Thanksgiving ‘Thanks for the Memories’ column: 20 fall sports season unforgettable highlights
November 26, 2024 at 11:52 p.m.
The upcoming shortest day and longest night of the year take place in the same 24-hour span of the winter solstice, the first official day of winter, the day that ushers in the colder weather and holiday season. That day will occur on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 4:21 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
But the Lady Trojans volleyball team rolled all those days into one in what can be called the fall scholastic sports season solstice—the coolest, chillest game ever played by any Blind Brook team, a game that seemed to last forever and then end in a flash with the Blind Brook High School girls’ volleyball team winning their first state championship in school history as well as Blind Brook's first ever state championship.
The Section 1 Lady Trojans beat Section 3 Westhill 3-1 for the state Class B title at Cool Insuring Arena in upstate Glen Falls last Sunday (11/24) by scores of 19-25, 25-19, 26-24 and 25-23.
And how cool was that. Especially since the Lady Trojans had just lost two out of three sets to the Westies in pool play the day before (11/23) and dropped the first in Sunday's match before rallying back to win three straight sets. They refused to fold even after the Westies came almost all the way back from a 24-20 deficit in the pivotal last set.
Junior Abigail Weintraub was instrumental in the Blind Brook girls’ tennis team’s undefeated 10-0 fall season which won them the title of league champions.By Joseph DeCarlo
To get to the finals the Lady Trojans had to win their second sectional championship in three years (beating Valhalla, the only team they lost to in regular season play), their first ever regional championship (beating Ichabod Crane) and survive a day of pool play where they beat Section 8's Oyster Bay and Section 4's Windsor but lost to Section 3's Westhill 2-1 (by scores of 25-22, 17-25, 15-17). Blind Brook finished second in pool play at 2-1 to the Westies who went 3-0. That set up the title match in a game so close it should be frozen in time and will be because there is only one first school state championship ever, unforgettable in every way.
That is why the B.B. vballers’ perfect fall season ending is the beginning of this traditional Thanks for the Memories annual Thanksgiving column, 20 final thoughts on a very special local high school fall sports season.
1. THE KILLER B.B. VBs: Before the season ever started, Blind Brook head volleyball coach Gina Carlone said she thought her team had a chance to do something special—and did they ever. The Vballers killed it with a season for the ages with a team led by assist leader Fernanda Julian and the high scoring Rosenfeld twins (Ella and Oriah) along with at least four other key players—Tanisha Venkatapur, Maddie Hirsch, Maria Gracia Leyva and Georgianna Haas with Carlone a likely candidate for a Coach of the Year award.
2. HIP, HIP, HOORAY: Port Chester's ever-improving cheerleading team closed out the fall season by winning three divisional championships on a recent Saturday and Sunday (11/16/17) in the Universal Cheerleading Association (UCA) Regional Qualifiers in Johnstown, Pa., thus winning a chance to compete in the UCA Nationals in February at Disney World for the third consecutive year. They will be competing for more titles in the UCA Empire Regional Championships for NY teams Dec. 15 at Iona College in New Rochelle with a team revolving around Gabriel Ponce, Kelly Pascale, Madison Mollica, Amy Navas, Charlotte Burke, Yvonne Santiago, Melina Morban, Mia and Madison Pagnotta, Josse Carrillo, Jadalyn Moscoso Gonzalez, Myisha Cruz, Kate Richardson, Natalie Ceruzzi, Fiona Lovallo, Manuel Barcenas and Elizabeth Magana.
Senior captain Dylan McRedmond played an important role on the Blind Brook boys’ soccer team that finished the fall season 10-1-5 and made it to the semi-finals of the Section 1 championships where they lost to Rye Neck 1-0.By Joseph DeCarlo
3. GETTING THEIR KICKS: The first merged Blind Brook/Edgemont football team went 1-8 but won their final fall season game 32-8 over Croton with Trojan seniors Carmine Casino and Charlie Hammer scoring touchdowns, Chris Persaud catching a two-point conversion and Daniel Glantz cashing in on a receiving TD. But more important than the win was the fact that Blind Brook was playing football at all after the school dropped the sport because not enough players came out for the team last year. So, congratulations to Blind Brook Athletic Director Kimberly Saxton for making the merger happen by cutting through all kinds of bureaucratic red tape and head coach Darren Perillo for leading the Trojans through their inaugural merged season.
