on 08-30-2010 22:17

By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

 CUMBERLAND – With the overall competitiveness of Division I soccer in the state, Cumberland High coach John Lopes is a realist when it comes to predicting how his team will fare for the upcoming season.
“In Division I, we are good and we have all good players,” he said. “But you have La Salle, they are always strong and have players from all over the state, and then there’s Barrington and North Kingstown that have been powerhouses year after year. Cumberland has a great program, but so does everybody else. The goal is we want to make the playoffs and then see what happens.”
For this year’s Clipper team, Lopes figures his latest batch of players could rack up anywhere from seven to 10 wins in Division I-North. During its 2009 campaign, Cumberland finished second in the league (behind Central Falls) with an 8-9-1 mark and was knocked out of the quarterfinals.
Due to graduation, the Clippers will be minus five key players from last year. But they return a veteran team that includes five seniors and three junior starters.
“We are basically a junior-senior led team,” Lopes said. “We have some pretty good players coming back.”
Among those players are senior defender Tyler Philbin, senior midfielder Jack Andrade, senior forward Kevin Seixas and senior goalies Chris Duarte and Jarrod Nunes. Duarte, who showed plenty of promise as a tenth-grader, comes back to the team after missing nearly every game last year due to a pair of injuries.
“He had two major injuries,” Lopes said. “At one of the practices, I think it was before the first game of the season, he tore some kind of cartilage or ligaments in his thumb area and had to have surgery. He missed the majority of the season and came back with four games left, which was a pleasant surprise. We tried to get him back and then he went to kick a ball (at a game) and suffered some kind of hip injury. The kid was cursed last year and couldn’t do anything.”
With the injuries behind him, Lopes is looking forward to having Duarte between the posts again, but he also has confidence in Nunes, who filled in nicely as his replacement in 2009.
“Chris is a kid that has been playing for a couple of years and was really good as a sophomore,” said the CHS coach.  “I am looking forward to having him back this year. But as Jarrod proved, he is somebody that could jump in if we need him to.”
A trio of talented juniors will also be back on the pitch this fall, including midfielder Danny Loureiro, midfielder Derek Dalton and forward Ryan Rei. Rei was the third-leading goal-scorer for the Clippers last year behind graduating seniors Jason Loureiro and Sean Buxton.
Rei had five goals in the heavily-contested league last season.
“I am counting on him to be my leading scorer this year,” Lopes said.
Cumberland captured the junior varsity state title last year, defeating  La Salle in the championship game. Junior defender Alden Hawkins, junior defender Tom LaCroix and sophomore forward Brian Figueroa are a few players from that squad that Lopes expects to make some sort of impact.
But in order to be successful this year, the Cumberland coach is hoping that everyone wearing the blue and white uniform contributes in some way.
“We don’t have a go-to guy. It’s going to have to be a team effort,” he said. “I am hoping that everybody contributes every game. It’s going to be a team effort.”
Likes it’s done every year since 2006, Cumberland will compete in Div. I-North.  Gone from the division with the recent realignment are Mount St. Charles Academy and Woonsocket, who are now competing in Div. II. Central and Hope took over those slots and Lincoln and last year’s league titlist Central Falls are also back in I-North.
“Overall, I don’t know if Central Falls is the team to beat. I assume they are from what they did last year,” Lopes said. “I think we are in the hunt to win Division I-North. It will be competitive. There are no easy games in our division.”
Cumberland begins it season on Tuesday (5:50 p.m.) when it travels to Div. III squad North Smithfield for a non-leaguer at the Northmen’s field. The Clippers will start their league slate on Thursday (4 p.m.) with an away contest at Hope.
“Ten wins in our division would be a success,” Lopes said. “I am counting on somewhere between seven and 10, right around there. It’s not going to be easy.”

