Boys hockey tops Mystic Valley, 6-3
The Everett High boys hockey team continued its winning ways, skating to a 6-3 victory over Mystic Valley in its only contest this past week.
The teams played cat and mouse in the opening period with the Crimson Tide seizing the initiative, only to have MV respond in kind. Ryan Considine lit the lamp for the first goal of the game, assisted by Steven Chaves and Bryan Ramunno, but MV knotted matters a minute later.
James Liberge made it 2-1 in favor of Everett just 40 seconds after the MV goal, with assists going to Stephen Faia and Shawn Doyle, but MV brought it back to deuce with a goal just before the period ended.
However, the Crimson Tide, who had rolled to an easy win in the teams’ first encounter, created some separation in the middle frame on lamplighters by Cody Nadeau (assisted by Ramunno) and Reardan Sweeney (assisted by C.J. Sylvester and Faia) to take a 4-2 lead going into the final 15 minutes.
The Crimson Tide added to their advantage thanks to goals by Faia (assisted by Doyle) and Sylvester (assisted by Doyle and Liberge) for two extra cushions of insurance. MV potted a meaningless goal late for the 6-3 finale.
“Mystic Valley improved a lot since the first time we met them,” said EHS head coach Alex Naumann. “Their coach did a good job preparing them for us.”
With their record now at a sterling 11-4-1, Naumann and his crew will seek to close out the regular season on a positive note in the final week of that will see the Tide play four games in eight days.
Everett hosts Brookline this evening (Wednesday) for an 8:00 face off that will feature Senior Night festivities. Brookline returns the favor Saturday, entertaining the Tide Saturday afternoon at the old Walter Brown Arena at 12:00.
Everett then will host its annual Bishop Mulloy Tourney Monday and Wednesday. The Tide will play the opening game at 2:00 against Northeast Vocational. The other contest will feature Methuen vs. Somerville. The winners and losers will meet on Wednesday in the championship and consolation games.
Girls hoop team still seeking No. 10
The Everett High girls basketball team still is seeking that elusive 10th victory that will qualify them for the post season state tourney after a 47-38 loss to Medford last Tuesday.
The Lady Crimson Tide never held the lead, though the contest was a close one most of the way. Everett trailed 14-13, 23-19, and 31-29 at the first three junctures, but proved unable to mount a charge at the end to overtake the Lady Mustangs.
“It was a very frustrating game for us,” said EHS head coach Tammy Turner. “We got into some early foul trouble and never were able to turn the momentum in our favor.”
Turner was referring to the two first period fouls whistled on starting guard and captain Taylor Sweeney, who was forced to hit the bench through the end of the first half.
Although Mimi Febles came on to drain a trio of three pointers in Sweeney’s absence to keep the pace for Everett in the second period, the Lady Crimson Tide could not get into a rhythm at either end of the floor.
Amanda DeSouza led Everett with 13 points and hauled down nine rebounds. Sweeney was next on the scoring chart with 11 points, despite missing a substantial portion of the contest. Febles added nine, Spressa Ramadani contributed three, and Yemi Okhihan hit for two.
“We’re playing tight as a team and that’s prevented us from establishing the sort of flow that we had earlier in the season when we were so successful,” said Turner. “Hopefully once we get that 10th win behind us, we’ll be okay.”
The Lady Crimson Tide were set to travel to Waltham last night (Tuesday) and will host Salem Friday and Marblehead in the season finale next Tuesday.
EHS track teams compete in GBL meet
The Everett High boy and girls indoor track teams competed in the all-GBL Meet last week.
The top individual performers for the Crimson Tide were Jonathan Mendez for the boys and Katie Steeves and Maeve Kernan on the girls side. Jonathan raced to a third place effort in the 300 dash in a time of 37.70, which was a personal record (PR). Katie brought home a third place ribbon in the long jump with a leap of 14-3 and also finished fourth in the 300 in 45.72 (a PR) to give her the top individual scoring placement for Everett with 10 points. Maeve earned third place honors in the mile with her run of 5:51.29.
