Thursday, February 15, 2007 Older Editions

AHS ROUNDUP: GIRLS ICE HOCKEY, ALPINE SKI, BOYS GYMNASTICS

By Rick Harrison

GIRLS ICE HOCKEY

Sometimes one team just seems to have another team's number - and often the reasons why are inexplicable.

So it was with Arlington and Andover High girls varsity ice hockey this season - at least in regular season play.

The Lady Warriors and Spy Ponders locked horns in a winner-take-all showdown for the newly-formed Greater Boston League/Merrimack Valley Conference championship, and when the final horn sounded Arlington had skated away with a 3-1 victory and the title.

"We're disappointed, for sure," said Andover head coach Bill McCarthy. "They're a little bigger and a little stronger than we are - but they're absolutely beatable.

"It's unfortunate that we weren't able to fully execute things we worked on during specific practice drills geared towards stopping what Arlington does best.

"We knew what we needed to do for the win - but we had trouble penetrating their zone and creating any really good scoring opportunities," said McCarthy.

The locals were hoping for some payback after suffering their only other league loss to Arlington, 4-1, on Jan. 10.

"This was almost deju vu," said McCarthy. "They scored two quick goals again and we never fully recovered from that.

"We took a couple of bad penalties - and missed a couple of clean breakaways after mishandling the puck.

"For awhile in the second period we had them back on their heels," said McCarthy, "but we weren't able to take advantage of the situation."

Both teams entered the game 8-1 in GBL/MVC play. Arlington exited at 9-1 and Andover at 8-2.

The Spy Ponders' perfect league record was spoiled early by a 2-1 loss to Chelmsford.

Had the game ended in a tie, the teams would have shared the championship.

That tough setback, along with a nice 2-1 bounce-back win over Wellesley 48 hours later, left the locals at 13-3-1 overall.

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The Lady Warriors have qualified for the MIAA State Tournament (this year Division 1) for the sixth straight season - and might get a third shot (the charm?) at Arlington in the tourney.

Andover, which held opponents scoreless for 153 consecutive minutes during one four-game stretch last month, outscored its first 17 opponents by a healthy 55-21 margin with five shutouts.

Schedule

All three remaining regular-season games are on the road, beginning with Lincoln-Sudbury Saturday night at Valley Sports Arena in West Concord (7:30 p.m.).

AHS confronts the Canton Bulldogs next Tuesday afternoon (2 p.m.), and the regular season finale next Thursday is at Northeastern University's Matthews Arena against currently-undefeated Dual County League power Boston Latin (15-0-2), ranked among the top teams in EMass. Division 1.

Scoring leaders

Sarah Oteri is still on top of the pack with 18 goals and 11 assists for 29 points after 17 games.

Becky Cairns has revved it up to 13 goals and 13 assists, followed by Heather Paonessa at 9-9-18, Nicole Giroux 2-13-15 and Laura Drew 6-6-12.

Tourney pairings

The MIAA State Division 1 Tournament pairings will be drawn up and announced on Saturday, Feb. 24.

Arlington 3

Andover 1

Eight-grader Laura Drew netted the only Andover goal in the first period at Veterans Memorial Rink in Arlington, making it 2-1 at the time before the Spy Ponders potted an insurance goal in the second period on the power play.

Drew's tally was assisted by sophomore forward Heather Paonessa and senior Capt. Alison Burns.

Arlington sharpshooter Rachel White pocketed a pair of goals.

"She shoots harder than a lot of the boys," said coach McCarthy. "She came up the middle and snapped off one of her patented laser-beam shots."

Sophomore Megan Pettoruto got the call in the AHS net and finished with 15 saves.

Andover 2

Wellesley 1

Avoiding a letdown after the tough loss to Arlington, the Lady Warriors showed some grit by scoring once in the first and second periods on the annual Senior Night at Phillips Academy's Harrison Rink.

Goalscorers in the final regular-season home game were Laura Drew and Sarah Oteri.

Capt. Becky Cairns and Nicole Giroux had the assists, and AHS goalie Christina Cahill halted eight of the nine Wellesley shots for the win.

The loss dropped Wellesley - a regular MIAA Tournament qualifier - to 9-5-1 overall.

Honored in pre-game ceremonies were Andover seniors Becky Cairns, Becky Johnson, Alison Burns, Christina Cahill and Samantha Monson.

