as Fitch meets Masuk for the Class LL girls softball state title.
Matt Stout, meanwhile, is headed to Trumbull to cover St. Bernard's Division II girls lacrosse state championship match with Immaculate at 3 p.m..
We'll keep you up-to-date as time, and facilities, permit.

Montville leading, 3-1, in M quarterfinals

2009-06-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

You almost wonder if both Montville and Ellington had proms last night.
Neither is playing the smoothest of baseball right now in their Class M quarterfinal meeting at ECSU in Mansfield.
The Indians have already committed three errors in the game, but have managed to build a 3-1 lead through three innings.
Montville scored one in the first on a RBI ground out by Tyler Seeley. After the Knights answered with a run in the top of the second, Montville added two more in the third off Ellington lefty Brian Francolini.
Jesse Sutherland singled hard past short to score J.P. Morales who had reached on an error. Sutherland came home on a triple by Alec Brown.
Derek Wilcox (8-0) is pitching for the Indians.

Vincent likes Dodd Stadium site

2009-05-28T16:39:00.000-07:00

Eastern Connecticut Conference baseball chairman Pete Vincent said the crowd could have been a bit more robust, but he's been pleased with how everything has gone in tonight's ECC baseball championship at Dodd Stadium.
"Dodd Stadium has been great offering up the facility," Vincent, the Ledyard High athletic director, said. "The kids got on the field for batting practice before the game, the field is in great shape and, hopefully, we can continue this for years to come."
The Defenders did chip in and help create the atmosphere. Connecticut General manager Charlie Dowd was even out in the parking lot prior to the game helping to direct traffic.
"It's a family crowd, a high school kid crowd, two good rivals (Montville and NFA), the only thing that could have been better was that the sun could have been shining a bit more," Dowd said.

Nice crowd at Dodd

2009-05-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

They're adorned in Norwich Free Academy red down the third base line and Montville orange on the first base side.
A good crowd has come out for the Eastern Connecticut Conference baseball championship being played at Dodd Stadium in Norwich between the Wildcats and Indians on this gloomy Thursday night.
The Indians' fans have had more to cheer about thus far as Montville shortstop Jesse Sutherland led off with a double and scored on a base hit by Alec Brown in the bottom of the first inning for the early lead.
Tyler Contillo added a triple for Montville in the first, but a base-running miscue was followed by a pair of strikeouts which prevented any further damage by the Indians.

Montville owns 1-0 lead over Fitch in ECC Semifinal

2009-05-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

Halfway through the Eastern Connecticut Conference baseball semifinal between No. 1 Montville and No. 4 Fitch at East Lyme High, the Indians hold a 1-0 lead over the Falcons in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Ray Ingram scored the only run of the game thus far in the second inning when he reached on an error, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. Montville catcher Kyle Holland then stroked a single to left to give the Indians the lead.
Montville also had runners on second and third in the first inning and first and second in the third. The Indians have five hits off Fitch starter Kevin Wallace, the Falcons have mustered just three off Montville pitcher Dave MacCracken.
Over on the football field, East Lyme scored two goals in the first 23 seconds but things have tightened up considerably since in its ECC semifinal match up with NFA. The Wildcats trail just 4-3 with five minutes left in the first half.

Weather holds up for ECC semifinals

2009-05-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

It's not exactly warm, but it's dry and that was a big concern coming into the Eastern Connecticut Conference semifinals at East Lyme High School tonight.
The match-up is certainly a good one with two of the top 10 teams in the state, top-seeded Montville, playing No. 4 seed Fitch.
The Indians advanced in typical fashion with a 6-0 win over Killingly earlier this afternoon at East Lyme High. Jesse Sutherland had his 10th home run of the season in the first at-bat for Montville in the bottom of the first.
Killingly coach Dan Vogt wasn't going to take chances in the fourth inning when Sutherland came up with runners on second and third. Vogt intentionally walked Sutherland for the second time in the game which brought a smattering of boos down upon the the Killingly coach and apparently fired up Alec Brown. The Montville third baseman took Killingly starter Anthoney Tetreault yard for a grand slam and Montville never looked back as senior pitcher Derek Wilcox won his sixth straight game, he hasn't lost since his sophomore year.
The Falcons played just down the road in Waterford and gained a little revenge on Woodstock. The Centaurs beat the Falcons last week to claim a share of the ECC Large Division title, but couldn't repeat the magic.
Joey Gingerella (6-2) spun a three-hitter and the Falcons backed him up with three first inning runs.
Kevin Wallace doubled home two of those as he finished with a pair of hits on the day. John Leese also had two hits for the Falcons who finished with seven against Woodstock losing pitcher, Jim Sullivan.
It's a busy night here at East Lyme.
In addition to the baseball game, the NFA Wildcats are playing East Lyme in an ECC lacrosse semifinal on the football field.
An earlier girls semifinal saw the host Vikings, the top seed in the ECC tournament, advance with a win over No. 4 seed Waterford, 10-6. The Vikings face the winner of tonight's NFA at St. Bernard game in the ECC Championship Friday night at 7 p.m. here at East Lyme.

East Lyme scores big win over Montville

2009-04-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

The way Montville tossed around East Lyme starting pitcher Kevin Bartlett in the first two innings Thursday afternoon, there was no reason to believe that he would still be on the mound in the seventh inning.
But the tall, lanky left-hander proved to be resilient against a Montville team that has been one of the better hitting squads to start the season. Bartlett survived the early barrage, settled down and his teammates rallied behind him as the Vikings handed the Indians their first loss, 13-6.
“This is my first start of the year, so I haven’t thrown in a while, and I still have to get my groove back,” Bartlett said. “I just kept fighting and battling. (The Montville) guys are good hitters, and I surprised myself and went a lot further than I thought.”
Bartlett got some early support when the Vikings scored three runs in the top of the first on a double by Caleb Gulovsen, singles by Alec Christian and Bryan Rowe, a pair of walks and an error.
Montville starting pitcher Jesse Sutherland (0-1) got one of those runs back quickly for the Indians. He was the first batter of the season that Bartlett faced, and Sutherland took him over the fence in right-center.
Bartlett escaped further damage in the first inning, but ran into much more trouble in the second. Ray Ingram had a one-out double and Sutherland almost went yard again an out later. He took a pitch that was just inches off the dirt and muscled it to centerfield where it bounced off the fence on one hop for an RBI triple.
“He’s a great player; probably the toughest hitter I’ve pitched against in awhile,” Bartlett said.
Sutherland didn’t stay at third for long. After Tyler Contillo was hit by a pitch, Montville coach Phil Orbe called for a delayed steal at second, which worked to perfection as an attempt to get Contillo — who was goading East Lyme into throwing — sailed into centerfield to allow Sutherland to score and Contillo to move to third. He came home on a single by Tyler Seeley (3-for-4 and a run scored) after Alec Brown had also been hit by a pitch. Brown came around on another delayed steal.
East Lyme got those runs back in the fifth off Sutherland as Jon Nazarko and Christian singled and Al Lloyd reached on an error to bring up junior first baseman Eric Morse. “Moose,” as coach Jack Biggs affectionately refers to him, was coming off bicep tendinitis and has struggled at the plate early as a result.
“I went up there thinking that we needed to get back in this game and I wanted to do something that would bring the momentum back to our side,” Morse said.
He delivered as he drilled a ball over the head of John Wasilko in left field for a bases-clearing double that put East Lyme ahead for good, 7-5. Morse added to his excitement in the sixth inning — after Montville had cut the lead to one — with a tailing two-run double to right field.
“I was feeling even better — I was on cloud nine,” Morse said.
The Vikings posted only their second win in five games.
“It may gain us some confidence, but everyone has to know also that it’s a long season ahead of us, especially with all the rain outs and the games backed up,” Biggs said.
While East Lyme was looking for a boost, Montville coach Phil Orbe said a little humble pie was probably good for his club after a 4-0 start.
“We have a lot of stuff to work on and sometimes winning becomes a big deodorant for things that you’re not doing well,” the Montville coach said. “When you give up 13 runs, it will help us focus and really come out and work (Friday).”

NFA leads Wilbur Cross, 11-9

2009-03-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Stephanie Long has scored four points to help give NFA an 11-9 lead over Wilbur Cross after on quarter of the Class LL girls basketball state semifinals at Central Connecticut State University.

Bacon Academy advances to Class M title game

2009-03-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

It may have taken place on a larger stage, but the script changed little and that was bad news for Windham.
The Whippets – as they had on their home floor and as they had in Colchester in previous losses to Bacon – played well in the first half and actually held the lead going into the second half. But as it has in the previous two encounters, the third eight-minute dance proved to be the decisive one and it was dominated by the Bobcats.
As a result, Bacon advanced to its first Class M state championship game since 2001 with a 59-50 win at Central Connecticut State University Saturday over their Eastern Connecticut Conference rivals.
The top-seeded team in the M Division will now play third-seeded Berlin for the state championship at the Mohegan Sun Arena next weekend at a time to be determined. Berlin advanced with a 54-41 win over Ellington on Saturday.
"Our kids showed a lot of guts," Bacon coach Dave Shea said. "They showed that they have character and can come from behind, keep their spirit up and keep working hard."
The Bobcats trailed, 30-26, going into the second half but knew one important thing.
"The third quarter wins games," Bacon senior Brooke Bailey said.
The Bobcats (24-2) wasted little time tying the game up as Katie Mahoney followed up a McKenzie Hyde miss to make it a two-point game. After Dominique Demar blocked a Windham attempt on the other end, Hyde followed up her own missed shot to tie the game at 30.
The senior forward was held to three points in the first half, part of that due to the fact that she had picked up her second foul with 2 ½ minutes left in the first quarter.
"It was frustrating, but I just kept my head in the game and tried to stay composed on defense," Hyde said.
Since she failed to pick up her third infraction in the first half, Hyde was able to play more aggressively in the second and had another putback to complete a 9-0 Bacon run to open the second half.
Windham (20-6) did tie the game on a three-point play by Amie Toner (14 points, 14 rebounds), but Katie Mahoney hit five of the next seven points and Hyde - who finished with a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds- followed that with six consecutive points to give Bacon the 46-37 lead going into the final quarter.
"We talked about that at halftime," Windham coach Ken Valliere said. "We had been in that position before- been ahead of them at halftime- but we had to go out and play a good 16 minutes and it was what, 20-7(in the third quarter); it’s an uphill battle from there."
Bacon also switched up the defenses as Shea elected to go man-to-man in the first half which produced a lot of open looks for sophomore guard Ali Risley. She took advantage of those to drop four 3-pointers on the Bobcats. Those looks went away in the second half when Bacon went back to its traditional 2-3 zone and extended it.
"It’s kind of funny to go into a zone after Risley was hitting all those shots, but we’re pretty good in that 2-3 zone and extend out to the wings really well," Shea said.
"My teammates were really good kicking it out in the first half, but in the second half they got out on me more- maybe, I should have moved around more," said Risley who finished with those 12 points as she didn’t score after the first quarter.
"They’re big across the baseline and (Shea’s) crazy to play man-to-man against us, I don’t know why he did that in the first half" Valliere said. "We penetrate the zone pretty good, but they swallow us up."
The Whippets had a run left in them late in the fourth quarter as Danyelle Rodriguez went baseline for two and, after two missed Bacon free throws, hit a 3-pointer with 51 seconds left to cut the deficit to four, 54-50. The Bobcats finished things from the free throw line where Mary Corrado and Bailey both sank a pair and Hyde added one with 22 seconds left to send the Bobcats into the championship game.
"I know the coaches know about them," Mahoney said when asked about Berlin. "Right now, I’m just so happy we won and we have a week to prepare."
"Berlin has a really tall girl (Katelyn Zarotney), she’s like Amie (Toner) on the boards," Hyde said. "I’ve played AAU with her and we just have to box her out."
Bacon has never won a state title game as it lost in 2001 to Plainville in the Class M final and fell to Westbrook in a Class S championship game in 1979.

Superintendents nix football plan

2009-03-11T20:29:00.001-07:00

The football committee of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) thought it was a good idea, as did a majority of football coaches. But as a proposal to expand the state high school football playoff format climbed the ladder, it ran into resistance.
The top rung of that ladder decided that it, as it stands now, will go no further.
CIAC Executive Director Michael Savage said on Wednesday that he had met with the executive board of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents last Thursday and the superintendents expressed reservations about the plan.
The idea, devised by a group within the CIAC football committee, called for an expansion of the high school football playoffs from 24 teams to 48 by adding a quarterfinal round that would take place the Thursday prior to Thanksgiving.
The committee decided that Thanksgiving Day football rivalries are sacred to many and that those games should continue in the midst of the new playoff system. The semifinals, as is the case now, would be held the Tuesday after the holiday and the championship games on the following Saturday.
According to Savage, the Superintendents took exception to the plan based on three issues:
— The physical toll on high school players of playing four games in 16 days.
— The impact on Thanksgiving Day games
— Shortening the regular season for all to lengthen the playoff season for fewer teams
“The superintendents sent a letter to the Board of Control asking to postpone any decision on this matter until the superintendent’s concerns were addressed and that no action be taken until after the 2009 season,” Savage said.
The death knell of the plan is in the details, as the superintendents made it clear these issues would have to be dealt with without any discussion of extending the football season, according to Savage.
“Everyone, including the superintendents familiar with the situation, is pleased that the football committee discussed the extension of tournament play for the last 18-24 months and commend them for their work,” Savage said. “If there are ways to address these concerns without extending the season, everyone is open to listen to those recommendations.”
Supporters of the plan such as Ledyard High School coach and football committee member Jim Buonocore felt the new system was the way to go.
“I felt we had a viable plan that met the needs of the coaches and the powers that be,” Buonocore said. “I was satisfied with the effort that we made, disappointed that we didn’t get a full vote, but I support and respect the decision of the superintendents.”
The CIAC Board of Control meets on March 19 and will likely follow the superintendents’ recommendations and table the proposal. Savage said in his 30 years with the CIAC, he has never seen the Board of Control not follow the superintendents’ advice.
“It’s a dilemma to get more games in and deal with issues concerning the safety of the kids. Four games in 16 days is significant,” Windham High principal and Board of Control member Gene Blain said. “It’s a concern and I think we need to have some medical opinion on that before moving forward.”
Savage said the proposal had the “overwhelming support” of coaches. Athletic directors were less enthusiastic, but still “reasonably supportive.” As you went up the ladder, however, principals and superintendents were much less enthusiastic.
“You try to get as much feedback as possible,” Blain said. “This was precedent setting and you need to have everybody on board. Everything had to be perfect for it to happen (this fall); that wasn’t likely.”
Savage said one alternative to the plan could be increasing the number of divisions from six to as many as 10. That could give more opportunities to more teams, but Blain said he felt coaches may feel more divisions would dilute the field too much.
Cochran to be discussed
One issue the Board of Control will take up on March 19 is that of former New London baseball and current football coach Jack Cochran.
Cochran resigned last Friday before he even coached a baseball game after the school self-reported to the CIAC that it had evidence of a minimum of three rule violations regarding offseason practice for the baseball team.
Cochran said Friday that resigned so the kids on the team will not be punished for his actions, which included facilitating the use of the gym for baseball practice by players and parents.
Savage said the Board of Control has the “authority to do whatever it wishes” as far as Cochran is concerned, including taking disciplinary actions. That discipline could include fines or sanctions such as suspension or probation against the school, coaches and players.
New London was fined by the CIAC this past fall after Cochran allowed eighth graders into preseason practice with the high school varsity football team.

