McClelland Miscellanea

(Newburyport) The (20-3) Clippers have reached the MIAA Division 3 volleyball Final Four.

Newburyport accomplished this by overwhelming Ashland 3-0 on Friday afternoon.

The Clippers have now won six straight matches including three in the tournament.

The #6 Clockers (13-10) struggled in the first two sets before coming to life in the final set to lead for part of it. 

However, in that last set, the #3 Clippers fought back to tie the score at 10-10 and sailed home from there.

The set totals were 25-16, 25-13, and 25-12.

Newburyport has gotten better as the tournament has progressed.  Maybe they were “scared straight” after nearly losing to #30 Bishop Fenwick in their tourney opener.

“I think that this is the best I’ve seen us play this season,” said junior Zoey Calitri after today’s win.

“Our defense was strong,” she added.  “When it’s strong, we can run a quick offense.  Then we get to run our middles and that’s an automatic kill.”

Receiving serves successfully was important.

“The key to this win was serve-receive,” said Coach Lori Solazzo.  “We knew that they were good servers.”

The Clippers had seen Ashland’s win over Greater New Bedford.

“We watched it,” said senior Viive Godtfredsen, “looking for places we could score.  We were prepared for everything.”

“We practiced a lot, so we were ready to play today,” added senior Bea Cortecci.

Senior Sophie Messina paced the Clippers with eleven kills and five blocks that converted into points.

“Sophie has been a force in the middle,” said Coach Solazzo.  “People haven’t been able to stop her.”

Sophie was on the scoring end of some terrific setups by Emma Foley.

“Our service-receive was great,” said Sophie.  “We’ve been working on that.”

Junior Lily LeDuc finished with ten kills.  “Lily had a heck of a game,” said Coach Solazzo.

The Clippers serving was outstanding as their sixteen aces reflects.

“We started the first set strong with a serving run by Viive (Godtfredsen),” explained Lily.  “We limited our errors.”

Four of the top five seeds are in the D3 Final Four.  Newburyport will face #2 Tewksbury at a neutral site this week.

Viive knows a little bit about (19-4) Tewksbury. “I play club with a few girls who are on the Tewksbury team.”

Can the Clippers advance?

“I knew at the start that our team was talented,” said Coach Solazzo.  “I wasn’t anticipating that we were going to go this far but we’ve shown that we belong here.”

The Newburyport captains (Emma Foley, Viive Godtfredsen, Sophie Messina) received the Final Four trophy from an MIAA representative after the Ashland win.

“We’ve got a trophy now,” said Sophie afterwards.  “It’s the first time.”

Viive was pleased with the Final Four trophy but added, “we want the next trophy.”  That would be the one given next weekend to the Division Three champion.

Coach Solazzo: “We have been focused on our next opponent.  We keep saying, ‘One point, one set, one match at a time, together.”

(Newburyport) “It looked as if our season was going to be over a little earlier than we thought,” was how Newburyport senior Sophie Messina explained their tight tussle with Bishop Fenwick on Friday night.

The #3 seed Clippers (18-3) had their hands full and then some against the #30 seed Crusaders (8-14).

The home team was down 2-1 after three sets but rallied to escape a shocking upset in the MIAA Division 3 Round of 32.

Newburyport had twice defeated BF 3-0 going into this one.

“It was easy to see an easy win based on where we were in the bracket,” explained Fenwick coach Sam Kelly afterwards.  “Our goal was to make it challenging for them.”

Mission accomplished on that!

“Bishop Fenwick definitely took it to us tonight,” said NHS coach Lori Solazzo afterwards.  “I’m proud of the win but Bishop Fenwick played great.”

The set results were 22-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-16, and 15-8.

The Clippers will return to action on Tuesday.

The keys to the early success for BF were limiting unforced errors and attacking the Clippers.

“We knew they would be running a tall front row with an aggressive attack,” said Coach Kelly.  “We brought up Kylie Murphy from the JVs to start for us in her first varsity game.  She played fantastic.”

Kylie is tall like her teammate sister Lacey and between them they made it difficult for Newburyport to find open shots at the net.

Both teams struggled to run points together.

“We were going point to point instead of getting some runs,” said Coach Solazzo.

