The West Haven football team traveled to New Haven on Friday afternoon to face the Wilbur Cross Governors and were looking to get its running game on track. The Blue Devils did just that with the tandem of Kyle Godfrey and Chris Chance piling up 331 yards rushing and scoring six touchdowns in a 47-20 victory to improve their record to 2-0.
On the first drive of the game, the Westies marched 56 yards and capped the drive with a Chris Chance 3-yard TD run. The Westies missed the extra point and led 6-0. The Governors wasted little time on their first possession when they scored on an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage. Cross would add the extra point and hold its only lead of the day at 7-6.
The Blue Devils came right back when Godfrey finished off a 62-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge to put the Westies up 14-7 after a Zach Conlan two-point conversion. The Governors would tie things up with 1:06 left in the half on a 5-yard touchdown pass and it looked like the teams would be heading into halftime knotted at 14-14. The Westies had other plans though. With West Haven positioned at midfield, Jake Conlan pitched the ball to Chris Chance, who fired a pass to Jordan Wetmore streaking down the left sideline. Wetmore caught the ball in stride and raced for the end zone before being caught at the 2-yardline. Zach Conlan would force his way into the end zone on the next play and the Westies took a 21-14 lead with 4.3 seconds left in the half.
In the second half, the Westies took control when Kyle Godfrey raced 43 yards just 2:29 into the third quarter to increase their lead to 28-14. Chris Chance would score on a 2-yard run with 3:20 left and on a 57-yard TD run with 17.5 seconds left in the quarter to make it 41-14. Cross finally got on the board again with a 40-yard TD pass 1:05 into the fourth quarter. But the Blue Devils put an end to any Governor comeback hopes with a Godfrey 28-yard TD scamper to make it a 47-20 final.
Chris Chance finished with 201 yards rushing and three touchdowns while Kyle Godfrey picked up three touchdowns on 130 yards on the ground. This week, the Westies open up their home schedule hosting cross-town rival Notre Dame of West Haven in the annual Soderman Bowl at Ken Strong Stadium at 7.
The boys soccer team traveled to Shelton for an afternoon clash on the pitch against the Gaels on Saturday. Things didn’t start off well for the Westies when the Gaels took a 2-0 first half lead. The Blue Devils stepped it up in the second half and got one back on a corner kick by Matt Frend that was headed in by Al Alfazzani with 23:23 left in the game to cut the lead to 2-1. Five minutes later, the continued West Haven pressure forced a penalty in the box and Matt French converted the penalty kick to knot the game at 2-2 with 18:23 left.
The Gaels seemed to kick it into another gear and poured the pressure on the Westies. A huge save by Saul Novoa with 10:44 left and another at 7:58 kept the scored tied. But, the Westies were whistled for a penalty in the box with 4:50 left and the Gaels took advantage on the PK for a 3-2 lead. West Haven tried to crack the Shelton defense but were unsuccessful the rest of the way. Novoa finished with ten saves in between the pipes for the Blue Devils.
The boys hosted Sheehan on Monday, Fairfield Prep on Wednesday and finish the week with a trip to North Haven on Friday at 7 against the Indians.
The girls’ soccer team hosted the Cross Governors on Tuesday evening at Ken Strong Stadium and jumped all over the Governors with four, first half goals on its way to a 4-0 victory. Kelsey Gilmore got her second goal of the season just 4:02 into the game and McKenzie Holy ripped a shot 1:14 later from 28 yards out over the leaping Cross goalkeeper for a 2-0 lead. Keegan Riccio converted a beautiful, crossing pass from Selana Izzo to the top of the box to increase the lead to 3-0 with 18:38 left in the first half and Emily Merola made it 4-0 with 2:07 left in the half. Alycia Morales and Mackenzie Gardner combined to record the shutout between the pipes.
On Friday evening, the Blue Devils hosted the Guilford Indians. The Westies continued to do a solid job defensively, limiting the Indians to five shots in the game but, the girls could only manage four shots of their own and the Indians were able to get the only goal of the game with 12:20 remaining for the 1-0 win. Betsy Magana made four saves in goal for West Haven.
This week, the Westies had road games at Mercy of Middletown on Monday and Foran on Wednesday before they will finish the week hosting the Branford Hornets on Saturday at 7.
The volleyball team hosted the Hamden Green Dragons on Monday afternoon and were swept, 3-0 (25-11, 25-18, 25-10). Megan Paterson led the offense with 11 assists and Lexi Burzynski had seven kills in the loss.
On Friday afternoon, the Westies hosted the Mercy Tigers and took the first game before dropping the match 20-25, 25-16, 25-20 and 25-23. Irene Ronan had four aces, six kills and three blocks to lead the Westies while CC Condon had nine digs and Danna Tortal had seven digs.
This week, the Blue Devils traveled to Guilford on Monday, hosted Career on Wednesday and finish the week with a trip to Madison on Friday to battle the Hand Tigers at 5:30.
The boys and girls cross-country teams traveled to Wallingford on Tuesday afternoon. The boys dropped their meet to Sheehan, Hamden and Shelton. Sebastian Villanueva was the Westies top finisher, placing ninth with a time of 18:44. The girls’ team was also defeated by Sheehan, Hamden and Shelton. This week, the cross country teams traveled to Middletown on Tuesday for a meet with Xavier, Mercy, Cross and Career.