St. Bernard squeaks by Ellis Tech

2009-03-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

Joey Cyr may play for the St. Bernard boys basketball team, but he probably has more in common with the team his Saints met Monday in the first round of the Class M tournament.
Cyr lives just about five miles from Ellis Tech in Danielson and grew up playing basketball with some of the Eagles players.
It added just a little more fuel to Cyr’s fire, not that he needed much more in the way of motivation. After all, this was a state tournament game and the St. Bernard senior knew it would be his last in a Saints uniform if they lost.
He helped make sure that didn’t happen, netting 18 points to help St. Bernard (14-8) slip by the upset-minded Eagles, 46-45, and into the next round.
“(Ellis Tech junior) Sean (Haythe) was on my team for three or four years in rec. league, so it was fun to play him,” Cyr said. “Beating Killingly before and then beating Ellis twice this year, it’s definitely bragging rights in northeastern Connecticut.”
Cyr put the Eagles behind in the first half after he outscored their team, 13-8, in the second quarter. Ellis Tech had sliced an early seven-point deficit to just two at the beginning of the second quarter when Andre Curiel (10 points, seven rebounds) hit a free throw, the only St. Bernard point in the quarter that was not scored by Cyr.
After Ellis Tech missed five consecutive shots, Cyr laid down the first of two 3-pointers within 25 seconds of one another. A free throw by Joe Guilmette for the Eagles did little to cool Cyr’s fire as he followed with a traditional three-point play and then added four more free throws to push the Saints’ lead to 24-14 at the half.
“Wow, I didn’t notice that,” St. Bernard coach Tim Payne said with a laugh about Cyr’s second-quarter barrage. “Did I take him out?”
Ellis Tech coach Dan Piccione, meanwhile, couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His Eagles made just 5-of-28 shots from the floor in the first half and followed that with a 5-of-18 performance in the third quarter.
Lay-ups, 3-pointers, put-backs — nothing was falling, which led Piccione at one point to turn to his assistant coach, Josh Dinerman, and exclaim, “I give up.”
“(It was) really frustrating. It’s lucky that we were even in the game,” Piccione said. “When you can’t make a shot, it’s tough.”
But the Eagles still trailed by only nine entering the fourth quarter, and a pair of 3-pointers by brothers Jon and Josh Arraje brought Ellis back to life, closing the gap to three points. Three minutes later, Jaymie Cellucci’s only basket of the night cut it to one with 2:08 left.
“They’re a good team, they played hard,” Cyr said. “We kind of overlooked them a little when we got the lead and just started coasting.”
Cyr, who had been quiet since the second quarter with the exception of two free throws in the fourth, made three of four from the line. Dylan Delacruz added one from the charity stripe and Josh Bowyer sealed the deal with a pair with 12 seconds left to make it 46-42.
Jon Arraje (16 points) hit a 3-pointer with six seconds left to cut the deficit to one, but Ellis Tech (11-12) was out of time-outs.
“It’s a shame, but there was nothing we could do about it,” Jon Arraje said. “If it happens, it happens. Game’s over.”
The Eagles are still seeking the first state tournament victory in program history.
“We’re just going to have to wait, hopefully until next year,” Piccione said. “It seems like we’re cursed.”
The Saints get another Constitution State Conference team next as they travel to Danbury to take on that league’s champ, Abbott Tech, on Wednesday.

Cochran resigns as New London baseball coach

2009-03-06T21:16:00.001-08:00

Jack Cochran was named baseball coach of the New London a couple of months ago, but he won’t get a chance to ever step foot in the dugout.
Cochran handed in his resignation to athletic director Bob Brackett Friday after Brackett told him that he had committed an offseason practice violation and the school was going to report the incident to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference.
New London High principal Dan Sullivan said that he had received a report that Cochran had committed violations and asked Brackett to investigate.
“(Brackett) determined that on a minimum of three occasions, Jack had provided access to (the school’s) facilities during which time parents and students participated in hitting drills and other baseball-related activities,” Sullivan said.
Cochran admitted that he did open up the New London gym for the parents.
“I didn’t know (that it was a violation),” Cochran said. “I was trying to do something good for parents and kids who didn’t have the resources on their own. I wish it never happened.”
It’s the second time in three sports seasons that New London has had to self report a violation involving Cochran, he was also cited in the fall for allowing eighth grade students to participate in a New London football practice and the school was fined by the CIAC.
“I’m certainly concerned, I’m certainly disappointed and I’m sure that it’s something the (CIAC) Board of Control will look at seriously,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said he didn’t know if this would affect Cochran’s status as football coach in the fall, saying it was “up to the Board of Control.” Cochran said he hoped his resignation as baseball coach was punishment enough and that he hadn’t even considered any ramifications when it came to football.
Cochran led the Whalers to a state championship this past fall and was named the Norwich Bulletin Coach of the Year.

New London claims ECC title

2009-03-06T21:15:00.001-08:00

You don’t plan for moments like these, they just happen.
The clock was ticking down toward 10 seconds and the 1,500 gathered in the Waterford High School gym stood waiting for the inevitable.
The 10 players on the court will re-play those waning seconds over the years and remember what they did. They’ll think about what they could have done as the crowd rose in unison waiting for the inevitable New London time out.
New London’s Torin Childs-Harris stood 10 feet inside halfcourt with the ball, NFA’s Anthony Clarke was watching his every move with the Wildcats trying to protect a one-point lead. New London coach Craig Parker finally brought his hands together to signal for the time out with 10 seconds left and his focus fell on Childs-Harris.
The sophomore with the silky smooth touch was not about to disappoint his coach or the New London faithful as he caught the in-bounds pass, dribbled inside the 3-point line and lofted up a perfect 15-foot jump shot that found only net, the go-ahead basket that the Whalers needed with six seconds left that led to New London’s 51-48 win over NFA in the Eastern Connecticut Conference boys basketball championship game Friday night.
“We made the decision, if they were going to sit back off of us, we were going to hold the ball until 10 seconds to go and put it all on the line,” Parker said.
NFA coach Neal Curland felt like he had no choice but to go with the flow.
“We were happy with that,” Curland said. “We weren’t going to try and chase them and foul them because we had the lead. If you go out and guard them tight and try to get a five-second call, they’re going by you because they’re quicker than we are.”
Parker decided that Childs-Harris had to be the man since his best outside shooter, Nick Singleton, was not with the team due to family issues.
“It was designed for me to shoot the 3, but no one came out,” Childs-Harris said. “I turned around too late to shoot the 3, so I thought if I drove to the middle and threw a floater that I would get it. I was waiting my whole life for a shot like that.”
Though the winning play wasn’t drawn up on the spot, it might as well have been.
“That play we had for the game-winner, ironically, we just put it in two or three days ago and that’s the first we’ve run it all year,” Parker said. “It could have been a 3-pointer had he been wide open but he made a good decision, made a move, pulled up with a kid in his face and made the tough shot.”
Curland could only compliment Childs-Harris afterwards.
“That was a big-time play — a great shot, off the dribble, guarded, 15-16 feet with a guy on him, leaning a little bit.”
The game wasn’t over yet. There were still 5.9 ticks of the clock left as NFA called for a time-out immediately after Harris made his shot. The time-out didn’t help as the Wildcats threw away the in-bounds pass and were forced to foul. Teaurean Nolan hit two free throws to give the Whalers a three-point lead. NFA’s Wes Murphy did get off a shot just before the buzzer just inside half court, but it bounced off the rim and harmlessly to the ground.
“It is (a little sweeter than a year ago) because of the circumstances (the missing players, which also included Lamont Singleton and center Sylvere Vanterpool),” Parker said. “For these kids to not to let that affect them and keep their focus on the game — this has a special meaning (Friday night).”.
For his efforts, Childs-Harris brought home the Tournament Most Valuable Player Award as he led the Whalers with 22 points. Freshman Kris Dunn added 13 to the New London (22-1) effort.
“It’s like a dream come true,” said Dunn, who was named to the All-Tournament team. “I didn’t think I was going to help win it, because I’m a freshman.”
Mike Mailhot led the Wildcats (19-4) with 13 points and Darryl Ferguson returned to the NFA lineup after being too ill to play in the semifinals to score 10 points, grab eight rebounds, block four shots and alter a host of others. Both Mailhot and Ferguson were named to the All-Tournament team along with Woodstock’s Kyle Senick.
“It took a great shot to beat us and that makes it harder for the kids and for me, too,” Curland said, “but I’ve coached in a lot of games and for them, this is their one chance, the seniors, so it’s really hard.”

Windham rolls on in Class M girls basketball

2009-03-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

Windham High School was disappointed when it fell in the quarterfinal round of the Eastern Connecticut Conference girls basketball tournament.
What made that disappointment even more intolerable was what followed — a long lay-off without any games.
“We had nine days off and it’s not fun hanging around the gym with me for nine days after a tough loss,” Windham coach Ken Valliere said.
Plainfield felt Windham’s pent-up frustrations Tuesday as the fourth-seeded Whippets rolled on in the Class M state tournament with an 81-35 first-round win over the No. 29 Panthers.
“It felt so good to get back out and our team was really up-beat,” guard Ali Risley said. “Coach said we had to come in like any other game and put it away.”Risley, who scored a game-high 20 points, was part of the formula to accomplish that. The sophomore wasted no time in putting down a 3-pointer just 45 seconds into the game, and then followed that up with a fast-break basket off an Amie Toner block.
Plainfield did stop the run ever so briefly when freshman Heather Evans (six points, six rebounds) hit a 3-pointer, but the respite was short.
Toner sank two free throws and, after another Plainfield turnover, came another 3-pointer from Risley to raise Windham’s lead to 10-2 with just 2 1/2 minutes gone in the opening quarter.
“After the last few practices, I thought Ris was going to have a good tournament,” Valliere said. “She seems to be really focused, has been shooting the ball well in practice. We ran three plays right off the bat for her to shoot and she knocked down two out of three. She’s capable of that.”
Risley scored 10 first-quarter points, but she was far from alone. Toner, the lone senior starter for the Whippets, added six and both Carlee Smith and Haley Mather added four as the Whippets built its lead to 27-8 after the first quarter.
Plainfield coach Dave Wilcox did all he could to stop the tide as he just about exhausted his allotment of time-outs through the first eight minutes.
“We have to aspire to be them, but we also have to aspire to beat them,” Wilcox said of Windham. “Them and Bacon, and Stonington and Montville — it’s a different clientele next year.”
That was the kicker to the one-sided loss for the Panthers, who finished the season 9-13. They move up to the ECC Medium Division next season and will have to play the Whippets twice during the regular season.
“We definitely became a team (by) the end, and we all worked together, but this was a hard team,” Plainfield freshman point guard Kim Bouten said. Asked how much her team will have to improve to compete with Windham or Bacon next year, Bouten simply said, “A lot.”
Bouten paced the Panthers with nine points, Denise Vergato added eight while junior Kate Montgomery had seven rebounds.
Danyelle Rodriguez added 13 points for the Whippets (18-5) who left with only one concern. Toner pulled herself from the game in the third quarter with a stiff back. Valliere is hoping she will be ready for Thursday night’s second-round game against Rocky Hill.
“She has done so much in her life in basketball and this is her two weeks,” Valliere said of the senior, who will go on to play at Division-I Sacred Heart. “She should be taking no prisoners out there, laying it all on the line and dominating as best she can.”
Her teammates will have her back, stiff or not, in that pursuit.
“We want to go far especially for Amie,” Risley said. “It’s her last year. We want to do something for her.”

