Winthrop High Sports Roundup

WHS girls hoop     team rolls to 5-0

The Winthrop High girls basketball team has reached the quarter pole of the season with an undefeated record at 5-0 after a pair of wins in a home-and-home series with Georgetown this past week.

The Lady Vikings made the long trek north on Friday a worthwhile venture, coming back with a 53-40 triumph that made for a merry bus ride home. The Winthrop girls then played rude hosts Monday on New Year’s Eve, cruising to a 54-24 runaway victory.

“We really put things together in both games,” said WHS head coach Ignacio Oyola. “We played one of our best halves of basketball in the first half of the first game, both defensively and offensively in terms of running the floor, and kept it going in the rematch.”

Oyola was referring to his team’s dominating performance and sterling execution in the encounter at Georgetown in which the Lady Vikings outscored Georgetown 17-4 in the first period and held a commanding 29-12 advantage at the half. The contest was never in doubt from that point on, as Winthrop enlarged its lead to 42-23 after three frames.

“We had a couple of possessions where we never put the ball to the floor, from grabbing the defensive rebound to making a layup at the other end,” said Oyola. “It was nice to see the girls pass the ball upcourt the way they did.”

The Lady Vikings administered more of the same to the visitors from the Cape Ann League on the Holland Gymnasium court Monday afternoon, sprinting to an 18-2 lead after the first quarter. With matters standing at 33-10 at the intermission, it was fairly clear that Georgetown would not repeat its victories on the Winthrop floor of the previous two seasons when the teams traded wins on the other’s court.

Sophomore Kristen Siscamanis, who made her grand debut as a freshman last year in the Georgetown game, once again was a force in the game at Georgetown, forwarding a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. (“I like this court!” Kristen reportedly said afterwards.)

Teammate Temison Meggison also put together a powerful effort, producing a game high 14 points and pulling down 11 boards. Liana Ferullo was next on the scoring chart with seven points, followed by Ashelyne Babb and Alyssa Mackey with six apiece, Theresa Jones with four, Polli Tsiotis with three, and Nina Bartlett with one.

In Game Two, Siscamanis led the way with 15 points. Mackey hit for 14 points, followed by Jones with eight, Babb with six, Jen Adamson with five, Bartlett with three, Meggison with two, and Polli Tsiotis with a free throw.

Oyola and his crew return to their Northeastern Conference schedule tomorrow (Friday), hosting Danvers at 7:00. They entertain Saugus Monday, also at 7:00, and travel to Peabody Wednesday.

Girls hockey team makes it four straight

After battling to a 4-4 tie in their season opening game with Medford, the Winthrop Lady Bulldog hockey team has been on a roll, winning four straight contests, the most recent of which was a 5-2 triumph at Watertown Saturday.

“The Watertown win was our most complete game of the season,” said Winthrop head coach Anthony Martucci. “We dominated the play from the start (Winthrop outshot Watertown 61-23) against a quality opponent. We got the offense we needed and the defense and goaltending when we needed it.”

The offensive came principally from the first line of senior Kara Donati, junior Ariana Dembro, and sophomore Caroline McKinnon. McKinnon scored the first goal of the night, Donati put home the next two, and Dembro scored the fourth. “Their line has been really coming together,” said Martucci. “They’re playing awesomely as a unit.”

Sophomore Annie Mahoney, who has moved from defense to the forward line this season, scored her first career goal for the fifth Winthrop lamplighter.

Eighth grade Winthrop goaltender Gretchen Howard turned in another solid game in the net, turning aside 21 Watertown shots. Howard was especially immense during a one minute stretch when Watertown enjoyed a 5-on-3 power play advantage, turning aside a flurry of Watertown shots.

The previous Saturday saw the Lady Bulldogs take care of business with a runaway 9-1 win over Peabody in which Martucci sat out his top lines from midway through the second period. McKinnon scored two goals and seven other Lady Bulldogs got in on the red light party: Donati, Juliana Kennedy, Nicole Pucillo, Kasey Harris, and the trio of Erin O’Leary, Emma English, and Olivia Shkliew, who potted their first varsity career goals.

The contest also saw the debut of eight grade goalie Kayla Yarrow, who came on in the third frame.

The Lady Bulldogs were set to face a stern test against undefeated Beverly at Gloucester last night (Wednesday) and will return home Saturday for a 5:00 encounter with Everett at Larsen Rink.

Viking skaters remain undefeated, beat Methuen

If the sports adage that a tie is like kissing your sister has any truth to it, then one might surmise that the Winthrop High boys hockey team must have a lot of sisters.

