Lots of (Local) Sports

Greenwich/Newtown football

It has been a fun, busy weekend of local sports. These are the days that used to be more common for me but haven't been as common recently. 

Two football games, neither being Fairfield games, along with working a field hockey game. 

Yes, I ventured out of Fairfield. Somewhat of a rarity, although I do it more than people think. 

On Friday night, due to a commitment, I knew I couldn't make it up to West Haven for the Ludlowe game or Amity for Warde game. 

That said, I ended up going to Trumbull as the Eagles played Shelton. I've been saying I wanted to get to some Trumbull games to watch and support my guys who are playing there. I might even see them several more times this year. 

As for Friday's game, Shelton defeated Trumbull 28-14. 

The Eagles scores came on a Cade Volpicelli 43-yard run with 10:54 to play in the first half and a 62-yard run from quarterback Brayden Jagoe with 2:42 left in the third quarter. 

It was nice to see a few of my Trumbull friends, but overall, just good to watch a different game and support just by being there. It was different to just hang by myself, for the most part, rather than at least talking to people, but it was nice to be able to focus and watch the game. 

Then to today. 

First, I was on scoreboard duties for Ludlowe's field hockey game with Greenwich. I was tasked with filling in for Art Cockerham, who does 99.9% of the games at Ludlowe, but had to miss this one. 

Not knowing much of the field hockey rules made me nervous, but thanks to Art, and the coaches, for letting me know what I needed to know. 

This was a new sport for me to work, but it's good for me to expand my knowledge and learn different sports rules and information. I have watched several field hockey games over the years, but there is a difference between watching and having to know the rules. 

It was a clean game, which made it easier, and Ludlowe came away with a 7-0 victory. Lily McClay led the Falcons offense with three goals (stats courtesy of the Ludlowe field hockey Instagram.)

After field hockey, it was down to Greenwich to watch the Cardinals take on Newtown in football. 

I usually try to get to at least one Greenwich game a year to hang out with Rob Adams and Dan Murphy and company as they call the game on WGCH Radio. This week worked because it allowed me to watch Newtown, coached by good friends Dan Farina and Chris Bugyi, among others. 

Greenwich shut out Newtown 24-0 behind three Justin Carroll rushing touchdowns. Carroll had touchdowns of 25 and 20 yards in the second quarter and then punched in the final score from two yards out with 8:47 to play. 

Michael Galano also added a field goal for the Cardinals. I want to shout that out, not only to give credit, but more so to highlight how Galano is raising money for Alex's Lemonade Stand, which supports those fighting Childhood Cancer. You can read more here on what Michael is doing. 

Now it's listening to Rob call Brunswick's game at Suffield Academy and watch football and baseball the rest of the weekend. 

A fun weekend supporting good people and learning new things. 

We will see what next week and the rest of the fall season brings. 

Hopefully more games. Whether that be a Fairfield game or otherwise. 

Saturday at The Sun

Greenwich celebrates their championship 

Saturday was a day and an experience I will never forget. 

It was Championship Saturday for winter sports for the CIAC in Connecticut. 

I was fortunate enough to be asked by Rob Adams if I wanted to join him, Dan Murphy and Sean Adams for the Division I basketball championships they were calling at Mohegan Sun. 

I helped out with social media and tried to help out "producing" in any other way I could. Thanks to Rob for having me along for the ride. 

We saw the Greenwich Cardinals girls' basketball team defeat Northwest Catholic 51-46. It's the first championship for the Lady Cardinals. 

Greenwich was led by Zuri Faison who had 16 points and 14 rebounds and Madi Utzinger with 16 points of her own. Utzinger's layup with 26 seconds to play was the difference. 

Congrats to all the players and coaches on the championship. 

In the boys' championship, the West Haven Blue Devils* defeated the Staples Wreckers 79-72 in triple overtime in a tremendous game that we are going to talk about for a while. 

*Apologies for initially calling West Haven the Blue Knights in my Tweet. 

West Haven was led by Aaron Johnson's 27 points and Loshon Roman's 20. Mason Tobias led Staples with 21 and Dihlan Lowman had 17. 

It was a tremendous season for Staples, who finishes at 26-1. Congrats to great friends and people, Wreckers Head Coach David Goldshore and assistants Jake Sullivan and Joe Black. A program that had had a ton of success over the past few years, including winning back-to-back FCIAC Championships in 2024 and this season. 