State tournament awaits for girls basketball teams

2009-03-02T20:22:00.001-08:00

Win and move on, lose and go home.
That’s the cruel fate that awaits basketball teams once the state tournament gets underway, although that start had to be pushed back a day.
The snowstorm to start the month of March also served to push back the girls state tournament although it’s not as big a deal as it has been in the past. That’s because the girl’s state championship games have been pushed back a week to accommodate the schedule with the Mohegan Sun and there is time built into the schedule now.
The Class LL and Class M games that were scheduled for Monday simply got pushed back a day to tonight with six local teams playing, two against one another.
Fourth-seeded Windham plays at home in a Class M first-round game against No. 29 Plainfield.
“I just hate to play teams in our league because one of us has to be done and it doesn’t give (the ECC) the opportunity to move teams on, that’s the biggest thing,” Windham coach Ken Valliere said.
“We didn’t play them in the regular season, so it is someone different in that sense,” he added. “Hopefully, being laid off for nine days, we can get off on the right track and get some momentum.”
Valliere said to scrape some of the rust off, the Whippets did scrimmage E.O. Smith last Thursday.
“I think myself and the kids would be disappointed if we don’t go deep into the tournament, “ Valliere said. “But we have to take one game at a time and win one game, ugly or not, you have to move on. When we won the state championship four years ago, that’s what we said and this is no different.”
Whomever wins tonight will take on the winner of the Rocky Hill/Wolcott game in a second round contest. A win there produces a quarterfinal against either Morgan, Stonington, New Fairfield or East Hampton while the semifinal could bring the top seed, Bacon Academy.
“I think it looks good, hopefully we’ll have two home games and then it goes neutral,” Valliere said. “If Bacon is the best — we’ve played some very ball against them although they beat us twice — I think it’s wide open in the M.”
Also in the M Division and also in the upper bracket is a team that truly feels out of place. St Bernard coach Mike Nystrom doesn’t feel the rules — which automatically vault a Catholic school up a division or more — favor his team which played more of a Class S schedule for much of the season.
“There’s very few easy games in the Class M tournament whereas if you get lucky in Class S, you can go to the quarters or even the semis and not beat anyone,” Nystrom said.
The Saints drew the No. 8 seed in the tournament, good in some ways, bad in others.
The good is that they have a home game tonight against the 25th seeded Thunderbirds of North Branford.
“I saw them play (Feb. 21) and they’re on the small side,” Nystrom said. “They’re OK, they could beat us, but if we play well, we have a chance — if we shoot good.”
That’s something the Saints didn’t do against Bacon in the ECC semifinals when they lost, 47-27, and that’s the bad news. A win over North Branford means St. Bernard will host either Northwestern Regional or Watertown on Thursday, a win there gives them a likely rematch with the top-seeded Bobcats in the Class M quarterfinals.
Speaking of the Bobcats, they will have the target on their backs being the top-seed.
“That doesn’t really mean anything now,” said Bacon sophomore guard Katie Mahoney. “We have to still keep winning and improving.”
Both Mahoney and her coach and grandfather, Dave Shea, believed that a 60-53 loss to NFA in the ECC Championship game Friday night could only pay dividends come the state tournament.
“This got us ready for the state tournament — we had three games — and if we hadn’t won the first game, we would have had almost a two-week layoff before the states,” Shea said, “so it’s a great way to get ready.”
The Bobcats get a bye tonight and will host the winner of the Suffield-Lewis Mills game on Thursday. Shea was happy for the bye as it will give him a chance to travel to Burlington to check out Thursday’s opponent.
“I’m looking forward to winning on Thursday, it’s one game at a time, I don’t want to look any further than that,” Shea said.
Only one other team has a home game tonight in Class M as No. 14 Montville will host No. 19 Jonathan Law. Stonington, seeded 28th, goes on the road to Morgan and No. 22 New London plays at Hartford Classical.
Fitch is the only local Class LL team in action as the Falcons, seeded 21st, play at No. 12 St. Joseph’s.
The only other local team in LL, Norwich Free Academy, has to consider themselves fortunate. The Wildcats have the No. 1 seed and, in this case, that’s extremely important as the majority of the division’s heavy hitters are on the other side of the bracket. Career Magnet, Lauralton Hall, New Britain, Mercy and Holy Cross are in the lower portion of Class LL and NFA coach Bill Scarlata liked the bracket when he first saw it.
“I did and then I thought it was going to be really good because I thought Wilbur Cross was going to be on that side, but they snuck on our side, they’re a tough team,” Scarlata said. “You never know, I saw Southington play and they have a pretty good point guard and are taller than us; Cheshire beat us three years ago with the same team and they’re huge and I haven’t seen Stamford.”
Scarlata wasn’t happy about one thing, he’s going to have to drive to Westport tonight to watch the Staples/Manchester game.
The Class L and Class S teams have to wait until Wednesday to get back on the floor.
It has been a long wait for East Lyme which lost in the quarterfinals of the ECC tournament back on Feb. 21 and get to host No. 25 Notre Dame- Fairfield Wednesday night.
But for East Lyme to advance, it will have to play the role of giant killer again. The Vikes knocked off top-seed Wethersfield last year in a second-round game, they’re going to have to do the same this year if they win on Wednesday and again on Friday. That means a quarterfinal game with this year’s top seed, Fairfield-Warde.
Waterford goes on the road Wednesday night as the No. 21 seed meets No. 12 Northwest Catholic in West Hartford.
“They’re older, they’re faster, they’re quicker and we’re going to have to slow the game down a lot,” Waterford coach Rob Von Achen said.
Only two Class S teams get to host a game as Putnam is home to Portland on Wednesday and Parish Hill plays Shepaug Valley in Chaplin. Lyman, Windham Tech, Wheeler and Holy Family go on the road.

Bowman, Spencer win in New Haven

2009-02-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

Kirk Jenkins knew when the season started that his St. Bernard wrestling team was going to be a better tournament team than a dual meet team.
The Saints proved him right Saturday night at the State Open wrestling championships at the New Haven Athletic Center. Lucas Bowman captured an individual state title at 189-pounds and the Saints finished seventh, best among the local teams involved with 46 points.
That point total was far behind that of Danbury, which finished with 124 points, but Jenkins was more than happy to finish best out of the ECC schools.
“It was important,” Jenkins said. “We talked about it and I told the guys who came here — I call them my five horses — that we were going to come over here and make some noise in the State Open. They impressed me.”
Bowman was the most impressive. The East Lyme transfer who failed to make the final in the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship, came up big in New Haven.
The senior pinned his way to the final where he ran into Dillon Ritchie of Southington. Ritchie finished second in Class LL and came in sporting a 34-3 record, but Bowman scored a pair of takedowns early to grab the advantage.
“I was trying to avoid him and push him, try to get him even more open than he was,” Bowman said.
Bowman allowed Ritchie back into the match with a series of escapes before getting a neutral and a takedown to give him a four-point lead. Ritchie scored a reversal late, but ran out of time.
“I’ve been working towards this all my high school career,” Bowman said. “People have said I would never do it, so I just came out here and did whatever I could.”
Bowman finished with 22 of the Saints points. Michael Daly added the others as he scored a fourth-place finish.
The only other local champion hailed from East Lyme and it was not Ryan Clarke. Ross Spencer continued his undefeated ways as he made it 41 matches in a row without a loss, winning with a win by pin at 103 pounds over the always-difficult Rob Lonergan of Jonathan Law in two-minutes, 54 seconds. It was the only pin of the finals.
“I didn’t expect to get a pin,” Spencer said. “I didn’t expect to do as well as I did in all of my matches (Saturday).”
Thanks to Spencer’s win and Clarke’s third-place finish at 140-pounds, the Vikings finished eighth with 45 1⁄2 points, just ahead of Ledyard.
Caleb Morth made it to the Open final for the Colonels, but lost to Tucker Schaefer of Danbury, 8-0.
“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” Morth said. “He beat me earlier in the season.”
Just as tough a loss was suffered by Killingly senior Brandon Thuotte, who suffered a takedown and a back-point early in the match, came back to get a takedown of his own, but lost to Rob Ferrante of Shelton, 3-2.
“I made a good run at it this year, but I was surprised he got three back points and I thought I had two on the cradle in the third period,” Thuotte said.
NFA’s Pat Sawyer, who missed a month of the season with torn ligaments in his foot, came back to win the Class LL state championship a week ago and made it to the Open final, where he lost to Tim Vollaro of Somers 11-3.
“I came back refreshed and thought I was ready to go,” Sawyer said. “It was nice to get here and I did better than I thought I was going to.”
There were different ideas as to the lack of success on the team side for some, but Waterford coach Chris Gamble who saw his “M” division champion Lancers finish 14th with 39 points, said a big reason could have been fatigue for both his team and Bacon Academy, which finished with only seven points.
“The amount of matches these kids wrestle to get to this point is unbelievable and you get to this point and the mental part of it takes over,” Gamble said. “You have a sick kid out here, not on his ‘A’ game, it’s not going to get done.”
Montville coach Gary Wilcox said the competition certainly weeded out the better wrestlers from the rest of the field.
“I saw a lot of close matches here and the top six wrestlers here are definitely the top six. I didn’t see anyone sneak in,” Wilcox said.
One Montville competitor Wilcox was very happy with was Jessica Bennett, who became the first female to qualify to wrestle in State Open competition. It ended fast for the senior, as she lost to Griswold’s Ron Allen, 6-4, in her 103-pound opener. Bennett then fell to Cam Barnard of Fairfield Warde, 4-2, in a consolation match.
“I got caught having one of those tough matches where it was hard to keep your focus and score the points you need to,” Bennett said of the opening match. “All it really takes at this level is one mistake and I made that one mistake.”
Wilcox said the lack of focus on Bennett’s part could have been because of the commotion she caused just by taking to the mat.
“I know she felt a little pressure being the first girl to perform and, sometimes, that will freeze you a little bit,” Wilcox said. “I think that happened a little bit, but I’m not disappointed with what she showed at all. I think she did a marvelous job.”

NFA boys move on to ECC basketball semifinals

2009-02-28T13:48:00.001-08:00

When Griswold played at Norwich Free Academy earlier this season, it was the Wolverines who dictated the tempo and that was troublesome for the Wildcats. NFA decided that it couldn’t let that happen again when the two teams met in the Eastern Connecticut Conference quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon at St. Bernard.
The second-seeded Wildcats were off and running early, much to the chagrin of Griswold, as the Wildcats walked away with the 56-36 win to advance to the ECC semifinals.
NFA will take on (Woodstock/Stonington) in the first semifinal game at 6 p.m. at Waterford High School. The (Centaurs/Bears) advanced with a ( - ) win in the second game of the afternoon Saturday.
"In terms of tempo, we got what we wanted early and converted some shots," NFA coach Neal Curland said. "It would have been real hard for (Griswold coach) Rob (Mileski) to have long offensive possessions which is probably what he wanted had it been a closer game early."
Indeed, that was the plan, but the Wildcats foiled that by scoring 15 of the first 20 points in the game. Six-foot-six junior Trevor Bundy had his way inside early on as he scored four of the first six points for NFA, Sharif Brown scored four of his six points and Mike Mailhot put down a 3-pointer to help the Wildcats build that 15-5 advantage.
Chris Vincent made it 21-10 at the end of the first quarter and then threw a couple of exclamation points down. The senior guard followed that up by connecting on a pair of 3-pointers to open the second quarter and then added another at the buzzer to give NFA the 35-13 halftime lead.
"The offense that they run - that stall offense - we didn’t want them to do that the whole game so we knew we had to score a few so they had to rush their offense," said Vincent who finished with a game-high 18 points."That pushed up the tempo, that’s why we pressed the whole game, too, and got out to a pretty big lead," he added.
"The last game, tempo was at our pace and it was 18-15 at the half," Mileski remembered. "This game, Neal said ‘we’re not going to do that’. They wanted to force the issue and they did."
The 22-point deficit at the half had Mileski searching for a consolation prize in the locker room.
"Our goal at halftime was not to roll over, we wanted to still compete, so I just put some numbers up on the board and said ‘let’s get it to 42-30’, try to get it to a dozen going into the fourth and see what happens," Mileski said.
The Wolverines (15-7) fell a little short of that goal although a 3-pointer by Sean Brackett (14 points) and a basket by Ray Phonthapanh late in the third did reduce the deficit to 16 points. It was to be as close as Griswold was going to get as the Wildcats quickly brought it back up to 20 points, in part, due to the play of six-foot-seven center Darryl Ferguson.
Ferguson, who had a lone jumper in the first half, scored six points in the second, but more importantly blocked five shots and altered about five others. The other NFA "big", Bundy, finished with eight points, all in the first half.
"They played well alternately," Curland said. "We do different things with them, we played them together and now we’re back to one at a time. I thought Trevor played well in the first half and Darryl played well in the second, I thought both of them took a half off. We’re not going to get very far if they don’t come for the whole game."

NFA boys move on to ECC basketball semifinals

2009-02-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

NFA takes home ECC title

2009-02-27T19:19:00.001-08:00

Call them Norwich as Bacon’s McKenzie Hyde suggested after the Bobcats advanced to the title game Wednesday or call them NFA, just call them good- Hyde and her teammates won’t argue.
The Wildcats returned to the top of the Eastern Connecticut Conference in girl’s basketball as the No. 1 seed captured the tournament championship with a 60-53 win over No. 2 Bacon Academy Friday night at Plainfield High School.
It’s the third time in four years that NFA has claimed the crown after a brief blip last year when the Wildcats fell to the Heather Buck-led Stonington Bears on NFA’s home floor.
“It’s nice, and you know, we even won a championship when it wasn’t on our court, so I guess that’s a good thing,” NFA coach Bill Scarlata said referring to the league’s decision to move the semifinals and championship game from Norwich to Plainfield this year.
What made it even more special to the players, such as tournament Most Valuable Player Kastine Evans, was that not only will all of the starters be able to bask in this year’s title, but all come back for another shot at it next year.
“Last year, we were still young and that might have been an excuse,” Evans said. “We showed this year that, even though we’re still young – all juniors and a sophomore – that we’re still able to come out and play against seniors.”
There comes a time in most games when the tide just seems to turn and Friday night was no exception as the two teams had battled through 22 ½ minutes against one another and were tied at 38.
That’s when the aspect of NFA’s game that worried Bacon coach Dave Shea the most, their famous pressure, started to take its toll.
Bacon was in the process of regrouping just a bit as Hyde (12 points, six rebounds) had been forced to the bench with her fourth foul when NFA struck. Jen Escobido hit a free throw to give the Wildcats the one-point lead. Bacon managed to get the ball down the floor, but a missed shot was followed by a travel call and Evans –who didn’t get a basket until 2 ½ minutes were left in the first half- followed a Gen Barlow miss for two of her game-high 24 points.
The Bobcats turned over the ball three more times before NFA capitalized again on an Evans basket off a nice feed from Stephanie Long. Another Bacon turnover, this time on a bad pass that landed in Escobido’s hands, resulted in two more fast break points for the Wildcats as they went up by seven, 45-38, with 6:13 left.
“We started playing defense with about three minutes left in the third period, that turned the game around,” Scarlata said. “I told them to come out and play as hard as they could from the get-go, they probably thought the game didn’t start until the end of the third period.”
NFA sophomore Jahira Smith was named to the all-tournament team despite scoring just one point in the game because of her role in causing the disruption of the Bacon offense.
“That’s where we wanted them, once we got them to that point, that was it- that was the turning point of the game,” Smith said of the defensive flurry that put the Wildcats in the lead for good.
“I think we rushed a lot, it was real intimidating and we let it get to us,” said Bacon sophomore guard Katie Mahoney who led the Bobcats with 19 points.
The Bobcats were so flustered that Shea was out of time outs with five minutes left in the game as he tried to rally his Bobcats. It almost succeeded as the Colchester squad was within four with 4:13 to play but a 7-2 NFA run took away whatever hopes the Bobcats still harbored. Long (17 points) capped it with six free throws and a basket for NFA as Bacon saw its 19-game win streak end at the hands of the last team who beat them in December.
“It’s not a disappointment,” Shea said, “it would have been a great thing had we won, but we knew it was going to be a real tough game. It would have been a disappointment if we had been blown out of here by 20 points or something, but this got us ready for the state tournament.”
Senior Brooke Bailey, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, agreed with her coach.
“(It was) Really good preparation (for the state tournament), it was good to play the game,” the forward said.

