We’ll go Off the Post once again and begin by congratulating locals Ethan Farrah (Grafton High), Nick Ostrowski (Shepherd Hill Regional), Sebastian Royo (Algonquin Regional), Mandy St. Germain (Nipmuc Regional) and Isabelle Sillo (Wachusett Regional), who were five of the 79 WPI fall student-athletes on their respective NEWMAC Academic All-Conference teams. Honorees must have met the following criteria: earned a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5/4.0 scale or 4.35/5.0 scale after the 2019 spring semester, achieved second year academic status at his/her institution, and been a member of the varsity team for the entire season. Congratulations to them.
It was a thin week for collegiate sports with the Thanksgiving holiday last week, but there was still plenty to look back on, starting Monday, Nov. 25, as the Becker College men’s basketball team lost, 73-67, at Fitchburg State University. Hawks junior forward Mateus Ribeiro led Becker with a career-high 20 point night on 9-of-17 shooting. The junior also tallied nine rebounds, three assists and a steal. Sophomore guard Mekhi Chester finished with 14 points, shooting four-of-7 from behind the arc, and dishing out four assists. Guney Kilitcioglu scored 12 points on five-of-8 shooting, and Jamir Carr added six points, six rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block. Collectively, Becker shot 40 percent from behind the arc.
On Tuesday, Nov. 26t in men’s basketball, Anna Maria snagged their first win of the young 2019-2020 season against Clark University. Bobby Perette continues to deliver for the Amcats this season with another 20-point game. Perette had a team-high 22 points, two rebounds and an assist. Mike Rapoza (Shepherd Hill) finished with another double-double, with 16 points and 21 rebounds. He also added three assists and two steals. Ralph Grasso (Assabet Valley Regional) also contributed 16 points, five assists and four rebounds for Anna Maria. For Clark, junior Tyler Davern (Bartlett High) logged his fourth double-double of the season with a game-high 27 points to go with 12 rebounds. Junior Biko Gayman chipped in with 18 points on four-of-seven from 3-point range while handing out a season-high eight assists.
Assumption College was edged by the Franklin Pierce University Ravens on the road. After the Hounds led by as many as 12 points in the first half, Franklin Pierce fought back to trail by just two at halftime. The Ravens went on the lead by as many as 11 in the second half before capturing the final, 86-78, victory. Malik Brown finished the night with a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Matthew Kelly led the Hounds in scoring with 18 points to go along with six boards. Cal Connelly put up 13 points and Jordan White finished with 12 points for Assumption.
Garrett Stephenson posted his second double-double of the season and was joined in double figures in scoring by Reid Walker and Colin McNamara as nationally-ranked WPI went on the road and defeated Worcester State, 68-47. The Engineers, ranked 25th in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25, improve to 6-1 on the season, while the Lancers drop to 2-5 overall. Stephenson’s 18 points was enough to lead all scorers, while his 11 boards gave him his fifth career double-double. The visitors also received 15 points from Walker and a dozen from McNamara. Jake Wisniewski (West Brookfield) aided a strong WPI effort on the glass with 10 rebounds, and Kahleb Downing joined McNamara with a team-high high three assists. Chris Cardoso, Cal Howes and senior Erik Bjorn (Wachusett Regional) all scored 11 points to lead the Lancers
In women’s basketball, sophomores Ginny Benbow and Hallie Johnson (Wachusett Regional) each posted career-highs with 24 and 18 points, respectively, to lead Clark University to a 71-64 non-conference victory against Anna Maria. Clark junior Hannah Favaloro (Douglas High) picked up her fifth game this season with 10 or more rebounds, as her game-high 17 boards helped the Cougars to a 50-42 advantage on the glass. The forward also contributed 11 points on the offensive end to register her fourth double-double on the year. Amber Wilson led the Amcats in scoring with 18 points. Sienna Johnson and Franchesca Hammond (Doherty High) were the other double-digit Amcats scorers with 16 points each. It was a career high for Hammond. Hailey Moore (Wachusett Regional) added a career high 11 rebounds.