Newburyport’s inability to put point together kept BF in each of the first three sets and after the Crusaders won two of them the pressure was squarely on the Clippers.

“Being down 2-1 was a little nerve wracking,” said Newburyport senior Viive Godtfredsen.  “It was a matter of who was mentally tough at the end.”

Coach Solazzo credited senior Bea Cortecci with swinging things in the Clippers favor in the fourth set.

“Bea pulled us through in that 4^th set with her aces and kills,” Coach Sollazzo said.  “It was the turning point for the team for sure.”

Once the Clippers were back even after four sets the momentum switched completely in the 15-point final set.  Several miscues gave Newburyport a quick 4-0 lead.  Then it was 8-3 and 10-3.  The final was 15-8.

“Passing was a struggle the first couple of sets,” said Sophie Messina afterwards.  “Setter Emma Foley was running all over the place.  In the 4^th and 5^th sets we were able to get passes closer to the net and score off of that.  A win is a win.  We’ll take it.”

“We’re excited to keep going and get as far as we can,” said Vive Godtfredsen.

Sophie Messina had 17 kills.  Bea Cortecci had 16 kills and 10 aces.  Viive Godtfredsen had 15 kills while Lily LeDuc added 14 kills.

(Fryeburg) “It’s a mystery to us why we can’t score,” said Greely field hockey coach Burgess LaPage.

The Rangers (0-5-1) were shut out, 3-0, by Fryeburg Academy on Thursday afternoon.

While the visitors have only two goals for the season the Raiders (5-2) have scored thirteen times.

The issue for FA was recovering from an 8-0 loss last game (Tuesday) versus Freeport.

“We had a good comeback today,” said FA senior captain Grace Murley afterwards.  “We had all our defense for this one.”

Grace had a goal for Fryeburg as did teammates Greta Hermanson and Sharis Santos.

“We certainly played better today than we did for sure on Tuesday,” conceded FA coach Dede Frost post-game.

The Raiders had goals in each of the first three periods this afternoon.

I asked Grace Murley about her goal in the first period.  “That goal was on a corner,” she recalled.  “It was off a rebound.  I just tapped it in.”

Sophomore Greta Hermanson was given an assist on Grace’s goal.

Greta had her own score in the second period.

“It was a cross from Eliza Thorne,” explained Coach Frost.

Eliza came very close to scoring later in that second period, but Greely GK Kate Parkinson made a big stop.

“Kate has been playing incredibly,” said Coach LaPage.

Senior Eliza Thorne was no stranger to Greely.  Eliza had three goals during FA’s 3-0 win at Greely earlier in the season.

“We had to adjust for her,” said Coach LaPage. “She moves around a lot.”

Several times Eliza showed speed and dribbling skills to carry the ball for long distances.  The Portland Press Herald has Eliza on their list of “Twenty-five Players to Watch.”

Coach Frost described the Raiders final goal as, “super cool.” 

“We had a junior (Grace Porcaro) who is new to our team set up a freshman (Sharis Santos) for a goal,” added Coach Frost. 

The Rangers had chances, but the FA defense led by Haley Littlefield and GK Rayna Wales kept Greely scoreless.

“We showed up a little flat in the first half,” said Coach LaPage, “but in the second half we were much better.  We were stronger and mentally tough.”

“I love playing Fryeburg,” she said. “They’re very intense.”

Coach Frost talking about Eliza Thorne: “She had a hat trick at Greely. They marked her man-to-man in the second half which is exactly what I would have done.  Eliza is tough and tenacious.”

Grace Murley: “I am hoping to play field hockey in college somewhere in Massachusetts.  I really like Bentley and Babson.  I am visiting Bentley next weekend.  My captain here when I was a freshman went there and we play the same position.”

Today’s weather was bizarre.  It had rained steadily all day and the chance to play this 4PM game seemed small.  But Greely was short on makeup-game options, so they headed over from Cumberland.  Suddenly at 3:30PM the rain stopped, and the sun showed up.  It was as nice as could be for the entire game! 

(Portland) It was a fall-apart inning of immense proportions.

The Portland Sea Dogs suffered through the disastrous frame, and it cost them as the Somerset Patriots took Game 1 of the Eastern League Playoffs, 9-4, on Tuesday night at Hadlock Field.