There were also Unified games played throughout the day, including games at halftime of the Greenwich game. It's awesome to have these kids have this cool opportunity. 

As for our experience, it was nice to get up to Mohegan Sun early, walk around and hang out with friends. 

We were able to get some food. We had donuts from Krispy Kreme. I think this was my first time having Krispy Kreme and it was pretty good. Then, we had a late lunch/early dinner at the Pepe's Pizza. 

There's likely no reason to tell you this but as much as the day is about the games, it's also about the experience for everyone. 

Great job by everyone involved with the CIAC, including Dave Schulz and John Holt, among others. 

A tremendous day 

Rob, Dan, me and Sean (Photo courtesy of John Holt)

2022 in Review - Thoughts and Games of the Year

So how to recap 2022. 

In was a pretty average year personally, but like every year, there are plenty of ups and downs. 

Work, which involves sports, coaching, and watching sports. Yeah, that's basically my life. 

I keep saying I am going to or at least want to blog more, but do you really care that I went to work, then likely went to a game or practice for a team? I'll answer that. No, you don't. So I need to find more interesting items to blog about. There's also certain work related items that I am just not going to write about. 

In professional local sports, Aaron Judge's homerun chase had to be the biggest story of 2022. It was both a Yankees and American League record that captivated the entire baseball world. 

For professional sports, there were not a lot of other highlights for 2022. At least there aren't a lot of highlights that come to my mind. We want drama in sports and that often brings us memories. Drama and history. 

On the downside for the year, there are many people I know who lost loved ones this year. There are many people dealing with many different life issues as well, who we think about. 

We are still dealing with COVID, although to a much less degree, thankfully. 

Hope everyone has a great New Years and a tremendous 2023. 

People talk about how things will change and hope they hope for things, but it really is just another day. It's a different year, but nothing will change unless you can make an effort. Just because the year changes, it doesn't automatically mean things will change. Actions are needed if you want things to change. Those actions don't have to happen just because the year is changing, they can happen any time. Yes, I realize how cliché this all sounds, but it is true. 

As is often the case, friendships were created and strengthened. 

On to 2023, but first, we look back at 2022....

We've done this on this blog before. I list/rank my top local sports moments of the year. This list below is only games I was in attendance for, in one form of another. 

I limited the list to 10 games, although I am sure there are games and moments I am missing. For example, I have nothing from the summer which consisted of Legion, Babe Ruth and Little League baseball. 

These are in no particular order. 

Vivona/Ludlowe baseball top Warde - May 9 

Ludlowe baseball comes from behind to defeat Warde 3-1 with Matt Vivona picking up a two-out bases clearing double in the sixth inning as the Falcons knocked off the Mustangs. You can hear Rob Adams's call of the game here. 

Cooper Dailey 38 to set Ludlowe school points record vs Maloney - February 26

In the final regular season game, Ludlowe's Cooper Dailey scored 38 points, including 20 in the first half, to set a new school record for points in a game. The previous high was 35 set by Kevin Bentivegna in 2011. 

Ryan Presiano buzzer-beater to help Prep beat NFA in state quarterfinals - March 14

Fairfield Prep's Ryan Presiano hit a buzzer beater to lift the Jesuits to a win over Norwich Free Academy. The play, and the call by Rob Adams on Local Live, as well as video's by Justin Devellis of News12 and Dan Gardella of GameTimeCT made it on ESPN's SportsCenter Top Plays. 

Warde baseball wins FCIAC Championship - May 26

Warde baseball repeated as the FCIAC Champion, as they defeated Westhill 4-1. 

Warde baseball wins state championship - June 11

After winning the FCIAC Championship, the Warde baseball team kept up their winning ways through the state playoffs and held on to defeat Southington 7-5 to capture the state title. 

Masuk vs Barlow in the SWC Semis - May 23

Getting a chance to see Matt Scott pitch in person, who was terrific, was awesome. A wild pitch was the difference as Musuk defeated Scott and Barlow to advance to the SWC Championship. Tremendous baseball game to watch and it was fun to go outside of the FCIAC. 

Warde vs Westhill baseball regular season game at Cubeta - April 29

It was one of the most hyped regular season games in recent memory. Kyle Kipp for Westhill vs Zach Broderick for Warde. The game more than lived up to the hype as it went nine innings with Warde coming away with a 2-1 win on a Griffin Polley bunt single that pushed across the tie-breaking run in the top of the ninth. 