The Vikings stand at 1-0-3 after a series of three nail-biting deadlocks (1-1 with Mansfield, 0-0 with Peabody, and 1-1 with Gloucester). The Vikings tied two of those games with late goals in the final two minutes, Dave Capone lighting the lamp in the Mansfield contest and Mark Ferullo doing so vs. Gloucester on a power play.

However, Winthrop finally broke out of the tying game with a 4-1 victory at Methuen Saturday.

“The Methuen win was a total team effort,” said WHS head coach Dale Dunbar. “We got exceptional play in every area: defense, offense, special teams, and goaltending.”

Defenseman Steve Goddard gave Winthrop a 1-0 lead on a power play in the first period. After Methuen tied matters at 1-1 in the second frame, Chris Page returned the lead to Winthrop in the same stanza with a shorthanded tally.

Page and Dylan Driscoll added insurance markers in the third period to ice the Viking victory. “A lot of our players are really coming into their own,” said Dunbar, who cited the overall play of Driscoll, a sophomore; the defensive duo of Goddard and Ferullo, who take the ice against their opponent’s top line each game; and goalie Ray Feeley, who is sporting a 0.75 goals against average through the first four games of the season.

Dunbar and his crew were scheduled to take to the ice last night (Wednesday) at Beverly, one of the top teams in the Northeastern Conference, and will return home to host Saugus Saturday at 7:00.

Track girls fall just short vs. Gloucester

Just 2.3 seconds meant the difference between victory and defeat in Monday’s indoor track meet between Winthrop and Gloucester. That 2.3 seconds was the margin of victory for the Gloucester 4 x 440 relay team in the final event of the meet that gave Gloucester a 46-40 triumph.

Winthrop captured four of the nine individual events and swept the high jump to create a winner-take-all-scenario in the relay. First place finishers for the Lady Vikings were Julia Wallace in the high jump with a leap of 4-9; Carly O’Keefe in the 50 yard hurdles in 8.2; Holly Benson in the 600 in 1:52.5; and Amy Sena in the 1000 in 3:30.6.

Sena took a second in the high jump with an effort of 4-7 to finish with eight points on the day. Michaela McCarthy completed the Lady Viking sweep in the high jump with her leap of 4-5 and  finished second in the mile with a run of 6:36.6.

Ashley Jurovich was another double-point scorer for Winthrop with a second in the shotput with a toss of 30-11 and a third in the 50 yard dash in 7.0.

Jordan Griffiths took home a second in the 300 with a clocking of 49.3 and Abigail Love finished second in the two mile in 14:23.

Third place points for the Lady Viking cause were contributed by Elizabeth Anderson with a shotput throw of 27-4; Heidy Benson with a run of 3:47.5 in the 1000; and Kristen Ford with a mile effort of 7:04.4.

On the boys’ side, Jordan Corbett-Frank was the top performer for the Vikings with a second place finish in the 50 yard dash in 5.9 seconds.

Other point scorers for Winthrop, all of whom took third place, were Trevor Hetherton in the 50 yard hurdles in 8.5; Amin Louali in the 300 yard dash in 44.4; Russell Trainor in the 600 in 1:41.2; Shawn Preble in the mile in 5:57.3; and Zack Bonilla in the two mile in 13:02.

Other Vikings who competed in the meet were: Devin Racow with a fourth in the high jump with a leap of 4-11; Alex Kelly with a fourth in the shotput with a toss of 29-0; Brady McGrath with a fifth place shotput heave of 27-11; and Joey Bosco with a fourth in the 1000 in 3:17.6.

Both the girls and boys track teams will face Danvers at the Marblehead facility next Thursday, January 10.

O’Keefe wins hurdles in NEC Fr-Soph. Meet

Carly O’Keefe brought home first place honors in Saturday’s Northeastern Conference Freshman-Sophomore Meet held at Gloucester.

Carly outran the large field with a time of 8.0 seconds after she had posted the fastest qualifying time of the day in 7.9.

Other members of the Lady Viking Freshman-Sophomore contingent who earned ribbons with a finish in the top six in their events were: Amy Sena with a third in the high jump with a leap of 4-8 and a fifth in the mile in 6:12.8; Holly Benson with a fourth in the 600 in 1:52.4, which was just 1.3 seconds behind the first place runner; and Heidy Benson with a fifth in the 1000 in 3:46.3.

In addition, the Lady Viking mile relay team took fourth spot.