Spring Season Gets Started with a Bang

Rivals Bergen Catholic and Don Bosco met on the field several times this week and the final score is Ironmen 4 to Crusaders 1. The two teams got things started last weekend as the opening match of the Big City Classic at MetLife Stadium - with that round going to Bosco 13-10 following Connor Scavone's four-goal outing. Star midfielder in the red and gold Brendon McGuire added a hat trick to keep BC in the mix. Over on the greens, top­ranked Bergen Catholic golf opened its season by knocking off rival Don Bosco, 162 to 185 at the Upper Montclair South Course. Harrison Shih shot 39, junior Matt Love 40 and sophomore Erick Alonso 41. The Ironmen came out with a win on the tennis courts, 4-1 to take the lead in the battle of the rivals. Sean Fernandez defeated Sean McNulty, 6-0, 6-2 to avoid the shutout. Bosco outran Bergen on the track 77-63. The Ironmen handed Bergen their first loss of the baseball season, 8-5, after the Crusaders rallied from an intial 5-0 deficit to tie the score at 5-5. Bosco was able to push across three more runs late in the game.

The Golden Hawks LAX squad got their season going in the right direction with a 10-7 victory over Lenape Valley following a five-goal late period to swing ahead of the Patriots. Evenly matched from the beginning, both teams were tied at 6 by the end of the third but behind hat tricks from Kevin Barry and Evan Rowley, River Dell came ahead for the win. River Dell followed their first victory with another, 12-5 over Old Tappan but later ran into a tough St. Joseph's Regional squad falling in a tight 9-6 loss. Goalie Ben Sagerman came out with 35 saves between the posts. Steven Luca notched a pair of goals while Grant Kuchar and Christoper Yeung netted one a piece against the Patriots, Jason Fleckenstein had a hat trick, Luca (2), Moon and Rowley and Yeung (2 apiece) and Brendan O'Connell (1) over the Golden Knights, while Luca's hat trick, Barry's two goals and Mike Monopoli's solo contributed to the end result against St. Joseph.

The Lady Hawks LAX team was not as lucky as their male counterparts in their 15-7 season opening loss to Holy Angels. With plenty of rivalry between this public/parochial match-up, the Angels took a quick 6-3 lead and never looked back tacking on nine additional goals in the second half. River Dell was able to bounce back for a 12-9 victory over Old Tappan but ended the week on a sour note falling 12-9 to Wayne Valley. Senior goalie Rebecca Meyers finished the week with 43 saves. Emily Wong netted 10 goals this week as the Hawks high scorer.

Crusaders track had a good showing at the Pawloski Relays in Ridgewood tying for sixth place with Pascack Valley. The 4-x-400 relay (3:46.3), 3-x-400 IH (3:18.4), shot put (115-3 1/2), and javeline (336-7) all came in sixth place; and discus finished in second (318-1).

River Dell baseball got off to a rough start for the season falling to Indian Hills' Austin Solecitto no-hitter with 11 strikeouts in an opening 1-0 loss followed by a 5-3 decision to Mahwah. Against the Thunderbirds, Tim Barnes and Ryan Duran each notched a RBI.

Sara Recanati also struggled in her first full-time season appearances on the mound after spending the last few seasons as a back-up pitcher. The Lady Hawks lasted five innings against Indian Hills' Kristen Waters for a 11-0 decision. While Recanati, Stephanie Caracozza and Lindsey Clark blasted homeruns against Mahwah, RiverDell was unable to overcome a 10-0 lead by the Lady T-Birds after the first inning.

In a pair of five-inning match-ups, the Crusaders bats were hard at work against Passaic and then Salesian of New York to start the season. Bergen finished with a 17-0 and 21-0 shutout respectively to their competitors. They then rolled to a 17-7 finish over Paramus Catholic. Rob Quigley and AJ Gallagher finished the week with 7 RBI's to their names.

Tennis hit the courts hard as Bergen knocked off Passaic, 5-0 while the Hawks fell to Indian Hills, 5-0. The Crusaders fell to Paramus Catholic late in the week, 3-2 along with River Dell who was shut out by Mahwah 5-0.

Volleyball cruised to a 25-11, 26-24 victory over Passaic and a 25-20, 25-18 decision over Bergen Tech. Brendan McCullagh hit 36 kills, Kirk Nouhan with 48 assists and Hacik Arslanoglu had 14 digs.

BC Golf's Sean O'Neill was under par when the Crusaders knocked off DePaul, 143 to 191 at the Hackensack Country Club. O'Neill shot 32, as he alongside Chang Ju Lee (36), Zach Egermayer (37) and Ryan Rose (38) stepped into the limelight and filled the shoes of aces Harrison Shih and Erick Alonso who were in Florida for the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) TaylorMade-adidas Golf Junior. The squad then repeated its Garden State Cup title with a 296 team final. Egermayer won the individual title beating out Peddie freshman Kyle Sterbinsky.

River Dell golf, led by Scott Kim's 38 earned the Hawks a win over Bergenfield even though the final score was 183-183. The difference was Kim shot three over par while the Bears' best putter Kevin Taccord shot a 41. Kim continued his winning ways one over par against Lakeland shooting 36 in the Hawks 166-193 victory. Kim and the Hawks fell to Ramsey 185 to 188 at Darlington County Park on Wednesday.

BC LAX had to fight through overtime for a one-point win over Northern Highlands, 8-7 this week. The two top ranked squads traded shots with the Highlanders leading 4-2 at the half before Bergen pulled ahead in the third. Highlands picked up 3 in the final period to force overtime. Tucker James and Nicholas DiScola had 2 goals each, James Piluso, Ryan Warnock, Brendon McGuire and Christoper Spada had one each. They fell to Glen Ridge 12-5 at the end of the week with Lance Gibson (7 saves) and Matt Pedrick (3 saves) splitting time in the cage. Piluso and McGuire netted two goals with Mack Brown notching the final point.