4. TOP RAM GRID GAME: Port Chester's fullback John Pauletti, the Rams’ Mr. Touchdown, best Rams two-way star and next level football player, had the Rams’ best performance of the year—the long and short of it being that he ran for 249 yards on 21 carries and three TDs (including a 60-yard ramble up the middle) in a 27-14 win over Albertus Magnus.
5. PENALTY KICK LOSS: The Lady Trojans soccer team had one of the fall season's toughest losses—losing 1-0 on penalty kicks to Briarcliff in the Section 1 Class B semifinals. But that couldn't take away the overall excellent play by head coach Brian Sullivan's 12-5-1 team led by tri-captains Makayla Dunn, Natalie Carey and Kayleigh Curran and powered by a senior-filled lineup that included Alexandra Maniscalco, Alexandra Rubin, Sofia Padilla and Anna Vnenchak. Sophomore Lola Gonzalez was their leading scorer and Gabby Cavallo and Ashley Brookman were the most promising freshmen.
6. THE COMEBACK KIDS; Lady Rams soccer head coach Danny Alvarado's team was 3-12 last year but rebounded to go 8-8 this year and make the playoffs with senior co-captains Gioiella Pastena and Kimberly Morocho anchoring the offense and defense respectively with solid play coming from sophomores Gianna Rende and Kelly Mendoza and seniors Alison Lopez, goalie Tamara Correia and striker Saidy Hernandez.
Sophomore Gianna Rende was an integral part of the Port Chester High School girls’ soccer team that improved their record from 3-12 last year to 8-8 this year.By Joseph DeCarlo
7. HARD LUCK TROJANS: Blind Brook's Trojans soccer team finished the fall season 10-1-5, their only regular season loss coming in the last game to Pleasantville, and then they lost to Rye Neck 1-0 in the semi-finals of the Section 1 championships. That's the same Rye Neck team Blind Brook tied against twice during the regular season playing them to a draw in 0-0 and 1-1 games with Rye Neck going on to lose close in the state semi-finals. But those close losses didn't detract from a great season that saw the Trojans’ superb play recognized in the fact that high scoring Nico Palacios, goalie Luka Cuk and the speedy So Achiwa were ranked with the best in Section 1 while studs like Dylan McRedmond, Cooper Schloss and Quique Almeida were right up there with the league's best with Tyler and Zach Taerstein, Jack Shaw and Noah Brookman right on their heels in a what could have been a fall season with a break here and there.
8. LUCK OF THE DRAW: Rams head soccer coach John Cafaldo's team beat Ramapo 2-1 in the opening round of the playoffs after trailing most of the way until Bertrand Moreau tied the game with a goal with about four minutes to go and then junior varsity call up Ivan Garcia scored the winning overtime goal about one minute into the first extra time period. But the Rams ran into Scarsdale, one of the best teams in the state, in the quarterfinals and lost. Scarsdale won the sectionals and lost in the state semifinals. But the Rams still looked good with David Dolores making the All-Section Team and joining Moreau and Marcos Barajas on the All-League Team.
9. LOVE THAT GAME: The Lady Trojans won the league tennis championship behind the solid play of seniors Mikayla Dolgins, Madilyn Klein and Ella Mensch. Mensch, the captain, played first singles, Mia Fishkind second singles and Klein and Mara Baltag usually played first doubles with Avery Smith and Mallory Schwartz second doubles. And head coach Todd Bazzini made the most of talent up and down the roster.
10. UPS AND DOWNS: The vastly improved Lady Rams volleyball team made it into the playoffs, and while they got knocked off by Mamaroneck in the first round of the one-and-done survival of the fittest, head coach Stephanie Costabile's Port Chester team was no push over as evidenced by their regular season wins over teams like Fox Lane and White Plains. Standouts included leading point scorers like Nataly Suertegaray, Camila Nunez and Alicia Bambace, also the top server, and junior Skylar Sams who racked up her 500th career dig during the season.
Senior fullback John Pauletti (with the ball) had the Port Chester High School football team’s best performance of the year. He ran for 249 yards on 21 carries and three TDs in a 27-14 win over Albertus Magnus.By File Photo
11. UNSUNG HEROINE: Adriana Martinez, the freshman phenom, became the first swimmer in Lady Rams history to win an individual medal in the Conference Championships in Yonkers Oct. 26. Martinez finished third in the 100-yard butterfly and dropped her time so much from her race against Mount Vernon on Oct. 15 that she broke her own PR (personal record).
