The second week of winter sports at Old Rochester was interrupted by persistent winter weather, which managed to postpone a swim meet and a boys’ and girls’ basketball game, along with cancelling practices. Despite the storms, however, several of the teams had excellent performances. Here is a look at the second week of scheduled games for ORR winter athletics.
Boys’ Track: Coming off of a narrow victory over Diman, the boys’ track team looked to prove their full value in their meets this past week. The boys successfully defeated Case, Bourne, and Apponequet to keep an undefeated record for the winter season. In the Case meet, where the boys won 58-28, the biggest story revolved around junior Kevin Saccone, who set a school-record time for the 55-meter-hurdles with a quick 7.8 seconds. Saccone would later go on to break his own record later that week against Apponequet, lowering it two-tenths of a second to 7.6 seconds. Saccone would also go on to win the 600 meter dash in a 1:36.1 to lead the Bulldogs to another 58-28 victory. Mike Wyman won the two mile run in all three meets, easily claiming victories by running times of 10:18, 10:18, and 10:07. Senior Colin Knapton dominated the sprinting events over the course of the week, claiming victories in the 55-meter-dash and the 300-meter dash in all three meets.
Girls’ Track: The girls’ indoor track team had an equally successful week. The girls easily defeated Case, Bourne and Apponequet with scores of 75-13, 75-11, and 79-7 respectively. The latter victory over Apponequet was an essential win for the Lady Bulldogs. Apponequet is usually in contention for the SCC title each year, and the girls entered the meet to find that Apponequet’s best runners had chosen to not compete during the indoor season. Thanks to strong performances by triple-winner Paige Santos (9.1 seconds in the 55-meter-dash, 47 seconds in the 300-meter-dash, 5’2”in the high jump) and double-winner Morgan DaSilva (7.6 seconds in the 55-meter dash, 1:50 in the 600-meter-run), the girls dominated Apponequet, and face their last major obstacle for the SCC Championship in Fairhaven High School later this winter. Nina Bourgeois (3:36.8 in the 1,000-meter-run), Sam Barrett (12:46 in the two-mile), and Sam Allaire (27’ 6.75”) also contributed key wins for the Lady Bulldogs, who remain undefeated for the season.
Ice Hockey: The ORR/Fairhaven ice hockey team suffered their first loss of the season against out-of-conference Whitman-Hanson with a score of 3-1 last week. Coming off of a season-opening victory against Somerset-Berkeley, the defending SCC Champions looked to continue their success against Whitman-Hanson. After two quick goals by Whitman-Hanson, Fairhaven’s Jeremy Lawton scored off of an assist by Cam Silvia to make the score a manageable 2-1 at the close of the first period. After a scoreless second period, Whitman-Hanson scored again to raise the score to 3-1, which the Bulldogs could never make up. Goalie Chris Nadeau played well in the loss, making 30 saves.
Girls’ Basketball: The Lady Bulldogs suffered heavy losses from graduation, and after losing their opening game against out-of-conference New Bedford High School, the girls looked for redemption against SCC rival Apponequet. Unfortunately, the varsity-inexperienced Lady Bulldogs lost to the Lady Lakers with a decisive score of 51-12. Junior Morgan Browning and freshman Alexis Parker were ORR’s lead scorers for the night, each grabbing 4 points apiece. Browning also contributed on the boards with 10 rebounds. Despite the large margin of defeat, it is still early on in the season, and the girls were missing three starters due to injury (Kaleigh Goulart, Olivia Labbe, and Sophie Church).
Boys’ Basketball: Thanks to strong performances by seniors Paul Graves and Jeremy Bare, the boys’ basketball team propelled itself to a 66-49 victory over SCC rival Apponequet this week. Graves and Bare were the only two Bulldogs in double-figures for the night, with Graves scoring 17 points and Bare netting 16. Graves also provided the game’s most exciting moment with a dunk in the fourth-quarter to solidify the Bulldog victory. Junior Raekwon Phillips also played well in the chippy game, contributing 9 points and providing key defense in the backcourt. The Bulldogs had nine players get on the score-sheet for the night, and shot 39% from the field to remain at an undefeated 2-0 record.
Below are the overall winter team records, followed by the conference records in wins, losses, and ties as of December 22.
Boys’ Basketball: (2-0-0) (1-0-0); Girls’ Basketball: (0-2-0) (0-1-0); Boys’ Track (4-0-0) (3-0-0); Girls’ Track (4-0-0) (3-0-0); Swimming: (0-0-0) (0-0-0); Hockey: (1-1-0) (0-0-0).
By Michael Kassabian