Football

The Valley Regional-Old Lyme football team picked another win after heading to Durham and defeating Coginchaug/Hale-Ray/East Hampton via a 13-0 shutout on Sept. 22. The victory gives the Warriors a record of 3-0 this season as the team heads into a bye week.

Head Coach Tim King’s offense got out to a slow start in the first half against the Blue Devils. After making some adjustments, the Warriors put 13 unanswered points on the board in the third quarter.

“Defensively, they played us well, and hats off to them. The first half, we couldn’t put two things together,” Coach King said. “[Offensive coordinator] Coach Kevin Woods did a great job in the second half making adjustments. He talked to the kids about it, and they made some great adjustments.”

The Warriors’ first touchdown came when senior captain quarterback Ryan Santos connected with fellow senior Jason O’Brien on a fade route from the goal line for a 1-yard touchdown toss. Junior Brian Funk kicked the extra point to give Valley-Old Lyme a 7-0 lead. Later in the third quarter, Jae’len Arnum made a nice one-handed catch in the red zone to set up his 5-yard touchdown run that gave the Warriors a 13-0 advantage. Valley had a chance to add some more points in the fourth quarter, but was unable to extend its lead.

“We were driving at the end of the game, and we made a couple of mistakes,” said King. “We ended up not needing those points, thankfully. After we got possession at the end, we were able to take the knee and ice the game.”

The Warriors’ formidable defense has only allowed a pair of touchdowns so far this season. Coach King was pleased to see his defensive unit continue its dominance in the recent victory.

“Our defense has been playing great. They really have. They’ve allowed 12 points in three games so far this season,” King said. “They’ve been playing some great football. Putting a zero up on Coginchaug is great, especially when we weren’t clicking offensively in that first half.”

Coach King said that Valley’s defense was bolstered by strong performances from junior Ben Conrad, fellow junior Justin Badolato, and seniors Ben Falivene and Ian Coughlin. Conrad notched 1.5 sacks in the victory.

“Our front four had such an outstanding game. Coginchaug is a big team,” said King. “Their offensive line may be the biggest that we will face all season. For our guys to show up and stop their forward progress is a testament to how good they are.”

Up next, the Warriors will head to Old Saybrook to battle the Rams at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6. Even with his team’s early success, Coach King knows that there is still a long way to go in the season.

“From here on out, every game is going to be challenging, and all games are rivalry games with Saybrook, Haddam-Killingworth, and North Branford coming up,” King said. “It doesn’t get easy. It’s going to be a battle week in and week out. You always have target on your back when you have some success.”

Volleyball

The Warriors earned their first win of the season last week and followed it up with another victory to improve to 2-4 on the year. Valley defeated Old Lyme and North Branford in last week’s matchups.

On Sept. 17, Valley hosted Old Lyme and won a 3-0 shutout behind scores of 25-18, 25-18, and 25-21. Junior Reeve Fergueson tallied nine kills, four digs, and an ace for the Warriors. Senior captain Maddy Just served 21-of-23 to go with six aces and 10 kills, while fellow senior captain Emily Hutchinson had five kills, an ace, and a block. Sophomore Alena Crosby chipped in with 28 assists and had three aces on 12-for-12 serving. Senior Zoe Hollwedel punched up 15 digs in the victory.

Three days later, the Warriors captured their second win with a 3-1 triumph at North Branford. Valley took the victory with scores of 24-26, 25-11, 25-23, 25-20. Valley received standout performances from Just, who had 10 aces on 20-of-22 serving with nine kills and five digs; as well as Hutchinson, who had seven aces on 15-of-16 serving to nine kills and a block. Crosby went 19-for-19 serving with five aces and 26 assists, plus Hollwedel had 16 digs and went 13-for-14 serving to complement her five aces.

Valley focused on limiting its mistakes on the court last week. Head Coach Kathy Scott challenged her squad to bring it, especially the seniors, and everyone responded.

“Because we have been making a lot of unforced errors in recent matches, against North Branford, we wanted to play better and smarter,” Coach Scott said. “We asked our seniors to step up and take the lead on the court whenever we lost momentum, and both Maddy and Emily had especially strong performances. Maddy had great movement defensively and initiated a good number of attacks with her passing, as well as picking up nine kills.”

Field Hockey

In a slate of three games last week, the Valley field hockey team notched a win, an overtime win, and also took an overtime loss to move to 4-1-0-1 this year.