on 08-29-2010 19:59

By ERIC BENEVIDES

Sports writer

BURRILLVILLE -- With its entire offense and eight defensive starters back for another season, Burrillville High would have been one of the favorites to make a run for a Division II regular-season title and grab a postseason berth this year.
But when the RIIL realigned its four football divisions during the offseason, it dropped the Broncos into Division III because of the team’s losing record over the past four seasons (10-18 against its Division II opponents) and the school’s small enrollment.
“It was the right move,” noted Burrillville second-year head coach Gennaro Ferraro. “I think it places us in the correct competitive league, where week-to-week, we’re able to compete.”
The last time the Broncos were in Division III, they did more than compete. From 2000-05, they dominated the league, capturing 48 of their 56 regular-season games and winning three of their four Super Bowl meetings.
Now that the Broncos are back in the division with the veteran-laden squad they have, will they be able to resume their glorious run from a half decade ago? First things first, according to Ferraro.
“This year looks good,” Ferraro offered. “We want to get a run in and make the playoffs and then anything can happen from there. We’ve had the best offseason here in a long time, so these kids obviously want to do more than just make the playoffs, but we just want to make it first.”
Burrillville will pursue a playoff berth behind a potent offense that features a returning 1,800-yard passer (senior Roger Blanchard), an 800-yard rusher (senior Brendan Darigan), and two 35-catch, 600-yard receivers (seniors Ed Maione and Dylan Armstrong).
Blanchard, who was a First Team Division II-A pick, tossed 15 touchdowns, most of them to Armstrong (seven) and Maione (five), and Darigan teamed up nicely with junior fullback Kevin Deschamps to give Burrillville a strong backfield.
Junior Dan Mattera, a Second Team division selection, is an excellent two-way player at tight end and linebacker, and the Broncos’ line is rock solid with senior center Scott Hingley, senior guards Carmine Phillips and John Pacheco, senior tackle Eric Lizotte, and junior tackle Kyle Lasardo.
Because of the Broncos’ low numbers in camp (40 players), almost all of the starters will also be featured on defense. 
“Our depth isn’t as good as the bigger enrollment teams,” said Ferraro. “If one kid goes down, it’s not if the second kid is good, it’s probably because he’s just a sophomore who hasn’t really played much varsity at this point and hasn’t been developed.”
If the Broncos, who were 3-4 in the division (4-6 overall) last season, stay healthy and continue their solid play from a year ago, they should be well in the running for a playoff berth. But Ferraro believes the road to the playoffs won’t be an easy one, especially with the opponents awaiting his team.  
“We’re in a very competitive league and there’s a lot of great coaches in it,” he added. “Rogers was in Division I -- they dropped to III. Tiverton, Moses Brown, and Narragansett are tough, and Lincoln came down and they were a playoff team in Division II last year. There’s a lot of competition.”
Before the Broncos tangle with their new division foes, they will open their season on Friday, Sept. 10 with a non-league game against neighboring foe North Smithfield High at the Northmen’s field.
The two teams will compete for the Hauser/Lovett Trophy, which had been awarded to the winner of their annual meeting before their series took a 10-year hiatus.   

