Football

The North Haven football team made a major statement when it ventured into Cheshire for an SCC Tier 1 contest on Sept. 22 and rallied for a 17-14 victory against the No. 4-ranked team in the state. The Indians trailed 14-7 in the second quarter, had the game tied at halftime following Mark Montano’s touchdown pass to Steven Erbe, and then took the lead when freshman Chase DiCarlo drilled a 27-yard field goal with 9:05 to play in the game. The win marked North Haven’s first victory versus Cheshire since 2007. The Indians are now 2-1 overall and 1-1 in SCC Tier 1.

Cheshire scored the game’s first touchdown on 41-yard pass for a 7-0 lead, after which senior Zack Orth’s 1-yard TD rumble put North Haven on the board as time expired in the first quarter. DiCarlo kicked the extra point and it was 7-7 after one. The Rams (2-1, 1-1) used a 5-yard touchdown run to go up 14-7 with 7:08 left in the second, but North Haven came right back as captain Montano found fellow senior Steven Erbe on a 46-yard scoring strike with 4:27 to go. DiCarlo’s extra point made it 14-14 at halftime.

The game stayed tied until there was 9:20 remaining, when DiCarlo hit his first career field goal from 27 yards out to put the Indians ahead 17-14. Montano had broken off a 57-yard punt return to set the stage for the freshman’s clutch kick.

Montano attempted two passes in the game and completed both of them to Erbe for a total of 64 yards. Montano also rushed 20 times for 101 yards, while Orth grinded out 68 yards and a TD on 19 carries.

On defense, North Haven intercepted Cheshire quarterback Jack Raba three times. Montano had one interception, and juniors Alex Ciaburro and Nick Dodge both picked off a pass. North Haven’s leading tacklers were Orth (13), Montano (11), Dodge (10), senior Kyle Pearson (7), junior Devan Brockamer (7), and senior captain Korbin Pecora (6). Senior Joe Gargano had two pass deflections.

The Indians’ next game is versus SCC Tier 3 opponent Creed-Career-Whitney (1-2, 0-2) at Vanacore Field at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 28.

Girls’ Swimming and Diving

North Haven competed against Law and Hamden in last week’s action and defeated both teams to move to 4-0 for the season.

The Indians’ first meet of the week was at home against Law, and North Haven claimed a 98-67 victory at Gawrych Town Pool on Sept. 19. Three days later, the Indians had a match at Hamden, where they won by the score of 95-83.

Head Coach Martha Phelan said the Indians have a powerful team that features returning swimmers and divers, as well as an influx of five strong freshmen. Overall, there are 25 swimmers and four divers on the Indians’ roster this year. North Haven’s senior captains are Avery Hill, Laura Borelli, Michaela Salvo, and Jasmine Nguy.

Coach Phelan noted some of the top performances from her squad through its first four meets of the season: sophomore Angela Gambardella in the 200 freestyle (1:59.19), 200 individual medley (2:13.59), 500 freestyle (5:22.70), and 100 breaststroke (1:08.27); freshman Maddie Bergin in the 100 free (55.18), 50 free (25.55), and 100 backstroke (1:03.13); and sophomore diver Ava Santacroce with a score of 210.30 points.

Field Hockey

North Haven picked up three points in the standings by winning one game and playing to a tie in another last week. The Indians earned a point with a 3-3 tie at Amity and then collected two points by recording a 1-0 victory over Shelton in last week’s action. North Haven also dropped a contest against Cheshire and now has a record of 1-2-2.

North Haven opened up last week with a game at Lyman Hall and played the Trojans to a 3-3 tie on Sept. 18. Junior Jackie Howlett netted a pair of goals for the Indians.

Two days later, North Haven hosted Shelton and edged the Gaels 1-0 for its first win of the season. Junior Lindsay Rowland score the only goal of the game in the first half for North Haven. Sophomore goalie Sophie Aquaro made four saves in the cage for the Indians, who peppered Shelton goalie Sarah Rivera with shots, forcing her to make 26 saves. North Haven and Shelton had previously played to a 0-0 tie in their season opener on Sept. 8.

On Sept. 22, North Haven hosted Cheshire and took a 7-0 defeat against the Rams. Aquaro made 18 saves for the Indians.

Boys’ Soccer

The Indians played three games in SCC Hammonasset Division action last week and notched a 4-2 home win over West Haven in the final game of the trio. The win marked the first of the season for the Indians and was also their initial victory with first-year Head Coach Reid Chieffo. North Haven is now 1-4 on the season.

North Haven started off the week by losing a 3-1 home decision to Shelton on Sept. 18. The Indians netted the first goal of the game when Mike Panferov scored on an assist from Ben Blumenthal. However, the Gaels scored a goal to make it a 1-1 game at halftime and then netted a pair of goals in the second half to get the victory.

Two days later, the Indians faced Career-Hillhouse on the road and lost 3-2.

Then on Sept. 22, North Haven defeated West Haven by a 4-2 score in a home game for the team’s first win with Coach Chieffo.

Girls’ Soccer

North Haven had a busy week with three SCC Housatonic games on the schedule. The Indians came away with one win for the week to stand with an overall record of 2-3-1 to go with a mark of 1-3 in divisional play.

North Haven kicked things off by dropping a 2-1 decision at Amity on Sept. 18. The Indians trailed 2-0 when Julia Bogen scored to cut the deficit in half, but the Spartans held on for the win.

On Sept. 20, the Indians hosted Law and were edged by a 1-0 score.

North Haven wrapped up the week with a game in Hamden on Sept. 22 and prevailed 3-1 versus the Green Dragons.

Volleyball

The Indians squared off against Branford and Hillhouse in SCC Quinnipiac play last week and split the two matches to move to 2-4 on the year.

On Sept. 18, North Haven took a 3-0 defeat at Branford with scores of 25-16, 25-21, and 27-25. Olivia Peterson had 16 assists with two aces for North Haven. Peyton Davis posted six kills, three digs, and two aces, while Val Gimler had five digs and four aces.

Two days after this match, the Indians hosted Hillhouse and prevailed 3-0 (25-8, 25-15, 25-11) to pick up their first win in Quinnipiac Division play. Peterson had 22 assists with five aces, Giselle Zumerchik recorded seven digs, eight kills, and six aces; and Carly Brown had nine digs with three aces for North Haven.