The biggest game of the week was Valley’s 1-0 overtime victory at Class M school East Lyme. After the two teams were scoreless following regulation, sophomore Tory Rider scored the game-winner off an assist from senior captain Annie Cooper less than five minutes into the OT period. Senor captain goalie Mia Cost kept East Lyme off the board with her eight saves.

Head Coach Beth McCabe-Powers believed that the Warriors’ strategy—and her players’ willingness to stick with it—helped them come away with the victory.

“That win was huge for us. East Lyme is ranked third in Class M, and they had just beaten North Branford a little over a week ago. We had a great game-plan, and we stuck to it,” said McCabe-Powers. “My defense played its best game of the season. We kept it outside—and we play well out there—and used that to our advantage. We stayed very disciplined.”

Earlier in the week, Valley prevailed over Old Saybrook by a 3-2 score in a home game. Old Saybrook scored with 16:02 left in the first half for a 1-0 lead. The Warriors tied the game five minutes later when sophomore Riley Millburne scored off a helper from Cooper.

In the second half, Valley took a 2-1 advantage on a Millburne goal off an assist from Cooper with 16:25 remaining. The Rams knotted it at 2-2 with 9:14 left in the game, but Valley freshman Abby Amara scored the game-winning goal off another Cooper assist with just three minutes remaining. Cost had three saves for the Warriors.

On Sept. 17, the Warriors hosted North Branford and took a 3-2 overtime defeat against the defending Shoreline Conference and Class S state champions. North Branford took a 1-0 lead in the first half, after which Valley got on the board with 12:20 left in the second half, when Rider put one in the net on assists by Amara and Cooper. With 6:52 to play, Amara scored on assists from Cooper and Rider to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead. About a minute later, the Thunderbirds tied the game at 2-2, which was how it stayed through the end of regulation. In overtime, North Branford scored the game-winning goal with just 3:30 left in the game. Mia Cost defended the cage by making 18 saves for Valley.

While McCabe-Powers would have loved to get a victory against the conference rival Thunderbirds, she still felt pleased to come away with the point in the standings.

“The last few years, we’ve been competitive with them, and we play very different styles of game,” said McCabe-Powers. “I’m happy with the game and the strides that we’ve made. We fought all the way to the end.”

Boys’ Soccer

Valley had a pair of games that resulted in a win and a tie last week. The Warriors still have an unblemished record on the season with mark of 4-0-1.

On Sept. 17, the Warriors played Haddam-Killingworth to a 1-1 tie on the road. H-K went up 1-0 by scoring a goal 18 minutes into the first half. In the second half, Valley made a switch at wing by moving senior Michael Dilger to the opposite side of the field. Dilger beat his defender and then crossed the ball to fellow senior Chris Morales, who put it in the back of the net.

On Sept. 21, Valley put up a lopsided 7-0 victory over North Branford on the road. Valley got on the board nine minutes in, when Dilger broke free and passed to Andrew Sherman, who converted from five yards out. About 20 minutes later, Dylan Sparaco made a pass into the box for Dilger, who was able to toe it into the goal for a 2-0 lead going into halftime.

In the second half, Head Coach Mick Fearon spread out the playing time to give some of his athletes some varsity experience. Morales scored in the 46th minute off an assist from freshman Tucker Burr. Five minutes later, Morales scored again notching an unassisted goal after swiping the ball from a defender to give Valley a 4-0 lead. In the 60th minute, senior captain Sean Cole crossed the ball to Ryan Shasha, who put it in the net to make it 5-0. For the last 10 minutes of the match, Fearon put some of his defensive players into attacking positions, and it resulted in two defenders netting their first varsity goals. First, junior Cameron Frazier worked a pass to senior Logan Bellos, who scored his first varsity goal on a header. Then with just four minutes left, sophomore Andrew Sherman got the ball to Frazier, who scored from 25 yards away for his first varsity goal.

Girls’ Soccer

The Warriors earned a tie and took a loss last week to put their record at 1-2-1 on the year.

On Sept. 20, Valley hit the road to face Haddam-Killingworth, and the teams played to a 2-2 draw. The Warriors took an early lead when junior Ava Duval put an unassisted goal in the net just a minute into the game. Then in the 39th minute, Duval scored another unassisted goal to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead at halftime.

In the second half, H-K scored in the 44th minute to cut the lead to 2-1. The Cougars scored the equalizer in the 69th minute, and the game finished in a 2-2 stalemate. Junior Alexis Dellarocco made 10 saves in net for Valley.

Two days later, the Warriors took a 1-0 loss against reigning Shoreline Conference champion North Branford. The Thunderbirds scored the lone goal of the game in the second minute of the match. Dellarocco had nine saves for Valley Regional.