A meeting designed to bring clearance to the ugly fashion Sunday’s Division IV girls’ soccer championship between Tolman and Woonsocket ended is slated for today at Interscholastic League headquarters, located not too far from the Rhode Island College field where the incident broke out. While RIIL executive director Tom Mezzanotte says his office is in the process of gathering information, he does expect some kind of punishment to be meted out, most likely in the form of suspensions from athletic competition. “I have asked both schools to put together a report, identifying the students involved,” said Mezzanotte when reached Monday afternoon. “I have asked the officials to give me report. I’m also formulating a report and I also have a video [the footage shot by WPRI Channel 12]. “We’re not going to name names and it’s obvious we’re going to protect the students involved,” Mezzanotte continued. “There could be penalties issued.” According to league rules, fighting in soccer carries the punishment of a five-game suspension. With Sunday being the final game of the season, the suspension will automatically roll over to next year. If a senior is deemed at fault, she will sit out whatever sport she plays next. “The league has certain things it can do,” explained Mezzanotte. “Obviously the schools … the field is an extension of the classroom, and it’s up to them what type of action they want to initiate. What is the punishment? To change the behavior.” Mezzanotte, who yesterday touched base with both school’s principals – Tolman’s Fred Silva and Shea’s Dr. Lourenco Garcia – was positioned on the sidelines when a collision between two players heated up in a hurry. At the time four seconds remained in a contest already well-decided in the Villa Novans’ favor. “It was two girls going for the ball. They bumped and one of the girls was frustrated,” was Mezzanotte’s interpretation. “She pushed the other girl, then punches started flying [between Woonsocket’s Kristen Cahill and Tolman’s Maria Lopera].” Both benches spilled onto the field, the skirmish not even lasting 30 seconds. One piece of evidence Tolman athletic director John Scanlon hopes is strongly taken into account is the view of head coach Bel Pereira, who was positioned not too far from the bench. Asked if he felt the television depiction truly grasped what happened, Scanlon’s take was, “Yes and no. You can’t tell from a snap shot. The one thing it did portray is how long it lasted. It was over and done with, but as we said to the kids on the bus, it’s going to last the rest of their lives. It was a bad thing that happened and we’re trying to sort it out.” A second wave of taunts and punches ensued as the Tigers and Novans gathered at midfield for the trophy presentation – this one taking place in the stands as both sets of fans attempted to exit the grounds. Neither team was allowed to head for their respective buses until the parking lot was cleared. “We wanted to get [the fracas in the stands] subdued and make sure there weren’t any further incidents. We were concerned for the safety of the girls,” said Mezzanotte, mentioning there weren’t any additional troubles in the parking lot. “I felt both teams were calmed down and I asked them to go through the line [for the traditional postgame handshake] as a sign of good sportsmanship.” The seeds of Sunday’s unfortunate turn of events were perhaps planted far before Tolman and Woonsocket took the field with a title at stake. When the two teams met up at the McKinnon-Alves Complex last month, both fan bases engaged in hearty doses of trash-talking. When the dust had settled, Woonsocket, victorious by a 2-0 count, celebrated in such a fashion that is normally reserved for when a team wins a title. The Tigers and Novans vied for the championship for the second consecutive November after completing each regular season 1-2 in the IV-North standings. “I like to call it competitiveness. It’s like the Red Sox and the Yankees and we’ve been going head-to-head [with Woonsocket] the last few seasons,” said Scanlon. “There’s enough blame to go around; there aren’t any saints here.” Mezzanotte, Scanlon and Woonsocket athletic director George Nasuti, the principals and the coaches, Pereira and Woonsocket’s Kathleen Fagnant are all expected to sit in on today’s session. “As soon as this is sorted out a statement will be made,” said Mezzanotte. “It’s unfortunate.”
Woonsocket gridders will host Lincoln
on 11-09-2009 21:43
WOONSOCKET -- No. 1 seed Woonsocket will host No. 8 seed Lincoln at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Barry Field in the quarterfinal round of the Division II playoffs. The 6-1 Villa Novans ruled Division II-A while Lincoln grabbed the final playoff berth available with a 28-14 victory over Cumberland last Friday night. In other D-II matchups (all set for Friday night), Coventry will host Westerly; South Kingstown will entertain West Warwick; and Mount Hope will be home to Cranston East.
