Football — It took until the second-to-last play of the game for the football version of the city rivalry to be decided. Notre Dame took a 41-35 lead on a 32-yard scoring strike from Jackson Zalinsky to Aiden Stankiewicz with 48 seconds left in the game to provide the winning margin.
The game was finally decided on a Michael Consorte interception with 15 seconds left. Zalinsky threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers in a back-and-forth affair that saw seven lead changes. Neither team led by more than eight points. West Haven quarterback Andre Rentas ran for three touchdowns, including 53 and 56 yard runs. The Blue Devils tied the game with three minutes left on a Jaden Grant nine-yard run and ensuing two-point conversion.
Damian Blount had two touchdown runs for the Green Knights, who also had Robbie Oliverio, Austin Pieck, and Tommy Candelora catch touchdown passes. Notre Dame, which now stands at 5-4 on the year, will look to end the year with a win in the annual Green Bowl game on Thanksgiving morning against Hamden.
Soccer — Head coach Chris Ciuca’s soccer team rebounded from a slow start to post a seven-game unbeaten streak heading into the postseason. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, that run ended in a 2-0 loss at Wethersfield in the second round of the CIAC Class L soccer tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
The Green Knights used two early goals to post an opening-round win at Bassick on Veterans Day. An own goal and a great strike by Thomas Ellis sparked Notre Dame to an eventual 2-1 win. Both of Notre Dame’s goals came in the first 12 minutes of the game.
Bassick finally tallied with less than three minutes left but the Green Knights didn’t allow another Lion scoring chance in the win. Ellis earned all-SCC First Team honors, while fellow senior and captain Christian Lombardo was named to the all-SCC Second Team. Notre Dame’s final record was 8-7-1 in 2019.
Post-Graduate Basketball — Notre Dame Prep, the Green Knights post-graduate basketball team, had a busy and successful week. They went 3-1 to improve their overall record to 4-1 on the season. Coach Nick Defeo’s squad opened the week with a pair of home wins over the Mitchell College JV team (82-73) and Commonwealth Regional (95-80).
They then participated in the Power Five Tipoff Invitational, splitting a pair of games, over the weekend of Nov. 15-16. They fell to Woodstock Academy Blue before rebounding the next day to post a season-high 102 points in a win over RockTop Academy. Kerwin Prince scored a season-high 29 points in the win over RockTop Academy.
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