Forfeits count in high school wrestling — unfortunately for Mattituck/Greenport/Southold.
Four successive forfeits at the close of Mattituck’s home and league opener Friday night turned a 28-24 Tuckers’ lead into a 48-28 Elwood/John Glenn win. READ
Tag: Elwood/John Glenn
Madison Osler remembers watching her Mattituck High School girls volleyball team during the preseason and wondering what the future would bring. She recalled saying to herself: “This is a mess. I don’t know how this is going to go.”
In retrospect, things went pretty well for the Tuckers. That “mess” was soon cleaned up. Mattituck split regular-season series with powers Elwood/John Glenn and Bayport-Blue Point, took second place in League VII and reached the first Suffolk County Class B final in its history. READ
With 16 of its players having made a recent class trip to Italy, the Bishop McGann-Mercy Diocesan High School girls lacrosse team had not practiced in two weeks. On top of that, the Monarchs are short on precious experience.
Seventh-grader Riley Hoeg scores on a penalty shot to give playoff-bound Mattituck/Greenport/Southold a 15-12 lead against Elwood/John Glenn. (Credit: Robert O’Rourk)
TUCKERS 16, KNIGHTS 15
The Mattituck/Southold/Greenport high school girls lacrosse team prepared for its first appearance ever in the Suffolk County playoffs with a win on Tuesday afternoon. (more…)
Mattituck’s Adam Hicks, center, took second place in the 3,200 meters in 11 minutes 50 seconds. (Credit: Garret Meade)
KNIGHTS 84, TUCKERS 56
The Elwood/John Glenn boys track and field team swept the three relay races to wrap up an 84-56 victory over Mattituck in a Suffolk County League VII dual meet on Tuesday in East Northport. (more…)
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Mattituck outside hitter Emilie Reimer hit the floor to pop up a hit by Elwood/John Glenn.
KNIGHTS 25, 25, 25, TUCKERS 10, 15, 14
If the Elwood/John Glenn High School girls volleyball team keeps going the way it has, its gym is going to run out of wall space for all those championship banners the Knights win. As it is, not all of John Glenn’s banners are hanging in the gym.
John Glenn has an aura about it, and it’s not as much about respectability as outright awe.
For good reason, too. Look at the team’s résumé: six state championships, 12 consecutive Long Island titles, and 20 straight league crowns, with a 21st on the horizon. John Glenn coach Kevin Harrington believes the team’s last league loss was about 15 years ago. Fifteen years!
No question about it, John Glenn is good.
Visiting Mattituck knew what it was in for Thursday when it entered the lair of the defending New York State Class B champions and the undefeated Suffolk County League VII leaders.
The result wasn’t surprising. What was interesting was that Mattituck did not play all that badly, and yet was swept in three games, 25-10, 25-15, 25-14.
Harrington was irked by the play of his team, saying there were too many unforced errors and the seven service errors the Knights committed were on the high side.
The weapons in John Glenn’s arsenal were numerous. Stephanie Viteritti collected 17 assists, 6 services aces and 1 kill. She also went 11 for 11 from the service line. Eleven of John Glenn’s 32 kills came from Simi Familusi, a fearsome hitter. Grace Cergol provided the Knights, who picked up their ninth league win in as many matches, with 12 assists as well as 3 aces and 3 kills.
It wasn’t a good statistical day for Mattituck (7-6, 5-5), which put away only 4 kills and 1 ace. The Tuckers kept themselves as close as they did by missing only two serves. Shannon Dwyer had 3 kills, 3 dinks and a block for the Tuckers.
Mattituck, a Class C team, needs one win from its final two matches against Bishop McGann-Mercy and Bayport-Blue Point in order to earn an automatic playoff berth.
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Mattituck’s James Hayes in an aerial duel with Elwood/John Glenn’s James Groark.
Diamond in the Pines in Coram never will be confused with Wembley in England, Maracana Stadium in Rio or even Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. But the sports complex has become a must destination site for some of the best Suffolk County soccer teams come the fall.
