Homecoming Update

Boys JV Soccer kicked things off on Friday afternoon with a convincing 5-1 win over Chase Collegiate, including a dramatic first goal for rookie Josh Brause. Josh Tenedine, Clayton Johnson, Michael Brandfon, and Ethan Qian were steady throughout the game, with Cameron Parnoff anchoring the goalmouth. The JV definitely set the "Wild" tone with the most intense pregame and postgame cheer!

 Varsity Football was the main attraction Friday evening, squaring off against Capitol Prep from Bridgeport in front of a sizeable crowd.  The Hornets dominated for much of the game, but ran out of gas in the fourth quarter to fall 24-21 to the visiting Sharks. Capitol Prep took an 8-0 first quarter lead; however, the Hornets responded with a balanced attack of quarterback Nick Bailey handing off to Jordan Benoit and hooking up with Tim Dawson in the air to lead 21-8 in the third quarter. Benoit finished with 201 total yards, while Bailey went 11 for 18, throwing for 174 yards, with 2 touchdowns to Dawson and one pick. Meanwhile a stingy defense led by the likes of Billy Porto, Klyde Auba, Matt Wright, and Tim Dawson, took the bite out of the Sharks for much of game. Unfortunately, a number of costly setbacks hit the Hornets in the final quarter: a terrific TD run by Benoit was called back on a penalty, and the Hornets then lost both Dawson and Bailey to injuries. Meanwhile the Sharks found the back of the endzone twice, and with successful two point conversions, seized a lead that the Hornets just could not overcome.

On Saturday, the Skiff Street fields were abuzz in the late afternoon; all games had a 3:00 start because it was an SAT test day. Cross Country enjoyed a successful race, beating EF Academy, King School, and rival Williams by 9 points for a first-place win.  John Bazaar was first overall while Sam Applegate and Alex DiVincentis finished in the top 5.  For the girls, Rosa Wang was 4th overall, with Tingwei Pu and Catherine Zhang running their best races of the season. Almost all of our runners bested their times from last year's Homecoming race, with John finishing in 18:00.

Field Hockey answered the call to “Get Wild” with a resounding 6-0 victory against the Knights of Marianapolis. The Hornets struck early and never looked back. The offense was paced by Brianna Bell, who scored a career high four goals while Kaci Benoit and Karis Curtis each chipped in one for the Hornets. Four of their six goals were assisted, led by Molly Anderson with two, and Curtis and Hope Riley each adding a helper. Ellise Parnoff and Destinee Gabriel held down the cage, helping to secure the Hornets' second shutout of the season.

The Hornets are back in action this Saturday, October 13th, where they will host The Master's School at noon for their "Play 4 The Cure" breast cancer awareness game.

Though not quite as wild, Volleyball also enjoyed a win over Marianapolis, coming from behind to take the match 3-2. It was a slow start as the Hornets went down two sets. But they swarmed back to take the next three sets, winning the tie-breaker 15-6. Alexis McKay led the team defensively with 9 service aces and 13 service points. Katalina Baehring led the team on offense with 15 Kills and defensively with 11 digs. Upcoming is the DIG PINK match on October 17th versus Greenwich Academy. They are hoping to raise funds for the SIDE OUT FOUNDATION for game changing stage IV breast cancer research. The team is aiming to match or surpass last year's amount of $1,427.81. Check this out at https://giving.side-out.org/campaigns/14914

       
Probably no team has had worse luck than Girls Soccer, mostly through injuries, but on Saturday they took one on the chin for another reason as they staged an epic battle against MacDuffie School, eventually falling 4-0. The final scoreline, however, in no way reflected the majority of the game. Hamden Hall came out strong moving the ball well and adjusted to their style and defended well for the first 40 mins.  May Cervone and Ellie Moffat created several chances to get on the scoreboard. With the score knotted at 0-0 in the last minute of the half, the game got turned on its head when Maddy D'Errico made a great defensive play on a breakaway to enable goalkeeper, Gabbi Pesticci, to come out to make the save only for the referee to not only blow the whistle giving MacDuffie a penalty kick, but to give D’Errico a straight red card. Luckily MacDuffie missed the PK, keeping it at zero-zero at half time. Hamden Hall, reduced to 10 players for the last 40 minutes, played hard and still had good chances to score in the second half but could not limit MacDuffie’s strong attack that finally hit the back of the net. Coach Chuck Salvi was extremely proud of the shorthanded squad and was greatly appreciative of the heart they showed.

Finally, Boys Soccer were victorious over Chase Collegiate 5-1 in an exciting game. Chase dominated the first 10 minutes; Max Wolpert made a great save before Chase broke the deadlock with a goal from a corner. However the team showed great character, steadily improving through the first half. They were able to equalize through senior captain Joseph Luicci, who delivered a great cross that was turned in by a Chase defender. Alex Horvath then put the Hornets ahead before the half ended with a breakaway goal. Hamden Hall continued their dominance in the second frame, while Max Wolpert and Andy Liu made smart saves from Chase counter attacks. Alex Horvath scored twice more to complete his hat-trick to bring home the win. Afterwards Coach Pinkerton said "Every player contributed today; very proud of the entire group, truly a team victory."

Overall, the Hornets went 5-2 for the weekend - a very successful safari adventure. Hopefully we will continue to hear the cry, “Let’s get Wild”, as the teams carry that spirit through the rest of the fall season.