WHS boys soccer tops Stoneham, 3-1; hosts Swampscott Friday for 1st place
The Winthrop High boys soccer team earned its fourth win in a row (and fifth straight shutout) with a 1-0 victory over Stoneham this past Friday night.
“Friday night in Stoneham may have been our best win of the season,” said WHS head coach Phil Ronan. “We were sleepwalking and they scored 10 minutes in to take a 1-0 lead at the half.
“But after an earful from myself and Captain Noah Bayersdorfer, Camillo Belalcazar opened the scoring with a beautiful shot. Then the youngsters came through, first Joey Bebri and then Shane Turner, for a hard-fought 3-1 victory.”
This past Monday the Vikings took on Masconomet, perhaps the best team in the Northeastern Conference, and came up short by a score of 6-0.
“We started slowly, maybe a little overconfident after winning four in a row,” said Ronan. “We made two early mistakes and it was a long afternoon.”
Ronan and his crew, whio now stand at 6-4-3 on the season, have a huge match this Friday evening at home against NEC South rival Swampscott.
“If we can beat them, we have an opportunity to win the Northeastern South Division,” said Ronan. The opening kickoff is set for 4:30 and a big crowd is expected to be on hand.
The Vikings will hit the road next week to Saugus, Gloucester, and non-league foe Arlington Catholic.
Boys cross country defeats Danvers, Saugus
The Winthrop High boys cross country team earned a pair of victories over Northeastern Conference rivals Danvers and Saugus in a tri-meet on the Vikings’ home course at Deer Island last Tuesday.
Winthrop freshman Owen Harty finished in first place with a time of 18:53. Owen was followed by senior Liam Kenney (3rd place in 19:45), senior captain Liam Natareno (5th in 20:46), freshman Matteo Agri (7th in 21:13), sophomore Sean Mgloin (8th in 21:20), junior Even Tallent (17th in 27:00), freshman Joseph Spinale (20th in 29:22), senior Guilherme Sodre (21st in 31:41), and freshman Ethan Harty (23rd in 33:02).
On the girls’ side, senior captain Bailey Ferguson was the top Lady Viking runner, coming across the line in seventh place with a clocking of 26:39. Teammate Era Marra finished ninth in a time of 29:20.
Volleyball team
shows improvement
Although the Winthrop High volleyball team came up short in its matches this past week with Swampscott and Beverly, WHS head coach Jeremy Wein saw some noticeable improvement from his squad.
“We still couldn’t come away with a win, but we saw some major signs of improvement,” said Wein. “We were able to compete with Swampscott and keep them on their toes. While our goal is not to simply keep the other team on their toes, we had been throttled by them the first time.”
In the match with Beverly, the Vikings fell by a score of 3-1.
“We were able to take a set from Beverly and we held leads in three of the four sets,” said Wein. “Helena Gajica, Lydia Louali, and Ana Piris kept the pressure on with serving and defense. Bree Rizz (Brianna Rizzoto), Mak Truck (Makayla Herdt), and Duda (Maria Pimental) played some pretty strong defense, which allowed for SoGon (Sofia Gonzalez), Mac and Cheese (Kylie Macfarland), and Helena to go to work on offense.
“We can do better and we will as long as we put the work in. No team will hand us a win. We have to earn it and take it from them,” added Wein, whose squad is scheduled to trek to Danvers next Monday and to host Salem next Wednesday.