*Wow, I have a lot of Warde baseball in here. As a Ludlowe baseball coach, not sure how I feel about this. 

Ludlowe softball wins FCIAC Championship - May 25 

Much like Warde baseball, the Ludlowe softball team won the FCIAC championship for the second year in a row. The Falcons defeated Danbury 2-0 in the championship. 

Greenwich football wins state championship - December 10

The Greenwich football team defeated Fairfield Prep 37-17 behind a strong effort on both sides of the ball from Charlie Dixon. Hear how Rob Adams and Chris Erway called it as heard on WGCH Radio. 

Ludlowe girls soccer defeats Warde in PK's in the FCIAC quarterfinals - October 28

After Warde defeated Ludlowe 4-0 in the regular season matchup, the Falcons got their revenge in the postseason. The game was tied at two through regulation and overtime, and then Ludlowe edged Warde 4-3 in penalty kicks to advance to the FCIAC semifinals. 

Cardinals Are The Champions

The Fall high school sports season came to a close on Saturday with the football state championships. 

Six championship games were played across two sites. Arute Field in New Britain, home of Central Connecticut football and Rentshler Field at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, home of UConn football. 

I joined Rob Adams and Chris Erway as part of the WGCH crew for Greenwich and Fairfield Prep at The Rent. 

Greenwich came away with the state championship, defeating Prep 37-17. For the Cardinals, it's their ninth football championship. 

Turnovers were really the name of the game, as Prep turned the ball over six times (five interceptions and a fumble lost) and Greenwich did not turn the ball over once. 

Three of those five interceptions were picked off by Charlie Dixon, including one which he returned for a touchdown. Dixon also had five catches offensively. 

Rob and Chris did a tremendous job on the broadcast. Yes, they were calling it for WGCH out of Greenwich, but they have affiliation with both schools and both towns, and they called an extremely fair game.  

I tried to do stats for them. It did not go well. I need to learn a better way to do stats for football, because whenever I try, it never works out well. Wish I could figure it out because I know it would make be more valuable. Of course, I Tweeted and tried to promote the game and the broadcast. I also tried to take some photos. 

Thanks to John Holt at the CIAC for welcoming us and for answering our questions. 

It was a fun day with lots of laughs. Great experience. Thanks to Rob for asking me to join him and Chris. 

Photo: John Holt/CIAC

Despite the loss, it was a tremendous season for Prep. A team that started 1-3 and then finished the regular season with six straight wins to get in the playoffs. The Jesuits were playing the season in honor of their teammate Jimmy McGrath, who died in May. 

Congrats to all the state champions who were crowned on Saturday in football, and this Fall across all sports. Happy for friends who are coaches, including Dan Farina at New Canaan and Tommy Howell at Joel Barlow, who each won football championships as assistant coaches. 

Winter sports are already underway, but now it's full speed onto basketball, maybe some hockey and maybe even watching some wrestling. 

High School Football Weekend

GHS Senior Day Ceremonies

 It was a good weekend of high school football. 

On Friday, I went to Kennedy Stadium in Bridgeport, where Ludlowe took on the Central Hilltoppers. 

The Falcons won 45-0 and got contributions across the board on both offense and defense. The one highlight that I will throw out there was Charlie Began with a 90+ yard INT return for a touchdown. 

Ludlowe will look to finish with a .500 record when they take on Warde on Thanksgiving (10:30am at Warde). 

Then today, I went down to Greenwich for the Cardinals game with Stamford and joined Rob Adams for the broadcast* on Local Live and Robcasting Radio. It was a good chance to see Rob, and I also got to see the new Cardinal Stadium. I used to go to a bunch of games with Rob a few years ago, and then, well, life got in the way. 

When I say I "joined Rob Adams for the broadcast" that really means I sat with a headset on and threw in thoughts every once in a while while Rob did 95% of the talking. That's just how I am on broadcasts. I know the sports, but don't say a whole lot on air. I also think this was the first time I was his only color guy for football. Other football games I've either been a third or fourth voice, or off-air. Rob knows I don't consider myself a broadcaster, but have fun with him. Baseball has been the sport I've done with him the most. 

