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01/26/2020 11:00 PMGirls’ Basketball
The East Haven girls’ basketball team qualified for the Class MM State Tournament after claiming a pair of recent victories. The Yellowjackets improved to 8-5 on the season after earning wins versus Mercy and Branford in last week’s action.
East Haven started off its week by earning a 46-33 home victory against Mercy on Jan. 21. Taylor Salato scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Yellowjackets in the win. Alexis Pendziwater shot 3-of-3 from 3-point range on her way to netting 14 points on the night.
Three days later, the Yellowjackets played a game at Branford and prevailed by the score of 55-33 to qualify for states. Salato had another big game with 22 points and eight boards for the Easties. Erin Curran scored 10 points, and Pendziwater had nine points.
Boys’ Basketball
The Yellowjackets lost two contests last week and are now 3-8 this year.
On Jan. 21, East Haven took an 82-71 road loss versus Sheehan. Then on Jan. 24, the Yellowjackets hosted Shelton and dropped a 48-44 overtime decision against the Gaels.
During the previous week’s action, the Easties claimed a 58-32 win at Platt Tech on Jan. 15, followed by a 51-47 overtime victory versus Branford on Jan. 17. Junior Ian Reynolds scored 18 points for East Haven in the Platt Tech game. Junior Nick Furino scored 14 points, and Alias Ford had 11 points for Head Coach Ricky Narracci’s squad.
The Yellowjackets went on to avenge their season-opening loss to Branford by posting a 51-47 win in overtime against the Hornets. Reynolds netted 15 points in the game, while senior captain Shane Franklin scored the last seven points in OT, including the go-ahead basket and then two free throws with 3.2 seconds left, to seal the win for East Haven.
Boys’ Ice Hockey
The East Haven co-op boys’ ice hockey squad played a pair of games last week and split the set to move to 4-5 this winter. The Easties lost a close game against Hall-Southington, but came back to shut out Milford later in the week.
On Jan. 22, East Haven took a 4-3 road loss to Hall-Southington (H-S) at Veterans Memorial Ice Rink in West Hartford. East Haven fell into a 3-0 hole after the first period, but scored two goals during the second to make it 3-2. Senior Alec Speirs scored on an assist from junior Dave Amatrauda with 13:14 to play in the period. Then with 5:29 to go, Amatrauda assisted sophomore Duncan Rider for a goal that drew the Yellowjackets to within one goal through two.
H-S scored a goal to increase its lead to 4-2 with 11:15 remaining in the game. Speirs cut it to 4-3 when he scored his second goal from Amatruda with 1:32 on the clock, but the Warriors were able to hang on for the one-goal victory. Senior Logan Hamilton made 28 saves in goal for East Haven.
Three days after that, the Yellowjackets played a home game against the Milford co-op team and triumphed by a 3-0 final at Patsy DiLungo Ice Rink. Hamilton turned aside 19 shots to get the shutout in net for East Haven.
The Yellowjackets went up 1-0 when Rider scored from junior Cory Benni with 5:15 to play in the opening period. East Haven netted a pair of goals during the second period to go up 3-0. First, Benni scored an unassisted goal with 12:14 left in the frame. With 3:55 remaining, Amatruda lit the lamp on an assist by Speirs to give East Haven a three-goal lead heading into the third period.
Girls’ Ice Hockey
The Branford-North Branford-East Haven (B-NB-EH) girls’ ice hockey team split a pair of contests in last week’s action and is now 3-9-1 on the year.
On Jan. 22, the Wings took a 5-3 road loss to Hand-Coginchaug-Valley Regional-Old Lyme at Northford Ice Pavilion. Three days later, B-NB-EH earned a 2-1 win against Masuk-Barlow-Newtown-Lauralton Hall-Shelton in a home game at Patsy DiLungo Ice Rink.
Boys’ Swimming and Diving
The Greater New Haven Warriors boys’ swimming and diving team went up against the Lyman Hall-Coginchaug co-op in its lone meet of the week. The Warriors earned a 100-77 victory at Sheehan High School to improve to 3-2 on the year.
Freshman Christian Butler qualified for the Class LL Diving State Championship by recording a lifetime-best point total of 181.15 points for the Warriors. Fellow sophomore Patrick Cucchiarelli swam a lifetime-best mark of 1:12.14 in the 100 backstroke. Sophomore Kyle Borrelli swam a lifetime bests in the 100 freestyle (56.65) and the 100 breaststroke (1:15.98), while junior Collin Romero did a lifetime best of 1:05.92 in the 100 freestyle.
Junior Connor Coyne swam a season-best time of 1:58.85 in the 200 freestyle for GNH. Junior Tanner Powell (24.22), freshman Joey Gould (26.82), and sophomore Miguel Pearce (27.40) recorded season bests for the 50 freestyle. Sophomore Finn Henry finished with a season-best mark of 59.30 in the 100 backstroke.