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10/23/2016 12:00 AMFootball
The Valley Regional-Old Lyme football squad improved its record to 5-1 by posting a 35-20 home victory over non-conference opponent Prince Tech on Oct. 21. The Warriors used two touchdowns from senior quarterback Matt Sapere, plus a pair of TDs on defense to come away with the wire-to-wire victory. Valley held a 14-6 lead after the first quarter, was up 21-12 at halftime, and brought a 35-12 advantage into the fourth on a foggy night in Deep River. The Warriors finished the week standing in the top spot in the Class M State Playoff rankings.
Even with the victory, Head Coach Tim King said that the Warriors weren’t especially pleased with their performance in the win versus Prince Tech. King said that penalties hampered the team at times during the game, as they have at other points throughout the season.
“Our penalties are still killing us. We’re taking one step forward and two back as they say and it’s really starting to hurt us. We had a few nice drives going and the penalties are stymying us,” Coach King said. “We weren’t very happy with it. It was one of those games that I really can’t put my finger on it. I don’t know if it was homecoming and all the excitement and other stuff that led up to that, but it was just one of those games that it was almost like we were sleepwalking a little bit through it. We were happy to get out of the game with a win, but weren’t really happy with how we played.”
Valley-Old Lyme scored on the game’s first drive when Sapere threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Burdick. Sapere found Burdick on a deep post route and the senior ran the last 15 yards to the end zone for a 7-0 lead. Later in the opening quarter, Prince Tech started a drive at its own 10-yard line and got backed up to the 2 after taking a penalty. Prince Tech then had a bad snap that resulted in the ball popping loose and the Warriors’ Charlie Littler pounced on it for a touchdown to make it 14-0. Prince Tech followed with a long TD run that cut it to 14-6 through one. In the second quarter, Sapere threw a swing pass to sophomore Ryan Santos, who outmaneuvered a few defenders and raced 31 yards to the house for a touchdown and a 21-6 advantage. Prince Tech later scored on short TD run, but missed its second-straight 2-point conversion and trailed 21-12 at the half.
Roan Sullivan recovered a fumble deep in Prince Tech territory to set up senior Daniel Stecher’s 5-yard touchdown rush that extended the lead to 28-12 in the third quarter. Later in the frame, Prince Tech’s quarterback threw an option pitch that was intended for one of its running backs, but instead went into the clutches of Valley junior Jake Kruszewski, who took it back 35 yards for a score and a 35-12 lead after Burdick kicked his fifth extra point. Kruszewski’s touchdown looked more like an interception than a fumble recovery, although it went into the books as the latter because he grabbed a backward toss instead of a forward pass. Prince’s Tech’s Jquan Hall scored his third TD of the night in the fourth quarter for the 35-20 final.
Sapere completed 12 of his 17 passes for 148 yards and two TDs to go with 48 rushing yards on eight carries. Stecher gained 30 yards on six rushes. Burdick caught four passes for 66 yards and a score and he also recorded his seventh interception of the season on defense. Additionally on defense, Stecher and Sullivan combined for a sack and both athletes also made 18 tackles for the Warriors. Sullivan’s total included seven for a loss, while Stecher made three for a loss. Cody Stalls had 10 tackles, including six for losses, plus Mitch Conrad and Ernest Jean-Pierre both added seven tackles for Valley-Old Lyme.
The Warriors are back in Pequot Conference action this week when they play at Granby Memorial at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28. Granby is 1-5 and recently took a 34-8 defeat to Morgan.
“They’re gonna line up and try to smash it at us,” said Coach King. “We saw them today against Morgan and Morgan beat them pretty good, but they move the ball, they have a fullback that’s pretty darn good, and they have a defense that doesn’t give up and keeps coming. So we’ve got to start playing a lot better—that’s for sure.”
Girls’ Soccer
The Warriors qualified for both the Shoreline Conference Tournament and the Class M State Tournament by notching 1-0 home win over Coginchaug last week. Senior McLaine Rutan scored from outside the box to give the Warriors the only goal they needed in the big victory. The Warriors are now 6-6-2 overall and have a record of 6-3-2 in the Shoreline Conference with two regular season games to play. Valley will play at Morgan in the quarterfinals of the Shoreline Conference Tournament.
After beating Coginchaug, Valley had a road game in Cromwell on Oct. 17 and lost 4-1. Senior Sydney Lee scored the Warriors’ lone goal in the loss.
Then on Oct. 22, Valley played at non-conference squad Waterford and took a 2-1 defeat. Lee was once again the goal scorer for the Warriors.