New London stops NFA, 61-54

2009-02-20T20:16:00.000-08:00

It was the type of game that New London sophomore Torin Childs-Harris was used to playing at his former high school in Virginia Beach. Va.
There are 12 schools within that city’s limits, according to Harris, which produced heated rivalries played in front of packed houses in games that came down to the wire.
Harris hasn’t had a chance to experience that much this season at New London where, outside of the first month of the season when they played Northwest Catholic, Manchester and Hartford Public, the games have generally been one-sided for the No. 4 team in the state.
That was until Friday night when the Whalers invaded Alumni Hall in Norwich and had a battle with their storied rival, NFA, and won their 18th-consecutive game, 61-54.
The setting was more to Harris’ liking with 1,200 fans packed inside of Alumni Hall as fans were turned away during halftime of the junior varsity game.
“The last big game was Hartford Public and this game felt good,” Harris said. “The atmosphere was great. It reminded me of Virginia and I just had to turn it up.”
The Whalers, who finished the season 19-1, have generally had it easy in their ECC Small Division schedule in between their games with Hartford Public on Dec. 29 and NFA.
“I said this before: I don’t particularly care for this league with the expansion; I like the old ECC,” New London coach Craig Parker said. “It’s not there, so we play who we play.
The scarcity of close contests hasn’t dulled the Whalers sharpness, however, as they put NFA behind quickly thanks in part to the talents of freshman Kris Dunn.
The Whalers guard scored seven first-quarter points and had three steals to help New London build a 19-10 lead after one.
“I sparked out a little bit and that just got other people involved and they started doing their thing,” said Dunn, who finished with a team-high 18 points.
New London followed that up with seven straight points to open the second quarter and the NFA faithful grew a little quiet as the Wildcats suddenly trailed, 25-10. Sharif Brown helped bring the crowd back a bit when he scored seven of his 12 points, including a three-point play in the final minute of the first half to bring NFA back to within eight, 31-23.
The Wildcats (17-3) whittled the New London lead down to five in the third quarter, but nine points from Dunn and Harris brought it back to as many as 13 before the Whalers settled for a 10-point lead, 45-35, going into the final quarter.
Despite using just six players much of the second half, NFA had one last gasp left in it. Brown opened the fourth with a strong drive to the basket for two. Henry Cordero stole the in-bounds pass, but was whistled for a foul. Undaunted, the Wildcat guard picked the Whalers’ pocket again and went in for a fast-break bucket to make it 45-39. That set up the loudest roar of the night when Mike Mailhot (20 points) drained a 3-pointer with 6:35 to play to make it a three-point game.
“When I heard that crowd roaring, our kids got some energy from that, but they made plays,” NFA coach Neal Curland said.
This time it was the sophomore Harris that stepped up his game as he scored the next four points, two on a drive to the basket and two from the charity stripe.
“We held them at bay and we got it back,” Parker said. “(Harris) made two big foul shots for us, settled us down a little bit, and we were able to increase the lead from there.”
The Whalers scored six of the next eight points to open the 11-point advantage and made six-of-eight free throws in the final 1:05 to send the Wildcats to their first loss in eight games.
“New London is very good and they played well, they shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half,” Curland said. “When you have quicks like that who can get by you and they can also hit outside shots — you kind of have to pick your poison. Their young guards, veteran guards and big kids all played well.”

St. Bernard scores 3-0 win over Housy

2009-02-18T20:54:00.001-08:00

St. Bernard/Bacon and Housatonic/Northwestern last played on Friday, and the Saints learned a couple of valuable lessons from that match up: don’t fall behind and don’t lose your cool.
The Saints didn’t fall victim to either of those pitfalls on Wednesday night and, as a result, reversed their fortune as they gained a measure of revenge with a 3-0 win at the Norwich Ice Rink.
“Intensity and consistency is what we asked of them in the locker room,” St. Bernard/Bacon assistant coach Rich Steele said as he picked up his first win as a varsity coach. Head coach Chris Avena was serving a one-game suspension after he was ejected from a game Monday night.
“The other night, up at their rink, we came out flat. We didn’t start playing until we were down 4-0 and we were up and down all night long,” Steele said. “We just wanted a nice, smooth effort from top to bottom. We kept preaching ‘15 minutes down to zero’ every period.”
Housatonic/Northwestern beat the Saints, 4-2, in their previous meeting, but had problems not only with the Saints, but with themselves from the start this time around. The Mountaineers (9-8) gave the Saints five power-play opportunities in the first period alone.
“I’m dealing with a bunch of high school kids who don’t know how to shut their mouths — it’s plain and simple,” Housatonic coach Dean Diamond said. “You play smart hockey, work hard and keep your mouth shut and you’re in the game. When you don’t stop yakking to the refs, take stupid penalties, you’re going to lose — it’s that simple.”
The Saints didn’t take advantage of the Mountaineers’ penalty box minutes until just under five minutes were left in the first period. Sam Nassetta, with help from Jack Berry and Charlie Tufo, flipped the puck over Housatonic goalie Kevin Diamond’s right shoulder and into the corner of the net for a 1-0 St. Bernard lead.
St. Bernard squandered a five-on-three chance in the second period, but came up with an insurance goal with 4:12 left. Jerry Theiler — who has accounted for more than 40 points this season for the Saints — flipped it to team captain Colin Morgan to light the lamp.
“I think I had the puck down low and I just slid it across,” Theiler described. “It got under everyone and Colin just slipped it in.”
There were some antsy moments for St. Bernard in the third period as the Saints couldn’t score despite two power play opportunities and nine shots on goal early. In the first of those short-handed episodes, the puck ended up on the stick of Housatonic center Sam LeGoyt, who had a one-on-one with Saints goalie Scott Steele (22 saves).
“I just thought I would come out, challenge the shot, take away the angle and he didn’t do anything special,” said Scott Steele, who corralled the shot with his stomach for the save.
Steele and his teammates also had to weather through a five-on-three situation where the Saints goalie turned aside three Housatonic shots.
“One of the keys (Wednesday night) was that we didn’t give them shots from in close, for the most part,” Rich Steele said. “A credit to the goalie for the shutout, but a credit to the whole team for giving him a chance to see the puck and do his job.”
Theiler put the finishing touches on the win as he found himself with a short-handed break away with 1:17 to play and didn’t miss.
“I missed one earlier in the game,” Theiler said. “I was kind of snakebit and the goalie had me on one, so I just tried to put that last one in and it was nice.”
The Saints improved their record to 9-8 and have already qualified for the state tournament.
“That takes the pressure off,” Rich Steele said. “Last couple of years, we’ve had to go right down to the wire to see if we’re in or out. Now, we can fine-tune the team a bit.”

Saints stop Clippers in season finale

2009-02-16T21:04:00.001-08:00

It was a game that most thought would decide the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division in girls basketball. New London had other ideas.
The Whalers’ win over Putnam on Saturday took some of the starch out of the Clippers’ showdown with St. Bernard on Monday night as the Saints had already clinched the Small.
It didn’t mean, however, that either team played any less intense.
Putnam’s style of play caused the Saints some consternation, but the Clippers’ lack of offensive punch cost them in the end as they lost to the Saints, 37-28.
“We’ve been playing pretty good lately and we’ve been running, but they didn’t let us do it — they’re tough to play,” St. Bernard coach Mike Nystrom said.
The Saints (15-5, 11-1 ECC Small) looked like they were going to win their ninth in a row relatively easily as they came out and lit up the board in the first quarter. Senior Casey Brigham scored 11 of her 19 points in that opening period to give the Saints a 14-7 lead.
“I was just really excited about Senior Night and we really just came together,” Brigham said. “The JV team all wore T-shirts saying ‘We love our seniors,’ so I was just really excited about the night and felt it walking out on to the court.”
The opposite was true in the second quarter for the Saints. They cooled off rapidly and missed all eight shots from the floor, four of them from 3-point land, and scored only one second quarter point. The Clippers came up with 10 to take a 17-15 lead into the half. Putnam’s Katelyn Tarr scored nine of those and finished with 21 of the Clippers’ 28 points.
“The other kids need to grow around her and it’s a learning process,” Putnam coach Willie Bousquet said. “We’re just not as multi-faceted as we were. I give them credit because the defense is just as tenacious as its been and that’s a good thing. We’re one of the only division teams to hold (St.Bernard) under 40 points twice.”
The problem for the Clippers offensively is the absence of point guard Kelsey Rybacki, who injured her knee in the first game of the year against St. Bernard and has not returned.
“We’re uncertain, the ACL is loose,” Bousquet said of Rybacki’s injured knee. His hope is that she can return in time for the state tournament.
“It’s definitely difficult; we miss her points, she’s a very good outside shooter,” Tarr said. “But we’ve been practicing a lot and are getting a little better at getting open for the ball.”
Tarr put Putnam up by four with a basket to open the third quarter, but it was the only field goal that Putnam got in the entire quarter. The Saints turned the tables to take a 25-20 lead into the final quarter as Brigham scored five of the Saints’ 10 third-quarter points.
St. Bernard extended that lead to nine early in the fourth quarter before five more Tarr points cut it to four. The Saints put it away when they scored the next seven points.
Emma Sternloff added nine points and grabbed 11 rebounds for St. Bernard, while Ashley Walenta tossed in seven.
“We’ve been playing well lately,” Nystrom said. “When we get rolling, we’re looking pretty good.”
St. Bernard’s first postseason test will come against Lyman at home on Thursday night in an ECC play-in game. Putnam plays at home against Waterford the same night.

Bacon topples Ledyard in ECC wrestling

2009-02-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

Ledyard High School had won five straight Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division championships in wrestling and four consecutive ECC Championship meets.
Bacon Academy coach Mike Voiland is quick to point out that the Colonels have won 29 of the 36 ECC wrestling titles overall, so indeed it was a rare occurrence that the Colonels didn’t find themselves atop again this year.
They didn’t go down without a fight, however.
Ledyard had a chance right up until the heavyweight match in the championship finals Saturday night at Waterford High, a match that Bacon heavyweight Brian Webster won and the Bobcats dethroned the Colonels by a slim, 192 1/2 to 186 1/2 margin, to win the championship. Bacon got an added bonus as Ledyard finished second, ahead of Waterford, which also gave the Bobcats the ECC Large Division championship.
“When someone hits a home run, it just has to clear the fence, it doesn’t have to be 500-feet, so six or 60 — it doesn’t matter,” Voiland said about the narrow margin of victory.
Bacon went into the championship round with an eight-point lead over Ledyard, but both teams had four wrestlers make it to the finals. Ledyard suffered a blow, however, when Nick Polonsky couldn’t wrestle at 189-pounds due to a neck injury suffered earlier in the day.
Bacon extended its lead by four points when Ryan Quinn scored an 8-5 decision over Killingly’s Tylor Herrick in the opening match of the championship round.
“I hate it,” Quinn said of being the first out on the mat, “but hopefully it got the rest of the kids in the finals a little loosened up.”
Like Quinn, who won the 112-pound ECC title a year ago, Ledyard’s Caleb Morth captured his second straight ECC individual title by taking the 145-pound championship with a pin 4-minutes, 30-seconds into his match with Montville’s Dan Alger.
“It was definitely a goal, to win the ECCs and hopefully, the (State) Open — those were my big goals,” Morth, a senior, said.
Morth’s pin also pulled the Colonels within six of the Bobcats. A Shane Sullivan pin could have tied that up at 152, but the junior had a battle with Woodstock’s Brohen Krsulic and had to settle for a 7-2 win by decision.
Waterford’s John Millaras helped Ledyard as he defeated Bacon’s Dan Thompson at 160, 7-1, to set up what turned out to be the decisive battle three matches later. Bacon’s Webster was pitted against Ledyard junior Alex Lawrence, and everybody in the gym knew what was on the line.
“That’s a whole lot of pressure for a high school kid,” Voiland said. “The season comes down to that on both sides of the house.”
The importance wasn’t lost on Webster.
“I was just like, ‘Oh my God, I have to win this thing.’ It was overwhelming, but I knew I had beaten him before and I knew I could do it again.”
Voiland didn’t like what he saw early on as Webster took a 2-1 lead, but then found himself on his back for only the second time this season in the second period. He escaped and then changed his strategy. Webster stayed on his feet the rest of the match, scored a takedown, let Lawrence get back up and scored on another takedown. The strategy was repeated four times in the third period and produced a 13-6 win.
“I knew it was coming,” Ledyard coach Jason Lanoue said. “I knew exactly it was going to be the strategy. I was loving it because the Bacon coaches had kind of forgotten about it in the beginning, but when (Lawrence) hit those two dangerous rolls, they were like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s right, we told you to let (Lawrence) up last time.’ ”
The team that was on top last week, Waterford, ended up going home empty-handed as the Lancers finished in third with 182 points.
“It’s a disappointment — clearly a disappointment,” Waterford coach Chris Gamble said. “You’re hoping that you will get some 3, 4, 5, 6th-place finishes and we didn’t get them. It’s a tough tournament and that’s what happens, we didn’t make our breaks.”
The other team that went home with a title was Montville as it finally untangled itself from Killingly and beat the Redmen by seven, 133 1/2 to 126 1/2, to capture the Small Division crown. The two teams had to go to criteria in their two regular-season encounters.
“We’ve been sick all week, and we didn’t wrestle as well as we should have, but my compliments to our kids because they came through in the end and did enough to win the ECC outright,” Montville coach Gary Wilcox said.
East Lyme senior Ryan Clarke, the 140-pound champion, was named the Most Outstanding wrestler in the tournament.

