 High school sports talk from Sean Patrick Bowley. Whether it's football, basketball, baseball, or lacrosse season, we've got it covered... March 27, 2008CT Football: Governor's Cup RostersTook a ride up to Cronwell with former Trumbull coach Jerry McDougall to attend the annual Governor's Cup press conference at the Radisson. Not a lot to talk about except to say that this year's game will be held at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, June 28, 7 p.m. Connecticut is once again going to be without a few key Division I players, who will be off to their respective colleges taking summer courses to get ahead before the 2008 season. How many? Pretty much all of them. Greenwich's Jonathan Meyers and Chris Bisanzo, Fairfield Prep's Masengo Kabongo, Staples Ryan Sedlacek, Ansonia's Erik Kuraczea, among others will not attend. But Torrey Mack and Octavias McKoy of Stratford will. So will Alex Thomas, the all-everything tailback from Ansonia. So it's not an accurate representation of what CT has to offer, but it's still a good roster. Besides, we kinda have to take it easy on Rhode Island. The Ocean State has lost five straight and it's coach, Keith Kenyon of North Kingstown, is very conscious of that dubious distinction and vowed to make an concerted effort to show up this year after losing 59-27. Here are the rosters: CONNECTICUT RHODE ISLAND Posted by sports on 5:45 PM | Comments (4) March 26, 2008JCC schoolgirl roster setThe Jewish Community Center has announced the rosters for its Schoolgirl Classic next month. The JCC schoolboy/schoolgirl classic will be played April 12 at 6:30 at the JCC, 4200 Park Ave., Bridgeport. The JCC announced the rosters for the Schoolgirl Classic at the JCC in Bridgeport next month. East
Posted by sports on 5:37 PM | Comments (1) March 25, 2008JCC Connecticut Boys roster setGot a call today from Notre Dame-Fairfield's Vinny Laczkoski with the Connecticut roster for the Jewish Community Center of Bridgeport's 47th annual Schoolboy/Schoolgirl Classic at 4200 Park Ave. in Bridgeport on April 12 at 6:30 p.m. The roster comes a day after organizer Ken Liberman announced that Stonington's Heather Buck, the UConn recruit and Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year in girls basketball, is expected to participate in the Connecticut girls East-West game. Here's the Connecticut boys' roster as of now. Obviously, it's subject to (and usually does) change. steve zazuri, masuk [shu] ...shane gibson, killingly [shu]. ...johnny "little"stovall, harding [tba]. ...b.j . monteiro, crosby [duquesne]. ...chris prescott, northwest catholic [st. joseph]. ...stanford dulaire, watkinson school [shu]. ...marcus wright, cross [tba]. ...nick greenbacker, east catholic [shu]. ...ryan olander, e.o. smith [fairfield]. ...greg magano, nd-west haven [yale]. ...assane sene', south kent [virginia]. ...coaches vinny laczkoski, nd-fairfield. ...john pfohl, kolbe catehdral (for the 11th year in a row). It's a pretty good list. Three players are from the Connecticut Post's upcoming Super 15 basketball team (tba on those); One is the Coca-Cola State Player Posted by sports on 7:04 PM | Comments (0) March 15, 2008At the Class M finalMulti-tasking is a pain, and I'm still recovering from almost being run over by the Bloomfield players after they stormed and danced on the press table. But I'm able to take a deep enough breath to say that the Class M final is underway, and that the game is tied 14-14 after the first quarter. The scoreboard operators briefly gave Hartford Public an extra basket. But Hal Levy and Jim Bransfield quickly corrected the referees. Halftime: Hartford Public 32, Stratford 29 6:05 3rd: Hartford Public 