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01/04/2020 11:00 PMBoys’ Ice Hockey
The North Haven boys’ ice hockey squad stands at 3-3-1 after coming away with two wins and a tie in six recent matchups.
The Indians started off their stretch by taking a 3-2 home loss to Westhill-Stamford at Northford Ice Pavilion on Dec. 21. Two days later, North Haven earned a 3-1 road victory against New Milford at the Canterbury School. Then on Dec. 28, the Indians made it two wins in a row when they defeated Conard by an 8-2 score at Veterans Memorial Ice Rink in West Hartford.
On New Year’s Eve, North Haven played a road game versus Farmington Valley and dropped a 7-3 decision at Avon Old Farms. Junior Will Fiore gave the Indians a 1-0 lead when scored a goal on assists from senior Donny Funaro and junior Nick Howlett just 29 seconds into the game. With the score tied at 1, Fiore netted his second goal of the game to put North Haven up 2-1 with 9:25 left in the first period. Junior Mason Sullivan and senior Alan Tancreti had the assists on the goal. Farmington Valley came back with two goals to take a 3-2 lead after the first period.
North Haven pulled even when junior Aaron Racino scored from Funaro and junior Eli Brubacher with 8:09 remaining in the second period. Farmington Valley scored with 2:43 left in the second period to go up 4-3 and then added three goals during the third for the 7-3 final.
Two days after that, the Indians hosted West Haven and lost to the Blue Devils by a 6-1 score. Fiore scored North Haven’s lone goal of the game during the third period.
North Haven wrapped up the week by notching a 2-2 tie against Amity at Bennett Rink in West Haven on Jan. 4. Racino put the Indians on the board when he scored from freshman Owen Quick with 54 seconds left in the first period. Just 31 seconds later, Brubacher popped one into the net on an assist from Racino to make it 2-0.
Amity scored a goal midway through the second period to cut it to 2-1 through two. The Spartans netted the equalizer five minutes into the third period to make it 2-2, which held up as the final score following regulation and overtime. Junior goalie Andrew Sacco made 26 saves for North Haven.
Girls’ Ice Hockey
The Amity-North Haven- Cheshire (A-NH-C) girls’ ice hockey team picked up four more victories and a tie to boost its record to 7-1-1 on the season.
A-NH-C posted a 3-2 home victory over Ridgefield-Danbury at Lou Astorino Ice Arena on Dec. 23. With the game tied 2-2 in the third period, Tess Csejka scored a goal to give the Blades the lead for good. Haley Cable and Nadia DiNitale scored the other goals for the squad.
The Blades notched another win when they defeated Hand-Coginchaug-Valley Regional-Old Lyme by a 4-0 final in a home game on Dec. 28. Cable scored two goals for A-NH-C with North Haven junior Kelsey McCarthy getting the assist on the second one. Izzy Guillotte and Samantha Drane also found the back of the net for the Blades. Jade Krukar made 10 saves in net to get the shutout.
Two days later, the Blades went on the road and claimed a 9-3 win against Notre Dame-Fairfield/Law/Foran/Weston/Pomperaug at the Sports Center of Connecticut in Shelton. Avery DePodesta scored three goals to go with two assists for the Blades. Haley Cable had a goal with two assists, while Sara Cable, DiNatale, Olivea Kosh, and Cjeska also scored goals.
On Jan. 4, A-NH-C finished off its week by earning a 1-1 tie against East Catholic-Glastonbury-South Windsor in a home game.
Girls’ Basketball
The North Haven girls’ basketball team came away with a split of its last four games to move to 3-2 on the season. The Indians notched wins versus Coginchaug and Career and also took losses against Sacred Heart Academy and Sheehan.
North Haven dropped a 27-17 decision to Sacred Heart Academy in a road game on Dec. 20. One week later, the Indians opened play in the Fred Kelly Memorial Holiday Tournament by taking a 49-23 loss to Sheehan at North Haven High School on Dec. 27. Junior Emily Konopka scored eight points for the Indians, while sophomore Eveani Okwuosa had seven points with eight rebounds. Senior Zoi Burns had five steals to go with six rebounds and three assists.
The following day, North Haven squared off against Coginchaug in the consolation game of the tournament and earned a 31-30 victory versus the Blue Devils. The Indians were trailing 24-21 entering the fourth quarter, but outscored Coginchaug 10-6 during the final frame to emerge victorious. Junior Carly Fresher hit four 3-pointers on her way to scoring 14 points for North Haven. Okwuosa chipped in with 11 points in the win. Okwuosa and junior Olivia Stefanik each had three steals.
Then on Jan. 3, the Indians defeated Career by the final score of 54-35 in a home game. North Haven was up 39-33 heading into the fourth and then outscored the Panthers by a 15-2 margin in the period to run away with the win. Burns scored 13 points for the Indians, who also received nine points from Okwuosa and seven points apiece from senior Lauren Petrafesa and Fresher. Okwuosa also had six steals and seven rebounds on the night.
Boys’ Swimming and Diving
The Greater New Haven Warriors (GNH) boys’ swimming and diving squad is 1-1 to start the season after defeating Hand and losing to Fairfield Prep in its first two meets.
The Warriors opened their season by earning a 94-90 home win against Hand at Walter Gawrych Community Pool on Dec. 19. Then on Jan. 2, GNH hosted Fairfield Prep and took a defeat by the score of 96-85.
GNH saw a few swimmers record lifetime-best times during their two meets last week. Sophomore Kyle Borrelli swam lifetime-best marks in both the 100 breaststroke (1:18.64) and the 50 freestyle (25.64) for the Warriors. Junior Cameron Cargan swam a lifetime best in the 200 freestyle (2:00.98), while senior Steven Borrelli did so in the 100 butterfly (1:08.79). Freshman Patrick Cucchiarelli posted a lifetime-best time of 1:00.31 in the 100 freestyle.
Several athletes recorded season-best times between the two meets. Freshman Aiden Cohen swam season bests in the 200 freestyle (2:00.08), the 100 freestyle (54.39), and the 100 butterfly, (1:02.93), while fellow freshmen Spencer Carroll went season bests in the 200 individual medley (2:22.75), the 100 butterfly (1:05.45), and the 100 breaststroke (1:12.73).
Also turning season-best times were sophomore Finn Henry in the 200 freestyle (1:45.94) and 500 freestyle (4:51.05), Cargan in the 50 freestyle (23.69), junior Daniel Kamen in the 200 freestyle (1:58.10) and 500 freestyle (5:27.06), Evan Laughlin in the 50 freestyle (25.05) and 100 freestyle (58.15), freshman Lucas Espinosa for the 100 backstroke (1:06.58), and sophomore Hethon Foster in the 200 IM (2:06.14), the 100 butterfly (54.18), and the 100 backstroke (1:00.46).
The following athletes also posted season-best marks for GNH: junior Connor Coyne in the 200 IM (2:07.13) and 100 breaststroke (1:05.38), junior David Zhang for the 200 IM (2:18.22) and 100 backstroke (1:00.47), senior Aidan Henry in the 50 freestyle (22.51) and the 100 freestyle (48.77), junior Tanner Powell in the 50 freestyle (25.01), and freshman Joey Gould for the 100 butterfly (1:09.20), 100 backstroke (1:08.07), and the 100 freestyle (58.51).