Crusaders, Golden Hawks Diamond Boys Sweep State Games

River Dell baseball decimated the Waldwick Warriors in five innings, 15-1 after taking a seven run first inning lead. Tim Barnes, John Arancio, Joe Schwartz and Mike Watson belted home runs while Evan Stern held up his part of the bargain pitching a three-hitter. Facing the top-seeded Ironmen of Don Bosco in the Bergen County tournament, the Golden Hawks needed to strike early against ace Tommy Burns as Ryan Duran's RBI single provided a 1-0 lead, but after that Burns settled down and Bosco swept the next six innings for a 10-1 victory. Duran took to the mound for three innings but was later pulled in advance of Wednesday's first round state game against Walkill Valley where he struck out 11 during an eight-in­ning three-hitter and singled home the winning run in the bottom of the eighth to lead the Hawks 2-1 and a quarterfinal date with Ramsey.

Bergen Catholic baseball won their final home game of the season on Senior Day, thanks to a solid overall game from senior Mike Sutherland, who scored both of the BC's 2 runs and belted a solo home run which proved to be the difference in BC's (2-1) win over Demarest.  The Crusaders (13-10) received solid pitching from Greg Bargiel and eventual game winner Jeff Granger on their way to their 7th win at home this spring. The Crusaders finished up the regular season with a 12-7 trouncing of DePaul Catholic after several rainouts and certainly took advantage of the hitter-friendly confines in Wayne, hitting two home runs on their way to a 12-7 win against the Spartans. Ryan Kelly once again sparked the Crusader offense with his 4th homer of the season which helped race the Red & Gold out to an early advantage, and then Joe Esposito's 6th inning homer broke a 7-7 tie and gave Bergen a lead it would never relinquish on the afternoon. Jared Verebey picked up his first win of the season in relief, pitching 2.2 innings of 1 run ball. In their opening round state game, Union Catholic may have taken an early lead over Bergen but in the end the Vikings bowed down to the might behind Ryan kelly, Rob Quigley, Mike Sutherland and Zach Cerbo's bats. Bergen won 7-5 after rallying from a two-run deficit at the top of the 7th inning to plate four runs with two outs. Sutherland got the rally going, driving in one run with a RBI single; Quigley followed that hit with a single of his own that gave the Crusaders the lead at 6-5, which was soon extended to 7-5 after another RBI single was delivered by Cerbo. As has been the case all season, Kelly was on fire at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and 2 RBIs, while Jared Finkel earned his third victory of the year after throwing two innings of relief for the Red & Gold.

Bergen Catholic volleyball won their first state playoff contest on Tuesday afternoon, defeating #14 Pope John XXIII by a (2-0) final.  The Crusaders rallied to win the first set (25-19), and then breezed to victory in the second set (25-10).  BC (21-5) was led by Brendan McCullagh's 17 kills, Kirk Nouhan's 21 assists, and Hacik Arslanoglu's 8 digs. The Red and Gold hosted Lakeland in the quarterfinal round on Thursday and worked through a tough Lancers squad, 25-22, 25-20 for a semifinals date with arch rival Don Bosco. McCullagh smashed 18 kills alongside Owen MacNeill (6 kills), Kirk Nouhan came up with 29 assists and Hacik Arslanoglue went deep for 8 digs and Nourdean Chakhman had 6 digs in the win.

Bergen Catholic LAX jumped out to a commanding 10-2 lead at halftime and never looked back on the way to a dominant 15-5 victory in the first round of the Non-Public A State Playoffs against St. Joseph Regional on Friday afternoon at Crusader Stadium. Bergen was led by Michael Reilly's 4 points (1 goal, 3 assists), and Brendon McGuire's game-high three goals. BC (10-6) advanced to the quarterfinal round where they fell 14-4 to St. Augustine Prep as the third-seeded Hermits laid on heavy firepower against Matthew Pedrick (14 saves) in the cage. The Crusaders fell behind early, and could not rally from a five goal halftime deficit against the Hermits. McGuire netted two goals while Nicholas DiScola and James Piluso taked on the remaining points.

Bergen Catholic golf finished 3rd overall at the New Jersey Tournament of Champions competition on a wet Monday at Hopewell Valley CC, carding a four-player total of 311 which fell 8 strokes behind eventual team champion Burlington Township, and 2 strokes behind defending champions CBA. Harrison Shih, the defending T.O.C. individual champion finished 6th overall by shooting a 2-over par (74) on the day. Erick Alonso shot a 75, Sean O'Neill carded a 77, and Matt Love shot 85 for the Red & Gold.  The 3rd place finish was the second consecutive Top 3 finish at the prestigious T.O.C. in as many years, as BC finished 2nd overall last spring.

Lindsey Clark and Cathy Antonelli made the Lady Rams work for their opening state match as the Lady Hawks made a sixth-inning come back to avoid a shut out, 7-2. Ramsey's Ally Mende gave up six hits but once again the Rams defense left River Dell stranded on the bases.

The Golden Hawks LAX team was ousted in the first round state tournament 20-11 by Haddonfield as the Bulldawgs notched a 13-5 lead at halftime. River Dell's Mike Neville netted six goals in the Hawks attempt to advance past the first round while Philip Giuffre came up with 16 saves between the posts.

BC tennis won 4-1 over DePaul as singles Matt Ligouri and Bill Carney topped their opponents in two alongside doubles teams Chrs Chi/Dan Gomez and Samir Wahowani/Morgan Williams.

Neither Bergen Catholic nor the River Dell track squads brought home a title from the Red Littler Bergen County championships this weekend as the Crusaders finished 9th in Division A, the Hawks were 4th in Division B and the Lady Hawks came in 5th.

Nick Regan placed 3rd overall with a personal best in the javelin with a throw of 153'0", while Mike Colon placed 5th overall in the same event with a throw of 146'1".  Kyle Quiero had a season-best in the triple jump at 43'2.75, which gave him 5th overall.  Dan Lynch finished 7th in the 110 High Hurdles with a time of 15.88 seconds.  Finally, the Crusader 4x400 relay team ran a spring best time of 3:31.88 for a sixth place finish.

For the River Dell boys, Zach Hubner placed sixth (23.18) in the 200m, Chris DeSanctis fifth (16.26) and Dan Garcia (16.42) sixth in the 110HH, Christian Flego fifth (59.14) in 400IH, Mat Koh swept both the shot put (54-3 3/4) and discuss (159-1), Austin Berniger second (51-11 1/2) in the shot put, Sam Becourtney won in javelin (164-9), Brandon Jurasin second in the high jump (6-0), Calvin Hartman third in the pole vault (13-0) and the 4-x-400 relay was second in 3:28.40.

Paige Fernandez (2:22.94) and Emily Croonquist (2:23.12) placed back-to-back for a 3-4 finish in the 800m and Fernandez then winning the 400IH (1:05.37). Jaime Woods picked up 5th place in both the 100HH (16.63) and 400IH (1:08.64) while Noreen Bryne trailed to sixth in the 400IH (1:09.78). Laura Oh finished second in the shot put (34-1 1/2) and fifth in the discuss (100-8) while Erin Smith came in third in the discuss (101-8). Holly Tighe took 5th in the shot put (32-1 1/4). The Lady Hawks 4-x-400 relay came in second in 4:03.50.