Caron, NFA win ECC titles

2009-02-13T21:03:00.001-08:00

Fitch/Waterford senior Allie Black knew she had her work cut out for her from the start as she glanced over from the floor exercise to see Killingly junior Christine Caron compete on her opening apparatus, the bars.
Caron nailed her routine and the judges responded, giving Caron the top individual score of the night, a 9.65. She used that momentum to capture her second- consecutive Eastern Connecticut Conference individual gymnastics championship. Caron finished with a 37.4, while Black finished with a 36.95 on Friday night at Deary’s Gymnastics.
As happened last year, Caron’s individual win didn’t result in an ECC Championship meet title for the Redgals. Instead, NFA walked away with its fourth title in five years, 137.85 to Killingly’s 133-point total. The Fitch/Waterford cooperative actually finished with the highest points total (139.3), but wasn’t allowed to compete for the team title as it didn’t meet league criteria for the season.
“She’s awesome on bars,” Black said of Caron’s routine to open the championship meet. “There’s no competition there. I give her props — that’s a sick routine. I really enjoy it; I wish I could do it.”
The key for Caron on that bars came from a stunt that she’s been working on for awhile but has just started hitting consistently.
“I’ve been trying to get that release move for so long now and I finally got it,” Caron said. “I was having trouble actually making it in meets, but I finally started hitting it every meet.”
The release move, as described by Caron, is when she goes backwards around the upper bar to a handstand, let’s go, and then catches the lower bar.
Caron also finished first in the beam with a 9.3, was second in the vault (9.35) and tied for second on the floor (9.1).
“I’m happy, I just came out and tried my best as usual and whatever happens, happens — it’s in the judges’ hands from there,” Caron said.
Kathrin Lewis of Tourtellotte was third with a total of 36 points.
NFA won the championship thanks to Courtni McFarlane’s fifth-place finish, a sixth-place tie by Allie Sullivan and a seventh by Cindy Briggs.
“Part of me expected this, part of me wasn’t sure,” NFA coach Sue Hopkins-Terrell said of the title. “Fitch/Waterford has a heckuva group, but we’ve been pretty loose the past couple of days thanks to some goofy things we’ve been doing at practice.”
The Fitch/Waterford girls fully expected to compete as a team coming in, but were disallowed from doing so as they didn’t compete against NFA over the course of the season and had just one meet versus Killingly, thus not meeting the league’s criteria for eligibility.
“We don’t follow the (ECC) rules,“ Black said. “It’s hard being a gym that isn’t at the school. Our coaches do so much for us. They do it on their own, they’re not getting paid for this — our high schools don’t have a budget. We buy everything, like our leotards. We were fortunate just to come here and compete as individuals.”
Fitch/Waterford coach Carl Cavrell said he thought that the ECC athletic directors had agreed to relax the rules and allow the co-op to compete, as a team, in the ECC championship.
“That’s how the girls and I understood it. Whether it was real or not, I wasn’t a part of that (athletic director’s decision), I wasn’t in the loop,” Cavrell said by phone Friday night as he didn’t attend the championship.
“It’s my personal decision (to not meet the league criteria),” Cavrell said. “I have scheduling issues and it was our choice not to do, but we understand the consequences and if that’s the decision of the ADs, that’s fine.”

ECC Wrestling championship begins tonight

2009-02-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

The fun is just beginning in Eastern Connecticut Conference wrestling.
Waterford has won the first set of battles, but the war is far from lost for programs such as Bacon Academy and Ledyard going into this weekend’s ECC championship at Waterford High School. The tournament begins tonight and continues through Saturday with the championship finals slated to begin around 4:30 p.m., that afternoon.
The championship tournament counts toward the regular season standings and even though Waterford swept through the first six matches against its Large Division foes, the Lancers still haven’t won anything yet. The same could be said for the Small Division title as Montville and Killingly have one more opportunity to decide things.
“If we’re not on our ‘A’ game, we’re not going to be challenging for anything,” Waterford coach Chris Gamble said after his now-No. 7 Lancers upset the No. 5 team in the state, Bacon, last weekend in Colchester.
“I tell my guys what really matters is the ECC and state tournament because if you go there and fall on your face, all of a sudden that (6-0) record means nothing, because you don’t have anything to show for it.”
Waterford had a battle with both Ledyard and Bacon, needing a point to move past the Colonels and two to beat the Bobcats. Bacon had it a little easier with the Colonels in handing them a 35-21 loss on Jan. 29.
“I’m just hoping that Jason’s (Ledyard coach Lanoue) premonition of what’s to come, (Ledyard) not being counted out, actually comes true,” Bacon Academy coach Mike Voiland said after his team’s loss to Waterford. “But I hope we finish ahead of them.”
Just like Gamble was telling his team that it hadn’t won anything yet, Voiland was telling his team that it hadn’t lost anything yet either.
“It’s always a battle in the ECC (Championship) and we’re just hoping to place as many guys as we can in the top four,” the coach said.
In a tournament setting, it’s not always how many weight-class championships a team take, but rather, how many wrestlers place that determines a squad’s fate.
“Last year, we only had two champions, (Ryan) Quinn and (Sean) Burgess, and we placed second above Windham and were just a few (points) away from Ledyard,” Voiland said. “I don’t see anyone dominating it this year. I think it’s pretty open.”
One thing going against Bacon is that it doesn’t have a full complement of wrestlers, as it will have a forfeit in the middle of its lineup in the 135-140 pound range.
“That’s a gimme,” Voiland said. “We realized the second week of practice that it was a hole.”
Waterford had a hole of its own last week when Reggie Allen was out due to sickness. Mental fatigue, meanwhile, could plague all the teams involved this weekend.
“Wrestling is mental and there are probably kids right now that are cashing out, because it’s a grind, (and) it’s hard to go to practice every day now,” Gamble said. “You’ve been sick, coach has been nagging you and telling you that you have to hold it together. The mental part is huge right now.”
While the Large Division will be a battle between Waterford, Ledyard and Bacon with other teams and wrestlers having their say, the Small Division championship will likely come down to Montville and Killingly.
The teams have met twice this season and on neither occasion was there a clear-cut winner, although Montville was declared the winner twice by criteria. The Indians won, 40-39, at the Killingly New Year’s duals on Jan. 3 (which didn’t count toward the league standings) and, in the regularly scheduled league match, they beat the Redmen, 34-33, at home.
Montville senior Jessica Bennett will be making her final appearance at the championship and thinks the Indians are going in with high hopes.
“Our record for the ECC Small is looking pretty good,” she said. “Generally speaking, we’re a pretty good tournament team, although this late in the season we do have a lot of injuries and illness. It should be a great tournament.”

CIAC, Mohegan Sun announce partnership

2009-02-10T21:48:00.001-08:00

It’s been well known for a couple of months that the boys and girls high school basketball state championship games were coming to the Mohegan Sun in March.
The two parties, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and Mohegan, just made that official on Tuesday morning at Mohegan Sun Arena.
For the first time, the girls and boys championship games will be held on the same weekend, in the same venue.
The first session, consisting of two games, will be played on Friday, March 20 at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. That will be followed by six games on Saturday, March 21, beginning with the second session at 9 a.m. Two other games will follow at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. before an intermission. The last session will be played at 4:30, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. on that Saturday.
The CIAC will wait and see what kind of match-ups take place before it makes a decision as to who plays when. Admission will be a flat rate for each session with a $10 ticket granting admission to all games in that session.
The big question on the mind of CIAC Executive Director Mike Savage on Tuesday was not whether there will be fall-out about having high school games played in a casino venue, but rather how many seats of the 10,000 in the Mohegan Sun Arena will be filled.
“We are always worried about that, because it’s an issue of our draws,” Savage said. “If we get quality draws, highly competitive teams with large spectator draws, it won’t be a problem. If we don’t, it could be.”
It’s not like the CIAC is on the hook for a lot of money. It’s more of a case of whether or not Mohegan will continue to host the games beyond this March. The two sides have agreed on a one-year deal and Savage is hoping that if the March games are successful, a multi-year deal could be struck.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to negotiate a financial package that is of minimal risk to the CIAC based on past attendance,” Savage said. “Our use of the Mohegan Sun is not a financial risk to us.”
The CIAC has come to Mohegan for several reasons, according to Savage. One was that the member of the state’s educational hierarchy have become less concerned about the casino’s gambling activities as proms and other high school activities are held regularly on the site. The Eastern Connecticut Conference actually opened the door to negotiations when its superintendents and principals approved the league’s championship games to be played at the arena, something that was eventually displaced by the state championship games.
There was also the fact that the CIAC had nowhere else to go. Central Connecticut State University in New Britain — a facility that the CIAC “loves,” according to Savage — holds only 2,800 people. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs was not available either, and frankly, according to Savage, the “time was right to re-kindle negotiations with the Sun,” which had been smoldering for about 12 years.
Since the announcement was originally made, Savage said he has received just one negative e-mail.
“Our biggest concern is hosting an event at a substantial distance from many of our member schools and the travel,” Savage said. “We are not particularly concerned about the issue of exposing our kids to a gambling facility because we’ve been assured that can be handled in a limited way.”
The senior vice-president of sports and entertainment at the Mohegan Sun, Paul Munick, expects more will be said about the partnership between the two and the issue of gambling, but he doesn’t expect it will be a long-term discussion.
“The colleges came in and that caused an uproar for a day or two,” Munick said. “I remember we were having a Nike clinic and I was standing next to (Duke coach Mike) Krzyzewski, (UConn coach Jim) Calhoun and the Marquette coach and the press asked me a few questions and I said, ‘If you really think there’s more gambling going on here — because the issue is about gambling on basketball — than on the campuses of these three schools, I think you’re all nuts.’ ”
The coming of high school basketball to Mohegan could pave the way for another athletic opportunity for the facility as it’s actively engaged in negotiations with two college basketball conferences to bring their postseason tournaments to Mohegan.
Although Munick declined to name the conferences, he did say another conference looked eager to come to the arena but the Sun turned them down out of fear of a lack of attendance.
“If high schools can do it, why can’t colleges do it?” Munick said.

Bennett brings home 100th career victory

2009-02-09T21:41:00.000-08:00

It came a lot easier for Montville senior wrestler Jess Bennett than the previous 99 victories.
Bennett became the first female wrestler in Connecticut history to record 100 career victories Monday when she stepped to the middle of the mat and accepted a forfeit from New London in the 103-pound match of the Indians’ 77-6 win.
“I would rather have had it be an actual match,” Bennett said. “It’s nice to reach that kind of milestone, but at the same time, I wish it were a true win. Just the fact that I made weight makes it feel like I haven’t achieved much (Monday night).”
Her coach, Gary Wilcox, begged to differ.
“This girl has more than earned her 100 career wins,” Wilcox said. “She hasn’t had many forfeits, because most all teams have a 100-pounder, and if they don’t, we usually bump her up to 112. So she doesn’t get it too easy.”
Wilcox and Bennett both believe her feat to be a first in the state; the records listed on the Connecticut Sportswriters Alliance web site indicate the same thing.
That’s not a surprise, according to Wilcox, as Bennett has been able to do something that’s a must for female wrestlers: Maintain her weight over the four years of her career.
“I believe it’s going to be awhile before we get another one, because if a girl goes up too high on her weight, the testosterone and the strength (of males) really becomes different,” Wilcox said. “A girl has to remain at 103 and wrestle varsity for four years and average (more than) 25 wins a season to do this. It’s really quite a feat.”
It’s one that Wilcox feels compares favorably to a girl scoring 2,500 points in basketball.
Bennett began wrestling when she was 7-years-old, inspired by her brother Dylan, although it wasn’t exactly her mom’s choice of sport.
“I’m extremely proud of her and amazed, too,” Kim Bennett said. “She first told me that she wanted to do this, and I just so didn’t want it for obvious reasons. I was unfamiliar with the sport and it’s rough, but she’s quite the little firecracker and she was right and I was wrong.”
Bennett’s role started as a little sister on the wrestling team, according to her mother, but that role has gradually changed as she is now, as a senior, more like a mother to some of the younger Montville wrestlers. Her teammates, however, respect what Bennett accomplished Monday night.
“It’s pretty special,” junior captain Dustin Wilcox said. “Girls hardly can compete in this sport most of the time. Most of the time they’re lucky to be a good varsity wrestler, and she’s been great.”
Bennett said she knew there was a possibility she could reach the 100-win plateau when she was trying to consider whether she could reach 28 wins for the extra seeding point in state competition.
“I realized if I did that, I would reach 100,” Bennett said. “My goal in wrestling has always been to do the best that I can. This milestone means you’re a fairly accomplished wrestler.”
Bennett is making the most of her final year of high school wrestling. Her future plans have changed and they don’t include the sport. She has been offered an academic scholarship to Purdue University where she plans to pursue veterinary medicine.
“My ultimate goals in life are bringing me in a different direction,” she said. “I still want to be an active athletic person, but on a less competitive level. Women’s wrestling and veterinary medicine didn’t really mesh too well.”