Boys’ Soccer
Valley Regional played a pair of Shoreline Conference contests and came away with a victory and a tie. On Oct. 17, the Warriors went to Durham to square off against Coginchaug and blanked the Blue Devils 4-0. Then on Oct. 20, Valley hosted Cromwell and battled to a 1-1 tie with the Panthers. The Warriors improved to 8-3-3 overall and finished at 7-2-2 in the Shoreline Conference. Valley has qualified for both the state and conference tournaments and will host Morgan as the No. 3 seed in the quarterfinals of the latter tourney.
“Last year was the first time we hadn’t qualified for the Shoreline Tournament in several years, so that was a bit of a disappointment for the boys on the team,” Head Coach Mick Fearon said. “This year, something they wanted to accomplish was to get back into Shorelines, plus to have a home game is good to have the home fans behind you. It looks like whoever wins that game plays at Old Lyme.”
In last week’s win over Coginchaug, Valley scored three times in the first half on its way to the 4-0 victory. Zak Tisdale scored the first goal from Michael Dilger, Charlie Ferrucci netted the second on another Dilger assist, and Ryan Davis scored the third goal unassisted. Then in the second half, Ferrucci scored his second goal of the game with Ben Kilby getting the assist as the Warriors took a 4-0 command. Charlie Haughton started in net and made six saves and then Buddy Haydu played the last 10 minutes.
The Cromwell game was scoreless at halftime, but the Panthers broke through with a goal in the 61st minute for a 1-0 advantage. It stayed that way until there was just more than two minutes remaining, when Dilger tied the game by scoring from Tisdale. The play that yielded the equalizing goal started when the Warriors worked the ball out of their own end and into transition, where Tisdale picked it up 40 yards from the goal and chipped it over the top. Cromwell’s keeper came up as Dilger went toward the ball and Dilger knocked it over his head for a goal and a 1-1 score that held up as the final. Haydu played net and had three saves.
Girls’ Cross Country
Junior Addie Byars earned All-Shoreline Conference First Team honors by racing to a seventh-place finish with a time of 20 minutes and 46 seconds at the conference championship meet at Totoket Park in North Branford on Oct. 20. The Warriors came in ninth place as a team.
Freshman Lacey Rae Hall was Valley’s next finisher as she took 55th place in 25:15. Also competing for the Warriors were seniors Monique Johnson (63rd, 27:54), Corrina Stroeter (67th, 28:45), and Maya Whitcomb (68th, 29:32).
Boys’ Cross Country
Sophomore Lance Sigersmith posted a time of 18:39 to lead the Warriors’ pack with an 18th-place performance at last week’s Shoreline Conference Championship. Valley Regional came in eighth place as a squad.
Junior Richard Pittsinger ran 20:06 to take 40th place for the Warriors, whose other runners included junior Josh Arnum (42nd, 20:07), freshman Macklin Miezejeski (43rd, 20:07), junior Daniel Ryan (51st, 20:27.5), sophomore Peter Halsey (52nd, 20:27.9), and sophomore James Diluca (54th, 20:38).
Field Hockey
Valley split its two matchups on the road last week to own a record of 6-6-1 with three regular season games remaining. The Warriors dropped a 2-1 decision at Shoreline Conference foe Haddam-Killingworth on Oct. 17 before rebounding with a 3-1 victory at non-conference opponent Somers on Oct. 20.
The Somers game was scoreless at halftime before Francesca Daniels put Valley on the board by scoring an unassisted goal just 30 seconds into the second half. Seven minutes later, Daniels assisted a goal by Laura Quinn and the Warriors were up 2-0. Then with 15:59 left in the game, Francesca Pisanzio made it 3-0 by scoring on assists from Riley Milburn and Daniels. Somers scored the game’s final goal on a penalty stroke with 6:19 remaining. Logan Burdick made six saves for Valley, while the Warriors forced Somers’ goalie Alex Gershowitz to make 17 saves.
Volleyball
The Warriors now stand at 13-5 after playing to a split in last week’s four Shoreline Conference duels. Valley took a 3-1 home loss versus Haddam-Killingworth on Oct. 17, prevailed 3-0 at Old Lyme on Oct. 19, blanked North Branford 3-0 at home the next day, and then dropped a 3-2 contest in East Hampton on Oct. 22.
In the HK match, Valley lost by scores of 23-25, 26-24, 25-16, 25-20. Alex Figuenick had 30 digs and five aces for the Warriors, while Jessica Paholski added nine digs with six kills and a pair of aces.
Later in the week, Valley swept North Branford 25-12, 25-17, 25-17. Figuenick recorded 14 service points to go with eight aces, Maddie Millard had 21 assists, three kills, and three aces; and Emily McLaughlin posted 14 kills and two aces.