Andres Tejada finished fourth in the 300 with a PR clocking of 37.80 and leapt to a fifth in the long jump with a distance of 16-8. Jessica Mangan added two points to the Everett scoresheet with a fifth place effort in the mile in 6:13.56 and Faith Pinho took sixth place in the 1000 in 3:39.79.
Trevor Freeman and Alexander Desir completed the individual scoring for the boys with sixth place finishes in the 55 meter hurdles and long jump respectively. Trevor ran a 10.54 in the hurdles and Alexander leapt 15-6 in the long jump.
Another nice individual performance was turned in by Daniel Plunkett with a PR shotput heave of 36-8.
The EHS relay teams also put points on the board for Everett, led by the boys 4 x 800 quartet of Luis Franco, Christian Dominguez, Ricardo Perez, and Jason Mendoza, who took second place in a time of 9:36.97.
The boys 4 x 200 foursome of Soufiane Fdal, Bryan Cedeno, Jonathan Mendez, and Andres Tejada came across in third place in 1:37.84, which qualified them for the state divisional meet.
The boys’ 4 x 400 relay team of Henry Maldonado, Malcolm Alexis, Carlos Duran, and Jose Portillo came home in fourth in 3:58.69.
On the girls’ side, the 4 x 200 quartet of Kellen Martins, Sharyn Gladstone, Elsbeth Colson, and Katie Steeves took fifth place in 2:01.74; the 4 x 400 relay of Colson, Martins, Sheryl Steeves, and Kernan took fifth in 5:19.29; and the 4 x 800 girls team of Mangan, Zoulikha Madkour, Emily De Sousa, and Pinho finished fifth in 12:58.83.
EHS Boys Hockey Team Qualifies for the State Tournament
Thanks to a blend of perseverance, talent and desire, the Everett High School boys hockey team has qualified for the MIAA State Tournament for the first time in nine years. To put that in perspective, the last time Everett played a postseason game current assistant coach Shawn Leonard was a junior defenseman for the Crimson Tide.
“We have plenty of hockey left to play, but we’re certainly proud of this accomplishment,” said head coach Alex Naumann. “Our seniors deserve a lot of credit for leading us back to the tournament.”
The seniors coach Naumann is referring to are Cody Nadeau, Brian Ramunno, C.J. Sylvester, Ryan Considine, Richie Huff and Chris Brienza, all of whom provide on-ice and leadership skills.
Goaltender Vinny Sottosanti is having a stellar season, as are his junior classmates Shawn Doyle, Reardan Sweeney, Steven Chaves and Derek Bankus. This year’s squad has also been boosted by the play of sophomores Stephen Faia and Chris Roderick, as well as freshman James Liberge.
After suffering through a very frustrating 2010-11 season in which the Crimson Tide lost a seemingly endless string of one- and two-goal contests, this year’s squad has made relatively easy work of sewing up a place in the State Tournament. After 14 games, the Tide’s record stood at 10-3-1 overall, 3-2 in the Greater Boston League, easily surpassing the 20 points needed to qualify for the tourney.
Everett wasted no time in showing that last season was a distant memory by winning its first two games of the season (O’Bryant and Minuteman) in lopsided fashion. Then, in the Lynn Christmas Tournament, the Tide defeated Northeast Regional, 3-2, and the Lynn Jets in a thrilling shootout to capture the tournament crown. “The win over Lynn was one of the most exciting victories this program has experienced in recent memory,” Naumann said. “It really gave us a lift heading into the middle part of our schedule.”
In recent weeks, Everett has defeated Pentucket and Somerville, two teams that beat the Tide earlier in the season. EHS’s tournament-clinching victory was against Cambridge.
Naumann’s club has six games to play in the regular season, including home games vs. Mystic Valley (Feb. 8) and Brookline (Feb. 15). Everett will also host the Jim Mulloy Tournament on Feb. 20 and 22.