Windham/RHAM gets past NFA

2009-02-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

Things got a little too close for comfort for Windham/RHAM coach Carlos Flores, so he had to do a little lineup shuffling late in a swim meet against NFA at the Norwich YMCA Friday afternoon.
The shuffling worked as a slim eight-point lead blossomed into a 98-72 win for the cooperative program, but NFA coach Tom Theve took it as a compliment. After all, Windham/RHAM is in second place in the Eastern Connecticut Conference with a 7-2 record and NFA (2-8) has struggled.
Windham/RHAM broke out to a 46-32 lead behind the talents of junior Rob Husta. Husta captured the 50-yard freestyle in a swift 23.40 — just shy of his personal best. He followed that with a 59.22 to win his favorite event, the 100-yard butterfly. Prior to those two first-place finishes, Husta teamed with James Flores, Kevin Philips and Kevin Gryk to take first in the 200-yard medley relay.
Despite those Windham/RHAM victories, NFA hung tough. Senior Dan Carroll won both the 100 and 200-yard freestyle (2:01.91) races. Jason Depina captured the 200-yard individual medley and NFA only trailed, 59-51, going into the 200-yard freestyle relay.
“I didn’t really prepare the kids for NFA,” Carlos Flores said. “The lineup was pretty much matched up to see how (we) would do against another team and I was getting those times. At the end, I had to do a little switch to make sure we had it in the bag.”
Flores took Hustus off his first 200-yard relay team and installed him as the anchor leg on his No. 2 squad. The moved worked, as Philips, Elliott Mitchell, Derek Johnson and James Flores captured first in 1:43.93 and Windham/RHAM’s second team touched the wall just behind them to outscore NFA 12-2 in the event and give the Whippets a 71-53 lead.
Windham/RHAM also outscored NFA 9-7 in the 100-yard backstroke, despite a first-place finish by NFA’s Justin Paz. ook the first two spots in the 100-yard breaststroke to finish off the Wildcats.
“It was real close,” Husta said, “but they’re a pretty good team. Everyone underestimates them, but they have some good swimmers.”
Carroll was one of the best for the Wildcats as he not only won his two individual events, but also joined Matt Exley, Paz, and Depina to finish first in the meet-ending, 400-yard freestyle relay.
“We felt good, really good, coming into this meet,” Carroll said. “It’s our home pool, we had all of our friends and family here, there was a general air of really good will, and we felt really strong and confident.”
Carroll wasn’t the only one who was feeling the hint of upset in the air coming into the meet, Theve put in some overtime to try and make that happen.
“They’ve beat some real good teams and we wanted to make them earn it — actually, we wanted to win,” Theve admitted. “I spent two hours looking at their lineup, looking at their times, what they did the first meet (vs. NFA). I know the guys here have been working, Waterford beat us by 31 (points) the first time and the second by eight. Maybe by the ECC’s, we’ll be there, and be in the mix.”

Beaudreault, Partosan sign on dotted line

2009-02-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

Spencer Beaudreault had to stop in the hallway for one last bit of advice from the man who has guided him through the last four years.
Beaudreault, heading into the Windham High School gym, handed football coach Brian Crudden his tie, neatly folded in his hand, and Crudden took it and showed his quarterback how to tie a “Windsor” knot.
Fortunately, Crudden’s teaching on the football field was much more effective than it was in tie-tying 101 as Beaudreault was lost on the second step of the process.
What was not lost on Crudden, Beaudreault, or teammate Chaz Partosan was the significance of the moment. This is what the conditioning drills in the August heat the games in the November mud and the summers of weightlifting are all about; a cold day in February with flashes going off around the two of them as they signed on the dotted line of ceremonial Letters of Intent to play football for Sacred Heart in Fairfield next fall.
“I went on my official visit a couple of weeks ago and I really liked it,” Beaudreault said, “plus, it was the only Division-I offer I had.”
Partosan wasn’t sure about his future until a week or two ago when Sacred Heart came forward with an offer for both Whippet players.
“It was quick because I hadn’t talked to them before that,” said Partosan who will play on the defensive line for the Pioneers, “I talked to a lot of colleges before that and I was most likely going to go to a different college, then they came up.”
Not every high school football player gets the chance to play at the next level, Beaudreault and Partosan are two of the chosen few who got to put the ink to the paper on National Signing Day.
“I think it’s a dream come true for those guys,” Crudden said. “I know that their intent for four years has been to work every day to get better, be a better football player at this level to move on to the next level and they’ve accomplished that.”
Together.
Partosan moved to Willimantic from Norwich when he was in the eighth grade and quickly struck up a friendship with Beaudreault. The two played youth football together and moved on to high school where Beaudreault threw the passes and Partosan chased down opposing quarterbacks for the first couple of years. Partosan then began catching those Beaudreault passes as a junior tight end and the two, according to Crudden, are like “peas in a pod.”
“It’s fitting,” Chaz’s mom, Linda, said of the two moving on to the same college.
“If either of them went without the other,” Partosan added before quickly re-thinking that statement, “it wasn’t going to happen, they were going to go (together), regardless.”
Partosan said the Division-I AA Pioneers plan to use him on the defensive line while Beaudreault may get a shot at quarterback early as an injury could slow down the progress of Sacred Heart’s incumbent quarterback. If not, Beaudreault hopes to get a shot at either slot receiver or in the backfield where Beaudreault could utilize his biggest weapons, his legs.
Just as important; the classroom. Partosan plans to use his scholarship to study political science at Sacred Heart, Beaudreault was going to enter the criminal justice program, but went to a criminal justice class on a second visit to the institution and may have already changed his mind.
“I like the psychological part of it, criminology, forensic science — I want to be in the FBI,” Beaudreault said.

New football playoff system proposed

2009-02-03T20:29:00.000-08:00

The first step to another round of high school football playoffs has been taken.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s football committee passed forward a proposal to the CIAC’s Board of Control calling for an expansion in the playoff system with a quarterfinal round to be added to the existing semifinal and championship games in all six CIAC divisions. The proposal raises the number of playoff qualifiers from 24 to 48.
“It’s good for high school football and good for the athletes,” Ledyard High School football and CIAC football committee member Jim Buonocore said.
“I’m a strong supporter because it’s a positive for the kids,” he added, “I’ve been fortunate to have participated in the playoffs four times, including a state championship this year, and it’s exciting. It’s exciting to experience the playoff talk and the fever and this affords more opportunity without diminishing or tarnishing anything. There will be some very, very good teams and some very, very good games.”
The proposal now goes to the superintendents, athletic directors and coaches of the 142 CIAC member schools to give them a chance to comment on it before the Board of Control votes. The Board of Control will be briefed on the proposal on February 26, but the CIAC said in a press release that final action will not be taken until all constituent groups have had the ability to respond.
The plan calls for teams to play nine regular season games (10 in an 11-game year) with the quarterfinal round played on the Thursday night prior to the week of Thanksgiving, no regular season games will be played that week.
The playoffs then take a break to allow for the traditional Thanksgiving Day games prior to the semifinals. Those games will continue to be held the follwing Tuesday, and the championships will remain on the following Saturday.
“It’s a good thing, but it’s a tough time frame; that’s a lot of games in a short amount of time,” Windham coach Brian Crudden said.
Montville coach Tanner Grove shuddered, however, at the thought of what could have happened this past season. His Indians could have played either Wolcott Tech or Plainfield in a quarterfinal, followed by St. Bernard on Thanksgiving Eve, then New London the following Tuesday. That’s part of the reason why he didn’t support the proposal.
“I like where we are because when you make the football playoffs, it’s a big deal, an accomplishment in itself,” Grove said.
Windham principal Gene Blain, who sits on both the Board of Control and the football coaches committee, agreed that the prestige of current system may be a stumbling block. When the coaches proposed the plan and a mock-up of the past several years was done, several teams with 6-4 and 7-4 records would have made the quarterfinals.
“Football has always been different,” Blain said. “It changes philosophy and, something that we have to be aware of at the Board level, it sets a precedent.”
That precedent is having teams play a state tournament game, followed by a regular season game, followed by another state tournament game. In all other CIAC sports, regular season games must be completed prior to the start of the state tournament.
There is also the question of Thanksgiving and the big rivalries that exist on the national holiday. Could this playoff plan diminish the meaning of those games, some with traditions older than all of us who watch them?
“Every team, every coach is a competitor and Thanksgiving will continue to shine as a great day for high school football,” Buonocore said.
The Ledyard coach added that he had to play a semifinal game this year, four days after a Thanksgiving Day game, and it didn’t change his prep or his starting lineup.
Grove agrees that coaches will continue to want to win on Thanksgiving, but those who have already won a quarterfinal game and are prepping for a semifinal may think a bit about how long certain players will be on the field.
“Knowing that you have to play the following Tuesday, you may start doing things that you wouldn’t normally do in a game,” Grove said.
No matter what, this is a decision that won’t be take lightly.
“The football committee passing it forward gives it integrity,” Blain said, “but I’m going to need some time to look at it and think about it.”

Wolverines heating up

2009-02-02T20:59:00.000-08:00

What Griswold needed was something to lift their confidence.
What it got was a win over Montville last Friday.
Will it be enough of a boost for the Wolverines girls basketball team to make the postseason remains to be seen, but Griswold took another step in that direction on Monday night as it dropped New London, 56-36.
“I think we’re a new team now,” senior Cailin Sorder said. “We didn’t have a good record before that (Montville) game. We know we have to win the next three-out-of-five to make states and, hopefully, we can accomplish it.”
Griswold coach Tim Lagace stepped back and rolled his eyes a bit when he considered the question of making the state tournament. He has to hope to steal a win against two of the top 15 teams in the state as the Wolverines play Windham tonight and Bacon Academy on Friday. If that doesn’t happen, they would have to win out against the likes of Stonington, Killingly and Woodstock.
“Who knows?” Lagace said. “Anything can happen. We beat Montville and, with a little bit of luck, who knows? It, obviously, has to be our goal now.”
But the Wolverines (5-10) have to take it one game at a time and the first hurdle was the much-improved Whalers.
The problem for New London on Monday night was poor shooting. The Whalers made just 17-of-57 attempts from the floor.
“We had a lot of attempts, a lot of nice shots —the shots we wanted them to take,” New London coach Linda Pfeiffer said. “We just couldn’t put it in the basket.”
Still, the Whalers (8-7) hung around and trailed by only five points at the beginning of the fourth quarter, 36-31. Griswold’s Cailin Sorder (nine points) and New London’s Kendra Ferraro (nine points, eight rebounds) traded baskets before Griswold caught fire.
Katherine Pearce sank a free throw and Taylor McGrath put one in from outside to make it 41-33 Griswold. Catlyn Hughes added all six of her points on the night to put the Wolverines up 13 with 2:59 left. Samantha Rentz (who scored a team-high 13 points) finished off the Whalers as her four consecutive points gave Griswold a 15-point lead with two minutes to play.
“We just wanted to settle it down, control our offense, run our plays and get good looks,” Rentz said of the fourth quarter rally. “We were just going for open shots and open layups and if we had a fast break, we were just going for it.”
It’s a good thing the Wolverines got the points from the floor, because the foul shots were a whole other issue. The Wolverines helped keep the Whalers in the game a bit longer by making just 8-of-25 from the charity stripe.
“I was a big part of that,” Sorder said. “Next practice, definitely, a lot of foul shooting.”
Lagace just turned and shook his head when he thought about the free-throw shooting.
“I don’t know what to say about that, it’s not like we don’t shoot free throws,” Lagace said. “You don’t what it is; it could be that we were working hard on defense and didn’t have the legs, but you know how free throws go — it can be up and down.”

St. Bernard takes over first in ECC Small

2009-01-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

PUTNAM — Ashley Walenta had it right — unfortunately.
The St. Bernard junior said it was a “sad” event that not only spurred on her Saints teammates, but also served to create some problems that the Putnam girls basketball team just could not overcome Friday night.
An injury to Putnam point guard Kelsey Rybacki in the final 30 seconds of the first half gave the Clippers a need to regroup, and St. Bernard took advantage, using it to hold off Putnam, 38-31. The win pushed the Saints ahead of the Clippers and into first place in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division.
“I hate to say it, but when Rybacki went down — it was sad — but that gave us a little intensity and the ability to double-team (Katelyn) Tarr,” said Walenta, who finished with 16 points. “That helped us out a lot and brought up our intensity.”
The game was tied at 12 with 30 seconds to play in the first half when Rybacki took a pass at the top of the key and drove the right side of the lane, only to collide with a St. Bernard player as she hit a lay-up. But as the point guard fell to the floor, her right knee twisted and the hard landing didn’t help. She never returned.
“We’re hoping it’s just a bruise and that she will be able to heal up and play,” Putnam coach Willie Bousquet said. “They did some tests on her and they didn’t think there was any ligament damage. Hopefully, we can get a knee brace on her and she can play.”
What made it even more painful came at the buzzer when Catherine LeBlanc (10 points) sank a 3-pointer to give St. Bernard a lead it would never relinquish, 15-14.
The Saints (10-5, 6-1 ECC Small) picked up where they left off in the second half when Jill Kowalski hit her only basket of the night — a jumper from outside — and Casey Brigham followed with a 3-pointer to make it 20-14.
To that point, Walenta had scored all of four first-half points and had made just 1-of-10 from the floor.
“I was searching for it,” Walenta said. “My teammates were really encouraging. Catherine kept telling me, ‘Shoot, shoot, you’re going to make them,’ and Coach (Mike Nystrom) said the same thing. He just wanted me to take a few steps in.”
Walenta followed that advice and after hitting one of two free throws with 6:08 left in the third quarter, went on a personal tear. She put in her next four shots, one from beyond the arc, to help St. Bernard build a 30-23 lead.
“The injury changed (the game) — she’s a good player for Willie — but the difference was that we started to make some shots,” Nystrom said.
Rybacki’s injury allowed the Saints to come out of their triangle-and-two defense they were playing on her and Tarr, and switch to a diamond-and-one with the focal point being Tarr. It allowed them to cover the perimeter after Ariel Pelletier had scored on a pair of outside shots in the third quarter.
“We could still double out of the diamond-and-one, but it gave us that extra person on the perimeter and it kept Emma (Sternloff) underneath,” Nystrom said. “It’s what we should have done from the start.”
Tarr, the No. 4 leading scorer in the area, finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds for the Clippers (10-5, 6-2).