12. PROFILES IN COURAGE: Senior Ram kicker Luis Granados, the two-way lineman whose leg was broken and his ankle smashed—dashing any hopes of a college football scholarship as a kicker—early in the season's next-to-last game against Tappan Zee, was taken by ambulance to the White Plains Hospital Emergency Room. Triage surgeons patched him up and he insisted on returning to the high school, on crutches, his leg in a cast, to be there with his teammates for the post-mortem after the loss. He came back a week later and stood on the sidelines, on crutches, rooting his team home in their season finale homecoming win against Panas in which Pauletti, who has a pre-existing heart condition, scored the tying TD and winning 2-point conversion with under four minutes left to play, seemingly carrying most of the Panas team on his back into the end zone.
13. DECISIONS, DECISIONS: Port Chester junior Venezuelan native Santiago Marquez made the All-League cross-country team for the second consecutive year and won his first major varsity race—the Rye Town Championship Invitational at Crawford Park—beating runners from Blind Brook, Rye, Rye Neck and Keio over the 3.1-mile course Sept. 25. And now he has a decision to make. Because Santiago is already the best male swimmer in school history. But he may have a better chance at a college athletic scholarship as a middle-distance runner because he is also the Rams’ best Track & Field runner at distances ranging from the quarter and half mile to the mile and two-mile run indoors and outdoors. So now he must decide whether to go out for the Rams swim team or the indoor T&F team for the winter season.
14. MORE SPLISH SPLASH: From its founding in 2014 through 2018, the fledgling Lady Rams swim team scored less than 40 points in the Conference Championships. They upped that number to 78 in 2019, skipped a year due to COVID in 2020 and then began a steady rate of improvement when inspirational Colleen Cahill took over as head coach by scoring 149 in 2021, 217 last year and 242 this year, edging Woodlands by one point for their record high third place finish. The Lady Rams’ medal-winning relays in the late October Conference championships in Yonkers included Morgan Saunders, Kimberly Rivera, Chenoa Marquez and Adriana Martinez racing to a second place finish in the 200 free with three of those same swimmers (Saunders, Marquez and Martinez) coming back to team up with Brenda Cordova to take third place in the 100-butterfly.
And then there were 17 PRs contributing to the Lady Rams’ cumulative point total including: Estefana Bautista in the 500-yard freestyle, Cordova in the 50-yard backstroke and 100 free, Anabel Jimenez in the 50- and 100-yard breaststroke and Martinez in the 50- and 100-yard free and the 50- and 100-yard butterfly. And that’s not all because the PRs kept coming with Ariana Orellana in the 50- and 500-yard free, Daisy Ruiz in the 100- and 200-yard free, Saunders in the 100-yard freestyle, Julianna Trinidad in the 100-yard backstroke, Cielo Vintimilla in the 100-yard backstroke and Ashley Zapata in the 50-yard freestyle. All of which added up to the best Conference performance in Lady Ram history.
15. TOP OF THE WORLD: Port Chester's head cheerleading coach John Gonzalez strutted his stuff as the youngest member (age 42) of the senior dance team (oldest member 82) for the New York Liberty's Women's National Basketball Association professional hoops world championship team. Gonzalez was on the Barclays Center Court in Brooklyn performing during various times when the Libs won their first title in 27 years Oct. 20, that winning feeling one of the highlights of his more than 20-year career that has also included being a cheerleader for the New York Knicks pro basketball team and dancing in "The Lion King" at Disney World on his way to coaching at Port Chester.
The Port Chester High School girls’ swim team members who won medals in the Conference Championships in Yonkers on Oct. 26: Morgan Saunders, Brenda Cordova, Adriana Martinez, Chenoa Marquez and Kimberly Rivera. Martinez, a freshman, became the first swimmer in Lady Rams history to win an individual medal in the Conference Championships.By File Photo
16. LOSING IS WINNING: When is a loss a win? When you play Rams varsity volleyball for the first time, according to head coach Jhonattan Cortez, who led Port Chester in its first season playing the sport on a varsity level. The Rams were 0-6 against teams like Brewster and Ossining (both twice), New Rochelle and Somers without winning a single set in 3-0 shutout losses during their first fall season against teams with comparable talent levels. But the fall season hasn't been a total loss because they did beat Hastings twice towards the end of the season (Oct. 10 and 15) home and away. And Nick Wolff was a game changer on blocks up front, Andre Abraham and Gabriel Franco have been solid with Franco and Daniel Ebol extra impressive as middle blockers. Shawn Cheriyan, Sean Hefferman, Noah Concepcion, Richard Jimenez and Frankie Limaci have all shown talent. And Christian Yupangui made the play of the season with an impressive diving dig, save and pass from out of bounds in one of the wins against Hastings.