And that includes the Mattituck High School boys’ soccer side. The Tuckers, who spent a good portion of the summer playing at the facility, hope to return to it for the Suffolk Class B final on Nov. 2.
This year’s version of the team already has some vital experience winning a big game on the artificial turf, earning the Town of Brookhaven Summer League small schools title behind a 3-2 triumph over Elwood/John Glenn on Monday.
Winning the summer league obviously isn’t as big as the county crown, but it certainly will get the Tuckers into the right frame of mind.
“It’s huge,” goalkeeper Steve Ostrowski said. “I don’t remember the last time Mattituck did this. My brother [Peter, a center back] two years ago, they got pretty close and they lost on penalty kicks, so this is huge for me. It’s just really exciting.”
And it will be more exciting come November.
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Paul Hayes and his Mattituck teammates are Brookhaven Summer League small school champions.
“It’s always great to be back here,” Ostrowski said. “It’s just the feeling knowing that you’re the best in the league. And it’s Mattituck tradition.”
Midfielder Paul Hayes had a slightly different take. “I don’t want to be compared to last year’s team [which reached the state semifinals],” he said. “This is a new team. I’d just love to be back here, hopefully going back to states. That’s my goal.”
Will Hayes, the coach of the summer team, hoped that the Tuckers will be back there in a few months.
“If you’re a high school kid, that’s what you live for,” he said. “It’s what you want to do. That’s why you play. It’s fun, but you want to win. You want to get out there in the championship game and test yourselves against the best teams and see in the end how good you are.”
The Tuckers will get one more test this summer. They will meet Central Islip, a 1-0 winner over Ward Melville in the boys’ large school final Monday, in the varsity championship game at the complex at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
Playing a larger team does not faze the Tuckers.
“I just want to show them up,” midfielder Chris Hayes said. “I don’t think they’re really expecting too much out of us. But they don’t know us as well.”
Will Hayes remembered when he coached the junior varsity team to the small schools final two years ago. “We got to the final, and sat them down and said, ‘We’re not supposed to win. The big school always wins,’ ” he said. “I think the big school has won every time but three on the JV level.”
Mattituck lost to Sachem on penalties, 7-6.
That was far from the case Monday. Only 3 minutes 20 seconds into the game, the Tuckers received a reality check as Jonny Schefer gave Glenn a 1-0 lead.
“That woke us up right away,” midfielder Paul Hayes said. “This team is not as great as us. We should be winning this game. We just got back into our game plan.”
“It was really intense,” Ostrowski said. “They gave a run the first time we played them. They scored first. Getting scored on first never really has been a problem for us. It was a battle back and forth the whole game. We got caught into their game a little bit, the kick and run. But in the end we pulled it out.”
Less than four minutes later it was tied at 1-1 as Mario Arreola motored down the left side and scored.
Oscar Puluc scored at 12:50, shaking his fist in triumph en route to a 2-1 lead. Only 40 seconds into the second half, Erik Schwartz put in a rebound of Puluc’s shot off the crossbar for a 3-1 lead, a goal the Tuckers needed because Corey Ainsworth brought Glenn within striking distance with Ostrowski pulled out of the goalmouth at 32:40.
Glenn threw just about everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at Mattituck over the final 15 minutes as the Tuckers withstood the pressure.
“It says that we’re experienced,” Ostrowski said. “We’re ready. We’ve got ice blood, basically. We don’t crack under pressure.”
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Greenport/Southold/Mattituck/Shelter Island quarterback Ryan Malone was taken down by Elwood/John Glenn's Ken Massa (15) and Anton Swain (82).
It’s not always easy being a Long Island champion. For one thing, it puts a target on a team’s back.
The Elwood/John Glenn Knights, who won their first Long Island Class IV football championship last year, know the feeling well.
“Everyone wants to knock you off,” John Glenn Coach Dave Shanahan said. “We have a saying over up by us: The wind blows a little harder at the top of the hill because everybody’s after you.”
