Category Archives: Manchester-Essex

January 11, 2013 · 11:39 pm

Newburyport rally falls short as Manchester-Essex wins 54-38 in boys basketball

Liam Aldrich (10 points) looks for someone to pass to

Ian Michaels (17 points) gets airborne

(Newburyport) Newburyport had Manchester-Essex on the ropes early in the final quarter but went verrrrry cold over the last six minutes and lost to the Hornets, 54-38, on Friday night in Cape Ann League action.

The Clippers (5-3) trailed by thirteen (37-24) in the closing minutes of the third quarter but, led by Ian Michaels (17 points), cut the lead to six (42-36) with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

But over the last six minutes Newburyport had only one basket (Dillon Guthro layup from Ian Michaels) and that enabled the visitors to pad their lead to a comfortable sixteen by game’s end.

Max Nesbit (19 points) sent the Hornets (5-4) into the comfort zone with an old-fashioned three and an assist on Sean Gutierrez’s layup. Liam Aldrich (10 points) capped the eight point run with an old-fashioned three. This consecutive point surge gave ME a commanding 50-36 advantage with three minutes left. They coasted in from there.

Petey Morton (8 points)

Newburyport, which had won five of their last six, was ahead for most of the first quarter, until a three by Petey Morton (8 points) gave ME their first lead, 16-14, in the last thirty seconds of that quarter. The Hornets stayed in front the rest of the game.

Manchester-Essex, which has now won five of their last six games, boosted their advantage to seven in the second quarter and thirteen in the third quarter before the Clippers made their run to within six points in the final quarter.

Senior Max Nesbit nailed four 3’s in the game and saw a lot more open looks than a player with his shooting reputation should have had.

The Clippers continue to play without ball handler/shooter Co-Captain Colby Morris. Poor shooting was certainly an issue for Newburyport versus ME but just as significant was shaky ball management. By my unofficial count, Newburyport had eighteen turnovers including nine in the second quarter.

Dillon Guthro (eight points) waits for a pass

Clipper Dillon Guthro (8 points) was injured in the first quarter and returned in the second quarter with a noticeable limp.

A good matchup was between point guards Adam Traxler and Liam Aldrich. Liam showed a fancy move down the lane in the third quarter that raised some ooh’s and ah’s from the crowd.

ME’s tallest player (Sean Gutierrez) went out with four fouls early in the third quarter.

Both ME and Newburyport have lost to undefeated North Reading.

The Hornets were 19-3 last season and 52-14 over the last three seasons. Coach Bryan Shields is a first-year coach. This year’s Hornets started with three straight losses but have done very well since.

Freshman Dan Baribeault chases a loose ball

Newburyport was 15-7 last season.

I was told that in their last game at Ipswich the Clippers had an 11-7 lead at halftime.

The Hornets will host Triton on Monday in their next game.

The Clippers travel to Rockport on Tuesday for their next action.

Manchester-Essex boxscore

Newburyport boxscore

(All of the pictures above and below enlarge considerably if you click on them.)

halftime shooter

in bounds play

Max Nesbit had nineteen points

Taylor Ketchum splits the Clippers defense

Hornet Sean Gutierrez leans into John Baribeault

loose ball

Dan Baribeault finds an opening

Taylor Ketchum runs into defenders Matt Canning and Dillon Guthro

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Filed under Manchester-Essex, Newburyport

Tagged as Dillon Guthro, Ian Michaels, Liam Aldrich, Max Nesbit

April 26, 2012 · 9:40 pm

Manchester-Essex ends Newburyport’s 18-game win streak with 5-2 shocker in Cape Ann League baseball

Joe Burgess rounds first. The Hornet senior had three hits and scored two runs in the ME upset.

Complete game winner Adrian Frattini scattered seven hits and assisted on the last out of the game.

(Newburyport) Who saw this coming?

Undefeated Newburyport was riding an 18-game winning streak going back into last season. They’re the defending Division 3 state champs.

Manchester-Essex was 2-16 last year and 2-3 this season with losses to Georgetown, Rockport, and Amesbury.

But at the end of this Thursday afternoon game the Hornets (3-3) were jumping up and down after a 5-2 upset over the Clippers (5-1) at cold and cloudy Pettingell Field in a Cape Ann League contest.

Winning pitcher Adrian Frattini had run support early (up 4-0 after 2 ½ innings) and scattered seven hits over seven innings.

For 6 ½ innings the Hornets played like they were the defending state champs showing strong pitching, timely hitting and flawless fielding, but in the bottom of the seventh, with a 5-2 lead, they started to unravel.