17. NO FRILLS TENNIS: The Lady Rams tennis team may not have won a lot, but they were winners just by stepping on the court, according to new head coach Santos Avila. He explained why. "Simply because they are playing the game even though tennis isn't part of their heritage," he said. "And they are making progress as up and coming tennis players learning to play the game the right way while believing in themselves and their program and working hard to build a winning tennis program while leaving behind them a legacy, a tennis culture, a belief that blue collar Port Chester belongs on the same court as those born into more privilege and seem more likely to excel in an upscale sport." Their three top players were their tri-captains Fatima Coyt, Brooke Federice and Marisabel Rodriguez who played first, second and third singles. And their best doubles players came from a rotation of Lucia Giordano, Barbara Martinez, Journey Adamson, Vanessa Caceres, Taryn DeCrescenzo, Kenia Gomez, Crystal Monzon and Keyla Morel.
18. QUARTERBACK KEEPER: The 3-4 football Rams ran a predictable ground-and-pound offense with John Pauletti carrying the ball an estimated 90% of the time with just about the only variation consisting of junior QB Alexis (Ace) Morel holding onto the ball with a QB keep or sweep that was Port Chester's second most effective play. It prevented rivals from keying all the time on Pauletti. Morel was especially effective against Woodlands when Pauletti was hurt and had to sit out the second quarter and part of the third quarter. Morel's inspired play helped the Rams win that game. And even with Pauletti missing that time and playing just seven games in an independent league schedule where every rival team knew he was the Rams’ main offensive threat and stacked the box to stop him, he still managed to rush for more than 1,000 yards on the season, finishing sixth in Section 1 in rushing. And in a surprise move at football season's end, Morel and ace defensive lineman Alber Poroj, one of the team's co-captains, went out for the cheerleading team to enhance their college athletic scholarship chances.
19. COACHING SURPRISES: Port Chester's head cross-country coach Cindy Reyes Martinez had various obstacles to overcome throughout the season beyond teaching her squad how to pace themselves over various 3.1-mile courses. Her car had a flat tire she had to have repaired just before she left for the league championships. Her young children came down with colds due to the unseasonable weather. She made sure her team arrived early before championship races so they could familiarize themselves with the different courses, especially Woodlands in Hartsdale which is like a forest primeval. And as a former runner who still holds the school's female record for the mile at 5 minutes flat, she had to use all her teaching skills as a world language instructor in the Port Chester School District to make sure her harriers didn't go out too fast or too slow in the distance races. Cahill, the inspirational Lady Rams swim coach who was a collegiate swimmer for Fordham/Marymount, had to motivate her young charges so they would make daily pre-school 5: 45 a.m. practices in their Carver Center home pool. And on and on with every Ramily and Trojan coach consummate professionals talking up the talent of their respective players. Except for one Port Chester coach, the only coach in almost 20 years of my writing about local sports, who never got back to me despite weekly written requests to say anything positive about his team, his players, their key plays, or anything. And the requests were in writing so he couldn't say he was misquoted in his responses. But there is so much to be grateful for including my writing about his team for Westmore News by going to their games, talking to the players, their parents, their boosters, and the team got the coverage they deserved despite their coach.
20. TEMPUS FUGIT: There's more, lots more, to be thankful for about the local fall high school season. But let's go back to the beginning and the first Lady Trojans volleyball state championship that was and Port Chester High School's near first state championship that wasn't. That was the 2012 Steven Hernandez-led Rams soccer team that lost to the defending state champions in the championship finale in Albany. Hernandez went on to make the All-State, All-Section and All-League Teams, became a collegiate All-American at American International University, played in the pros and is now back in Port Chester as an assistant Rams soccer coach to the veteran John Cafaldo, who was named League Coach of the Year in that near state championship year. And now let's see if Blind Brook's Gina Carlone gets Coach of the Year this year for winning her school's elusive first state championship and if any of her players make the All-State Team.
Whatever happens, it has already been a memorable local high school fall sports season that has just ended. And may this be a memorable Thanksgiving for you and yours as well.
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