Soccer Squads Rebound After Early Struggles

Under new head coach John Graham the Golden Hawks have strung together a 4-3-1 record after this week's shutout victories over Cliffside Park (3-0) and Dwight Morrow (1-0) before faltering against Ridgefield Park (2-0). Chris VanDeWeghe, Brett Lubben, Nicholas Kim and Nicholas Shanman teamed up on the offensive for the pair of wins while junior keeper David Sorkenn has only allowed one goal or less in five of eight games.

The Lady Hawks who fell to Glen Rock 2-1 in the beginning of the week rebounded with a pair of shutout games to improve their standings prior to the County tournament. While facing the Lady Panthers, River Dell led for the majority of the clock after Kayla McGovern nailed a header off of Frankie Maier's corner kick. Jamie Woods had a hat trick during River Dell's 5-0 shutout over Ridgefield Park as Paige Fernandez and Emily McGovern tacked on the remaining two. The Lady Hawks rebounded again with a staggering 9-0 victory over Dwight Morrow as eight goals were netted in the first half. Both Brigid Tracy and Maier’s had deuces, Woods, Jackie Woodward, Jackie Dobak, Kayleen Melbin and Melanie McGovern also contributed.

Bergen Catholic started the week with a 1-1 tie to Wayne Valley under the lights at Fairleigh Dickinson University as Eric Alonso netted the equalizer in the second half. The Cruaders then defeated Paramus 3-2 with all goals coming in the first half as Travis Nitti notched his team-leading 5th goal of the season, while Armin Grossrieder and Thomas Hogue each added tallies as well for the Scarlet & Gold. BC then remained unbeaten during its weeklong road trips tying arch rival Don Bosco 1-1 in Ramsey. The Crusaders opened up the scoring on the day when Alex Lorenzo scored off a feed from Gerard Quinn and Armin Grossrieder to give Bergen a one goal lead they would hold until halftime. The Ironmen evened the score in the second half, but BC goal keeper Michael Payan would let no more cross the goal line in the game by recording six saves in net.

Coming off their huge out of state wins on the gridiron, the Bergen Catholic Crusaders struggled to overcome neighboring St. Joseph Regional in their first match in the state. The Crusaders fell 38-37 in overtime after rallying from three prior deficits, scoring 22 unanswered points to take a brief lead in the 3rd quarter. The teams would trade scores in the 4th quarter, and BC eventually tied the game at (31-31) with just over a minute left to go in the game. St. Joseph Regional earned an early overtime touchdown pass with PAT to take the lead and while John Germano and Kyle Quiero answered with a TD of their own, kicker Ryan Rose was unable to make the extra kick count.

In their first match without senior signal caller Tim Barnes who is now out for the rest of the season with a broken leg, senior kicker Ben Shapiro made the difference in the Golden Hawks 31-28 triumph over Dwight Morrow during overtime.

Volleyball remains undefeated after taking down Cliffside Park (25-6, 25-15), Dwight Morrow (25-4, 25-7) and Ridgefield Park (26-24, 25-15). Kalette deMarrais had six kills and 21 assists, Christine Desplat nine assists, Julie Montone five digs, Laura Oh four kills, Lauren Passaretti's two digs, Jenny Desplat nine kills and Lindsey Clark 10 digs.

Tennis earned three shutout wins this week over Cliffside Park, Dwight Morrow and Ridgefield Park as the squad swept all singles and doubles matches.

Field hockey got off to a slow start against Hackensack earlier this week before Katie Dantoni and Cathy Antonelli each netted a goal in the second half to surge forwad for a 2-0 win. Goalie Emily Rizzo and the defense were clutch in the following losses to West Milford (1-0) and Pompton Lakes (2-0) by limiting the Passaic County powerhouses to minimal opportunities.

While the River Dell girls cross country team fell to Mahwah (21-38) at Dalington, the boys squad picked up the 1-3-4 positions to beat the rival T-Birds 25 to 31. Stefan Schuster clocked a 16:54 race for the 3.1 mile loop and was followed by Timothy Olsen  in third (17:41) and William Daly at fourth (17:45).

The Bergen boys were also at Darlington, coming out on top of Paramus Catholic 15 to 46 as the Crusaders swept the competition six out of 10 spots. Placing in order were Michael Whalen (16:55), Matt Morano (16:57), Thomas Selvaggi (17:10), Michael Sondej (17:11), Dan Lynch (17:49) and Joseph Ludwig (17:51). All six Crusaders finished before a Paramus Catholic runner.

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