40, Stratford 30. Fourth quarter: Russell Payton hit back-to-back 3-pointers and reserve forward Tom Massey scored on back-to-bay layups to pull Stratford within 51-50. It is now 53-51 with 2:42 left. STRATFORD 63, HARTFORD 55 Posted by sports on 2:16 PM | Comments (2) At the Class S final(Yawn). With 20 minutes to go, I've arrived at Detrick Gymnasium for the the first half of the boys basketball championship. Since the great people here at Central Connecticut State (led by the ever helpful Jason Stronz the assistant CCSU sports information director) do everything but open doors ahead of you, my computer is up and running, I'm stress-free and... It's running diary time. The CPTV/WFSB set up is right in front of me, rehearsing their lines for the opening monologue. This game is indeed being broadcast live as part of their "groundbreaking" venture to cover sports in Connecticut. HOWEVER, if you're from anywhere in southwestern Connecticut and want to watch the first three games from the comfort of your own home, you can't. WFSB's "Eyewitness News Now" station, which is kinda a 24-7 information channel with weather, traffic and other such info, is NOT available to Cablevision customers. Just Cox and Comcast. So, if you're from Stratford or Bridgeport you're outta luck. Your last resort is if you have a strong computer and a blazing fast internet connection. If so, you may watch it here ctsn.tv. Oh, and contrary to popular belief, these games will also NOT be rebroadcast like the girls were on CPTV last week. The only one guaranteed to reach all corners of the state is the Class LL final at gampel. That'll be on WFSB Channel 3. So this deal pretty much works only for the big boys. We're about to start and, I have to say this is not a great crowd. Neither team has ever traveled well in the past and, apparently, haven't today. It's probably about half full. Now, if this was between Class S schools like, say Gilbert or Haddam-Killingworth or Cromwell this place would be packed to the rafters with screaming fans. As it is now, the only thing capable of piercing my ears is CCSU's notoriously obnoxious PA system. Here we go... Bloomfield is ahead 6-4... Just checked out the CSTV site and clicked on the "Watch Live Stream." From what I'm seeing, it looks like WFSB is off to a rocky start. This game doesn't even look like it's on Eyewitness News Now (from now on EWNN). I'm getting weather and traffic updates, and some taped forecast. And, just like that, it has begun streaming live. A dreaded glitch, but an averted problem. END 1 Key stat: Bloomfield has outrebouned Kolbe 14-8 and has outscored them 12-4 in the paint. Timeout Bloomfield, 6:46 2nd By the way, JOE HOOPS MORELLI, Mr. Connecticut boys basketball, is in the house! He's been here since tipoff. 3:10 left 2nd: Bloomfield 20-15--Bloomfield has just gone on a little spurt to take a five-point lead, highlighted by a 3-point play by Rashad Moore. Kolbe... just... can't ...shoot. Halftime: Bloomfield 26, Kolbe Cathedral 23 3:11 3rd Q: Bloomfield 34, Kolbe Cathedral 34 END 3: Bloomfield 49, Kolbe 42 6:42 4th: Bloomfield 57, Kolbe Cathedral 44 -- The Cougars just took a time out after Bloomfield began the fourth quarter by forcing three turnovers and going on an 8-2 run for a 13-point lead. 1:37 4th: Bloomfield ed by as much as 65-50 with just over 2 minutes remaining. But Kolbe Cathedral scored six straight to get within 9. Both teams are now in the double bonus. Kolbe Cathedral has some serious work to do down 66-56. Dominique Langston shooting 2. 1:24 4th: With Kolbe Cathedral in full-court pressure mode, Zenaabay Moore just scored off a steal to get his team within 66-60 and force a Bloomfield timeout.