Victoria Mirecki erupted for a career-high 17 points and the WPI defense limited host Nichols to 18.1 percent shooting from the floor as the Engineers bested the Bison, 63-36. With the win, WPI ups its record to 5-2 overall, while the Bison slip to 1-5 on the season. Maddie Blake brought down a game-high eight rebounds, while piling on four assists and five points. Bailey Savage (Shepherd Hill Regional) was second on the team dropping in nine points for the Engineers while Spencer Vinson finished with eight points and seven boards. Nichols was led by junior Isabella Nerney, she poured in a team-high eight points and brought down four rebounds in the contest. Freshman Gina Parmenter (Oxford High) put up six points while Erin Cann scored her first collegiate points in 11 minutes of action.
Brianna Capacchione led Assumption to their second conference win over Franklin Pierce outscoring the Ravens, 24-17, in the fourth quarter for the victory. Capacchione led the Greyhounds with 20 points, six rebounds, two assists and one steal while Ja’Lyn Armstrong contributed 14 points and two rebounds. Anna Shaughnessy added 14 points, three rebounds, one steal and one block off the bench while Temi Falayi led Assumption with 11 rebounds.
In men’s ice hockey, three second period goals and a 42-save performance by David Altman got the Assumption Greyhounds a 3-2 win over the Fitchburg State Falcons. Robert Holyoke, John Pigott and Sean O’Connell were the goal scorers for Assumption, while Dean Zerby and Hunter Fortin scored for Fitchburg State. Christopher Mattone stopped 31 shots for the Falcons.
Anna Maria downed Worcester State at the Worcester Ice Center, 6-2. The Amcats first three goals came in succession to open the first period from Sam Cyr-Ledoux, Nick Kukuris, and Jack Sitzman. Nick Pennucci (Worcester, Mass.) grabbed one for the Lancers at 19:59 of the frame. Anna Maria tacked on two more in the second to go up, 5-1, with the first goal going for Kukuris’ second of the contest on a power play. The second came off the stick of Gavin Proeh just over seven minutes into the period. Worcester State scored their second goal with just one second remaining in the period, that goal was credited to Brendan Ronan. The Amcats put in last puck in the net in the third to get the final of 6-2 when Michael Padgeon scored on a power play.
In post-Thanksgiving action in women’s ice hockey on Friday, Nov. 29, three different Amcats scored on the night, but it was not enough as the Chatham University Cougars defeated Anna Maria College, 4-3. The Amcats continued their goal-scoring ways from last week when Sophia Zimmerman tallied her second goal of the year at 7:27. Chatham turned the puck over in their face-off zone and Zimmerman out-skated the Cougars defender and put her shot past Katy Reed’s right side for the quick, 1-0, advantage. Chatham answered back nine minutes later at 16:06, but McKenna Naumchik gave Anna Maria the lead back five minutes into the period after she collected a pass from Abigail Vigliotte for the 2-1 lead. The Cougars answered back quickly just over a minute later, then Grace Dodge gave the Amcats their final lead of the game after she put home a pass from Naumchik and Annabelle Austin for the 3-2 lead to end the period. Dodge’s goal was the first of her collegiate career. Chatham then scored two in the third for the 4-3 victory. Julia Smith earned the start between the pipes and collected 34 saves on 38 shots.
On Saturday, junior forward Reid Walker nearly notched his first career triple-double on Saturday afternoon at Harrington Auditorium, amassing 21 points, tying a career-high with 12 rebounds and setting a new personal best with eight assists in WPI’s men’s basketball 89-74 victory over Fitchburg State. Big man Garrett Stephenson shot 8-for-11 from the field en route to 17 points and seven rebounds, while Jake Wisniewski (West Brookfield, MA) came up just shy of a double-double with eight points and a team-high 12 boards. Jordan Jones (Doherty High) led the Falcons with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
In women’s ice hockey Anna Maria scored the final two goals in their rematch with the Chatham University Cougars, but still ended up on the wrong end of a 4-2 final. Down 4-0, the AMCATS knocked the lead down to three after Jacqueline Howlett found the back of the net at 9:02 in the third. Chatham had tried to clear the puck out of their zone, but Howlett intercepted the puck and sent her shot past Devon Strachan stick side for the squad’s first goal. Howlett’s goal was the first of her collegiate career. Down 4-1 with 10:35 left, Abigail Vigliotte cut the deficit in half after she received a great pass by Meghan Sonia and put her shot past Strachan to make it the eventual 4-2 final.
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