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Mustangs hang with toughNatick team but fall short

Joe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFazioazioazioazioazioStaff Reporter

The winless Mustangschalked another one in theloss column against the unde-feated Natick Redhawks. De-spite losing 28-0, Norwood islooking better and stood on asturdy defense.

“I’m proud of my footballteam today, the score mightnot reflect it, but we playedhard. They executed our gameplans on both sides of theball,” said Head CoachSarianides.

The first half was scorelessbut senior captain free safety/running back Jake Ryan inter-cepted a pass from Natickquarterback Troy Flutie. TheBC-bound nephew of DougFlutie had 16 for 26 comple-tion rate and threw for 207yards and four touchdowns.

The Norwood offense hadtrouble producing. Quarter-back Jake Vail was sacked andthrew a pick in the first quar-ter. The offense turned a lotto Ryan looking for a spark,but he too would be limited byNatick’s defense to only 68yards in the game.

“Jake will give you every-thing he has. He’s a three levelplayer — offense, defense,special teams. Gives you ev-erything he has. We’re youngup front and he’s making the

best of it,” said Sarianides.Another interception of a

Vale pass early in the secondquarter would give Natick theopportunity to go up 7-0 on aFlutie pass. The Mustangs de-fense stepped up again andsophomore Zac Pungitore in-tercepted Flutie. The offensefloundered however and couldnot capitalize. Flutie wouldput Natick up 14-0 before thehalf.

“We had a couple of breakdowns with personnel in the

first half. That certainly hurtus, that gave them that secondscore. That’s on me, that’s onthis coaching staff, “saidSarianides.

The second half was moreof the same for the Mustangs.The defense hung tough, andthe offense missed a few keyopportunities. Norwood’sKick returner Brian Lenanebrought one out to the 49 yardline, and Ryan picked up a 1st

FFFFFooooooooootballtballtballtballtballContinued on page 11

Captain Joey Rydzewski chases Natick quarterback Troy Flutie during Saturday's game. The Mustangs fellto the Redhawks 28-0.

PHOTO BY JOE DIFAZIO

Volleyballscores a win

Joe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFazioazioazioazioazioStaff Reporter

The Mustangs improvedto 5-6 on the year and 4-5 inthe Bay State Conferencewith a 3-2 win at homeagainst Framingham on Oc-tober 3.

Captain Emily Clifford’sserving and the big plays ofAmanda Springer anchoredthe team.

“Amanda, at the end whenwe needed her to finish plays,she finished plays, which washuge. The block, the kill atthe end, her serving at the enddefinitely helped us out, “said head coach PaulNimblett.

Norwood took the first set

25-19. Springer got the Mus-tangs going early with a fewscores. Libero Lauren Plaskohad some nice digs, butFramigham would tie theframe before Norwood even-tually pulled it out.

“I can’t say enough aboutmy libero Lauren, getting ev-erything up. Her serve-re-ceive was great, leading theback row,” said Nimblett.

The second set sawNorwood down early, due toa few missed hits and com-

munication errors. The Mus-tangs battled back from anearly deficit and tied it 15-15.Emily Flavin had a greatweak side hit and SarahMaloney chipped in an acebut Norwood would drop theset 28-26.

Framingham also won thethird set 25-22 to putNorwood down 2-1. TheMustangs came out strong inthe beginning of the fourthset with solid setting andspikes. Springer had an aceon Framingham and Flavinkept a volley going with ahard earned dig. Springer’sserves helped the Mustangswin the set 25-18, to even thegame 2-2 and forcing a fifthset.

Springer was the star ofthe fifth set. The Mustangswere down early 8-5 but thegirls dug in and held theirground. Springer ended theset with a spike and a block,allowing Norwood to win it16-10.

“You know what it is? It’sthe girls pulling together andsaying ‘we’re going to makethis play,’” said Nimblett,

Quaterback Jake Vale releases a pass. Vale and the Mustang offensecouldn't get anything going against a tough Natick defense.

PHOTO BY JOE DIFAZIO

Captain Emily Clifford serves the ball during a recent win overFramingham.

PHOTO BY JOE DIFAZIO

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Girls Soccer falls to Ursuline AcademyJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFazioazioazioazioazioStaff Reporter

The Norwood Mustangsfell to the Ursuline AcademyBears 5-3 at Ursuline on Tues-day. This is the Mustangs sev-enth straight loss. The girl’ssoccer team is now 0-10-1.Mackenzie Sheehan had somegreat stops for the Mustangs,but Ursuline overpoweredthem.

“Not the result we wanted.We tied them the first timearound. Obviously we feel likewe are a better team then weshowed today. We should beable to play with Ursuline a lotbetter than we showed,” saidhead coach Joseph Oliver.