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Frank Sierra, a sophomore, ran for 62 yards on nine carries.
What may be tougher, though, is to have to play a team like the Knights. The Greenport/Southold/Mattituck/Shelter Island Porters could talk about what that’s like.
Rich Czeczotka passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more as John Glenn won its 17th straight game at the expense of the Porters, 42-7, on Thursday at Greenport High School’s Dorrie Jackson Memorial Field. The senior quarterback went 7 of 9 passing for 131 yards in the first half before he was replaced by Matt Shanerman in the second half, with the Knights holding a comfortable 35-7 lead.
The Knights (4-0 in Suffolk County Division IV) are for real. Their record over the past four years is 36-2. Their last lost was in November — of 2009. They have reached the county final the past three years. They were recognized as the top team in Suffolk last year with the awarding of the Rutgers Trophy.
“Everyone really worked hard for it,” Czeczotka said. “When we finally achieved it, that was probably the greatest feeling all of us ever experienced, and we want to do it again this year.”
They appear to have the ability to do so. Despite the loss of 17 players from last season’s team, the Knights are still loaded with talent.
“We’re definitely on a great run,” Shanahan said. “It’s all about having great kids.”
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Greenport/Southold/Mattituck/Shelter Island's Ryan Malone tried to escape the grasp of Elwood/John Glenn's Lameek Jarvis.
The Porters (1-4) played without their first-string halfback, Tomasz Filipkowski, who stood on the sideline in street clothes with a sprained ankle he sustained in the previous game against the Mount Sinai Mustangs. Connor Malone started in his place.
More bad news for the Porters came on the opening kickoff. Jarvis Lameek caught Chris Manwaring’s kick and ran it back 81 yards for a touchdown.
A fumble recovery by Kevin Dixon two plays later gave the Knights the ball at the Porters’ 18-yard line, setting up Czeczotka’s eight-yard pass to Nick Wagner for the second touchdown.
Czeczotka then ran in two touchdowns himself before throwing a screen pass to Mike Tufano, who turned it into a 33-yard touchdown connection. Greg Orkiszewski’s extra point after Tufano’s touchdown made it 35-0 with 4 minutes 20 seconds left in the first half.
The Porters received a one-yard run for a touchdown by Ryan Malone on a quarterback sneak 47 seconds before halftime.
A one-yard touchdown run by Nick Princiotta 3:24 into the third quarter, and Orkiszewski’s extra point finalized the scoring.
The Knights were efficient. They needed only 29 offensive plays to put up all their points. Their punter, Jake Toth, wasn’t called upon to punt until there were about 10 minutes left to play.
Four turnovers by the Porters helped. Wagner and Nick LaLota had interceptions; Dixon and Shanerman (eight tackles) each recovered a fumble.
Despite Filipkowski’s absence, the Porters’ running game didn’t do badly, consuming 165 yards. Malone had 66 rushing yards and sophomore Frank Sierra picked up 62 from a career-high nine carries.
“I had no idea about how good the [Glenn] team was,” Sierra admitted in what he said was his first interview. “I don’t know much about the teams. I just kind of play and do what Coach tells me. I saw they hit hard, but I hit just as hard.”
Porters Coach Jack Martilotta, noting that his team had at least six sophomores on the field during the game, applauded the effort of his players. “I thought they played well,” he said. “I mean, you line a sophomore up against a senior on a team that’s that good, that’s asking a lot. We know we’re asking a lot of them right now, but again, we’re building a program.”
And the Knights are trying to build a path to another Long Island championship. Shanahan said his current seniors were instrumental pieces of last year’s team, and they now want to make their own mark as 12th-graders. “They saw what the previous senior group had,” he said, “and they want to go down in John Glenn history as being another great team that won a county and a Long Island championship, so it sets the bar real high.”
With the titles comes a target. As they say at John Glenn, it gets windy at the top.