The Sea Dogs giddy-stepped into the top of the fourth inning with an impressive 3-0 lead. 

Consecutive homers by Niko Kavalas (two-run) and Hudson Potts (solo) in the bottom of the second inning had the Hadlock faithful feeling good about the team’s chances.

But then came the top of the fourth inning.

One reporter said that it lasted thirty-five minutes! 

We saw three Portland pitchers.  We also saw four walks and eleven straight Somerset batters reach base. An error and an unturned double play were also on display.

It was indeed a regrettable/forgetable inning.

Somerset starter Randy Vasquez was about to make an early exit after Portland’s three-run second inning but found new life after his teammates raised the eight-spot on the scoreboard in the fourth inning.  Randy retired eleven Sea Dogs in a row to keep the home team from getting any comeback ideas. 

When the Sea Dogs did get a runner in scoring position, a call to the Somerset bullpen brought in the relief required.

Certainly, a different atmosphere at Hadlock tonight.  The usual crowd comes to be entertained.  Tonight’s crowd was there to actively support the Sea Dogs, a team that hadn’t been in the EL Playoffs since 2014.

Devern Hansack from the 2006 Sea Dogs EL Championship team threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The two-out-of-three series moves to Somerset on Thursday and possibly Friday night. 

I like the Sea Dogs’ chances. That bad inning is over with.  The team has won 17 of their last 21 games.  Last week they won 4 of 6 games at Somerset.

If Portland can get by the Patriots, there will be one and possibly two EL Championship games played at Hadlock starting next Tuesday.

No question the Somerset roster is loaded with New York Yankees’ prospects.  Six of their top nine prospects are on the team.

Nineteen-year-old Jasson Dominguez tops the group as their second-best prospect.  #1 prospect Anthony Volpe was with Somerset for part of the season but has moved up to AAA.

Ceddone Rafaela is Boston’s #3 prospect and he is the only one of their top-ten prospects to be at Portland.  I see the exciting fielder/hitter starting at AAA Worcester next season.

Very disappointed with Slugger tonight.  It had been ten days since he had raced at Hadlock.  I assumed he would have trained during those days off.  Severely doubt he did that after watch tonight’s race.  He started the race almost on third base and looked good until he crossed first.  His eyes told him that he could win (and he had a good lead) but his body said otherwise, and he went down in a heap as his two opponents ran home winners.

It’s not pretty to watch when you see your hero disintegrating into a season-long loser. 

September brings earlier darkness and despite the 6PM start the artificial lights of Hadlock had to be relied on for any of the game pictures.  Trust me, it’s a challenge.

Continued thanks to Chris Cameron for enabling me to be on hand for an EL Playoff game.  I hope to return next week when the stakes will be even higher.

(Poland) Yarmouth boys’ soccer if very good.

They have been Class B champs the last two seasons.

They were ranked #2 in New England in a preseason poll this year.

The Clippers had that quality on display today as they defeated Poland, 6-0, on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Yarmouth is now 5-0-1 and it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to see them making noise later in the season.

The Clippers have won ten state titles in the last eighteen years.

Yarmouth scored three times in each half.

Matt Gautreau paced the Clippers with two goals and an assist. 

“Our goal was to compete against them, and we did,” said Poland coach Josh Kennison afterwards.  “I think we played as well as we could.”

The busiest player on the field was Knights’ goalkeeper Sam Paladino.  Yarmouth had at least ten corner kicks by my unofficial count.

Stevie Walsh scored the first Yarmouth goal at 28:46 out of a scramble near the goal.

Truman Peters and Adam McLaughlin added first-half scores within a minute of each other.  Both players had good looks from further out.  Truman found the right corner while Adam’s shot went just under the crossbar.

“Most of them can take a shot from anywhere,” said Coach Kennison.  “They have multiple ways to attack you.”

“We moved the ball pretty well,” recalled Yarmouth coach Mike Hagerty post-game.  “We have a lot of talented upperclassmen.”

Matt Gautreau’s two goals came in the second half.

Matt’s first goal was set up by a long-distance pass from Liam Hickey down the right sidelines.  Matt ran under it and was off on a clean look that led to a goal.