Clipper pinch hitter Ryan Short reached first after a passed ball on a strikeout with one out. After a back-to-the-fence flyout by Colby Morris, shortstop Joe Burgess fell down trying to field Ian Michaels grounder putting two runners on with two outs. Up stepped CAL All-Leaguer Brett Fontaine. He hit a grounder to the right of first baseman Max Nesbit that had “routine out” written all over it. However, pitcher Adrian Frattini was late coming over to cover and the hustling Brett Fontaine beat the throw.

But then ME got the game-ending break as Ryan Short tried to score from second on Brett’s grounder and Adrian’s throw to Dom Cirone nailed him by plenty to secure the Hornet upset.

Newburyport had another basepath blunder in the 4th inning when Connor MacRae strayed too far off second base on a sacrifice fly and was picked off.

Evan Habib – hit hard early

First-time Clipper starter Evan Habib gave up a double to Joe Burgess on the first pitch he threw and was down 2-0 after three batters. John Browning delivered the first run with a double over leftfielder Mike Sweeney’s head. John scored on Matt Corwin’s single to right.

Evan faced the top of the order again in the third inning and surrendered two more runs. Another double by Joe Burgess (he was 3-for-3), started things and a single to right center by John Browning moved Joe to third. Joe registered the Hornets’ third run of the game on a wild pitch. John would come home with Run #4 on a Max Nesbit sacrifice fly.

Stephen Singer came on to pitch to the Hornets in the 4th. His problem was wildness. Three walks, one of them intentional to Joe Burgess, and a hit batsman (John Browning) gave ME a 5-0 advantage after 3 ½ innings.

John Browning misjudges a foul fly

It looked as if the Clipper fortunes were changing for the better in the bottom of the 4th after Colton Fontaine got an extra swing because John Browning misjudged his foul fly. Sure enough, Colton ripped the next pitch to left for a single. Jimmy Conway followed with a walk before Connor MacRae laced a high fastball to left center for a double driving in Colton and sending Jimmy to third.

So there it was nicely set up for Newburyport; a run in, two runners in scoring position, and no one out. But instead of a really big 4th inning the Clippers sacrifice flied into a double play and Ben Greene grounded out to short. The Clippers got two runs but the chance for more escaped them.

Stephen Singer pitched his way out of a base loaded, nobody out, big-time jam in the fifth with a force at home surrounded by two strikeouts.

That escape kept the deficit at three runs (5-2) but the Clippers couldn’t rally back over the last two innings and get their first loss of the season.

Brett Fontaine and Joe Burgess

This was Adrian Frattini’s first start of the season. It certainly shouldn’t be his last!

Noah Brown and freshman John Browning each had two hits for ME.

Centerfielder Ian Michaels had two hits for the Clippers.

Manchester-Essex faces Ipswich at home on Saturday afternoon (1PM).

Newburyport rematches with North Reading on the same day at home at 10AM. The Clippers won the first meeting, 1-0, on April 13th.

As the Hornets carried the lead into the late innings someone on the ME bench said, “This is like the US against Russia,” recalling the Lake Placid upset by the American Olympians.

(All of the pictures enlarge significantly if you click on them.)

Matt Corwin

Clipper coach Steve Malenfant

Matt Corwin tagged out by Colby Morris

Joe Burgess

Colton Fontaine

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Filed under Manchester-Essex, Newburyport

Tagged as Adrian Frattini, Brett Fontaine, Evan Habib, Joe Burgess, John Browning, Matt Corwin

February 7, 2012 · 11:20 pm

Fast start by Amesbury leads to 56-31 win over Manchester-Essex in girls basketball

Emily Martin (21 points) had a game of steals and layups for Amesbury

Courtney Borkowski (8 points) heads for a layup

(Amesbury) The Amesbury Indians jumped on Manchester-Essex early and defeated the Hornets, 56-31, on Tuesday night in Cape Ann League play.

It was obvious right off that the Hornets would have trouble with full-court pressure. In the first two minutes the Indians forced turnovers and earned breakaways as they zipped ahead, 6-0.

Jumpers from Maya Heath and Carolyn Heslop steadied things temporarily (11-6) with 2 ½ minutes to go in the first quarter.

The game got away from ME during the next six minutes as Amesbury put together a run of fourteen straight points. It was a great stretch of offense for the Indians as they made six-of-seven free throws to go along with four layups. They were either scoring or getting fouled.