Mounties earn trip to volleyball finals
on 11-09-2009 21:42
By STEVE MAZZONE
Sports writer
KINGSTON - It wasn’t another shutout and for a couple of games they weren‘t at their best. But the Mounties are still going to the finals. Fueled by a strong, all-around game from senior Elizabeth Frigon, Mount St. Charles Academy defeated Scituate in four games in the Division II semifinals with a 25-16, 25-20, 19-25, 25-20 decision at the University of Rhode Island’s Keaney Gymnasium. The victory advances Mount to the championship tilt on Saturday afternoon at 3 where it will face Cranston West -- a 3-0 winner over Barrington in its semifinal match last night -- back at the URI venue. The Mounties will be looking to capture their first team title since winning it all in 1995. “It’s been a long time,” said MSC head coach Josh D’Abate, whose squad tied Cranston West for the II-North crown at 15-1. Scituate was third at 12-4. “The goal was to get here. The goal was to get to URI at the beginning of the season. We’re here, we’re in the finals like we wanted to get to. The next match we play is going to be our toughest match of the season.” Frigon was one of a multitude of returning players that was on last year’s team, which was eliminated by top-seed West Warwick in a grueling, five-game semifinal match. Last night she made sure that wouldn’t happen again with a monster game, recording 20 kills, five aces and 10 digs. The tall senior ignited the spark when her teammates needed her most. The Mounties coasted through the first two games, but the Spartans were able to get back into the match by taking the third one. And it looked like they were getting the added momentum to deadlock the game in the fourth. That’s when Frigon stepped it up. After the Spartans rattled off five straight points to take a 12-8 advantage, Frigon took it upon herself to charge up her teammates. She finished the fourth game with seven of her kills as well as a pair of blocks. Most of that damage was done shortly after Scituate took its four-point advantage as Mount scored 10 unanswered points to take a lead that proved too tough for their rival to overcome. “I know that my team is always there to back me up,” Frigon said. “Sometimes it’s better to take the risk and pump up the team so that everyone is back together.” “She had a great match. She had a great match tonight,” D’Abate said. “It was probably the best one I have seen her play. Hopefully she has one better than this left.” In typical fashion, Mount had solid games from a host of other players, too. Junior Tessa Jacobs was a factor up front and had 10 kills, 12 digs and four aces for the night. Junior Maria Saia (three kills, six digs, three blocks), senior Tayla Rescio (five kills, five blocks), sophomore Kelsey Lace (five kills, five assists) and senior setter Elizabeth Alexander (24 assists, five digs) also contributed greatly to the outcome. Prior to last night’s match, the Mounties had posted 13 shutouts - a dozen during the regular season along with their 3-0 blanking of Tolman in the quarterfinals last Friday. It looked like it was going to be more of the same after the first two games where the Mounties looked relaxed and confident en route to their 2-0 lead. “That was just a great start,” D’Abate said. “It took a lot of pressure off our girls early. It put a lot of pressure on them. We came out and did what we had to do early.” Instead of keeping their foot on the accelerator, though, the Mounties committed a fair share of mental mistakes and let a determined Scituate squad back into the game. The Mounties led just once in the third game at 1-0. Behind by a 15-5 deficit, Mount seemed like it might get back on track. Spurred by a great save from Lace in the backcourt on a long volley that resulted in a Rescio block, the Mounties managed to get within four (18-14) after a 9-3 run. But that would be the closest. Frigon’s heroics in the fourth game would thwart the comeback bid by the Spartans. “I feel like we got too comfortable and were thinking, ‘OK we can take it easy,’” Frigon said. “But that shouldn’t have been the case. You always have to keep pushing, keep trying.” “The first game we came out fired up with a lot of energy. Game 2 was similar,“ D’Abate added. “We were up 2-0 and said, ‘OK we can relax a little bit.’ But this is the semifinals. Every team here is a great team. We can’t afford to do that, period.” It’s now on to the finals where the Mounties will try and put an end to a 14-year drought when they return to the court this weekend to face the Falcons. The two squads split during the regular season for their only blemishes of the fall. “We are going to have to really work our butts off the next two days,” D’Abate said. “We have to come out with the right amount of attitude, the right amount of intensity on Saturday to get a win.”
