This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
09/18/2016 12:00 AMFootball
The Indians’ football team recorded its first win of the season by posting 55-0 victory in Hamden on Sept. 16. North Haven scored two touchdowns in all four quarters on its way to the lopsided triumph against the Green Dragons, who play in SCC Tier 2.
Jack Steinman threw an interception on the Indians’ opening drive, but came right back to find Kyle Melillo for a 25-yard touchdown pass on their subsequent series. Less than a minute later, Melillo caught a 35-yard TD from Tom Dodge and a 14-0 advantage. Dodge broke off a 50-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and Zach Orth later took one in from nine yards out as the Indians held a 28-0 lead at intermission.
Dodge’s 35-yard touchdown rush started the scoring in the third quarter, after which Jamorea Hooks scored from three yards away. In the fourth quarter, Hooks brought in a 3-yard TD run and then Brendan Ziaks put a bow on the blowout with his 8-yard touchdown run. Colin Finkle kicked six extra points and John Crispi converted the last one for Head Coach Anthony Sagnella’s squad.
“They’re a program that’s going through a lot of changes and I know Tommy Dyer is going to a great job over there. He’ll have to be patient and he knows this and so some of the lopsidedness was due to the place where they are right now,” said Sagnella of Hamden. “I thought we had a very productive and good week of practice dealing with things that went wrong in our opening game against Cheshire. We’re beginning to repair some of those things and continue to improve in areas where we were deficient or inexperienced coming into the season.”
Steinman went 8-of-12 passing for 128 yards. Melillo had three receptions for 70 yards and two touchdowns, plus Dodge caught four passes for 76 yards. North Haven gained 341 yards on the ground, led by Dodge, who rushed 10 times for 141 yards. Max Sullivan gained 46 yards on eight carries, while Mark Montano ran six times for 30 yards.
On defense, Dodge had an interception and Korbin Pecora also picked off a pass to go with a forced fumble that was recovered by Orth. Craig Somma, Montano, and Orth all made six tackles for North Haven.
The Indians’ next game is on the road against another SCC Tier 2 team in Foran (1-1), which North Haven faces at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23. The Indians have defeated Foran in each of the last several years, when the two teams used to be division rivals.
Boys’ Soccer
North Haven won at Putnam 7-0 in its first game of the year, after which the Indians lost two home games by taking a 2-1 defeat to Wilbur Cross and a 3-1 loss against Fairfield Prep in a Hammonasset Division matchup.
Freshman Jose Rodriguez netted a hat trick in his first high school game when the Indians blanked Putnam. Rodriguez scored the game’s first goal on Ben Blumenthal’s assist to help North Haven take a 2-0 lead to halftime. With his club up 3-0 in the second half, Rodriguez scored his second goal on Mikail Panferov’s helper and then completed the hat trick by scoring on an assist from Jacob Skonieczny. Rodriguez was voted North Haven’s Player of the Game.
Freshman Kacper Skonieczny also had an impressive debut by scoring two goals, while Ethan Pavano had a goal and an assist, and Panferov also found the back of the net. Other assists came from defenseman Justin Shea, Quinn Dallai, and senior captain Matt Iovanne. Riley Powell made one save and Matteo Franco also saw time in net for Head Coach Federico Fiondella’s squad, which outshot Putnam 28-3.
“This was a good result for the first game of the season,” Fiondella said. “Our objective was to score multiple goals, post a shutout on the defensive end, and control the game.”
On Sept. 13, North Haven trailed Cross 1-0 at halftime before Kacper Skonieczny tied it on a Panferov assist with four minutes to play. However, Cross netted the game-winning goal in the final minute. Powell made six saves. The Player of the Game was Chris Damone, a defender who also got involved in the attack.
“We learned a tough lesson with that second Cross goal. Our players need to keep playing even when they assume that there is an offside call. We chose to wait for the referee’s whistle, which never blew, and, eventually, Cross scored as a result,” said Fiondella, who was pleased with his team’s overall play. “Again, a tough manner to learn a lesson, but hopefully, next time, we will remember.”
Girls’ Swimming and Diving
North Haven picked up a pair of victories to start the season by defeating East Haven-Wilbur Cross 91-52 in East Haven on Sept. 13 and then earning a 91-79 home win over West Haven at Gawrych Town Pool three days later. Once again, the Indians are guided by Head Coach Martha Phelan. Phelan said there are 26 girls on the team this year, including nine freshmen, two of which are divers. Unfortunately, sophomore diver Isabella Alogna is out for the season with an injury.
Against East Haven-Cross, senior Callyn Preibe swam a lifetime-best mark of 2:20.69 in the 200 individual medley, while junior Jasmine Nguy did the same in the 100 butterfly by going 1:04.24.
In the West Haven win, freshman Angela Gambardella had a nice meet by posting a time of 56.92 in the 100 freestyle to go with a mark of 1:10.08 in the 100 breaststroke.
Last year, North Haven went 6-5 and finished fifth at both the SCC Championship and the Class M State Championship.
Volleyball
The Indians gave Brianna Kleckner her first victory as head coach when they prevailed at Lyman Hall 3-1 on Sept. 14. North Haven won by scores of 25-17, 25-12, 26-28, 25-14. Jessica McInnis, Laurissa Amaker, Katie Messina, and Anna Stowe led the Indians to the victory.
Earlier in the week, North Haven took a 3-0 defeat at Guilford with scores of 25-10, 25-16, 25-22.
After beating Lyman Hall, the Indians dropped a 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-22) decision at Foran in a Qunnipiac Division contest. McInnis dished out 14 assists to go with two kills; Amaker had six digs, five kills, and one ace; and Bella DelVecchio added nine digs for North Haven (1-3, 0-1).
Girls’ Cross Country
The Indians notched a pair of victories in their season-opening quad-meet at the East River Preserve in Guilford on Sept. 13. North Haven lost to Guilford 19-44, but defeated Law 26-29 and Oronoque Division foe East Haven 19-44. The Indians, who are coached by Carl Jackson, went 9-2 last fall.
Boys’ Cross Country
North Haven began its campaign with a meet in Guilford and came away with one win. The Indians defeated divisional opponent East Haven and also took defeats versus Guilford (17-46) and Law (25-30). Head Coach Carl Jackson’s team is coming off a campaign in which the Indians went 6-5 overall with a record of 4-0 in the Oronoque to win the division title.
Field Hockey
The Indians played one game last week and took a 10-0 defeat at Amity on Sept. 13.