Ronnie Underwood finished with 20 for Kolbe. Zenaabay Moore added 17, Andrae Beckford 13 and Dominique Langston 12. Posted by sports on 10:48 AM | Comments (1) March 14, 2008Amity wins Division II hockeyCongratulations to coach Gary Lindgren and the Amity boys hockey team for winning their first state championship tonight, 5-1, over Fairfield. Brian Kownacki scored four of Amity's five goals -- including a natural hat-trick in the second period -- to turn a 1-1 game into a bona fide route. Andrew Goldwitz added Amity's last goal. Alec Mansfield had 24 saves for the Spartans. Posted by sports on 10:59 PM | Comments (0) March 13, 2008Baseball finals at Palmer FieldThis just came over on the CIAC's wire (they have a wire? amazing) and it's good news on the baseball front, at least in my humble opinion. Here's the unadulterated version from CIAC HQ: The CIAC has signed a contract to hold all four of the 2008 State Baseball Championship games at Palmer Field in Middletown. In addition, Palmer Field will be used to host several quarterfinal games on May 31, and serve as a site for one of the semifinal doubleheaders on June 3. "We are extremely pleased with what the Middletown Parks & Recreation Department, the Middletown Chamber and the Middletown American Legion have done to pave the way for the games to be played at Palmer Field", stated tournament director Fred Balsamo. "Palmer Field is an outstanding facility with a tremendous playing surface. Its central location makes it very popular with teams and spectators from all over the state." The 2008 tournament will begin on Tuesday, May 27. The finals are slated to be held on Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7. The CIAC Baseball Committee is looking forward to an exciting tournament where the participants will have a memorable experience. [end communication] To me this is tremendous. Although Yale was a great venue, Palmer Field gives the state a much more intimate setting for a high school championship. The American Legion tournament plays its tournament there. The concessions are top notch. The seating will hold the usual compliment of championship game fans much more intimately than Yale, which tended to lose a smaller crowd. Best of all, if a game gets rained out, the games won't be inexplicably postponed all the way up to Bristol. Thankfully karma has taken care of the culprits of last year's Class LL switch to Bristol. The New Haven County Cutters are no longer with us. Posted by sports on 8:19 PM | Comments (0) March 12, 2008Division I hockey: Cancel the regular seasonGreat games down at Ingalls Rink on Wednesday night. Unfortunately for everybody who might have thought otherwise, but Fairfield Prep vs. Notre Dame-Fairfield was a forgone conclusion despite the excitement. Notre Dame-Fairfield was down 2-0 to Glastonbury but scored five goals in the third period to win 5-2. I don't care if it was 8-0, Notre Dame-Fairfield wasn't losing to Glastonbury. Over in the other semifinal, Conard was tied with Prep 1-1 going into the third. Final: Fairfield Prep 4-1. So much for that great regular season where . And so we have yet another all-Fairfield final. In fact, this season just proves that the regular season in hockey means absolutely nothing. You can beat Fairfield Prep silly in the regular season, twice even, but get them in the playoffs and its over for you. So I'm proposing that we cancel the regular season. It just has no impact on the playoffs. What's the point? Maybe we can just play whomever we want before mid-February, kinda like a season-long exhibition schedule, and then start the playoffs with an all-inclusive field. Only two or three Division I teams didn't make their field anyway. So why not just let them all in? Maybe we just tweak the whole playoff. Maybe we could use something like the Great 8 in Massachusetts to spice things up a bit. Somebody do something because what we've got just doesn't work enough. I have no problems with Prep and ND getting in the final every year. But, one of these years, the seeds have to hold, no? Posted by sports on 11:49 PM | Comments (6) Harding vs. Crosby running diaryIt's 30 minutes to game time up here at CCSU for the Class S semifinals. Since they take care of us media types up here, it's time for a running diary. I'll eschew the sharp, detailed commentary since I have to actually pay attention to the game. So don't expect anything funny. (That's Saturday). 29:19 before game time and the Crosby side, as expected, is 60 percent full. The students have come out in force. They also have their own radio broadcast on WATR. So, if you can, it should be streaming live on their website watr.com 25:40 to go: Took a trip into the Detrick Gymnasium concourse for a pregame snack. Nothing but popcorn. (Grr). 25:00 to go: Did I mention I forgot my mobile phone at home? Yeah. In my haste to drive the 40 minues up here (I got up here with an hour to go, so what was the rush? I don't know), I left the darn thing charging on my kitchen counter. I'm sure people down in New Haven are gonna be calling, texting and--failing to get me--cursing my name to high hell. Sorry in advance, guys. It's a first-edition Motorola RAZR. I got it two years ago and it is, without a doubt, the worst phone I've ever had. The battery doesn't last more than 10 minutes of hard use, which is just no good for a guy in my position. ...Enough griping about that, though. 