on 08-28-2010 20:34

By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

CUMBERLAND - During the initial downhill portion of the “Yo” Raymond Memorial 5K on Saturday morning, Luke Peterson was perfectly content with staying conservative among a group of five runners.
Once the course opened up to the beautiful surroundings of the Pawtucket Reservoir, that’s when the California native took charge.
Making just one decisive surge after the mile mark, Peterson broke away from the pack on Reservoir Road and held on to capture the fourth annual event at Camp Ker Anna with a winning time of 17 minutes, 27 seconds. Running on his milestone 30th birthday, Peterson beat a pair of younger folks and ex-high school standouts to earn his crown.
Recent Woonsocket High graduate, Cameron Richer, was second with a time of 17:32. David Holgate, a 2004 alumni of Cumberland High, placed third at 17:43.
The women’s title belonged to 37-year-old Brenda Burns of Cumberland, who covered the five-kilometer distance in 23:18, good for 31st overall. She finished about 150 yards ahead of runner-up Nicole Assis, also of Cumberland. Assis, a 2009 CHS grad, placed 32nd among the 127 finishers with a time of 23:39.
Peterson, who resides in Oakland, works for the Coast Guard. He’s currently in Newport for a two-month training session and was looking for a way to celebrate the big 3-0 while he’s stationed in R.I.
“Considering it was my 30th birthday,” he said, “I figured I would get out and have some fun.”
The scenic, out-and-back course of the “Yo” Raymond race features a demanding 600-yard incline at the finish. But that same stretch also provides a quick downhill to begin the 5K. Peterson hung low for that part of the race and didn’t forge to the front until it began to level off. He went through the mile just under 5:20.
“That first mile is all down hill,” he said. “I was just trying not to go too hard down the hill. I let (the top pack) get away a little bit and we all calmed down after a mile. I am training for a marathon in the fall so I don’t really have the speed to pull away in the end. It seemed to work out.”
During the first mile, Peterson ran with a group of runners that included Richer, Holgate, Lincoln’s Ray Sikorowicz and Providence’s Paul Prewitt-Freili. He made his move just before the turnaround point with only Richer and Holgate staying within striking distance.
“I wanted to try and keep the distance the same (after he made his move) and maybe towards the end I could give a little spurt,” Richer said. “He just had too much strength.”
Peterson, who will be competing in the Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene, N.H. at the end of September, felt relaxed for much of the race. The only part he experienced a little discomfort was the final incline.
“Nobody feels good coming up that hill at the end,” he said. “But by then there was only about two minutes to go so I just had to hold on.”
The 43-year-old Sikorowicz claimed the masters’ title by placing fourth at 17:50. Prewitt-Freili took fifth in 18:07. Glenn Miller, 48, of Uxbridge was sixth with a time of 18:23. Not too far behind was Cumberland High senior Matt Spavold in seventh at 18:27.
The 18-year-old Richer, who starred in the middle distance events at Woonsocket, was running his final race of the summer. Less than three hours after he finished the 5K, he was moving into his dormitory room at Rhode Island College, where he’s majoring in Math and will also compete on the cross-country and track teams.
“I just wanted to finish up my summer training and end it with a race,” he said. “I had seen the results from previous years and figured it would be a way to get a good tempo run and start the season nicely.”
An all-state cross-country runner for Cumberland during the fall of his season year, Holgate was satisfied with his finish. Now age 24, he’s making a comeback to competitive running after taking a three-year break after his junior outdoor track season at the University of Rhode Island where he got his degree in Accounting. He’s currently a member of the Providence Cobras Running Club.
He began his comeback at the CVS Caremark Downtown 5K last September.
“I felt tired and wasn’t into it anymore so I just stopped,” said Holgate, referring to his brief hiatus from running. “It was tough starting up again. People used to ask me, ‘How do you run?’ I said it’s easy to run. The last three years I gained 30 pounds and I was like, ‘Oh, God. It’s a lot harder.’”
Last summer, Holgate knew the time was right to get back on the roads.
“I just needed to do something,” he said. “I was working as an accountant and basically I was sitting around all day, eight hours of not doing anything (physical). I just needed to get my legs moving.”
Holgate was competing in his third Cumberland race in the past two months. He was 14th overall at the Arnold Mills Road Race on July 5 where he ran 23:34 for the four-mile distance. A few weeks ago, he was ninth with a 17:19 clocking at the Cumberlandfest 5K, a race he won in 2004.
Holgate owns a best of 16:25 for 5K. That’s a time he wouldn’t mind coming close to again.
“That’s what I’m pushing for,” he said.
Finishing behind Burns and Assis for third in the women’s race was 52-year-old Martha Huston of North Scituate, who copped the senior title with a time of 24:30. She placed 36th overall. Tracy Magill, 47, of Attleboro was the recipient of the masters’ crown, placing fourth among her peers and 38th overall at 24:51.
***
“Yo” Raymond Memorial 5K
At Camp Ker-Anna, Cumberland
Top male finishers
1. Luke Peterson, 30, Oakland, Calif.        17:27
2. Cameron Richer, 18, Woonsocket        17:32
3. David Holgate, 24, North Providence        17:43
4. Ray Sikorowicz, 43, Lincoln            17:50
5. Paul Prewitt-Freill, 29, Providence        18:07
6. Glenn Miller, 48, Uxbridge            18:23
7. Matt Spavold, 17, Cumberland        18:27
8. Patrick Foster, 39, Wrentham            19:04
9. Bruce Stachura, 48, Attleboro            19:24
10. Chris Hoard, 36, Woonsocket        19:34
Other notables
11. Paul Richer, 45, Woonsocket        19:56
15. Kyle Bradley, 17, Cumberland        20:17
22. Kevin Payette, 27, Woonsocket        21:59
26. Eddie Fromm, 72, Uxbridge            22:39

Top 10 female finishers
31. Brenda Burns, 37, Cumberland        23:18
32. Nicole Assiss, 18, Cumberland        23:39
36. Martha Huston, 52, North Scituate        24:30
38. Tracey Magill, 47, Attleboro            24:51
42. Christina Dacey, 39, Cranston         25:24
44. Adrienne Shanley, 37, East Greenwich    25:29
45. Jackie Hooper, 40, Cumberland        25:31
47. Emily Mello, 22, Smithfield            25:41
48. Elizabeth Cecere, 32, North Attleboro    25:45
53. Evlalia Vieiera, 36, East Providence        26:16