“I have been working on those long balls all year,” said Liam Hickey afterwards.  “We practice it a lot.  Matt made a good play.  He’s very fast.”

Matt’s next goal was set up by Zach Kelly. 

Luis Cardoso had a great look from in close after a pass from Truman Peters.

Ian O’Connor recorded the shutout for the Clippers.

Coach Hagerty limited his starters’ playing time and had his team in a possession approach late in the game.

“They showed good sportsmanship and I appreciated that,” said Coach Kennison.

“Their one touch is what makes Yarmouth special,” added Coach Kennison.  “Their first touch is just unbelievable.”

“I just happen to have some players who have played a lot more soccer than Poland does,” said Coach Hagerty.  “Poland (1-4) is making strides.  They’re positive and they work hard.”

“We’ve had a good start to the season,” said Liam Hickey, “but we have a long way to go.  We have to keep working in practice.”

Liam told me that he wasn’t sure if he would be playing soccer next year in college. 

The weather is the weather!  Temps in the low 40’s at 7AM give way to temps in the 70’s at the 11:15AM start time. 

(I made a picture gallery for MaxPreps from this game with fifty-five pictures.)

(Fryeburg) Fryeburg Academy scored twice in the second quarter and defeated Lake Region, 2-0, on Tuesday afternoon in Western Maine Athletic Conference action.

“It’s a local rivalry,” said FA coach Dede Frost afterwards.  “I was sure that it would be a good game, and it was.”

Greta Hermanson gave the (4-1) Raiders the lead three minutes into the second quarter.

Greta was well set up by teammate Eliza Thorne.  A pass across the front of the net gave the FA sophomore an open look which she cashed.

“We’re not marking up in the circle,” explained LR coach Pauline Webb post-game.  “Players are getting wide open shots.”

Getting down a goal was a problem for the (1-3) Lakers because goal-scoring has been difficult so far for the team from Naples.

“We had some good shots today,” added Coach Webb.

Unfortunately, the Lakers fell further behind before halftime.

Junior Gabby Udoto took a centering pass from freshman Jocelyn Ray and drove it home from the left with only thirty-seven seconds left.

Being one goal down was a problem.  Two down was a very difficult place for the Lakers to be and they never recovered.

FA’s Eliza Thorne came close several times in the second half. One shot came after a long run down the left sidelines.

Despite the loss, Coach Webb was pleased with her team’s effort.  “We’re missing two starters (Kasey Johnson and Emma Aker) and have had freshmen filling in.  They’re getting experience.  We’ve had to change our formation to make up for the missing players.”

The FA defense did a good job of keeping the pressure off goalkeeper Rayna Wales. 

The action was seldom deep in either end.

I was very impressed with Raiders’ seniors Grace Murley and Eliza Thorne. 

“Those two are our captains,” said Coach Frost.  “They are both quick and determined.  They are little spitfires!”

Eliza was first-team all-conference in the WMC last year.

The Raiders have now scored ten goals in five games.  Their only loss was 2-1 to York.

The game was a bit of surprise to me because the weather forecast said rain throughout the day.  Looked like a postponement in the making but the rain never came.  They did start the game early (3:45) which I like because it gave me more daylight to shoot pictures in.

Being at Fryeburg Academy recently, it is hard not to notice the beautiful turf football field that is going in.  They also have a new scoreboard.  It should soon be ready for use.

(Portland) The Field of Dreams reenactment at Hadlock Field is always a good take.

Today was the day for it.

The sun was shining, and the seats were filled.

In recent years the sight of Portland Sea Dogs players in uniforms from the 1920’s signals a season coming to a close.

But not this year.

The Sea Dogs are leading the Northeast Division in the second half and have a chance to make the Eastern League Playoffs.  That feat hasn’t happened since 2014!

Portland has another game with Binghamton and then a full week at Somerset (Yankees farm team) to close the regular season.

If the Sea Dogs are still standing after that series, they will start the Playoffs at home on September 20^th.

The Binghamton Rumble Ponies fell to the Sea Dogs 4-3 this afternoon.

That’s forty wins for Portland in the second half with only twenty-two losses.  Overall, Portland is 70-61.