ALPINE SKI

The state tourney-bound Andover High girls alpine skiers wrapped up a 9-1 dual-meet season with a pair of resounding victories over North Shore League rivals Masconomet Regional of Topsfield, 106-29, and Haverhill, 115-20, at the Bradford Hill Ski Area.

The AHS boys also closed on a high note by posting an NSL tri-meet sweep against Bishop Fenwick of Peabody, 133-2, and Haverhill, 102-33.

The five-time reigning NSL champion Lady Warriors completed the regular campaign with a 9-1 record, sharing the league title with North Andover, and the locals now own a 48-2 won-lost ledger during their five-year, 50-meet title run.

The boys were 6-4 and settled for third place behind North Andover and St. John's Prep of Danvers.

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The Andover girls have once again qualified for the All-State Championship Meet scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 27 at the Berkshire Hill Ski Area in Charlemont.

The first slalom and giant slalom runs are set for 9:30 a.m.

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The annual Interscholastic Races were held earlier this week at Bradford Hill.

Andover girls 106

Masconomet 29

The locals took 10 of the top 11 places on the way to victory, led by winner Jackie Guy with the fastest run of 21.52 seconds.

Cara Suglia finished third (22.02), and tied for fourth were Colleen Heath and Cayley Christopher (both 22.15).

Completing the list of leaders/scorers for the co-champs were Julie Harker (6th, 22.70), Katelynn Kearns (7th, 22.93), Carly Holstein (8th. 22.98), Kayla Fosse (9th, 23.11), Claire Shapiro (10th, 23.13) and Erin Christopher (11th, 23.24).

"This was one of our best team efforts of the season," said AHS head coach Tom Busta. "Jackie Guy is racing with an injury and she still finished top 5 in the league."

Busta also lauded the strong performance of Julie Harker.

Andover girls 115

Haverhill 20

Once again the Lady Warriors dominated, sweeping the top four places and 10 of the first 11.

Jackie Guy won another race with a swift 21.12 clocking, followed closely by Carly Holstein in second (21.61), Cayley Christopher third (21.66) and Claire Shapiro fourth (22.27).

Cara Suglia finished sixth (22.60), and rounding out the tightly-bunched top 10 were Kayla Fosse (7th, 22.64), Colleen Heath (8th, 22.72), Katie Greely (9th, 22.85) and Katelynn Kearns (10th, 22.91).

Also in the top 15 were Willy Huizing (11th, 23.01), Margaret Doherty (13th, 23.20) and Erin Christopher (15th, 23.58).

"Carly Holstein saved her best race of the regular season for the last one," said Busta. "She was 9th overall in the entire league for the day. Hopefully she'll carry that performance over to Interscholastics."

Andover boys

In the lopsided romps over Bishop Fenwick and Haverhill, Peter Webster was sharp with a 20.87 run that placed him first against the Crusaders and second versus the Hillies.

Completing a sweep of the top six places in the Fenwick romp were Eric Heath (2nd, 21.01), Gavin Lynch (3rd, 21.12), Nathan Weiner (4th, 21.13), Ryan Gibbs (5th, 21.69) and Jason Dashtpeyma (6th, 21.79).

Heath was 3rd against Haverhill, Lynch 4th, Weiner 5th, Gibbs 6th and Dashtpeyma 8th.

Sam Dempsey, Zack Zemlin, Mike Reed, Ryan Jimenez, Matt Liffman, Sayo Maldari, John Suglia and Nick Binder also scored points for the Golden Warriors.

BOYS GYMNASTICS

Several Andover High boys gymnasts earned medals at the 2007 State Coaches Individual Championship Meet held this week at Lowell High's Riddick Memorial Field House Abraham Gym.

Each of the top six finishers in the six events received a medal.

Senior Andy O'Connell was outstanding with a pair of first-place performances, posting the highest score on both the pommel horse (9.2) and the parallel bars (9.0).

Senior Rob Tornatore was 4th with an 8.4, junior Aaron Davidovits 5th with an 8.3 and freshman Adam Vetere 6th with an 8.2 in the vault.

Davidovits snagged a second medal on the rings where he placed 6th with a 5.4.

Freshman Mark Vetere competed in the all-around and placed 7th with a 37.00 score.

Zach Aguiar of Lowell was the all-around champ with a 51.7 that included a 9.4 in vault, 8.7 on parallel bars, 8.4 in floor exercise, 8.4 on pommel horse, 8.2 on rings and 8.0 on high bar.

Schedule

The season-ending State Team Meet is tonight (Thursday) at Burlington High (7 p.m.).