Battle of Crusaders Belongs to Bergen Catholic

With four players coming onto the ice Thursday night, the Bergen Catholic Crusaders earned the right to advance in the Gordon Cup and take on top-seeded Delbarton after their 4-0 shutout of Bishop Eustace. Bergen finished the regular season on a four-game losing streak with their last win over Bishop Eustiace 6-3 on January. 22. The Black Crusaders continued to take shots against David Gerity (13 saves) but the hungry Red and Gold Crusaders overpowered Nick Swider (29 saves) as Brendon McGuire, Joey Brown, Mike Ramirez and Tyler Garcia hit the back of the net. Bergen will face Delbarton Monday, 4:45pm at the Aspen Ice Arena in Randolph.

Down in Leonia, the Crusaders wrestlers repeated as the District 7 champions while River Dell placed fourth in District 8 in Oradell. For Bergen, it was the 23rd consecutive District title and head coach Dave Bell was named district coach of the year. Bringing home district titles for Bergen were Tyler Casamenti (106), Troy Schaafsma (113), JP Ascolese (120), Connor Melde (132), Matt mangini (145), Johnny Sebastian (160), Michael Kruklinski (170), Lukas Iorio (182), Christian Jenco (195) and Carmine Goldsack (285). Victorious for River Dell were DJ Tirelli (113), Nick Baranello (182) and Lenny Smith (220).

The Crusaders swimmers were not strong enough in the pool to overcome St. Joseph of Metuchan in the Non-Public A swimming tournament to be ousted in the first round, 110-60. Bergen Catholic won first place in five heats: John Om in the 200IM and 100 Breaststroke, Liam Kelly (50 Free), and Josh Sembrano (100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke).

Arch rival Ramsey was no match on the court for the Lady Hawks basketball team who picked up a 42-26 win Thursday night. Kate Brock netted a game high 26 points including a trio from behind the arc with the remaining field goals coming off the fingertips of Cassidy Verrier, Katelyn Lee, Kayla McGovern and Emily McGovern. Kayla McGovern hit the court hard this weekend leading River Dell with 11 points in their 38-18 victory over Union City. 

The Golden Hawks were not as lucky against the rival Rams falling by a single point in overtime, 52-51. Flipping control back and forth with points coming from low in the posts and behind the arc, River Dell struggled to close out a tight game. Tim Barnes netted 22 points (one trey) and Ben Orth had 11 (three treys) to lead River Dell. The Hawks were lated run out of the Bergen Invitational Tournament, 49-41 in overtime by the Demarest Norsemen. Despite a strong second half, the Hawks never found the net in overtime with Barnes the lone athlete to hit double digits for River Dell with 16 points.

Bergen Catholic basketball got a much needed win, 77-57 over St. Joseph Regional of Montvale with an explosive fourth quarter. Nadi Beciri (16), Luke Cervino (15) and John Tsimis (13) led all scorers from both sides by hiting double digits.

Down in Toms River at the Bennet Center, the indoor track stars from Bergen Catholic was overcome by the competition placing 11th in the Non-Public A group championship. Teddy D'Amico placed fourth in the pole vault while the 4-x-400 relay squad finished fifth.

River Dell boys and girls indoor track had a tough time at the Group 2 championships at the Bennett Center in Toms River. The boys finished in 18th while the girls tied for 22nd with Ramsey. Matt Koh took third in the shot put (52-2 1/4 throw), Laura Oh came in fifth in the shot put (34-9 1/2 throw) and the girls 4-x-400 relay (Maddie Bonavita, Paige Fernandez, Melissa Gibbons and Jamie Woods) finished fifth in 4:09.89.

RiverDell/Westwood hockey got a much needed win to finish out the regular season with a 11-5 victory over Bayonne to improve their record to 4-15-1 one day before heading into the Big North Gold Cup competition against Paramus Catholic. Bryan Codner, Zach Rosenoff and Ben Shapiro all had hattricks while Ryan Callahan and Greg Rassam netted the remaining goals. Connor O'Reilly made two saves. The Hawks advanced to the quarterfinal round where they ran into the Paramus Catholic Paladins on Sunday where they fell 10-0. Chris Detita had 31 saves.