Ursuline got the lead outearly, really backing the Mus-tangs down. Ursuline forwardJill Kamphaus forward scored1:50 into the game, putting theBears up 1-0.

The Mustangs wouldn’tbow out early. A header wouldtie the game 1-1. Norwood be-gan picking it up after theyscored. Sheehan had some nicesaves. Julia Copponi also

dominated the wing, and hada few shots up the side. TheMustangs got into Ursuline ter-ritory and wouldn’t relinquish.They had two corner kicks ina row with 8 minutes left in thehalf. Senior captain JessicaMurphy had a shot on net thatdinged the post. KaylinGoncalves helped keep the ballaround the Bear’s net.

“That certainly could haveturned the tide ... obviously it’sa different game because thenthey’re playing catch up.When we start to play catch upwe get out of position andother teams get chances,” saidOliver.

The Bears would eventu-ally break free and LeahShalby would score again forUrsuline, putting them up 2-1before the half.

Mustang Julia Copponicame out and scored in the sec-ond half to level the game 2-2.Coach Oliver has been im-pressed with her play.

“[Julia had] one of her bestgames of the year. She’s reallycome on the last couple ofweeks or so to be one of our

better players. She had a reallystrong performance. The goalwas nice,” said Oliver.

Then the game began to getaway from them. Shalbey scoredagain on a penalty kick to putthe Bears up 3-2. Ursuline cap-tain Courtney Sepe chipped one

in to get the Bears up 4-2.The coup de grace came

from Ursuline junior Amy Pic-colo at 30:20. She knocked onein for the final score 5-2. Afterthat coach Oliver made a fullline change, putting in his subs.

“We’ve got to continue to

work on our first touch, we’vegot to continue to work on ourspacing, we’ve got to continueto work on just being aggres-sive and competing,” saidOliver.

The girls have Milton andDedham next week.

Boys Soccer nets first win of the seasonJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFazioazioazioazioazioStaff Reporter

The Boy’s Soccer teamwere handed their eighth andninth losses this week losingagainst Walpole 3-0 on Tues-day October 1st, and againstDartmouth 4-0 on the follow-ing Saturday. The Mustangs,however logged their firstwin against Catholic Memo-rial on Tuesday, 2-1.

“The middle third waskilling us today, we did notplay our game for some rea-son getting the ball out to thewings, we got sucked in tothe middle, but honestly itwasn’t us, it was Walpole.They’re very good. I thinkthey’re the best team we’veplayed so far this year,” saidHead Coach Jason Andrewsabout the game againstWalpole.

Goalie Joe Schallmo hadseveral great saves in the firsthalf against the WalpoleRebels. Despite Norwood’saggressiveness, The Rebelsbrought pressure and the balldown the throats of the Mus-tangs.

“[Joe] played really well,he took a lot of shots, Ithought the defense playedwell too,” said coachAndrews.

Norwood had a large con-tingent of fans at the game,making up their own cheer-ing section.

Captain Mark Powers was

all over the place, flyingaround the field and taking onplayers much larger than him.Fellow Captain Sem Dacajhad a great steal and fastbreak at the 30th minute.

“[Powers] is outstanding.He is tough as nails, andsmart as he does it,” saysAndrews.

Unfortunately the Rebelskept on pounding at the door.Ian Fair scored for Walpolein the 21st to put the Rebelsup 1-0.

At the 13:00th minuteWalpole scored again, thistime by Matt Brownsword.

Walpole was getting greatpenetration and showcasedtheir ball handling. TheRebels scored again byRobbie Ellis just before halfto put the Rebels up 3-0.

Norwood continued to getbeaten inside.

In the second half, nearthe 19th minute, Captain SemDecaj had a great breakaway,getting deep in to Walpoleterritory. He was fouled, butNorwood missed the set playopportunity. GoalkeeperSchallmo continued to makea lot of great saves in the sec-onds half.

“ We need to work on soc-cer skills ... create triangleson the field and create playsout there and get more offen-sive chances and try and lockup on D,” said captain MarkPowers.

At the end of the Walpole

game, Coach Andrews put insome fresh faces. BackupKaushik Suryanarayanan en-tered the game to a cheeringovation.

On Saturday the team fell4-0 to Dartmouth. Norwoodgot good games out of cap-

tain Sem Decaj , JesseFleming and Danny Farrell.

The Mustangs finally gottheir f irst win Tuesdayagainst CM. Decaj and strikerCam Ryan scored. Powers as-sisted Ryan.

“My defense was stellar:

Jesse Fleming, Danny Farrell,Ryan Stanton, and AntonioVaritamos. Joe Schallmo wasamazing in the net. Tim Kentand Ben McGrath were fan-tastic on the left side. Big winfor us against a tough team,”said Andrews.

Kaylin Goncalves makes a move with the ball against Ursuline. The Mustangs would fall to Ursuline by ascore of 5-2.