Malhoit and Sartor lead Avery Point

2009-01-29T05:30:00.000-08:00

You want to know what Waterford High graduate Anthony Malhoit and Stonington’s Tim Sartor have done for UConn-Avery Point?
James Childs will be happy to show you.
The Pointers coach doesn’t have to dig out any film or charts, he just calmly googles his way to the NCAA junior college website and starts reading off the stats.
You can do it for yourself and the numbers tell the story.
Malhoit, a sophomore at Avery Point, is currently third in the country in NCAAJC Division-III scoring as he averages 26.3 points per game for the New London-based school, that trails only Suffolk County Community College’s Leon Washington (29.6 ppg) and Manny Valentin of Atlantic Cape Community College (27.2) and is actually down one spot from where he has resided most of the season at No.2.
Malhoit is second in the nation in field goal percentage (75.7), third in rebounds per game (14.2) and ninth in blocked shots (2.2).
“He’ll be the first to tell you that he has a lot to work on, but I’m so happy,” Childs said as he scrolled down the statistics on Saturday after his team avenged an earlier loss this season to Gateway Community College with an 85-80 win.
Sartor has been just as impressive in his inaugural season with the Pointers as he is currently 14th in scoring at 21.4 points per game and is tops in the country in free throw percentage where he makes 90 percent of his opportunities from the free throw line. Add to that a ninth-best in the country in field goal percentage, despite taking many of his shots from beyond the 3-point arc, and you have a pretty devastating combo.
Still, it has produced only a .500 winning percentage as the Pointers came into the week with a 10-10 record. Chemistry is hard to come by with a team that changes personnel just about every season.
“(The coaching staff) told the team that (Anthony) can’t do it by himself and then I had to tell Anthony that he couldn’t,” Childs said. “Little by little, he’s trusted Evan Jensen a little bit more and Tim has played great.”
That was shown on Saturday when Sartor poured in 37 points and Malhoit added 24.
“We ran some two-man game, me and Timmy, he’s a great shooter and Evan is a great shooter, and we’ve all started learning our roles,” Malhoit said. “It was crunch time and we pulled it out, Tim hit some big 3’s and some foul shots and Jensen ran the show and got some key rebounds, it was a team effort.”
But as quickly as this team is coming together, it’s going to be torn asunder at the end of the season. Malhoit is in his last season with the Pointers and he’s hoping Division-I basketball is in his future.
“I’ve had some looks from Bryant and Northeastern, maybe Ivy League, hopefully it will work out,” Malhoit said.
When Childs is asked the question about Malhoit going Division-I, he let out a big sigh.
“Potential-wise, ability-wise, he could, but to be honest with you, it’s truly up to him,” the Avery Point coach said. “He played great in the St. Thomas More tournament and (Chancellors coach) Jere Quinn raves about him to every college coach he talks to. It comes down to what fits for Anthony. A Fairfield, for example, he could play multiple positions for them and they’re interested. For him, education is a big thing, he even told me Tufts because he has the grades and the talent.”
Malhoit is thankful for Childs’ efforts since he came over from Waterford High School after leading the Lancers to a state championship game in 2007.
“I definitely think it was a great move (coming to Avery Point), I could have left last year, but I didn’t think I was fully ready,” Malhoit said. “I spent an offseason with Coach and he has me lifting, I work out with (former New London, URI and NBA player) Tyson (Wheeler), I went out to (Las) Vegas and saw the pros. He runs you through everything, so I’m a more complete player.”
Sartor could have gone Division-III coming out of Stonington High which he led to a state semifinal berth in 2008, but the guard’s goal is to play Division-II ball.
“Getting bigger, getting stronger, getting in better shape, my skills are improving so I think it was a good move,” Sartor said of his experience at Avery Point.
The biggest advantage to Sartor has been the playing time which he knew he wouldn’t receive as a freshman at a four-year institution. Sartor hasn’t received any offers from any Division-II program as of yet and, thus, will likely return to the Pointers next season without Malhoit.
“He killed us in high school – actually since we were about 12 – so it’s been fun to play with Ant,” Sartor said.

Stailey getting adjusted

Nate Stailey was a high school coach in Pennsylvania, but left that to finish his graduate studies in college and now finds himself with his own junior college program at Avery Point in New London.
That makes for quite the adjustment in a short period of time.
“The biggest thing for me is the behind-the-scenes things,” Stailey said after his Pointers won their 15th game of the season against Gateway Community College on Saturday.
“Having to recruit, having to replace players; when you have seven freshmen and two sophomores- you know the sophomores are going to go, I’m not sure yet how many of the freshmen are coming back- you’re not 100 percent sure what the team is going to be like.”
He’s also had to adjust his offensive and defensive philosophies as there was no shot clock in Pennsylvania high school hoops.
Despite the adjustments, Stailey can look happily at the record as his Pointers are now 16-3 on the season (after a victory over Southern Maine CC Sunday), one win away from tying the three-year-old program’s record for wins in a season and “on the teams to watch list” in the NCAA junior college rankings.
“Region 21 (the Northeast) doesn’t get a lot of national recognition, there’s us and Roxbury (Community College) which beat us earlier in the year,” Stailey said.
The Avery Point coach fully expects it will come down to his Pointers or Roxbury to represent Region 21 in the national tournament.
“Going into the regional playoffs, they will probably be the No. 1 seed and we’ll be the No.2, so hopefully we’ll see each other and come out on top,” Stailey said.
After that, it will be on the recruiting trail, essentially for the first time for Stailey who should have some athletes to choose from, including a few from Eastern Connecticut, something Avery Point lacks right now.
“There’s definitely a lot of buzz about women’s basketball in Connecticut,” Stailey said. “I would love to get kids from everywhere, Eastern, Central and Western Connecticut.”

Bacon girls passed a test

2009-01-28T16:37:00.000-08:00

Bacon Academy finally broke into the New Haven Register’s top 10 poll this week in girls basketball.
With a 14-1 record and 12-straight victories, including nice wins like Tuesday night’s 45-40 victory over Windham at home, it would only seem fitting that the Bobcats belong among the best in the state.
“We’re trying not to let it get into our heads, we don’t like talking like ‘we’re in the top 10,” Bacon junior guard Mary Corrado said. “We’re more like ‘Yes, we’re in the top 10, but it doesn’t mean anything because we haven’t played the top teams in the state. We played NFA at the beginning of the season, Windham now and Montville last week, so we’re starting to get some competition and we’re coming through. I think we deserve that title of top 10.”
Bacon coach Dave Shea looked at the respect the program has been gathering over the course of the season as both a good and a not-so-good thing.
“I would rather be in the top 10 at the end of the season when it really counts,” Shea said. “Sometimes, you have a good season and when the season is over, you’re in the top 10. That makes you feel really good. Now, it’s like a guy who drops out of the 20th floor of an apartment building and when he gets to the 10th floor, he thinks ‘everything is going great so far’. The thing is, is there going to be a net there or cement. At the end of the season, it’s important, it doesn’t mean anything now.”
Something that did mean something was Tuesday night’s win over the Whippets as it was a true test of Bacon’s mettle and the Bobcats passed to continue to be unbeaten in the Eastern Connecticut Conference’s Medium Division.
It was also one of those games that could help once the state tournament comes around as Bacon had very little room to breathe. The Whippets and Bobcats weren’t separated by more than four points until the final minute of the game.
“That’s what’s going to happen when you get into states- it happens in every sport,” Corrado said. “It’s good to have harder games towards the end of your season because it’s no easy ride to the state championship.”
Both the Whippets (11-3, 3-2 ECC Medium) and Bobcats struggled to find their shooting touch in the third quarter after Bacon held a slim, 25-23, advantage at the half. The Bobcats made only 4-of-13 from the floor in the third quarter, but Windham wasn’t any more effective as they made only four of nine and the Bobcats increased their lead to four, 36-32, going into the final quarter.
The shooting, believe it or not, actually got worse as the Bobcats made only 2-of-9 from the floor and the Whippets were just 2-of-5. While the shooting percentage went down, the number of turnovers climbed as Bacon turned over the ball six times in the final quarter and the Whippets gave it back on four occasions- the Whips givebacks were just a little more crucial.
Amie Toner, who finished with 13 points for Windham, drained a 3-pointer with 5:26 left in the game to cut the Bacon lead to one, 36-35. Brooke Bailey (10 points, nine boards) answered with a trey for Windham but the Whippets came right back with an Ali Risley 3-pointer to make it 39-38.
That’s when Windham couldn’t hit the big bucket.
Bacon committed two turnovers and missed a shot, but Windham gave it right back with three turnovers of their own, the crucial one coming just after Katie Mahoney dribbled through two Windham defenders to make it 41-38 with 55 seconds left.
Windham got the ball back, called time out at halfcourt, and got ready to inbound the ball from halfcourt when Corrado had an inkling.
“Right before the play happened - it was weird - I thought about it and I never had thought about it before, I was like, alright I’m just going to go and grab for the ball and maybe I will get it,” the guard said.
She didn’t want to foul, and she didn’t. Corrado jumped in front of the pass and moments later, was fouled herself. She hit both free throws and then capped things off by picking up a loose ball under the Bacon basket to preserve the win.
“Both teams played very hard, but both teams didn’t play as well as they could play,” Shea said.
“All the players made a lot of mistakes throughout the game, but then we made a couple of plays down the end when it counted,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of guts, we’re kind of tough and this is the kind of game we’re going to run into in the state tournament.”
McKenzie Hyde led Bacon with 12 points and 11 rebounds, all of the senior’s points came in the first half, Mahoney added 11. Bianca Gildea added 13 for Windham, all but two of those came in the first half.

No issues at state semifinal

2008-12-03T03:48:00.000-08:00

Cudos to the New London administration and staff for an incident-free Tuesday night.
Despite worries to the contrary, about the worst I overheard in the Class SS state semifinal was the crowd atop Bates Woods Hill on the Montville side singing the old mantra, "Na-Na-Na, Hey, Hey, good-bye!".
I can more than live with that.
One of the reasons for that, the game may have lacked the intensity of the first meeting that New London won on the last play of the game. It also lacked the fire and the atmosphere of the St. Bernard- Montville game on Thanksgiving Eve.
That's because the Whalers, trailing 7-0 at the half, essentially put the game away in the third quarter. Some folks even started leaving before the end of the third quarter.
At the end of the game, the New London and Montville teams not only shook hands at midfield, they hung around and talked to one another before getting into their individual huddles.
"We play hard and we tried hard and we kept digging, scratching and clawing against a team that
is going to go win the state championship," Montville coach Tanner Grove said. "They're going to go and beat Seymour on Saturday and I tip my cap to Jack Cochran and his entire team because that's a great team."
I tip my cap to both programs and schools for keeping the story line of this one on the playing surface, not the sidelines.

Just like that, it's gone

2008-11-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

It's a funny thing about destiny, just when you think you have the opportunity to control it- it controls you.
Montville has dealt with the agony of defeat before, a one-point loss on the last play of a game against New London is as perfect an example as you can have.
That New London loss, however, may pale in comparison to the one that the Indians suffered Wednesday night at St. Bernard.
All the Indians had to do was win and a Class SS state playoff berth was theirs, now they have to hope that something they haven't had too much of all season, luck is on their side.
Montville's 14-12 loss to St. Bernard means the Indians can only get into the state playoffs with a Holy Cross win over Wolcott on Thursday. Everyone on the Montville team inclined to do so should probably be getting out their prayer beads about now.
Everyone will ask the same question; How did St. Bernard pull it off?
The answer is rather simple actually, the Saints executed when they had to.
Down by two touchdowns, Jordan Rando dived towards the end zone and the ball popped loose. There was defensive lineman Lucas Bowman to scoop it up and made it a one-touchdown game.
When Montville had to gain just a foot for a first down with one minute to play, there was Bowman to stuff Tyler Girard-Floyd and give the ball back to the Saints.
When there were 38 seconds left to play, there was Ryan Brahm,broken hand and all, pump faking the defender into falling down and lofting a 27-yard pass to Sean Kydd for the game-winning score.
Unfortunately, I wish the rest of the story was just as good. That there were handshakes and wellwishes afterwards between teams.
Instead, school officials and law enforcement had to intervene to not only keep the two sides apart, but to keep Montville players and some of its own parents apart. It was a scene that I hated witnessing, especially on Thanksgiving Eve.
So as we move on to Thanksgiving Day high school football, let's all remember one thing, it's high school football not the Super Bowl.

Ledyard pulls off the upset

2008-11-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

There was a feeling in the air on Wednesday.
A feeling of confidence.
It was almost palpable when I visited the locker room to do a preview story on the Ledyard-New London game that took place Thursday night.
It also turned out to be well founded.
The Colonels weren't cocky, but they weren't afraid of the mighty Whalers either. They spoke in praise of their upcoming opponents, but never put them on a much higher pedastal than they placed themselves.
Thursday night, the Colonels proved they knew what they were talking about as they dropped beat New London in Ledyard coach Jim Buonocore's words, "convincingly", 27-6.
Defense not only wins championships, it also wins games.
The Colonels didn't allow an offensive touchdown as the only offense the Whalers could muster came from the legs of Richie Vitale.
Quarterback J.J. Jablonski may have put himself into the same sentence as New London's injured Jordan Reed and Griswold's Sean Brackett with a 183-yard, two-touchdown performance.Barquis Haley, a former Whaler, scored the only touchdown the Colonels would need in the third quarter. Jablonski hit Drew Roselle twice in the fourth quarter for scores and later crossed the goal line himself to account for Ledyard's scoring.
Lost in all the hoopla of beating New London was the fact that the Colonels also qualified for the Class M state playoffs with the win.
No one really cared, no one even mentioned it.
After all, they had just beaten New London.

Wethersfield takes 2-0 lead over East Lyme

2008-11-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

Wethersfield has taken a 2-0 lead over East Lyme in the Class L boys soccer championship match at Willowbrook Park in New Britain.
Colin Doody scored 18:43 into the match when he took a rebound off a shot by Michael Morrissette and pushed it past East Lyme keeper Matias Francone.
The Eagles came back just eight minutes later when Andrew Whitehead took advantage of a three-on-one break and gathered in a cross from Brian Walsh to make it 2-0.

State championship weekend

2008-11-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

After a marathon Class LL girls volleyball state champioonship match Saturday night which was won by NFA, 3-2, over Fitch, we're back at it on this Sunday.
Weather is playing a role at Willowbrook Park in New Britain this afternoon as East Lyme is battling Wethersfield in the Class L boys soccer championship.
The wind is whipping around at 20 miles per hour plus and East Lyme is going against it in the first half. The Vikings have had one good shot thus far when Jacob Stanford passed to Dom Cassrino in the middle,but his shot flew over the top of the Eagles net.
Wethersfield, with the wind, has four shots already and keeper Matias Francone has made two saves. The most dangerous opportunity was a header off a corner by the Eagles' Bill Noiset that went wide to the right of the East Lyme net.
Later on this afternoon, the St. Bernard girls team plays Immaculate in the Class S girls championship at 4:30 p.m. at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury.