21:07 to go: Harding has the court all to itself. Charlie Bentley (who may, or may not be coaching in his last game), Marvin Gray, Reggie Hayes and the rest of the staff are here. They're wearing their blue jumpsuits. Most opposing FCIAC coaches like to joke that when Harding's staff wears the jumpsuits instead of suits, it doesn't respect the opponent. That certainly can't be the case here. Crosby is anything but a typical Harding foil. They're favored. The Bulldogs are going for their third state championship appearance in five years and first since beating Trinity Catholic in 2005. 17:05 to go: Harding is off the court. And the Crosby fans keep packing into the place. Harding AD Don Kubie just told me that Crosby brought two buses full of students to the game. Harding was only able to bring a few here and there. Because of yesterday's bomb scare in school (sigh), Kubie said they really couldn't sell a bus trip. "But if we somehow win tonight, we'll bring a few buses up to Gampel," he said. Yeah, the winner does advance to Gampel Pavilion to take on the winner of tonight's Trinity Catholic-Windsor game, which is just getting underway now at the New Haven Athletic Center. 8:47 to go: From my seat courtside, I'm able to listen to the Division I hockey semifinal game between Glastonbury and Notre Dame-Fairfield on sportingnewsct.com "Looks like the spirit has gone out of the Tomahawks," says SportingNewsCT head Don Boyle. It's 4-3 Notre Dame-Fairfield with 4 minutes left, so they're going to win (as expected). Fairfield Prep's win over Conard is coming up next. 6:26 to go: And here come the Bulldogs onto the court. And their fans go nuts. It's gonna be a long day for anti-Harding crowd noise. 5:30 to go: and here come the Presidents, to boos from the Crosby faithful. But what's this? A nice lift by the Harding crowd. 3:40 to go: We're about ready to start here (Notre Dame-Fairfield just scored its fifth goal of the third period to take a 5-3 lead with 37 seconds left. Guess they were down 3-0 after two. But ND scored three goals in a minute and change, two by Anthony Capelli; to return to its third straight championship game). 0:00 to go: Anthem time. We'll do this by timeouts. Whenever there's a time out, I'll give the score and try to squeeze in a few details. Starting Lineup for Harding: Mike Armstrong, Jermaine Campbell, Johnny Stovall, Davon Pratt and Mike Davis. For Crosby: B.J. Montiero, Anthony Ireland, Gary Madison, Lavar Moore, Mike Manning. Here we go. (Incidentally, Trinity Catholic-Windsor is on SportingNewsCT's Channel 2 with my former Syracuse classmates, Ray Curren and Phil Soto-Ortiz).
Trinity Catholic is up on Windsor 30-25 at halftime in New Haven. 6:22 2nd: Harding had two good looks but couldn't get them to go down. Crosby, meanwhile, converted on two straight to force a Harding 30-second time out down 25-21. Harding has had success inside, but Crosby has had five blocks already. People who yell at refs are annoying (especially those who yell in my ear. This one guy is pacing back and forth screaming behind press row). HALFTIME: Harding 40, Crosby 40 Moore leads Crosby with 14. Monteiro has 12; For Harding, Cornelius Brown and Willie Gray have eight apiece. Johnny Stovall 6. At the other semifinal: Late in the third... Windsor has taken a 7-point lead. 39-32. As we begin the third, Windsor is now up 42-40 with 5:39 left in their game. ...Now it's tied at 42-42. People are crowding around me to get update. They all seem to know me, calling me by my first name. I've never met half these people before, though. ;) Anyway... Crosby finally cranked it up to start the third quarter with a 15-9 surge that forced a Harding time out with 3:04 left. They led by as much as 51-43 before Laquan Mendenhall and Davon Pratt hit back to back 3s to pull within 2. But Crosby scored the next eight points, most to surge ahead 59-49. And it keeps going on like this as Crosby has now gone ahead 63-51. Harding just can't take care of the ball. MEANWHILE: Trinity came from 7 down to win 56-52 and advance to the Class LL championship game. Poor Phil Soto-Ortiz doesn't have a Harding-Crosby update. "We're trying our darnest, folks," he says. My phone must be ringing off its charger back home. ...that is, if it's still charged. 