Girls’ Cross Country

The East Haven girls’ cross country team competed in the SCC Championship on Oct. 17 and finished in 16th place out of 17 schools at East Shore Park in New Haven. Guilford won the meet as a team, and Amity finished in second place. Ella Bradford of Hamden was the individual meet winner by clocking in with a time of 20:00.

For the Yellowjackets, sophomore Juliana Espinoza posted the team’s best finish by finishing in 57th place with a time of 24:08. Also competing for East Haven were junior Erin Currin (102nd, 26:53), senior Riya Patel (114th, 29:47), freshman Gabby Milici (116th, 31:20), and senior Andreina Magana (117th, 31:20).

Boys’ Cross Country

The Yellowjackets sent three juniors to run at the SCC Championship at East Shore Park in New Haven on Oct. 17. Xavier took first place at the meet with Guilford finishing in second place. Xavier’s Robert Cozean won the race with a time of 16:03.

Ian Reynolds was East Haven’s top finisher at SCCs by placing 112th in a time of 21:25. Jeff Maffeo finished in 120th place with a mark of 22:15 for the Yellowjackets. Andrew Voira finished 127th by timing in at 25:08.

Football

East Haven took its first loss of the season when the Yellowjackets dropped a 26-0 decision against non-conference opponent New Fairfield in a home game on Oct. 18. East Haven, which was outgained by a 325-128 margin for the game, now has a record of 4-1 on the year.

New Fairfield opened the contest with a pair of long touchdown drives to jump out to an early 14-0 lead. On their first drive, Rebels went 65 yards in 14 plays to make it 7-0. After stopping East Haven on downs in the red zone, New Fairfield used another 14-play drive to go 91 yards and make it a two-score game. The Rebels scored another TD with 1:02 to play in the first half to take a 20-0 lead into the break.

Senior Michael Castellano finished the game with 60 rushing yards for the Yellowjackets, whose offense committed four turnovers in the contest.

East Haven will look to get back in the win column when it visits Stratford (0-5) for another non-conference matchup on Friday, Oct. 25. Kickoff at Penders Field is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Girls’ Swimming and Diving

The Yellowjackets went up against two strong teams last week and held their own while taking a pair of defeats. East Haven-Wilbur Cross (EH-WC) saw some great individual performances across the board in its losses to Mercy and Law. The team has a record of 0-9 on the year.

On Oct. 14, EH-WC took a 100-87 defeat against Mercy at Wesleyan University. The Yellowjackets recorded five new personal-best times in the meet.

EH-WC then hosted Law on Oct. 17 and lost the meet by the final score of 91-77. The Yellowjackets took first place in six events and set seven personal-best times.

Sophomore Camryn Lendroth has dropped her time in the 500 freestyle in nearly every meet this season. Lendroth started around the 8-minute mark and is currently down to 7:18.09. Junior JJ Kim competed in the 100 breaststroke for the first time this season last week and posted a second-place finish in the event with a time of 1:15.63.

Girls’ Soccer

The Yellowjackets earned a tie with Hand and then lost to Cheshire while playing a pair of SCC Housatonic matches last week. East Haven has an overall record of 3-6-3 and is 1-3-2 in divisional action.

On Oct. 16, East Haven hosted Hand, and the two sides played to a 0-0 draw. Head Coach Jake Hackett was pleased to see his team play a solid game against Hand, which is always one of the better clubs in the SCC. East Haven had some chances to win the game late, but the Tigers’ goalie made some big saves to keep the Yellowjackets off the board. Junior goalie Angelina Munoz also played a great game in net to help the Easties pick up a point with the scoreless tie.

Coach Hackett added he was happy with the effort and the organization that his back line showed during the game. Senior captains Christina Fazzino and Aimee DiVerniero, along with sophomores Emily Mazzucco and Kate Pycela, kept Hand at bay throughout the contest. Junior captain Bella Pilato and freshmen Sydney Herard and Gianna Mendez put forth a quality performance in the midfield. Sophomore forward Emily Pycela challenged Hand’s defenders all game with a strong performance up top.

The following afternoon, East Haven dropped a 3-1 decision at Cheshire. East Haven struck first when Emily Pycela buried the game’s opening goal. On a free kick play, Pilato sent a great ball into Emily Pycela, who was calm, cool, and collected with the ball at her feet and put away a great goal. Cheshire answered back with a pair of goals to go up 2-1 and then scored an insurance goal late to put the game away.

Boys’ Soccer

East Haven took a loss in its lone game of the week and is now 1-10 this year. On Oct. 18, East Haven hosted Shelton and took a 4-0 defeat versus the Gaels.