News on St. Joseph's CYO Basketball

This past weekend saw another strong performance by the St. Joseph’s Pee Wee 3 -4 grade Girls Green team with two more wins against St. Helen's of Westfield and St. James of Springfield. The girls increased their record to 3 wins and no loses.  On Saturday the girls beat St. Helen's at home by a score of 10 to 8. Molly Gray sank 3 shots along with Annabel Callahan and Lily Ramos each adding another.  Meghan Durkin, Lila Price and Grace Barry each recorded a steal while Sophia Noll and Darcy Pearlman played solid defensive.  

On Sunday the team traveled to St. James. Although not reflected in the score the girls had an outstanding showing winning 4 to 2. Claire D'Andrea and Sofia Noll played impressive defense under the boards with several blocked shots.  Durkin, Callahan and Price showed good ball skills while at the point guard position moving the ball nicely.  Barry and Pearlman contributed with several steals. Ramos and Gray continue to work the boards pulling down multiply rebounds, of which Gray converted two for the teams 4 points. 

The St. Joseph’s Pee  Wee 3 -4 grade Girls White team lost by one point to St. James of Springfield in a defensive battle 2 -1. Elizabeth Bender was the team's high scorer. Ryan Ganjon had a solid game, as did Hailey Morales.  Audrey Marek, who led the team with 8 points last week, also played well. 

The Pee Wee 3-4 Grade Boys worked very hard over two games this weekend, however ended up on the losing side against both Holy Trinity of Westfield and St. James of Springfield. In a tough match up against Holy Trinity, Perry Reyes led the scoring with 4 points with Nicholas Aaron, Derrick Baptiste, Patrick Dawkins and Matthew Morales each contributing a bucket apiece. On the defensive side Devin Brown had 2 key rebounds and 2 steals in the losing effort. In a tremendous effort the next day against St. James, the boys lost a heart breaker in overtime 23 - 17. Tremendous defensive efforts were turned by Ben Szezepanski, Perry Reyes, and Matthew Morales, while Derrick Baptiste came alive on offense scoring 9 points, with Perry Reyes, Andrew Campbell, and Patrick Dawkins contributing to the scoring.

St Joseph JV Girls lost a tough game to St James of Springfield 13 - 9. The Celtics fell behind early but came back in the second half led by the defensive pressure from guards Abby Garaban, Meredith Meyer, Grace Petroccia and Cece Clarke. Sarah Johnson led the team in scoring with 6 points and 8 rebounds. Ellie Rounsavill contributed with 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. 

The St. Joseph’s Varsity 8^th grade boy’s squad dropped its second game of the season, losing 32-21 to a scrappy All Saints Catholic Academy in Bayonne. Thomas Fetner led the Celtics in the battle with the physical All Saints squad. Fetner was relentless in his attacks on the basket, scoring his 11 points on a variety of drives to the basket. Sean Grafing chipped in with three points and eight rebounds and Nick Hamel grabbed four rebounds. Zach Chmiel scored four points.   

St Joseph’s is looking forward to the start of the season for their two newest teams this Saturday afternoon at St. Joseph’s.  This year CYO has added a high school division which is composed of boys in grades 9 to 12.  The turnout was so overwhelming with 24 boys signing up that St. Joseph’s will have two teams in this division. 

For more information about the St Joseph’s CYO program visit their web site at www.eteamz.com/stjosephcelticscyobasketball