2:26 remaining: Harding, which was down by as much as 12, cut it to 69-63. But the Presidents just can't seem to stop Crosby on the other end. It is now 75-65 and another Harding timeout. Crosby has won 84-75. They advance to the championship game against Trinity Catholic on Saturday at Gampel. Gotta run, deadline. Posted by sports on 6:41 PM | Comments (0) March 11, 2008So much for the Post's Invitational...Unless you're talking about Class S. Even then, it's a stretch. All but one of our local teams went down in Class LL last nite: St. Joseph, Fairfield Prep (hard, btw), Bassick (to Harding), Notre Dame-WH. That's not including Trinity Catholic as a local this time. We were using them to prove a point last time. Technically, they're the Advocate's baby. Anyway, here's the final four of Class LL: No. 15 Harding vs. No. 3 Crosby, at CCSU Wednesday, 7 Elsewhere, Stratford defeated Sheehan and advanced to play (gasp) SWC rival Bethel in an interesting Class M semifinal at Kennedy. Tonight in the ever intriguing (if not extremely skewed) Class S, we actually have a worthy opponent for Kolbe Cathedral when it faces Ansonia tonight at Bunnell. Ansonia wasn't exactly a juggernaut in the NVL, where it went 9-11 and lost two games by over 30 points. But in Class S, the 30 seed is suddenly one of the best teams in the tournament. Ansonia won't be a awed by allyoop dunks like Gilbert's players were. But, honestly, it hasn't cut through this bracket like Kolbe Cathedral has. They're still going down tonight as Kolbe Cathedral continues its magical (?) ride to the Class S final. Posted by sports on 1:25 PM | Comments (3) March 10, 2008Benoit new Hamden football coachThat's the word coming out of Hamden -- though unconfirmed this late Monday night, except by a few posters I know on Birdseye sports whose banter seems to verify the information. Edit Tuesday The New Haven Register confirmed it in a story today. While we're not shocked, it is a minor upset. Many had tabbed Woodland coach Chris Anderson as the favorite. We'd also heard other names. John Acquavita of Wilbur Cross, North Haven assistant Alex Velardi; Foran's Jeff Bevino and Bassick's Dennis Wanzie were also mentioned as candidates by multiple sources. Though many people I'd talked to said Benoit wouldn't get the job because he wasn't a teacher. The Hamden football committee has apparently decided it was a non-factor. Benoit certainly has the coaching acumen to turn the ailing program around. He has been successful coach at North Branford and an assistant at West Haven before returning to the head coaching ranks and turning a dead-end Guilford gig into a pretty successful program in just a few years. But Hamden. ...Hamden is THE plum job of plum jobs in Connecticut. Since Hyde Leadership opened its doors in 1997 and started admitting Hamden's most talented players, Hamden has been on a steady decline. It went to the state playoffs in 1998 with Horace Dodd, but has only had one winning season since -- and that was a 7-3-1 mark in 2002, Jamison Davis' junior year. From what I understand, the football committee (which we heard interviewed at least 6 candidates midway through last week) took great pains to select a worthy candidate. Mark that Hamden-West Haven game down on your calendars. Benoit's a West Haven guy, which makes this something similar to our own Marce Petroccio going from Trumbull to Staples in 1993 (sort of. ...nobody thought Staples could ever be a big-time program Marce has turned it into). Posted by sports on 10:40 PM | Comments (2) Welcome to the Connecticut Post InvitationalAs the results came in Thursday night, it became increasingly apparent that the supposed prowess of the rest of the state's boys basketball teams compared to those in Fairfield county--the FCIAC in particular--had been greatly exaggerated. I was in my car coming back from Norwich, where Harding had outlasted NFA, getting the early returns from text messages and phone calls. Harding led by as much as 18, but needed to weather a late charge to win, 58-53 The next day, top-seeded Windsor defeated Newtown, but only 57-51. So that pretty much left a horde of southwestern Connecticut teams fighting for the state's top basketball prize, leaving me to declare to the rest of my colleagues that the remainder of the Class LL tournament has been rennamed: THE CONNECTICUT POST INVITATIONAL I thought we were in for a down year in southern Connecticut. I guess not. Not with this Elite 8 (note, Connecticut Post coverage teams, including Trinity Catholic, listed in bold): No. 9 St. Joseph vs. No. 1 Windsor (at Branford) No. 5 Notre Dame-WH vs. No. 4 Trinity Catholic*(at Ludlowe) No. 15 Harding vs. No. 10 Bassick (at Fairfield Warde) No. 22 Fairfield Prep vs. No. 3 Crosby (at NHAC). We've invited Crosby and Windsor, who have been among the top five teams all year, to our little soiree. As for the rest of you pretenders, Hillhouse... NFA. ...East Catholic. ...Torrington. ...Holy Cross. Get out. Posted by sports on 1:36 PM | Comments (0) March 6, 2008Division I hockey: the more things change...Back when I covered hockey at a weekly newspaper back in the olden days (as far back as 2003), the running joke come tournament time was to turn the bracket upside down to get an idea of what the real seedings should have been. That's because many teams play schedules that border on ridiculous, while others play schedules softer than quicksand and we'd get enormously skewed seedings. (Remember Farmington, anyone?) That didn't look like the case this year, when the traditional powers were defeated often and, may I add, convincingly during the regular season. So the seedings appeared to be correct. But then we started the tournament last night, and it proved to be yet another topsy-turvy first round. No. 2, No. 4, No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 all lost.
