Boys’ Indoor Track

Shane O’Connor and Omar Gebril followed their respective victories in the shot put and 600-meter run at the SCC West Sectional Championship by winning the events at the Class L State Championship at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven. The Indians scored 28 points and captured fifth place out of 25 teams with Wethersfield winning the meet.

The wins for O’Connor and Gebril marked the first time either athlete prevailed at a state competition and both performances resulted in 10 points toward North Haven’s total. For the senior O’Connor, his throw of 48 feet-0.5 inches defeated Brian Robinson of Fitch (46-4.25) for top honors and marked his third overall postseason triumph for the shot put. Gebril, a junior, ran a time of 1:25.74 to edge out Hand’s Maxwell Veth (1:25.87) for first place in the 600 and nab his fourth career postseason win. Gebril had previously gone 1:27.03 when he won at sectionals. He also placed 11th in the 300 (37.77) at the state meet.

Senior Ryan Brennan collected six points for Marc Celmer’s team by running to fourth place in the 3,200-meter run (9:53.45) and fifth in the 1,000 (2:38.73). The club’s two other points were tallied by senior Anthony Valentino, who threw to fifth place in the shot put at 43-4.5.

Additionally in the shot put, Eric Milliard finished 12th (40-5.5), Aaron Wilson was 14th (39-11), Carson Tebbetts took 21st (38-3.75), and Michael Tran was 22nd (38-2.25). Elsewhere on the track, North Haven’s 4x200 relay of Todd Richards, Michael Greene, Dominic Scarano, and Trevor MacDonnell finished 12th (1:42.45); Josh Bryson was 13th in the preliminaries of the 55-meter hurdles at 8.70 seconds; the 4x400 quartet of MacDonnell, Bryson, Jordan Tong, and Gebril came in 15th place (3:47.01); and the 1,600 sprint medley relay of Julien Martinez, Ryan Harvey, Greene, and Tong placed 19th with a mark of 4:14.20.

Girls’ Indoor Track

North Haven scored 10 points and finished in 12th place among a 23-team field at the Class L State Championship on Feb. 13. Windsor won the meet.

Six of the Indians’ points were scored by junior Sarah Vanacore, who took third place in the shot put with a throw of 35 feet two weeks after winning that event at the SCC West Sectional meet. Sonia Atluru, who had recently won the high jump at sectionals, came in fifth for the event at 4 feet-10 inches to score two points and she also placed 13th in the long jump (14-7). Fellow senior Elise Symon earned North Haven a point with her sixth-place finish in the 1,600-meter run (5:27.52) and she was also 12th in the 3,200 (12:16.97). Freshman Erica Marriott scored a point in the long jump by taking sixth with a distance of 15-9.5. She also ran 7.60 seconds for third place in the preliminaries in the 55-meter dash and then had the same time in the finals, which put her in seventh place.

Additionally for Marc Celmer’s squad, the 4x800 relay of Symon, Erica Salvo, Elya Paolillo, and Maily Tran took seventh place (10:34.96) with the 1,600 sprint medley of Kamran Burns, Juliana Bencivengo, Katie Rogers, and Clare Connell finishing 13th (5:07.01). Burns also found 12th place in the long jump (14-9.25), while Bencivengo was 22nd (13-8.25). Salvo placed 16th in the 600 at 1:50.71, plus Ashley Brown (46.65) and Erika Mason (47.77) were 27th and 33rd, respectively, in the 300. In the shot put, Katrishia Bell finished 19th (30-0.5) and Kayla Rodriguez was 27th (27-2.25).

Boys’ Basketball

North Haven earned a berth in the Class L State Tournament for the first time since 2013 as the Indians won two of their three games last week to improve to 8-9. North Haven dropped a 64-62 contest at Cross, but bounced back to prevail at Career 57-47 and then notched a 74-67 home victory versus East Haven to get win No. 8 and make states.

All three of North Haven’s games last week came in Oronoque Division play. Following the loss at Cross on Feb. 9, Justin Falcon’s team was back in New Haven to play Career the next night and came away with a 10-point win that avenged a 67-57 loss to the Panthers from January. North Haven stormed out to a 15-6 lead after the opening quarter and led 19-17 at halftime. The Indians then scored 21 points to Career’s 14 in the third and brought a 40-28 lead to the fourth quarter on their way to the victory.

Jack Steinman shot 6-of-13 from the floor and scored 15 points go with six rebounds and four assists for North Haven. Chris Watson went 6-for-10 to score 13 and he also blocked four shots and grabbed two steals. Additionally, Jarrod Sancho went 6-of-8 from the free throw line and had 10 points, Emadi Okwuosa was a force inside with his 13 boards and six blocks, Davis Mikos scored seven and added five boards, plus Anthony Berretta had a pair of steals.

Then on Feb. 12, the Indians hosted East Haven and won 74-67 for their fifth victory in six games that completed a season sweep of the Yellowjackets and put North Haven at 4-3 in Oronoque play.

Girls’ Basketball

North Haven lost a pair of games against divisional foes by taking a 58-42 home defeat to Branford and a 52-34 loss at East Haven, after which the Indians won 54-50 versus non-conference squad Maloney for a record of 4-14.