NFA avoids shutout, down 2-1

2008-11-15T18:42:00.001-08:00

Maybe the long second set took something out of Fitch.
The Falcons fell behind NFA early in the third set and never recovered as the Wildcats bested the Falcons 25-15 and now trail 2-1 in the Class LL volleyball state championship match at Newington High School.
Jennifer Escobido served up three points to put the Wildcats up 24-12, but NFA had to wait out three straight points by Fitch before it scored the game point on a tip by Kastine Evans.

Fitch outlasts NFA in second set

2008-11-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

A net violation against NFA ended a marathon second set with Fitch coming out on top, 35-33, to take a 2-0 lead in the Class LL state championship volleyball match in Newington.
NFA had fought back from an early deficit behid eight consecutive service points by freshman Kaylyn Levine but the Falcons rallied to tie and forced the marathon overtime.
The Falcons finally took the advantage when the Wildcats couldn't return a tip and the net violation gave the Falcons the win.

Fitch dominant in first set

2008-11-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

Norwich Free Academy has to be wondering why they can't play against Fitch like they did against Trumbull, Cheshire and Greenwich.
The Falcons dominated the first set of their Class LL state match at Newington High School and posted a 25-15 win.
Devyn Frank had three kills and two service aces while Rachael Dempsey served up eight points in a run that gave Fitch a 15-5 lead.
Kastine Evans has been a little frustrated early on as she has been called for three net violations.
Funniest moment of the first set: A ball was sent upward into the gym ceiling and never came back down, wedging itself between two steel beams.

Wild and windy ride

2008-11-15T16:30:00.001-08:00

If you're coming up to Newington tonight, you know what I mean.
It's a good thing volleyball teams play inside as the weather outside is kind of frightful especially with some of those wind gusts blowing across the highway on Interstate 84.
Fitch meets Norwich Free Academy tonight in the Class LL state championship which is scheduled to get underway at 8 p.m. The Class L final has just been completed with Darien beating Torrington 3-2.
The Falcons took their time in getting to Newington as the bus arrived around 7:15 p.m. The Wildcats were already in attendance as they left Norwich around 5:30 and got to Newington about a half-hour prior to Fitch's arrival.
THe Wildcats have to find an answer for the Falcons who have beaten them in the three meetings the two have had this season. They met twice in the regular season and again in the ECC championship. Fitch won the first meeting by only a 3-2 margin, but beat the Wildcats by the same 3-0 score in the next two encounters.

Hurry up and wait

2008-11-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

Anticipation.
That's what East Lyme and St. Bernard are battling right now.
The Saints girls soccer team was supposed to play Immaculate on Saturday for the Class S soccer title while the Vikings boys were getting ready to battle Wethersfield for the boys "L" championship.
Those matches have been put on hold by the CIAC as it, too, has been hit by a wave of anticipation. Only in this case, the CIAC was anticipating Mother Nature.
The weathermen (who are always right 10 percent of the time) are calling for a rainy and stormy Saturday so the CIAC decided on Friday to move the championship games to Sunday. East Lyme will play at Willowbrook Park in New Britain at 2:30 p.m., St. Bernard will be in Waterbury at 4:30 p.m.
The delat could actually benefit the Vikings who were hoping to have leading scorer Phil Ziegler reeady for the game. Ziegler went down with an injury to his left knee late in the semifinal match against RHAM on Wednesday. An extra day of rest can only be helpful in that situation.
It means only one state championship match will be played Saturday and it's a big one. Norwich Free Academy and Fitch will duel for the Class LL volleyball championship a at 8 p.m. in Newin

Unexpected outcome for East Lyme

2008-11-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

There was jubilation and a little disbelief after East Lyme shutout RHAM, 2-0, in the Class L boys soccer semifinals Wednesday night.
The jubilation was obvious, the disbelief was the fact that the Vikings had qualified for the Class L state championship game Saturday against Wethersfield.
"(At the) beginning of the year, I couldn't envision being here at this poin tin time, "East Lyme coach Paul Christensen said.
"The way these kids have worked so hard this year, the character they have had overcoming adversity, they've found different ways to win and that's a testament to this team. It's a runthat we didn't expect," he added.
East Lyme scored the goal it needed in the first half when Dom Cassarino headed in a cross from Phil Ziegler. After that, it was up to the defense led by players like senior Joe Wawrzynski.
"We're pretty happy, we did what we could," Wawrzynski said, "They had some good players out there, they're fast and we had to stay behind them and not let them get by us."
The Vikings then received an unexpected gift from the Sachems as an own goal early in the second half sealed the deal for East Lyme and sent the Vikings to their second state title game since 2002.
Back then, East Lyme finished in a tie with Wethersfield to end as co-champions. Wethersfield will again be on the other side of the field come Saturday in New Britain.
"Wethersfield is a tremendous team with a history of success, but (East Lyme) kids have one too, we're no slouch," Christensen said. "It's a great feeling to get this program back to that level."
The one concern the Vikings will have going into Saturday's match is the health of leading scorer Phil Ziegler. The junior banged up his knee late against RHAM and was brought to the bus on a golf cart. Christensen is hoping that Ziegler will be able to give it a go against Wethersfield.

Lyman and Bacon have no regrets

2008-11-11T09:45:00.000-08:00

Gassed.
It's the best word to describe how the Lyman girls soccer team looked as it walked off the field Monday night after finishing in a 1-all tie with Nonnewaug in the Class M quarterfinals.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, it wasn't over as they still had to endure a round of penalty kicks which went to the Chiefs, 3-2. That put Nonnewaug into the Class M semifinals opposite a member of their own Berkshire League, Lewis Mills.
"They were on fumes, but they went out there and did their best. I'm very proud of them," Lyman coach Mark Morello said.
The Bulldogs had to battle adversity all season long and the quarterfinals just brought more of it as one of their best midfielders, Julie Jahoda, tried, but just couldn't stay on the field due to illness.
"Julie was sick all day (Monday) and she gave us everything she could - about 10 or 15 minutes- but she shouldn't have been out here," Morello said. "The kids stepped up, it was a team effort out there, and I'm nothing but proud of the whole group."
Morello was in good company on Monday as the Bacon Academy squad had similar feelings after losing to Lauralton Hall, 3-0, in another Class M quarterfinal.
The loss finished Bacon's season at 16-2 and coach Christine Taylor, although disappointed by the loss, was satisfied with the season.
"I don't look at the season as a failure, we did a lot of good things," Taylor said. "We did the best with what we had to play against and with. It's just the game of soccer and the best team doesn't always walk off with a win."
The Lyman boys try to become the first team in the area to qualify for a state championship game this fall as they take on Somers in a Class S semifinal at Rocky Hill High School at 6 p.m.
Bundle up if you're going as temperatures are supposed to drop into the 20's and there may even be a breeze.
The Stonington girls field hockey team also shoot for a state championship berth as the Bears take on Granby at Sheehan High School at 4 p.m. in a Class S semifinal today.

Lyman readies for Nonnewaug

2008-11-09T10:05:00.000-08:00

Now comes the fun part, adjust on the fly.
That's what the Lyman girls soccer team will be doing Monday night when they host Nonnewaug at 6 p.m. in a Class M quarterfinal.
"They come from Woodbury," Lyman coach Mark Morello said through a grin when asked what he knew about Monday night's opponents after Lyman's win over Montville on Friday afternoon.
"They're a Berkshire League team and this year, the top three Berkshire League teams beat up on one another, but I still have to do a little work on them," Morello added.
The other top two Berkshire League teams, Shepaug Valley and Gilbert, have both lost to St. Bernard in the Class S tournament.
"It's a quarterfinal game and since Suffield (the Class M top seed) went down, it's a wide open field and I think everyone knows that," Morello said.
Junior midfielder Julie Jahoda agreed that Lyman has a shot at it, especially if they play as they did in a 1-0 win over the Indians.
"If we play like (Friday) every game, I think we have a chance at it. We're doing a great job," Jahoda said.
Ashlee Coutu, who scored the only goal of the game, said the team has had to fight through some adversity this year including an injury to herself which cost her two games of the season.
"It feels good (to be in the quarterfinals) because, in my opinion, adversity strengthens and it's made us a stronger team," Coutu said.
""We play with our hearts and don't leave anything on the field and we deserve it. It just feels good to be back in it because last year, we didn't get that chance."
Should Lyman get past Nonnewaug, it will then have to play Lewis Mills in the Class M semifinals.
Should the Bulldogs do that and should Bacon Academy beat both Lauralton Hall in the quarterfinals on Monday and St. Joseph's in the semifinals; it could be a Bacon-Lyman state championship game Saturday in Waterbury.
Just something to look forward to.

Ledyard sets up showdown

2008-11-08T07:39:00.001-08:00

Ledyard coach Jim Buonocore was happy Friday night and rightfully so.
Not only had his Colonels football team beat a highly-regarded Plainfield squad, they beat them "convincingly", 40-14.
"It was just a great all-around team effort by us, a lot of guys were involved, and that included great play up front because we were under-sized," Buonocore said.
Quarterback J.J. Jablonski had his best technical game of the year as he threw for 191 yards and two touchdowns, both to Fred Hewett. Sam Saccomano pulled down five of the 12 completions that Jablonski had for 106 yards and Barquis Haley rushed for 107 yards and four touchdowns, one coming on the defensive gem of the game.
It was the Ledyard linebacker's interception of a pass by Plainfield quarterback Steve Vanase that he returned 24 yards for a score that turned the tide in Ledyard's favor for good.
"It was the first mistake of the season for Steven," Plainfield coach Pat Smith said. "He didn't see the kid, I don't think anyone saw the kid, here comes a white jersey out of nowhere and then he steps into the end zone- that was the back-breaker."
It's a well-deserved week off for the Colonels now who had to weather a 13-12 loss to NFA and a 14-7 win over St. Bernard prior to the Plainfield game. Now, their attention turns to New London in two weeks.
The Colonels have to be considered a threat to New London which just survived against Montville to win a thriller on the Whalers home field Friday night.
New London doesn't get that break, the Whalers play Griswold this Friday night and clinch the Medium Division title with a win.

Bad day is good day for Saints

2008-11-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

It wasn't exactly the most enjoyable day to go out and watch a soccer game.
The wind was threatening to make little Mary Poppins out of everyone as it blew umbrellas around and blew rain even into the faces of those who wielded them. It also became a little chilly and on the field- a little slippery.
"It was getting slippery towards the end as we worked on the field," St. Bernard junior Jillian Kowalski said. "There was less and less grass, it was harder to get a grip. The goal area was harder, the corners were harder."
But the Saints, one of the few host local teams to play on this ugly Thursday, were happy with the results as they shutout visiting Gilbert, 1-0, for a berth in the Class S state tournament quarterfinals.
"I told the kids it would probably come down to a set piece," St. Bernard coach Chris Ghiglia said as the weather conditions rendered a passing game almost useless.
Fortunately for St. Bernard, that set piece showed itself in the form of a corner from Kowalski to freshman Caroline Kozlowski who scored her 25th goal of the season 34 minutes into the match.
"It was a brilliant goal," Ghiglia said. "Jillian's crosses, all year, have been excellent and Caroline has been sticking it in the net."
That one goal held up and sends St. Bernard into the quarterfinals on Saturday against another Berkshire Conference team that will have a long drive to Uncasville, Shepaug Valley.
The game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday although as Ghiglia surveyed the soggy field Thursday, he wondered aloud if it would be ready for play by then.
Lyman's was not and the Bulldogs game with Montville was moved to Friday at 2 p.m. to be followed by Lyman's boys against Shepaug Valley at 5 p.m. The Bacon Academy Bobcats girls also play Friday against East Catholic, that game was also postponed.

Big mistake for Morgan

2008-11-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

It's a big reminder that these are high school kids and that they are prone to mistakes.
This one just happened to be a big one.
William Morgan, the third-leading scorer in the area , was a key ingredient in Lyman';s third-consecutive Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division title run. He was expected to be one of the main reasons why Lyman was hoping to do well in the Class S tournament.
Late Wednesday morning, that all changed.
Morgan found himself in the presence of the school's vice-principal; i facing disciplinary action for undisclosed reasons. Those reasons were serious enough that it forced coach Ryan Fabry to kick him off the boys soccer team for violating the school's athletic policy.
His teammates, fortunately, persevered without him to score a 2-0 win over Canton in a first-round state tournament match.
"I told them they could hang their heads or not and they chose not," Fabry said.
The coach called the team together for an impromptu team meeting prior to the match with Canton and put together, in his estimation, one of his best inspirational pregame speeches he has ever delivered, team captain Jake Duff agreed with that.
"He's the most passionate coach I've ever encountered and I've played for many," Duff said. "He knows how to speak and fire you up; it's why our teams are good, he knows how to get you ready."
It worked as sophomore Chad Barrett, playing up front in place of Morgan, scored both of the Bulldogs' goals and led them to the win.
"They all stepped up and played out of their minds," Fabry said. "The situation is done and over with and the way we played (Wednesday), we can play with anybody."
The situation may be done for the team, but it certainly is not over for Morgan. He now faces the cold reality of not only facing some sort of discipline, but facing his former teammates as well.

Mixed blessings for Saints

2008-10-25T10:43:00.001-07:00

The St. Bernard boys cross country team saw Justin Missey-Higgins win the Class S boys cross country individual state title today at Wickham Park in Manchester and right behind the junior in third place was senior teammate Joe Massad.
"I didn't really expect it, I thought we would go 2-3," Massad said about the pretty spectacular finish for the Saints."I thought the kid from East Hampton was going to win the race, but when I saw Justin pull ahead, I knew he had it all the way."
That was the good news for the Saints, the bad news came a bit later. Despite the first and third-place individual finishes for the Saints, St. Bernard placed third as a team, one spot out of automatically qualifying as a team for Friday's State Open.
"I thought it was between us and East Hampton (for second), so when I heard Thomaston was fourth, I was like 'Oh no'," St. Bernard coach Steve Moon said.
"It would be nice to get to the Open, that's our goal, but we ran our best and I can't ask for any more."