Woonsocket girls repeat as state champs
on 11-08-2009 21:53
By ERIC BENEVIDES Sports writer PROVIDENCE --- The fans who flocked to Rhode Island College to watch Woonsocket High and Tolman High lock horns in a duel for the Division IV state title were expecting to see an exciting battle -- and for good reason. Three of their past four regular-season games ended in ties -- with the Villa Novans capturing the last meeting by a 2-1 score on Oct. 9 -- and both sides also faced each other in a competitive clash in last November’s finals. But while that game was competitive, Sunday night’s rematch was not. The Villa Novans dominated the game from start to finish, outshot the Tigers by a 17-4 margin, and received some strong play from their seniors. As a result, they repeated as state champions and inked the finishing touches on their second straight unbeaten season with a surprisingly-lopsided 5-0 victory. “I thought it was going to be a close game, but my team wanted this more,” noted Woonsocket coach Kathleen Fagnant, whose crew raised its record to 17-0-1 and its unbeaten streak to 36 games. “They worked hard for this win because they wanted it, and tonight, they got it. I’m very proud of them.” While Fagnant and her players were happy with the win, Tolman coach Bel Pereira was very disappointed with the one-sided setback, which dropped his team’s record to 14-2-2 and denied the Tigers the chance to win their fourth Division IV title of the decade. “We just came out flat,” said Pereira. “We didn’t play our real game. I really don’t know what happened. I thought we were prepared and ready to go, but Woonsocket was the better team today. They beat us fair and square, there’s no doubts about that. They really took it to us.” Senior forward Kristen Cahill, the Novans’ all-time leading scorer, netted a pair of second-half goals, her 24th and 25th of the season, to lead the Novans’ assault. Her first goal, and an unassisted score from senior defender Nicole Boucher, came within 21 seconds of each other midway through the second half and turned this game into a runaway. Senior center midfielder Brooke Coderre, who was one of the Novans’ top scorers this season, didn’t figure in any of the goals, but was still named the MVP of the game for her excellent all-around play. Coderre was also named the game’s top player in the Division II girls’ basketball championship game last March when the Novans defeated Barrington High. Unfortunately for Coderre and her teammates, they weren’t able to receive their championship plaque and medals and Coderre’s MVP trophy in front of their fans in the post-game ceremony. It was called off by RIIL executive director Thomas Mezzanotte after a brawl broke out at the bottom of the bleachers among fans from both teams. But that was the night’s second fight. The first was a bench-clearing melee between both teams less than a minute after Cahill scored the Novans’ final goal with 2:07 to play in the game. With time winding down, two players from each team collided in pursuit of the ball near Woonsocket’s bench, and once they exchanged punches, both benches spilled onto the field. Once order was restored and both teams were sent back to their benches, the referees stopped the game, and along with RIIL officials, closely monitored the post-game handshake line to make sure no more incidents broke out. Both teams then went to the other end of the field to participate in the post-game ceremony, but before public address announcer Tim Geary could get a full sentence into the ceremony and Tolman could receive its runner-up plaque, the incident in the bleachers broke out. "Frustrations are frustrations," said Fagnant. "Down 5-0, we're both physical teams, you can only take so much, and at a certain point, someone snapped. I really don't know (who), I wasn't on the field, and I don't know how the banter went. Things got out of control." As for the game, sophomore defender Allyson Cartier and freshman forward Krislyn Godin scored first-half goals for the Novans and the defense took care of the rest, limiting the Tigers to just one bonafide scoring opportunity en route to their 13th shutout of the season. That scoring opportunity took place in the game’s first minute on a partial breakaway from sophomore striker (and 32-goal scorer) Valeria Zapata, but senior goalie Kayla Cullerton came out of the net to make a stellar save. Five minutes later, Woonsocket got on the board on a direct kick by Cartier that zipped through a wall of Tolman players and squeezed into the back of the net between Tolman goalie Jennifer Boisclair and the right post. The Novans doubled their lead at 19:34 on Godin’s 13th goal of the season that was set up nicely by senior Sam Landry. Godin was wide open in front of the net for her goal, because when Landry slipped her a cross pass from the side of the net, Landry drew Boisclair away from the net to contest her. The score remained a two-goal affair until the 58th minute of the game and Cahill and Boucher struck for their goals. At 58:27, Cahill scored on a pass from Beth Majewski, and while the Novans and their fans were celebrating that goal, Boucher zoomed in for her goal. “I was a little surprised,” Coderre said when asked about the final score. “I think that once we got ahead, they kind of let down a little, and that’s when we really broke the game open.” Coderre was one of six Novans seniors who concluded their soccer careers in style with a repeat championship, but began their careers on an 0-16 team that was wallowing in the Division III ranks before dropping down a league the following season. “The group of seniors that I have boosted this team up since their freshman year and changed the dynamic of the team,” said Fagnant. “They’re a great group of girls. They work hard in practice and the camaraderie among them is what got us here and got us this win and I‘m proud of them.” “Our team is really like a family,” added Coderre. “It’s pretty crazy to have two undefeated seasons, but if there was a group to do it, it was this group.” *** Tolman 0 - 0 -- 0 Woonsocket 2 - 3 -- 5 First half: W -- Allyson Cartier (unassisted), 5:41; W -- Krislyn Godin (Sam Landry), 19:34. Second half: W -- Kristin Cahill (Beth Majewski), 18:27, W -- Nicole Boucher (unassisted), 18:48; W -- Kristin Cahill (unassisted), 37:53. Shots on goal: Tolman 4, Woonsocket 17. Goalie saves: T -- Jen Boisclair (12 saves); W -- Kayla Cullerton (4 saves).