February 10 marked Senior Night for North Haven and Ray Degnan’s club dropped a 58-42 contest against Branford. The Indians led 7-6 after the first quarter, but the Hornets started the second on a 14-0 run to take a 20-7 lead. North Haven countered with a 10-0 spurt to draw within 25-19 at halftime. Branford then erupted for 21 points in the third quarter and stretched its advantage to 46-31 at the end of the period. As usual, North Haven made a fourth quarter run and cut the lead down to seven, but time ran out on the Indians and they took the loss.

Senior Julia Puzone scored 25 points and collected 11 rebounds for her 11th-consecutive double-double and 13th of the season to lead North Haven.

“You know, you just want a win so badly for these kids, especially these seniors. You really cannot ask for a tougher kid with more grit and resolve than my four seniors, but we could not get it done for them tonight,” Coach Degnan said. “As has been the case in many of our games, we simply cannot avoid the catastrophic quarter. If you went back and watched film, you would say we played well for 24 of the 32 minutes. In those eight remaining minutes, however, we fall apart and cannot recover.”

The Indians closed the week with a 52-34 defeat at East Haven in their Oronoque finale on Feb. 12, followed by the 54-50 home win versus Maloney the following afternoon.

Boys’ Ice Hockey

The Indians posted a 3-0 home win versus Watertown-Pomperaug and were later edged 6-5 in overtime by Guilford to stand with a record of 8-4-1.

Senior captain Jason St. Peter recorded a hat trick against Watertown-Pomperaug to lead North Haven to the 3-0 win on Feb. 10. St. Peter scored from Josh Back with 3:43 left in the first period and then buried another on helpers from Mike Gambardella and Jamie Montesi with 21 seconds to play for a 2-0 advantage. There was no scoring in the second period, but St. Peter scored his third goal of the contest and completed his hat trick on Alex Cianci’s assist 4:51 into the third for a three-goal cushion. The Indians had 30 shots on net compared to the opposition’s 25 and Justin Daddio made 25 saves for his first shutout of the season.

“We started out slow, but it was nice to get back on the winning side again. We still feel we are not playing our best hockey yet. We hope we can put it all together before tournament time and that requires three full periods of hockey,” said Head Coach Mike Silengo. “Jason St. Peter has been leading the charge and added another three goals, while playing selfless hockey. Justin Daddio got his first shutout of the year, which was nice. Mike Gambardella had one of his best complete games of the year.”

Three days later, North Haven was back at Northford Ice Pavilion for another home game against a SCC/SWC Division II foe and took a 6-5 loss to Guilford in OT. St. Peter scored from CJ Kenny and then both assisted on Gambardella’s goal as North Haven held a 2-0 lead after the first period. Guilford scored the first two goals of the second period before Montesi put the host Indians ahead 3-2 on an assist by Corey Reilly. Guilford came back with another goal to tie it at 3 entering the third. Pasquale Liuzzi scored from JJ Jensen to put North Haven up 4-3 with 4:30 left in the regulation and then Guilford tied it by scoring just 12 seconds later. North Haven went ahead again at 5-4 when Cianci scored his first career goal from Josh Back and Liuzzi with 3:09 to play, but Guilford answered once more by tying it with 1:09 remaining on a goal from Chris Cafiero, who then won it by scoring 6:23 into the overtime period. North Haven outshot Guilford 35-23 and Daddio made 17 saves.

“Definitely a disappointing loss, but on a positive note, the boys played real hard,” Coach Silengo said. “Every time we would get the go-ahead goal, to Guilford’s credit, they kept coming back. We need to bounce back next week with a good week of practice with two tough games against Branford and Guilford.”

Girls’ Ice Hockey

Amity-North Haven-Cheshire picked up a 5-0 home win over Lauralton Hall at The Rinks of Shelton on Feb. 10 and then netted a 3-0 victory versus fellow SCC Division II opponent Notre Dame-Fairfield/Foran at Milford Ice Pavilion two days later. The Blades improved to 13-2-1 overall and posted an unblemished record of 10-0 in the division for regular season play. The team will compete in the semifinals of the SCC DII Tournament in two weeks and, with a win, would play for the title at Bennett Rink in West Haven on Friday, Feb. 24.

Against Lauralton Hall, the Blades scored three goals in the final five minutes of the first period and never looked back. Shannon Reilly scored the first goal from Peri Sosensky and Jamie Fredericks, Jena Casman tallied the second, and Andrea DelVecchio scored the third with 22 seconds left in the first for a 3-0 lead. In the second, Alaina Safian scored from Katelyn St. Peter and later assisted Gina Driscoll’s goal for the 5-0 final. The Blades outshout Lauralton 43-7 with Julianna Daddio swatting aside each of the Crusaders’ offerings for the shutout.

Driscoll then had a hat trick in the three-goal win against Notre Dame-Fairfield/Foran. She scored from Meghan Hogan and later Kiley DeGrand in the second period and then scored her third unassisted in the final frame. Daddio picked up another shutout in net for the Blades.