Now down, 25-6, with 4 ½ left in the second quarter, this one had already gotten away from the visitors. ME never got closer than seventeen (32-15) the rest of the way.

ME trailed, 48-28, late in the game and a couple of three’s (Courtney Borkowski and Amanda Martin) helped stretch the Indian lead at the end to 56-31.

Junior Emily Martin (21 points) had an evening of steals and layups. She had thirteen of Amesbury’s first twenty-five points as this game was being put out of reach.

Emily Martin defended by Fraley Morton

After a first half of fifteen points, the ME coaching staff kept reminding the team in the second half to, “keep her (Emily Martin) from going right.” It paid off as Emily had just three layups (going to her right) in the second half.

Leanne Ciccone (9 points) showed that she could take the ball to the basket. The Indian defense, however, made it a challenge to get the ball in close to the senior.

Delane Zahoruiko and McKenzie Cloutier each had eight points for Amesbury.

Freshmen played a lot. Amesbury used Amanda Martin, Julia Schlich, and McKenzie Cloutier. ME used Eliza Lougue, Maya Heath, and Fraley Morton.

The Hornets had played last night (Monday) in a loss to Hamilton-Wenham. Fatigue may have been a factor in a next-day loss to an aggressive, fast-breaking team like Amesbury.

Amesbury (2-6 in Cape Ann League / 4-13 overall) was able to break a four-game losing streak with the victory.

Manchester-Essex (1-2 in CAL / 4-13 overall) has now dropped seven straight and ten of their last eleven. But, because of the Sullivan Rule, the Hornets can make the MIAA post-season tournament with a win at home against Rockport on February 16th. You’ve got to like their chances – they defeated Rockport, 57-26, at Rockport earlier in the season.

Amesbury box score

Manchester-Essex box score

(The pictures above and below will enlarge significantly if you click on them.)

Morgan Sydlowski and Leanne Ciccone (9 points)

Morgan Fraley and Julia Schlich

Delane Zahoruiko shoots

McKenzie Cloutier and Eliza Lougue get tangled

midcourt pileup

Jess Crossen shoots

Maya Heath

Jelisa OHara shoots

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Filed under Amesbury, Manchester-Essex

Tagged as Amesbury High School girls basketball, Emily Martin, Leanne Ciccone, Manchester-Essex High School girls basketball

March 5, 2011 · 11:52 pm

Manchester-Essex Rolls Past Matignon 93-48 to the North D4 Semi-Finals

Chris Bishop – career high 34 points and a terrific defensive job

(Manchester) If you were looking for drama you were at the right place (Manchester-Essex High School) on Saturday night. The Massachusetts High School Drama Festival was held there.

For those of us in the packed gymnasium there was little, if any, drama as the Hornets had everything working and routed Matignon, 93-48, in the D4 North quarter finals.

The Hornets are now three wins away from winning the state Division 4 title. Remember that there are only D4 tournaments in the North and South. The upper three divisions have a Central and a West also, so they play more games to sort their champion out.

M-E’s North semi-final opponent is St. Mary’s of Lynn. The Hornets have played them twice, losing at home in December and winning at St. Mary’s on February 14th. Also still alive are Georgetown and Winthrop. The Hornets split with G’town during the Cape Ann League season.

Chris Bishop (#4) connected on six 3’s

M-E (17-4) led undramatically in this one from beginning to end and how fitting it was that Chris Bishop (34 points) should score first (on a layup). The 6’1” junior had a career night burying six three’s in 2 ½ quarters of playing time. Matignon played a lot of zone defense and their fear of Joe Mussachia (and his 24.7 scoring average) led to abundant open looks for everyone else. On this night Chris took full advantage.

By the time Chris scored his last points, the Hornets had a 67-33 advantage and there still were 1 ½ quarters to play.

Matignon (14-7) trailed just 19-13 after a quarter and certainly promising for them was the fact that Joe Mussachia had already picked up two fouls.

Even with Joe on the pines at the start of the second quarter M-E started to do everything right and the Warriors could do nothing to stop them.

The Hornets pressure continually and the Warriors had eleven turnovers in the second quarter. They were actually only able to get off seven shots and connected only once.

Down the other end, M-E missed its first seven shots and then went 11-for-18 rolling up an amazing thirty-three points. Chris had seventeen of the points. And if you really want to talk about great offense – the Hornets tallied twenty-seven points in their last eleven possessions. I guess you could say they had it going!

The lead was 52-25 at the half and I doubt that any in the sweltering crowd gave Matignon a chance for a comeback in the second half. The Hornets were just too good on both ends of the court on this day. M-E led, 78-40, after three periods.