Back to the game, Greenwich took the lead on the first drive and never looked back, cruising to a 64-12 victory. There was a lightning delay of about 50 minutes that began during halftime and delayed the start of the second half. Lots of lightning, some thunder and heavy rain at times. 

Greenwich will finish the regular season on Thanskgiving as they host Staples at 10am. The Cardinals will likely need to beat the Wreckers and get help in order to make the state playoffs. You can tune in to that Thanksgiving matchup with Rob and Chris Erway on Robcasting and Local Live. 

It was also the official grand opening of the new stadium and senior day at Cardinal stadium, so there were a lot of festivities going on. 

The renovations to the stadium are awesome, even if everything is not fully functional yet and there are still some items to be finished. The press box is glorious with six different rooms for PA/scoreboard, broadcasters, camera operators, writers, coaches and more! There is a ticket booth, a concession stand, real bathrooms, and more. I always felt like there was something special about going to Cardinal Stadium in the past, now it's REALLY nice. It should definitely be a spot to consider to host big games.

It was a fun day and always thankful Rob allows me to join him for anything. He's a true pro, who is just tremendous at doing play-by-play and calling a game. He knows broadcasting and should be on anyone's list when you are looking for a broadcaster (No, he didn't pay me to say this). 

Good two days of games.  

Some photos from the day. 

Hogan Leads Fairfield 19U Past Greenwich

Fairfield and Greenwich in action on Saturday morning at GHS. 

Phil Hogan's complete game two-hitter led Fairfield 19U past the Greenwich Cannon's 2-0 on Saturday morning at Greenwich High School. 

Fairfield got on the board in the top of the first against Greenwich starter Zach Karson. Jack Pierce walked and stole second base. Two batters later, Joey D'Elia doubled to to the wall in right field to plate Pierce and give Fairfield a 1-0 lead. 

Fairfield added another in the third inning against Cannon's reliever Alex Roath. Christian Homa led off with a single. Pierce then sacrificed Homa to second base. Two batters later, with runners on second and third, Blake Benway singled though the left side of the infield to plate Homa. 

Greenwich had their best chance to break through against Hogan in the fourth as they got a runner to second with one our and had runners at first and second and two outs but could not plate a run. 

Hogan walked three and struck out five in addition to allowed just the two hits. One base-runner reached on an error.  

The Cannon's pitching was very good also. Four Greenwich pitchers, Karson, Roath, Jake Mondschein and Zack Alza allowed just the two runs of six hits. 

Fairfield will now gear up for the playoffs next week, while Greenwich will have a final regular season game on Sunday at Trumbull at 10am. 

The playoff brackets for both the 19U and 17U tournaments can be found at greenwichcannons.com 

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Rob Adams and I broadcasted the game on Rob's channel, Robcasting Radio. Thanks to Rob for having me along for the broadcast. Fun to get out there and help Rob out and provide some (very little) color commentary, especially with Fairfield being involved. 

We had a few technical issues, but as always, Rob is able to find a way to get the broadcast done, one way or another. He knows how to fix issues and will try multiple ways to fix them, if need be. To be clear, neither issue was Rob, or anyone's, fault. We (mostly Rob) worked though them to produce the best broadcast possible. 

Here's the broadcast with Rob and I on the call. Due to the technical difficulties, Rob recapped the lost portion of the game. 

 

Stay turned for Rob's broadcast schedule on his Twitter or the Robcasting Radio Twitter.

Ludlowe and Greenwich Baseball

As I Tweeted yesterday, my "worlds collided" as Ludlowe and Greenwich played in baseball at Cardinal Yard at GHS. I've used the term of my worlds colliding when the Falcons and Cardinals played in football and basketball, as well. Obviously basketball and baseball are the teams I was a part of and am still involved with so those mean more to me.

I've been doing a lot with Rob Adams and WGCH Radio in Greenwich and obviously with it being Ludlowe baseball, I knew I would go to the game.

I was pestering Rob to call the game and as Rob alluded to in his blog, the cell service and WI-FI at GHS was not great. For that, Rob should #BlameShawn for making him call the game.

Rob called the game with Mick McGowan and I was there to Tweet, do stats, and assist the broadcast from a Ludlowe information point-of-view.

Always a fun time watching baseball and hanging with and helping of friends. 

You can listen to the game here or at 3pm today on WGCH.com on Greenwich Sentinel Doubleheader.