PHOTO BY JOE DIFAZIO

Boys Soccer Captain Mark Powers controls the ball in a recent game against Natick. The Mustangs nettedthier first win of the season last week.

PHOTO BY JOE DIFAZIO

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away and steal the gameand it didn’t work out thatway, but I can’t complainabout our effort. It was theretoday,” said Sarianides.

Natick was running thespread well and Flutiepicked up the third touch-down from shotgun on a

crossing pattern. Mustangcornerbacks TresorWrensford and John Galvindefensed two passes back toback at the end of third quar-ter on tight coverage, butFlutie would pass for onemore TD in the fourth puttingNatick up 28-0.

Football continued from page 9

“I t ip my hat to thisteam. We played hard... wedidn’t quit. This is also arivalry for Norwood. Theyknow Norwood-Natick is abig game,” said Sarianides.

The Mustangs will faceWellesley on Friday, look-ing for their first win.

Cross Country atNeedham Tri-Meet

“they brought it togetherlike ‘we’re not going to letthem ge t ano ther po in t ,we’ re go ing to pu l lthrough.’”

Amanda Springer ended

Volleyball continued from page 9

the game with 11 Kills, 3Blocks, 4 service points,and 2 aces. Captain EmilyCl i ffo rd had 10 se rv icepoints, 5 aces, and 7 servicereceptions. Captain Nicole

Running Back Jake Ryan is brought down by a Natick defender on Saturday.PHOTO BY JOE DIFAZIO

Butts had 11 Service points,4 aces, 7 kills, and 2 blocks.

“Nicole was huge on herserves at the end, she playeda great match all around,”said Nimblett.

Sarah Maloney tips the ball over the net in a recent win.PHOTO BY JOE DIFAZIO

Golf team falls inthree straight

matchesJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFJoe DiFazioazioazioazioazioStaff Reporter

The Norwood Boys andGirls Cross-Country ranagainst Natick and Needhamat Cutler Park in Needhamlast week. Ten junior varsityrunners moved up to run intheir first varsity meet, allperforming well for the Mus-tangs. On the girls’ sideAlanna Keady continued tobe the top runner forNorwood coming in 15thoverall in a time of 22:53.

Fellow senior captainSamantha Baturin was num-ber two for the Mustangs fin-ishing in 18th place with atime of 23:39. FreshmanKelly Blake continued toshow improvement coming inthird for Norwood and 32ndoverall. Devin Bartlett wasfourth with a time of 26:09,followed by junior AlexAvakian at 26:10. Avakianhas had strong showings inher last two meets. Twofreshmen running in their

first varsity meet had greatruns — Alyssa Abruzzesewith a time of 26:46 and RoseMurray at 27:04.

The boys had seven run-ners compete in their firstvarsity meet. J.J. O’Donnellcontinued to lead the team asthe number one runner. Hefinished the 3.1-mile coursein a time of 18:57 good for21st overall . SophomoreClifton Clark moved up to thenumber two spot forNorwood with a t ime of19:04 and finished 23rd over-all.

Another sophomore, DanCurley, took the number threespot for the Mustangs with atime of 19:11. Senior JohnMaloney was fourth at 19:18and Josh Ostrum took thefifth position for Norwoodwith a time of 19:28. Fresh-men Patrick Forrest and TomDriscoll continue to showpromise for the Mustangs.

Volleyball continued from page 9

The Norwood golf teamhas dropped three straightlosing to Needham,Framingham and Walpole.The team is now 6-7 after hit-ting a rough patch.

“The match againstNeedham we lost pretty big.That was our worst loss of theyear... They got a couple ofgood players. A lot of guyshaven’t played that coursebefore,” said head coach JimSweeney.

The Mustangs lost thegame 81-27 with their lowestscore being 43.

“We were so-so,” saidcoach Sweeney speakingabout their 67-41 loss toFramigham.

They had four playersscore 39 on the par 35 course:Senior captain WalkerAlexander, Mike Murphy,Mike Roy and Chris Ciriello.

“They played really wellat home, they had two 34s,two one under pars, “ said

Sweeney, “Walpole is argu-ably the toughest course weplay. I would say they haveas much a home course ad-vantage as anybody.” OnTuesday the team lost toWalpole 72-36. MikeMurphy did well shooting a39.

On Thursday is the BayState Conference Champion-ship match. WalkerAlexander, Mike Roy, andMike Murphy all qualified.

“I’m excited, I think theyget an opportunity to makeit.. . Hopefully we have apretty good day and they allhave a shot at cracking thattop 10 to get the all-star,”said coach Sweeney.

The team has a final gameagainst Newton North on Oc-tober 15. The team needs awin in order to qualify forsectionals.

The Mustangs are hopefulthat the team can finish on ahigh note with some strongperformances at the BayState Conference Champion-ship.

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