SPORTS
SPC soccer title ignited by win over Oakridge
Oakridge players lustily cheered for Cistercian as the Hawks wrapped up their first-round SPC victory over All Saints, a game in whcih All-SPC performer Patrick Cruz '11 (below) scored for the lone goal of the game.
It was clear that the Oakridge players believed the Hawks, who had had a rocky season, would be easy prey in the second round.
And early in the second-round game, Oakridge did dominate.
Led by their college-bound center-mid, the Owls frustrated the Hawks’ attempts to maintain possession of the ball.
At about the 15-minute mark, Coach J.P. Walsh inserted Austin Burns ’12 (normally a defender) to mark the talented center-mid.
And George Adesanya ‘11 subbed into his familiar right attack position to complement Shane Macedonio ‘12 on the left.
Burns, who had played sparingly for most of the season, jumped on the opportunity — getting into the head of the Oakridge star and taking him out of his game.
With Adesanya and his speed in the game, the Owls’ defense shifted.
Macedonio quickly took advantage. 1-0. The defense shifted back. Adesanya scored thrice.
The Hawks went on to win, 5-0.
The championship game against Trinity Valley came down to a first-half goal.
The corner from Pete Smith '11 was perfect. All-SPC Will Halle '11 headed it into the back of the net, and the Hawks went into lock-down mode.
The defense -- sweeper Shawn Wylie '11 and defenders Ryan Martinez '11 and Larson Rogers '11 -- helped goalie Nico Artz '12 pitch a shut-out in the three SPC matches.
All three SPC opponents had whipped the Hawks during the regular season.
“While nothing seemed to work during the season, everything seemed to work at SPC,” laughed Coach J.P. Walsh. “It was magical!”
Swimmers and divers show off depth at SPC
Once again, Coach Doug Moyse has led Cistercian’s Aquahawks to a third-place team finish at SPC (the third third-place finish in four years).
Jake Watters ’13 placed second in the 500-yd free with a personal best (PB) time of 4:56, and took third in the 200 yd. freestyle. Aidan McLaughlin ’12 won third place in the 50 yd. freestyle with a PB 23.39. Sam McGraw ‘12 swam to a sixth place finish in the 100 yd. breast stroke with a PB of 1:12.37.
The 200-yard medley team (left, Andrew Jacob '13 -back stroke, Sam McGraw '12 - breast stroke, Marty Gatens '11 - butterfly, and Aidan McLaughlin '12 - freestyle) set a Cistercian school record with a time of 1:48.64 that earned them third place.
The 200 freestyle relay team — McLaughlin, Gatens, Watters, and McGraw swam to a third-place finish with a time of 1:34.18.
In the 400 freestyle relay, McLaughlin, Tim England ’11, Watters, and Gatens finished fourth with a time of 3:31.76.
Diver Christian Potter ’13 took second place while Andrew Skaras ‘11 took third.
Hawk big men stand tall against FW Country Day
After easily defeating St. Mary’s Hall by 21 in the first round at SPC, the Hawks faced Division-II’s top seed, FW Country Day.
"We knew Country Day's strength was their very talented 6'5" post players,” said Coach Dan Lee.
"We decided to use our two best big men – Forrest Rahn ’12 and Ikenna Nwafor ’12 (left) – together to make it tough for them."
The tandem threw Country Day off its game both offensively and defensively.
All-SPC Graham Albert ’11 led the team with 25 points in the impressive 62-49 win.
Mark Hartman ‘11 was the team’s season leader in steals.
David Novinski ‘12 provided hard-nosed defensive leadership and timely scoring.
Matthew Imaizumi ‘13 generated steals and provided steady ball-handling from the point.