Last Updated ( Monday, 09 November 2009 )
Burrillville drops D-III title verdict
on 11-08-2009 21:04
By ERIC BENEVIDES
Sports writer
PROVIDENCE --- Burrillville High’s biggest game of the season resulted in its most lopsided defeat. Tiverton High ended years of frustration in the Division III finals by tallying three goals in the first 15 minutes of play and never looked back in securing a 5-2 triumph over the Broncos on Sunday at Rhode Island College. The Tigers, who were 0-for-7 in the finals in the last 20 years and losers of three of the last four title games, erased the sting from their title drought and lone defeat of the year -- a 4-2 loss in Burrillville on Oct. 2 -- by controlling play for most of the game and outshooting the Broncos by an 18-9 count. It was a disappointing loss for the Broncos, who played some superb soccer in the past month and seized 10 of their last 11 games, including impressive wins over St. Raphael Academy in the quarterfinals and Narragansett High in the semis. “I really don’t know what to say,” admitted Burrillville coach Amy Cardone. “It was a tough loss. We didn‘t play our game and (Tiverton) came out ready to play and wanted it more.” Senior striker Lauren Benevides scored a pair of second-half goals to guide the Tigers, but it was her classmate and fellow forward, Tori Pierce, that was named the game’s MVP, as she set up two of Tiverton’s goals with long flip throw-ins that sailed to the mouth of the Broncos’ net. Senior midfielder Kasey Hereth netted a pair of unassisted goals to lead the Broncos, but her second goal came with two seconds to go in the game and the Tigers ready to storm the field and celebrate their championship. Mariah Gonzalez, the Broncos’ talented senior striker who led the division with 39 goals and scored three times in the Broncos’ regular-season victory over Tiverton, was a marked player throughout the game and only managed to get two harmless shots on net. “(Tiverton) shut Mariah down,” said Cardone, “We had many opportunities, but we just couldn’t find the back of the net.” Tiverton had no problems finding the back of the net in the early going and did so on three of their first five shots of the contest. Rachel Lynch got the Tigers on the board 9:18 into the game by corralling a flip throw from Pierce and one-timing a shot into the twines that goalkeeper Taylor Maurath had no chance at stopping. And things soon went from bad to worse for the Broncos. At 12:34, Victoria Fryzel slipped past a defender near the side of the net and ripped a shot past Maurath, and at 14:42, Megan Raposa unloaded a shot from just outside the penalty area that zipped into the right top corner of the net. Down, but not out, the Broncos did their best to get back in the contest, and with 9:03 to play before the break, Hereth got the Broncos on the board with a blistering 25-yard shot that somehow slipped through the hands of keeper Erin Goulart and into the bottom left corner of the goal. They also cut their deficit to one three minutes later on a 20-yard direct kick by Karissa Prete, but her shot barely made its way over the crossbar. The Tigers then made it a three-goal contest 4:47 into the second half when Benevides slammed in the rebound of a shot by Lynch that Maurath batted away, but right at Benevides near the right post, and Benevides struck again at 22:17 when she fired home another strong throw-in by Pierce. The Tigers, who also won the Division III-South championship, finish the season with an 18-1 record that saw them outscore their opponents by a 15-2 count in the playoffs and allow just 14 goals all season long. The Broncos, meanwhile, wrap up a strong season with a 14-4-1 record that saw them claim the Division III-North title. It was their first time in the title game since losing the Division II finals in ’96 and ’97, and they were eyeing their first state title since winning the Division III crown in 1993. “I can’t be too disappointed,” offered Cardone. “We had a great season. We had a great team and 10 seniors that are just wonderful, and it’s going to be tough losing them.” *** Burrillville 1 - 1 -- 2 Tiverton 3 - 2 -- 5 First half: T -- Rachel Lynch (Tori Pierce), 9:18; T -- Victoria Fryzel (unassisted), 12:34; T -- Megan Raposa (unassisted), 14:42; B -- Kasey Hereth (unassisted), 30:57. Second half: T -- Lauren Benevides (unassisted), 4:47; T -- Lauren Benevides (Tori Pierce), 22:17; B -- Kasey Hereth (unassisted), 39:59. Shots on goal: Burrillville 9, Tiverton 18. Goalie saves: B -- Taylor Maurath (13 saves); T -- Erin Goulart (2 saves), Ashlyn Cleary (5 saves).
Good Luck MSC Girls Tennis! Looking forward to a great 2009 season!! - The Lydon Family
Congratulations to the Redskins Jr. C Team...on winning their Season Opener yesterday against the Saints!! I'm so proud of you Isaiah!! Good luck to all the Redskins Football Teams this 2009 Season!! - Kimberly Mitchell
Congratulations WHS Football team on your win Sunday, October 2 against Tolman High School that's the way to do it boys! Good Luck on Friday against MT. Hope, please know your shining angel is looking down on you all!!! Bblessed;) - Lora Ceesay
Best of luck to the Burrillville High School girls soccerteam as they play Tiverton in the D III championship at RIC on 11/8/09. Go get 'em girls bring the State title home to Burrillville!!! GoodLuck!! - John Abbate
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