Sports Recap: Hockey Struggles To Start off Season

The River Dell/Westwood hockey team is having a rough start to their 2011 season having dropped two major blowouts over the week with a 9-1 decision to Tenafly and then a 7-1 loss to Paramus Catholic. The Golden Hawks sit with a 0-4 record.

Facing the Tigers, the defense struggled early as Tenafly took an early lead in the first and continued the route in the second period with five additional goals to lead 6-0 at the break. Coming into the final period the Hawks were able to get onto the board when Ryan Callahan fed the puck to Bryan Codner to avoid the shutout, but Tenafly stayed strong tacking on three more goals for the final 9-1 win.

Both Connor O'Reilly (18 saves) and Chris Detitta (17 saves) saw time between the posts but neither could stave off the Tigers onslaught.

Following the game against Tenafly, the Golden Hawks then had to face the music against the Paramus Catholic Paladins which led to a 7-1 loss for River Dell. Zach Rosenoff had the lone goal for the Hawks during the second period. Chris Detitta made 22 saves in the net.

Also seeing ice time this week was the Bergen Catholic Crusaders (2-1) which had back-to-back wins over St. Peter's Prep and Gloucester Catholic.

Brian Ayers had two goals for the Crusaders in their 9-5 route when they faced the Marauders at AmeriHealth Pavilion in Newark. Dan Perez had two goals for St. Peter's Prep (2-1). Then the Rams of Gloucester Catholic proved to be an easy foe to overcome in a 4-1 win with Mike Ramirez finishing with two goals and Ryan Smyth and Patrick Maron also scoring for the red and gold in Hackensack. David Gerity stopped 23 shots for Bergen Catholic.

Moving over to the pool, the River Dell/Westwood girls swim team earned their first win of the season with a 93-77 victory over Pascack Valley.

Hayley Degnan took the 200-meter freestysle in 2:09.68 while Emily Reynolds won the 200 IM in 2:24.22. Degnan also took first place in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:10.56.

Rounding out the rest of the girls' first place finishers was Gabby Denicola in the 100-meter fly (1:07.16); Eilish Devine in the 100-meter free (58.78) and 500-meter free (5:48.30); the 200-meter free relay team of Maddy Toohey, Laurel Passaretti, Lienne Barrise, and Devine in 1:54.88; and the 400-meter free relay (Denicola, Reynolds, Degnan, Devine) in 4:12.34.

The Hawks boys' swim team was not as lucky against Pascack Valley ending in a 97-73 loss as River Dell/Westwood won three heats. Liam Oberlander took first place in the 50-meter free (23.53) and 100-meter fly (56.19) and was part of the 200-meter free relay with Matt Starace, Brian Seeber and Albert Figueiredo) in 1:41.69.