After having dropped its first contest of the season 3-2 in OT at Suffield, the West Haven/Sacred Heart Girls’ hockey team rebounded last week with a 6-0 win over the Hand Tigers on Monday evening and then a 7-0 victory over Masuk/Barlow/Newtown/Lauralton Hall at the Bennett Rink on Saturday afternoon.
On Monday, the girls struck early when Jiana Cohrs took a pass from Megan Froehlich and deposited a backhander past the Masuk goaltender just 1:57 into the game for a 1-0 lead. The Westie Sharks poured it on, scoring four, more goals over a span of 3:01. Cohrs set up Taylor Nowak, who made no mistake, ripping a wrist shot from the slot for a power play goal at 7:18, followed by a goal by Megan Froehlich 13 seconds later, assisted by Nowak.
Nowak then picked up her second goal of the game, assisted by Caitlin Welch and Mackenzie Gardner with 6:07 left in the period and then Meghan Dupre put an exclamation point on the period with a shot from the point, assisted by Francesca Criscuolo with 4:41 remaining in the period for a 5-0 lead. The girls coasted the rest of the way, adding another goal by Cohrs 2:53 into the third period for the 6-0 final. Kyleen Crowe stopped 14 shots before giving away to Grace Nowak, who made the last four saves to preserve the shutout between the pipes.
On Saturday afternoon, the Westie Sharks took care of business again with a dominating 7-0 victory over the Masuk/Barlow/Newtown/Lauralton Hall. Jenna Hunt got the girls going with a goal 3:40 into the game assisted by Welch and Gardner for a 1-0 lead and the Westie Sharks never looked back. Mia Celentano, Megan Froehlich, Mackenzie Gardner, Maya Boyhen with two and then Grace Plunkett rounded out the scoring. Kyleen Crowe and Grace Nowak again combined to make 21 saves and record their second, consecutive shutout.
This week, the girls traveled to the Rinks at Shelton on Wednesday to take on the Amity/North Haven/Cheshire Blades and the finish up the week hosting East Catholic/Glastonbury/South Windsor on Saturday at 2:30.
West Haven’ Nitalia Frazer sends a blind pass to a teammate in last week’s game in the Westies’ gym. West Haven won the contest, 42-28.
The girls’ basketball team opened its season when it battled with the Cheshire Rams on Tuesday evening at the WHHS gym and was within striking distance late but, could not get over the hump in a 48-42 loss. Ny’Aire Serrano had 12 points to lead the Blue Devils while Natalia Frazer had 10 points and Davina Mendez added eight points in the loss.
On Friday evening the Westies hosted the Harding Presidents and evened their record at 1-1 with a 42-28 victory. Natalia Frazer led the Blue Devils with 10 points, Ny’Aire Serrano had nine points, Brianna Sebastian and Sarah Evangelista each had five points while Keegan Riccio and Davina Mendez added four points each in the win.
This week, the girls travel to Hillhouse on Thursday at 7 and host Plainville on Saturday at noon.
The boys’ hockey team faced the Guilford Indians in its home opener at the Bennett Rink on Wednesday evening and the crowd in attendance witnessed an offensive explosion in an 8-7 loss. The Indians drew first blood with a goal 56 seconds into the contest but the Westies responded with four goals over a span of 2:24 to take a 4-1 lead. DJ Cafora, Richie Greene, Colin Hines and Niko Kyle all found the back of the net to put the Blue Devils up by three with 7:03 left in the first period. Unfortunately for the Westies, the Indians got a back-breaking goal with 9.8 seconds left in the period to give Guilford some momentum heading into the locker room.
West Haven players converge in the lane in search of an elusive pass. The Westies won their first game of the season, a 42-28 victory over Warren G. Harding High.
The Indians tallied two, more times to start the second period and even the game before Robbie Forleo restored some stability with a shot from the point to put the Blue Devils back on top 5-4 with 5:23 left in the second period. Unfortunately for West Haven, the Indians evened the game again with 1:40 left in the period and got another back-breaker with eight seconds left in the period for a 6-5 lead.
Guilford increased its lead 1:18 into the third period. Richie Greene responded with a tally on the power play to get the Westies back within one at 7-6 with 8:40 remaining. The Indians scored on the power play with 2:10 left to make it 8-6 before the Blue Devils’ Kaden Morgillo netted one with five seconds left for the 8-7 final. Noah Iversen had 17 saves before being relieved by Charlie Miller, who finished with 12 saves the rest of the way. Niko Kyle finished with a goal and five assists in the loss.
The Blue Devils were looking to recover from their opening night loss when they traveled to the Wonderland of Ice in Bridgeport on Saturday night to face the Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe Mustangs. The Westies got a goal from Niko Kyle 6:03 into the game assisted by Colin Hines and Nico Bruneau to take a 1-0 lead. The boys would tally three, more times in the second period to build a 4-0 advantage. Robbie Forleo scored 1:01 into the second period unassisted to put the Blue Devils up 2-0. Kevin Moriarty then netted two goals in a span of under a minute to increase the lead to 4-0. The Mustangs got one back to change the momentum of the game with 1:05 left in the second period to cut the lead to 4-1. Fairfield got two, more goals to make it a 4-3 game with 47 seconds left before the Westies iced the game, when Forleo fired the puck down the ice 11 seconds later into an empty net for the 5-3 final. Jared Pliszka made 18 saves in goal for West Haven to pick up the win.
This week, the boys played St. Joseph on Monday and Westhill-Stamford on Wednesday.