Nobody was shocked that Notre Dame-West Haven, a six seed, fell to defending champion Fairfield Prep. Despite a rough start to the year, the program of the decade won eight of 11 games to qualify as the No. 11. Notre Dame struggled with injuries and lost four straight to get this typically unfortunate first-round matchup of the two arch rivals. How about elsewhere? No. 15 Simsbury 6, No. 2 South Windsor 4 But we really should have seen this coming. First, because of Hamden's 6-1 victory just a few weeks ago. It was late in the year and was the first sign that this team was running out of gas. If this was truly the No. 2 team in the state, that should have been a closer result. The second was a 5-2 loss to Conard in the next game. South Windsor deserves credit and praise for an amazing season, but it just wasn't ready for prime time. No. 13 Tri-Town 3, No. 4 Ridgefield 2 (OT) No. 10 Conard 4, No. 7 Darien 3 No. 9 Notre Dame-Fairfield 5, No. 8 North Haven 2 So, with Glastonbury's two-overtime win over New Canaan here's Saturday's quarterfinal set up (remember, it's neutral sites for the quarterfinals this season, which I don't like but... whatever.) Once again, we have an unbalanced bracket: two games pitting state powers. Luckily, they're on opposite sides of the bracket. Hamden vs. Notre Dame-Fairfield at Ingalls Rink East Haven vs. Fairfield Prep at Bennett Rink SPB Posted by sports on 3:12 PM | Comments (10) March 5, 2008Class LL: Upset Central (except for Central)It was quite the night in Class LL (tournament brackets here) where anything could, and did happen. I had a Seth-Davis-like "Tournament Central" seat at the home offices in Bridgeport (my boss, Geno, needed help answering phones). So I hung back and watched the virtual carnage unfold courtesy the dudes at Birdseye Sports First, as you can all read in this (mildly amusing) eulogy by Joe "Hoops" Morelli Hillhouse has indeed packed it in early at home against league rival local boys Fairfield Prep. Down 13 early, thanks in part to Prep's emotional guard Tavonne Reid's play, Hillhouse finally decided to show up and actually took a 1-point lead with a minute left. But Reid and Brian Murphy (edit) put Prep out in front by three with foul shots and Prep's defense did the rest. And so the two-time defending champions have fallen. We feel your pain, Hoops. We feel it. Elsewhere: SHU-bound center Nick Greenbacker and two-time runner up East Catholic, a giant killer which made its name by upsetting Harding in 2006 and losing to Hillhouse in two straight finals, also exited the tournament with a two-point loss to Cheshire. And instead of a Hillhouse-East rematch, we get Cheshire-Prep. Prep beat Cheshire twice. "And that's what makes me nervous," said Prep coach Rich Lee. Newtown, which saw its 11-game win streak to start the season end against Masuk, repaid the favor by ending Masuk's season and the stellar career of another SHU-bound player in Steve Zazuri . New Britain upset eighth-seeded Glastonbury which is notable because now St. Joseph, which saw its hopes at two home games dashed by Central on the last day of the regular season, ironically gets another home game after crushing Southington 82-65. Though we never heard from Central, Birdseye peeps reported that the Hilltoppers--who got Jerome Parkins back from a hamstring injury--had a two point lead with a minute left in regulation but couldn't hold on. In overtime, Holy Cross went ahead by three and it was Central's turn to come back, but it couldn't in losing 66-64. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... stop the tournament. I wanna get off. Elsewhere, Harding beat Simsbury and will take the long road to face NFA and R.J. Evans. ...Xavier won and will host Bassick. Greenwich struggled to beat Danbury, but did and now take to the road to face the hottest team in the tournament, newly crowned NVL champion Crosby, which absolutely dismantled West Haven too much (115)-not enough (65). ...Greg Mangano and Notre Dame-WH pulled away from pesky Stamford late, and now hosts (or, plays host to) Holy Cross. ...Finally, Trinity Catholic took care of McMahon and now hosts Torrington, an 11-point winner over dribble-driving East Hartford. By the way, Newtown will face the winner of Amity/Windsor, which was postponed because of a tragic car accident involving two Amity