Sea Dogs’ starter Kyle Hart allowed a hit to the first batter (Wyatt Young) and a two-run homer to the second batter (Carlos Cortes).

Long afternoon ahead?  Not today. Kyle shut down the RP’s for the next six innings to get the win.

David Hamilton stole his team record-breaking 65^th base and hit a three-run homer to give Portland the lead for good.

David also scored the first run.  He was on third base when Ceddane Rafaela hit an infield grounder.  The fielder looked David back but as soon as he threw to first David headed home diving in ahead of the throw.

On David’s 65^th steal there wasn’t even a throw.

The New York Mets only top-thirty prospect at Binghamton is shortstop Ronny Mauricio.  The 21-year-old has twenty-five homers and eighty-two runs batted in.  Certainly a next-level player in 2023.

The last-place Rumble Ponies have definitely been helpful to the Sea Dogs.  The current record between them is 15-2 in Portland’s favor!

Christian Koss will win the team MVP Award tomorrow (Sunday).  He leads Portland in almost every offensive category.  Good chance Christian will be at the next level in 2023.

Another rising player in the Red Sox farm system is Portland’s Ceddane Rafaela.  He instantly catches your eye with his defense in centerfield.  He can hit and has speed.  Hard to imagine that he wouldn’t be at Worcester next year.

The pregame show was excellent…as usual.  Emma Tiedemann was in costume and was the narrator.

One difference I noticed this year was that the players did not have cellphones with them.  Last year many of them were busy taking pictures while pretending it was the Field of Dreams era.  Not this year.

Many hands were involved in getting the cornfield setup in centerfield and afterwards removing the cornfield. Well organized.

Very warm day.  May have reached the mid-80’s.  Sunburns were there for the taking!

Slugger was victimized by the weather.  Management had the talented big guy out there doing an energetic dance routine the inning before the race.

But credit Slugger, in his race around the bases he got off to the best start I’ve ever seen.  The young opponent was fast, but Slugger toasted him around second.  For a second I thought that finally the losing streak would end.

But as Slugger passed first base, he just flat-out ran dry.  He couldn’t move another step. He went down in a heap and his opponent got the win.

I have to partially blame management for the loss because dancing and doing somersaults just before you’re running the bases (on a hot day) is asking a lot.  Fortunately, the big guy wasn’t seriously injured. 

Thanks again to Chris Cameron for setting up my visit.  I plan to return on September 20^th if the Sea Dogs are in the Playoffs.

(Oxford) Will Dunphy waited patiently, and it paid off.

Will took the win tonight in the Outlaws’ twenty-lap feature at Oxford Plains Speedway.

Will sat comfortably in fourth through twelve laps watching drivers Betty Nelson, Drew Morse, and Skip Tripp battle for first.

“I saw them rattling each other pretty good,” said Will afterwards, “and I decided to back off.”

“I knew that something was going to give at some point,” he added.  “I didn’t know when, but I wanted to be on the defensive for it.”

Sure enough, the three lead cars got tangled up and Will sailed by on the low side to take the lead. 

Will quickly took control on the restart and won for the second time with room to spare.

The last time Will won an Outlaws feature was on June 10^th.  He had finished second seven times since then mostly to Skip Tripp.

“Even when I finished second to him (Skip Tripp) this car was far superior to his,” said Will. “I just ran out of laps.”

Skip Tripp took second tonight and has a commanding lead in the Outlaws points race.

“We had a shock that was bad in the heat, and we were so loose in the feature,” said Skip afterwards.

“Will was really good tonight,” added Skip.  “He had the better car.  I was glad to see him win.  We go a long way back.  If it’s not going to be me, it might as well be him.”

Betty Nelson won the 8-lap heat and was leading the feature until she was sent spinning in Lap 12.

Betty has competed in all twelve Outlaws features this season.  The best she has done, so far, is third.  She looked like she had a chance for her best finish of the season until trouble happened tonight.

Weather was cool but not cold.

I liked the 5PM start because it extends daylight.  Trying to photograph (or really see) action on the track when relying on the OPS lights is a major reach.

Still keep thinking about the action on Lap 242 in the Oxford 250.  There were some seriously unhappy folks after the race because of that incident!