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Mattituck's No. 1 pitcher, Steve Ascher, has allowed only one earned run in 24 innings.
The numbers are awfully impressive.
With a 4-0 record and a 0.29 earned run average as supporting evidence, Steve Ascher is making a case for himself as one of Suffolk County high school baseball’s top pitchers.
The most recent example of Ascher’s work on the mound may be the most convincing yet. In a result that said as much about Ascher as it did about the team he plays for, he threw a three-hitter with nine strikeouts as his Mattituck Tuckers triumphed in a showdown of unbeaten League VII teams. The Tuckers beat the Elwood/John Glenn Knights, 8-1, on Monday at Mattituck High School.
“I felt like I could hit every corner, whenever I wanted,” said Ascher.
It was the sort of pitching performance the Tuckers (8-0, 7-0) have come to expect from the No. 1 pitcher in their rotation.
GARRET MEADE PHOTO | Yianni Rauseo's third home run of the season gave Mattituck an 8-0 lead in the fourth inning.
“It’s nice to know that you’re number one pitcher, when he goes out there, he’s going to give you a chance to win no matter who you’re going against,” said Mattituck Coach Steve De Caro.
And the Tuckers weren’t playing just anyone. Elwood/John Glenn (5-1, 5-1), a perennial power, was a league champion in 2008 and 2009 and, like Mattituck, is a serious contender for the 2011 league title.
But even the Knights had their hands full dealing with Ascher’s pitching and the Tuckers’ hitting.
“He was hitting inside, outside, throwing the curve,” said John Pierson, who started the game in left field for Elwood/John Glenn before pitching one scoreless inning of relief. “We couldn’t really do anything. He was hitting his spots good today.”
Ascher, a senior left-hander, did not give up a hit until Pierson clocked a home run — his first of the season — with one out in the top of the fifth inning. It was the only earned run that Ascher has surrendered in 24 innings this season.
“When he’s on the mound, he’s real tough,” said Elwood/John Glenn Coach Stephen Robins, the son of the late legendary Levittown Division coach, Doug Robins. Stephen Robins, who played for Levittown Division when De Caro was a coach there, said Ascher “can throw more than one pitch for a strike any time in the count [with] good velocity.”
In addition to Pierson’s home run, the other hits Ascher allowed were a single that Billy Riedel smacked in the fifth, and a check-swing single to left field by Scott Kunz in the sixth.
Ascher was supported by a healthy dose of offense. Yianni Rauseo enjoyed a three-hit day, one of those hits being his third home run of the season. Rauseo socked a two-run shot over the left-field fence, capping a five-run fourth and giving the Tuckers an 8-0 lead. Five of Mattituck’s nine hits came during that rally.
Ascher smiled at the mere mention of the eight-run insurance policy he had to work with. “That was nice,” he said. “It took all of the pressure off right there.”
Mattituck had opened that inning with a single by Ryan Finger that was followed up with back-to-back doubles by Marcos Perivolaris and George Lessard, who brought in both runners with his two-bagger.
“Today showed that we can compete with everybody and we can hit,” said Ascher.
Ascher also benefitted from a great diving catch by third baseman Travis Zurawski of a line drive smashed by Elwood/John Glenn’s Matt Toich in the fourth.
Although he did pitch deep into some counts, Ascher issued only one walk. He picked a runner off first base, to boot.
“Steven pitching is great; Steven as a leader is better,” De Caro said. “He is that guy that you want leading your team.”
“He’s a smart pitcher,” the coach continued. “He changes speeds well. He nibbles at the corners, and generally, he’s not giving you that fat pitch over the plate.”
Ascher has learned to pitch effectively when he doesn’t have his best stuff. Earlier this season, he hurled a one-hitter against the Center Moriches Red Devils, relying heavily on off-speed pitches because his fastball wasn’t completely on.
“You need to figure out what’s working, and if one pitch isn’t working you have to go to another,” he said.
On Monday, pretty much everything was working for him and the Tuckers.