Softball Catches a Break While Crusaders Continue to Roll

Bergen Catholic has been on a roll this week with baseball capping a pair of victories in five innings: 14-3 over Kennedy and 14-1 over Hackensack. AJ Gallager has been the hot hitter with plenty of RBI's, double and triple to bring the Crusaders to a 5-1 record.

Volleyball and golf are still undefeated as Brendan McCullagh, Kirk Nouhan and Hacik Aslangolu spiked their way to finish off Don Bosco in three, 23-25, 25-16, 25-21, but later fell to St. Joseph of Metuchen 21-25, 19-25 match on Tuesday during a quad meet. Bergen was able to topple CBA in three, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22 but came up short to Southern Regional, 13-25, 17-25. McCullagh had 70 kills, Nouhan 98 assists and Arslanoglu 30 digs for the week. Golf stroked their way to their first title of the season at the second annual Galloway National Challenge on Tuesday, six strokes ahead of the Christian Brothers Academy. Sophomore Erick Alonso shot 7-over 78, six shots behind medalist Jerry Wall of CBA, and Shih shot 79. Prior to that Harrison Shih (41) led the way for a 171-205 win at the links in Upper Montclair against Paramus Catholic. Then Crusaders Ryan Rose (31) and Sean O'Neill (37) took control at High Mountain Golf Course for a 144-186 win against St. Joseph Regional of Montvale.

Sophomore goalie Matt Pedrick made 24 saves, while sophomore Chris Blewitt had 5 points as the Crusaders lacrosse beat Queensbury High School (NY) (10-8) on Monday afternoon. In a dual match, Bergen tennis shut out Kenedy 5-0 and then followed up with a 4-1 win over Hackensack this week. Singles Brian Balico, Sean Fernandez and Matt Ligouri  each brought home wins along with doubles squads Morgan Williams/Samir Wahowani and Billy Carney/Dan Gomez

The River Dell Lady Hawks softball squad (1-4) finally caught a break in their early season with a 12-2 win over Pascack Valley as Sarah Recanati threw a two-hitter, doubled and had an RBI. Stephanie Caracozza, Lindsay Clark, Julie Montore and Kelsey Schuffenhauer all connected on a pair of RBI's. Daniella DeBenedetto had a two-run homer for the victory. Earlier this week the Lady Hawks dropped a 7-4 decision to Bergenfield and a 5-4 decision to Glen Rock as Lady Panther Jessica Bell blasted a home run. 

The Golden Hawks are on a three-game win streak (3-2) starting with their first win of the season over Union City, 5-4 on Saturday. River Dell took an early 2-0 lead after the first but the Hawks and Soaring Eagles' bats traded turns with both sides tied 4-4 heading into the seventh. A late inning blast from the plate gave River Dell the win. River Dell then tacked on a 15-2 victory over Bergenfield in six innings with Mike Oliver nailing a home run, a double and 5 RBI's. Their streak continued in a hard fought catch-up from behind 5-4 win over Pascack Valley. The Indians took a 4-1 lead after the third inning, but the tenacious Hawks bided their time and ran in three runs to end in the seventh. Brandon Martinez blasted a home run and three RBI's.

Facing an undefeated Pascack Valley squad, the Hawks lacrosse team fell 13-4 to the Indians with goalie Ben Sagerman finishing with 12 saves. Jason Fleckenstein, Steven Luca, Mike Neveille and Evan Rowly notched one goal apiece. 

Emily Wong's six goals sparked a Lady Hawks lacrosse offense for a 12-9 win over Lakeland on Tuesday. River Dell took an early 6-5 lead at the half and kept the pressure on Lancers goalie Amanda Cruz (10 saves) in the second. Noelle Lawlor, Cassidy Verrier and Carissa Pohan each had one goal. Rebecca Meyers finished with 9 saves.

At the Highlander Invitational track meet, the River Dell boys team placed fifth behind a first place tie in the shot put with Austin Berninger and Matt Koh throwing 101-2 3/4 along with Calvin Hartman taking first in the pole vault. The Hawks had second place finishes in the discuss, javeline, tied for fifth with Hackensack in the high jump. The girls team finished outside the top six with placements in shot put (3rd), discuss (2nd), and javelin (6th). Matt Koh will represent the Golden Hawks in shot put at the individual events at the Penn Relays on April 26-28 in Philadelphia. Boys track fell to Ramsey 85-56 while the girls squad topped the Rams, 72-68.

In a three-way match, River Dell golf (176) fell to Paramus (171) but stayed ahead of Westwood (192) at the Paramus Golf Course. Scott Kim was three over par with a 39. A few days later Kim was two over par in a 168-183 loss to Mahwah in Rockleigh.

River Dell tennis is still working to find its groove on the court, falling 4-1 to Pascack Valley. Doubles team Ilya Leifer and Kyle Shtern won to avoid the complete shutout.