The winter season is still alive thanks to the hockey team, who played for a state title this past Tuesday night. Basketball and swimming saw their seasons come to a close in a loss to Immaculate and at the Class M Finals.
Hockey — West Haven native Mike Card took all of five seconds to turn the Green Knights fortune around. Scoring twice in a five-second span in the third period, Card’s goals erased a 2-1 lead in Notre Dame’s eventual 3-2 win.
Those goals held up over the final nine minutes courtesy some strong defense and an outstanding effort in goal from Connor Smith. The Lions took an early lead on a breakaway goal just 1:29 into the game. Brandon Waitt sent a flying Brennan Horn in alone on Smith with a tape-to-tape, two-line pass. Horn shot from up close and Smith got a piece of the shot with his glove but not enough as the puck trickled over the goal line for a 1-0 lead.
That goal held up most of the period until the birthday boy tied the game. Ian Hayden scored on a rebound goal with 1:15 left in the first period, setting off a serenade from the Green Machine. The second period only saw one goal and that came from the stick of Nathan Loitz on the power play with just 1:29 left in the second period and the Lions took a 2-1 lead into the third period. That’s when Card took his turn wearing Superman’s cape.
Basketball –The Notre Dame basketball team’s dream of reaching the semifinals of the CIAC Division I tournament came to an abrupt end in a 53-46 loss to defending Division 2 champion Immaculate on March 11 at Crosby High School in Waterbury. A back-and-forth affair ,where each team made runs, came down to the final minute before the Mustangs pulled away. A close game throughout, Notre Dame led 14-11 after one quarter while the game was tied at halftime and at the end of the third quarter.
Notre Dame’ largest lead was eight, while the final score was the biggest lead Immaculate had all game. Notre Dame, which ended its season with a 22-3 mark, took its last lead on a Trevon Setzer-Smith three-pointer to give the Green Knights a 43-42 lead with under three minutes to play. However, Immaculate scored the game’s next six points to take a 48-43 lead with just over a minute left.
Connor Raines ended the game with six points, the fourth of which moved him into second place on the school’s all-time career scoring list. He passed Peter Santos ‘98 with a driving layup in the third quarter. Raines, who is headed to Texas Rio Grande Valley next year, ends his career with 1347 points.
Swimming — Bill Hinckley and Alex Ozonoff were the top Notre Dame swimmers as the Green Knights finished 12th at the CIAC Division I Class M Championship Meet at Wesleyan University.
Hinckley placed seventh in the 200 yard freestyle event touching the wall in 1:51.15. Ozonoff was also a seventh-place finisher in his marquee event, the 500 yard freestyle. Ozonoff finished in 5:05.85. Another top 10 finish came from Jonathan Farricielli, who placed 10th in the 100 backstroke in 59.56.
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