students late Monday night on the Wilbur Cross Parkway. Our hearts and prayers to the families of the two young men, especially from me being an Amity grad (1994). And, finally, Stratford beat Brookfield in Class M. We heard there was some pushing and shoving in that one, but nothing that bears further mention. The Red Devils face Waterford, last year's runner up, in the second round for the right to face the winner of Bullard-Havens/Sheehan in the quarterfinals. Back to the big tournament, where the second round begins Thursday night SECOND ROUND Off to cover hockey games tonight. Posted by sports on 2:08 PM | Comments (5) March 4, 2008SWC: One and done (almost)Before I begin, here's the damage from last night. Now, it's no secret that the SWC has been down this year. But even I was surprised to see the top teams put forth a rather unimpressive showing in the Class L tournament last night. Notre Dame-Fairfield, one of the darling team's in this region all year, went down hard to a pretty mediocre team from Daniel Hand. With just two points on 1-of-15 shooting, Greg DeSantis scored just 10 percent of his average. Danny Barbour shot 0-for-7. Matt Maya ended his career with 21 as he heads to Albertus Magnus. "We had a very good year and... to end it like this is just very disappointing," said Notre Dame coach Vinny Laczskoski, whose team won 17 games this year after a 16-4 regular season and an SWC quarterfinal win. "We just couldn't shoot. The ball just went in and out a lot of times. It's a shame, especially for Greg. He had such a super year. It was just one of those games." Bunnell also went down hard to the ECC's Woodstock Academy, 72-57, with junior talent Mark Harrison sitting on the bench. Coach Pat Yerina said his forward broke team rules leading to the suspension, but still thought his team was good enough to advance. Despite a 25-point night from center Terrell Coward, Bunnell couldn't recover from a 42-20 halftime deficit. Pomperaug and New Milford also went down in L, leaving Kolbe Cathedral (surprise) the only winner out of five teams. The Cougars expectedly won by a rather large 34-point margin over Sports Sciences Academy in the Class S first-round. I wonder if Kolbe Cathedral would have made it an even 0-fer had the Cougars actually played in a Class of equal strength. Speaking of which, it was a great night for 30th-seeded Ansonia which won its first tournament game since 2002 with an impressive--not to mention thorough--70-60 victory over No. 3 Litchfield in the Class S tournament. The Chargers go to Haddam-Killingworth. The winner will likely get Kolbe Cathedral (which hosts Canton) in the quarterfinals. The Class LL tournament actually got underway last night in Bassick since the gym was reserved Tuesday for voting booths in the Bridgeport district race. Bassick was down 19-12 to FCIAC rival Westhill after the first quarter but used a 31-9 third quarter to pull away. Westill got within 46-41, but Bassick turned on the jets again to win big. Again, not great with the video, but here's Bassick's Mike Lomax showing no let up as he blocks a Westhill shot on the break late in the game.
Posted by sports on 6:03 PM | Comments (0) March 2, 2008Mike Osiecki to UConnGood job by Connecticut Post reporter Neil Ostrout today with this report on Seymour's linebacker/fullback Mike Osiecki, who verbally committed to UConn on Saturday. He's the first player to commit to UConn's class of 2009. Since he was a sophomore, we'd heard that Mike was going to draw plenty of interest. Until his verbal, Mike was getting interest from at least 20 Division I football teams. The best quote came from Seymour coach Paul Sponheimer, who said that Mike had drawn interest from at least 20 schools, including USC--a school he hadn't heard from USC since his first year as coach in 1980. Apparently UConn had everything he was looking in a college football program, enough to make this an easy decision. This is a big pickup for Randy Edsall's staff on so many different levels. Mike, who come from a good stock of great valley football players (his father is former Ansonia great Sandy Osiecki, and his brother is former Seymour quarterback Ryan Osiecki), will play defense when he gets to Storrs in 2009. Posted by sports on 2:22 AM | Comments (0) |
 
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