WHS Golf Team Wins Three of Four

The Winthrop High golf team enjoyed a successful week, winning three of its four matches to improve to a fine 7-5 record on the season.

The Vikings hosted Revere last Wednesday on the local links and cruised to an easy 50.5-21.5 victory. Cody Boudrow, playing at No. 7, shot a day’s best round of 40 to post an 8-1 win over his Revere opponent.

Mike Rich at No. 3 added handsomely to the Winthrop spread with a 7.5-1.5 win over his Revere counterpart. Max Floyd, playing at No., 2, triumphed 7-2. Steve Goddard won at No. 4, 6.5-2.5; Mark Ferullo was a 6-3 winner in the No. 5 slot; and Mike Adamson at No. 6 and Joe Gobiel at No. 8 both were 5.5-3.5 victors.

Zack Mills halved his match at No. 1 to add 4.5 points to the Viking score card.

Winthrop next trekked up Route 1 to Cedar Glen to take on Saugus. The Vikings came home happily with a 40.5-31.5 triumph. Rich was the big winner, earning a 7-2 victory over his Saugus opponent. Floyd was a 6-3 victor. Goddard, Ferullo, and Boudrow all triumphed 5.5-3.5.

Top man Mills, who shot the best round of the day for Winthrop with a 40, added four points to the Viking cause, as did Adamson. Gobiel chipped in three points.

On Monday Coach Peter Lyons and crew journeyed to Old Salem Green where they defeated the host Witches, 40.5-31.5. Goddard gave Winthrop the biggest cushion of the day, defeating his Salem foe 7-2. Rich also won handily, 6.5-2.5. Floyd, who shot the best round with a 39, was a 5.5-3.5 winner and Boudrow and Gobiel edged their Salem counterparts, 5-4. Adamson and Ferullo halved their individual matches.

Winthrop’s victory skein came to a halt Tuesday with a 39.5-32.5 loss to Wakefield at the Winthrop Golf Club. Mills at No. 1 shot the best round, a 40, to win his matchup, 5.5-3.5. Goddard was a 5.5-3.5 winner and Boudrow also was a winner, 6-3. Floyd halved his match.

“Overall I’m very pleased with the way we’ve been playing and the hard work and effort that the team has been showing,” said Lyons, whose squad needs three victories in its last eight matches to qualify for the state tournament. “We have a lot of young players who are really maturing and are learning that if you have a bad day, you just have to put it behind you and move on.”

The Vikings have a busy and difficult stretch ahead against some of the top teams on their schedule. Winthrop will play at Tedesco Country Club against Swampscott today (Thursday); play at Malden Catholic Monday; host Marblehead Tuesday; and entertain Natick Wednesday.

Lady Vikings play well in three contests

Although the Winthrop High girls soccer team came up short in its three encounters this week, all three contests were hard and close-fought affairs against three of the better teams in the Northeastern Conference.

Last week’s 2-1 loss at Saugus saw the Lady Vikings yield a goal within the first 30 seconds which left Winthrop playing catch up right from the start. The Lady Vikings responded with a marker by Erin O’Leary, assisted by Liana Ferullo, but Saugus regained the lead before the half for a 2-1 advantage, which is how matters stood until the ref’s final series of whistles at the end of the game.

Monday’s match against Marblehead started almost exactly the same way, with the visiting Lady Magicians striking right off the opening kickoff to grab a 1-0 advantage. O’Leary provided an effective counterpunch when she beat the Marblehead keeper on a direct kick from a few yards outside the box, but Marblehead struck again with two minutes remaining before intermission.

The teams battled evenly throughout the second half until Marblehead scored with 1:40 left in the game to claim a 3-1 victory.

The Lady Vikings were back on the pitch the next day at Swampscott, a team that easily handled Winthrop 12-0 in their last meeting a couple of years ago. With Lady Viking captain O’Leary out of the lineup thanks to a sprained ankle she suffered late in the Marblehead game, the contest had all the makings of another rout when Swampscott scored within the first five minutes and added another goal within the first 10 minutes to take a quick 2-0 lead.

However, the young Lady Viking reserve defenders stepped up and halted the Swampscott momentum. Winthrop cut the margin to 2-1 before the end of the half when Gina Giuliano reached the back of the net amidst a scramble in the Swampscott box.

Swampscott enlarged their lead to 4-1 after the intermission before Nikki Tsiotis chipped the ball past the Swampscott keeper to account for the 4-2 finale.

“The team is playing hard and we’re staying with all of our opponents,” said WHS head Tracey Martucci. “But we need to work on finishing our scoring chances and scoring more goals if we’re going to win some games.”

Martucci and her crew will travel to Peabody today (Thursday) and host Lynn English Tuesday evening under the lights at Miller Field at 6:30.

Volleyball team off to enthusiastic start

The newly-formed Winthrop High volleyball team competed in the first match in the program’s history last Thursday before a supportive home crowd who rooted on the Lady Vikings against their Revere rivals.

“I could not be happier,” exuded an enthusiastic WHS head coach Christy Scott of her team’s premiere performance. “We won all four games and 13 girls got a chance to play. It was very exciting for everyone who was on the court.”

Alyssa Mackey was among the Lady Vikings who stood out in the historic opening match, recording 15 service aces against the Revere squad.

“The entire team played well,” said Scott. “Not only did we play our positions well, but we transitioned from defense to offense very smoothly. We passed to a setter, who set the ball to a hitter, who then smashed it at the opponent.

“I fee very positive about the future of this program,” added Scott.  “We’ve received a lot of positive response about the program from the community and all of the girls are full of enthusiasm.”

Scott and her team travel to Peabody tomorrow (Friday) and then return home to host Marblehead Monday.

Girls cross country teams defeats Salem

The Winthrop High girls cross country defeated Salem, 17-44, Tuesday, on the Deer Island course.

“It was a very strong, all-around team effort,” said WHS head coach Warren MacPhail.

Leading the way for the Lady Vikings was Isabelle Kennedy, who took first place in a time of 18:28.  Krista Vaccaro was next across the line in 18:48, followed by Jordan Griffiths in third in 20:45,  Maria Rago in fourth in 21:10, and Michaela McCarthy in seventh in 22:09 to complete the scoring for the Lady Vikings.

Angela Wandungu finished eighth in 22:39, Jessica Ford was ninth in 22:48,  Julia Wallace came across in 10th in 22:54, and Allison Babb finished 11th in 23:02 in the field of 20 runners.

“All of the girls improved their mile splits by over 15 seconds each,” noted MacPhal. “It was a great day.”

On the boys’ side, the Winthrop team came out on the short end of a 23-34 decision. Nick Floyd was the top Viking with a second place effort in 16:55. Brian Manning turned in a strong race with a third place showing in16:58.

Joe Bosco grabbed eighth spot in 18:52,  Beau Schlichting was ninth in 19:56, and Dustin Luu finished 10th in 20:03 to round out the Winthrop scoresheet.

Cormac MacPhail came across in 14th place in 21:17 in the field of 25 runners.

“All of the boys improved mile spilts by 15 seconds each,” said MacPhail, who noted that Floyd and Manning turned in personal record times.

Both the boys and girls cross country teams will be back in action next Tuesday at Gloucester.