After a rough start out of the gate, the Vineyard boys bounced back in a major way against a hyped-up and undefeated burly Old Rochester Bulldogs team with a 64-41 home win last Friday.
Despite the score, the Vineyarders’ first win of the season was no cakewalk. Jeremy and Jared Regan, Mike Trusty, Rammon Dos Santos and Nico De Paula collectively pestered the Bulldogs all game long. The boys allowed no easy buckets as they blocked shots, intercepted passes and held the visiting team to six points in the third quarter. In addition to numerous hustle points coming off turnovers and second-chance opportunities, the Vineyarders built their lead by way of red-hot three-point shooting from Aidan Rogers and Jeremy Regan. Rogers hit four threes in the first half and finished with 14 points. Jeremy drained three treys including the dagger in the third period and finished tied with Trusty for the most points with 15. Trusty also hit a pair of threes while Jeremy’s twin brother Jared splashed a three to open the game and ended the contest with 12 points.
“The thing we were missing, or at least part of it in the first and second games was effort — they have the talent, but the effort hasn’t been there. But today they had it the whole game. I thought defensively they played awesome, their hands were working hard, they were talking to each other, and that’s the difference,” said head coach Mike Joyce.
Girls Basketball
Earlier that afternoon, the girls basketball squad clashed with divisional opponent Monomoy in their first game of the season. The Vineyarders were outnumbered by three players with a chunk of their bench missing due to school vacation. Nevertheless, the shorthanded home team gave a bigger and quicker Sharks squad all they could handle before Monomoy opened up a 10-point lead in the third quarter. Too gassed to recover, the team fell 41-30.
Sasha Lakis and Kiley Estrella led with eight points each. Lakis also swatted eight Monomoy shots much to the delight of the Vineyard faithful as cheers erupted after every rejection. Estrella and Taylor Hughes also joined in on Lakis’s block party with several stuffs of their own. Point guards Reiley Yuhas and Kya Maloney both drained shots from behind the arc and both finished with six points as they played tireless defense to keep Monomoy’s speedy guards in check.
Boys Hockey
Over the weekend, at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore Center Arena, boys hockey battled to three straight wins against teams hailing from beyond state lines, energing the victors in the Heuchling and Swift Memorial Classic.
On Friday, the boys got off the bus and got right to skating against the Wildcats of York High School in Maine. The Vineyard went down by a goal to start but battled back with a goal by Pete Gillis to even the score in the first. Aiden Marek netted the go-ahead goal in the second before MV tacked on three more in the third by Hunter Meader, Colby Zarba and Hoffie Hearn to finish off a 5-1 victory.
Saturday purple and white took on the Oyster River Bobcats of Durham, N.H. In last year’s memorial classic the Bobcats knocked the Vineyarders out of contention, but with a year of experience behind this year’s team the Vineyarders were “pretty much in control of the game,” said head coach Matt Mincone.
Oyster River opened up the scoring to take a 1-0 lead, but the Vineyard quickly responded with goals from Jackson Pachico and Zarba to capture a lead they would not let up. Jake Scott and Zarba added two more goals in the second period as the Vineyard went on to win 4-2.
Then came the championship on Sunday against the Trumbull Eagles from Connecticut. Once again MV fell behind in the first but locked in after giving up a goal and found a way to win. In the second period, Meader knotted the score at one off an assist from Logan Araujo then Zarba scored the game-winner four minutes later off an assist from Elias Gundersen and Kenny Hatt.
Defensively, the Vineyarders have shown great improvement since the 10-1 drubbing they took from Plymouth North earlier in the season. Graham Stearns, the Vineyard netminder, has “been solid, been the backbone for us,” said Mincone. “We’re getting better every day. We started off slow, so I had to find a remedy for that but short of that they’re getting results, if we can win and not play our best then it means I know we’re going to get better and that’s what’s important,” he said.
Girls Hockey
Saturday at the Martha’s Vineyard Arena, girls hockey came oh-so close to accomplishing a feat that’s never been done in the history of the program, beating the annual division one championship contender Barnstable Red Raiders. The visiting squad dominated puck possession for most of the game and held a large shot advantage but when the Vineyard had their opportunities to score, they capitalized.
After a scoreless first period where senior goaltender Amelia Simmons batted away everything the Red Raiders threw at her, a top shelf shot sneaked past her in the second. But Barnstable’s lead wouldn’t stand for long. Skyla Harthcock slammed home a loose puck that emerged from a scrum of skaters in front of the Barnstable net to tie it up at one in the second.
With just under five minutes left in the game, freshman Paige Anderson put the Vineyard in front, sneaking one past the Red Raider netminder. The home crowd roared as her teammates mobbed her and the Vineyarders could smell victory in the air. Unfortunately, the triumph was short-lived as Barnstable scored off a quick redirect from a faceoff slapshot with just under three minutes left to tie the game at two.
The Red Raiders continued to barrage Simmons with shots for the remainder of regulation. Unruffled, she denied the visitors over and over to preserve a tie that left lots of Vineyarders with smiles on their faces once the final buzzer blared.
“I think we’ve never beat Barnstable in 20 years of girls hockey, so to tie them, truly is an accomplishment. They’re good, they’re undefeated and we can hang in there,” head coach John Fiorito said.
Indoor Track
Friday at the Boston Holiday Challenge, held at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury, select members of the indoor track team competed with some of the best competition in the commonwealth. Peter Burke headlined the Vineyard’s results finishing fourth in the 1000-metre race with a time of 2:40.06 and fifth in the mile finishing in 4:29.32.
Adrienne Christy ran the 600-metre race in 1:52.91 and finished 39th, and Paige Pogue tossed the shotput 30’6.75, the 24th farthest. Daniel Da Silva and Joseph Bonneau competed in the 600-metre race and finished in 1:34.95 and 1.36.24, good for 49th and 54th place. Dash Christy rounded out MV’s competitors finishing 41st in the long jump with a distance of 17’9.50.
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