Ron Slager was held to six points after getting 22 in the Warriors win in the first round. He had Chris Bishop defending him for some of the time.

Junior Bob Crane led Matignon scorers with twenty points. His life became a whole lot easier when his defender (Joe Mussachia) picked up his second foul in the first quarter.

Joe Mussachia – thirteen points and a slew of rebounds and assists

Amherst-bound Joe ended up with thirteen points in limited minutes. I don’t have his rebound or assist totals but I’d guess he was close to a triple/double. He may have assisted on all of Chris Bishop’s three’s.

Joe Burgess came off the bench and tallied ten points.

The student section was decked in white shirts. They all filed out before the game was over and then rushed back onto the court to congratulate the players when the game ended.

It was my first time seeing the indoor part of the M-E facility. The lighting was excellent as well as the seating. However, there seemed to be no way to vent the heat that the crowd created. I’ve put on a few pounds this winter so sweating was actually a positive!

Bob Crane and Joe Mussachia share a light moment with an official.

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Filed under Manchester-Essex, Matignon

Tagged as Bob Crane, Chris Bishop, Joe Burgess, Joe Mussachia, Manchester-Essex High School, Matignon High School, Ron Slager, Sean Nally

January 31, 2011 · 11:04 pm

Pentucket Holds Joe Mussachia to Twelve Points but Loses to Manchester-Essex 69-63

Sean Nally (#5) paced Manchester-Essex with 21 points. His defender (Corey McNamara) put up 20 points for Pentucket.

Joe Mussachia (#22) and John Modlish scramble for a loose ball in the last minute of play.

(West Newbury) Highly touted Joe Mussachia looked like just your average Joe from where I was sitting until late in the game when he hustled after a bad pass, got fouled, and nailed both free throws. Those free throws gave Manchester-Essex (10-4) the cushion they needed to defeat Pentucket (8-5), 69-63, on Monday night in entertaining Cape Ann League play.

Joe (12 points) came in with a 25 points per game average but the combination of John Modlish and Will Angelini either denied him the ball or forced him into turnovers for most of the night. Joe had only six points through three quarters.

The Hornets got off to a horrible start trailing 9-0 while having more turnovers (7) than shot attempts (4). They also got a steady earful of tough love from Coach Duane Sigsbury.

Sean Nally – led all scorers with 21 points

Turns out that ME has plenty of other scorers – Sean Nally (21 points), Chris Bishop (15 points), and Jason Stasiak (11 points). They sure needed them against the Sachems.

Pentucket was led by Corey McNamara (20 points) and Will Angelini (16 points).

The special coverage on Joe Mussachia left openings for the Hornets’ other shooters. That nine-point deficit had shrunk to, 31-29, by halftime.

Will Angelini – 16 points and solid defense

Pentucket showed solid offense throughout the game because: (1) they ran organized offense and used their size advantages to lose their defenders on screens and cuts to get open looks and (2) Will Angelini (16 points) has a turnaround shot that even a tall defender like Joe Mussachia never came close to blocking.

Will would later foul out with 1:45 left and trust me that hurt the Sachems on both ends of the court thereafter.

The Hornets finally took the lead early in the third quarter on a head-scratching sequence all involving Sean Nally (5-10 junior). On the first possession he missed two free throws. The next possession he hits a 3 from the left hand corner. The next possession he nails a 3 from the right hand corner and gets fouled and makes that free throw. Who can predict shooting??

Anyhow, that little collection of offense put Manchester ahead 38-35 with six minutes left in the 3rd quarter. The lead would expand to 53-43 as Adam Jackson, Chris Bishop, and Jason Stasiak strung together seven straight points.

Credit the Sachems, led by Corey McNamara they went on a 12-2 run into the final quarter and evened things at 55-55. Corey hit a couple of 3’s during the rally.

Parker Kelly’s two free throws tied the game again at 57 with 6:15 to go. The next points registered were a three by Chris Bishop with 5 ½ left. The Hornets would never trail again although Pentucket came painfully close.

A rebound conversion by Parker shortened the Sachem deficit to 65-63 with fifty-six seconds left. Sean Nally got called for an offensive foul but, with a chance to tie, John Modlish’s jumper rimmed out.

ME tried to hold onto the ball but a dangerous pass bounced around near midcourt. Both John Modlish and Joe Mussachia went after it hard but the foul was called on John with twenty-one seconds left. If the foul goes the other way, John is shooting free throws for a tie. A steal there and Pentucket was off to the races for a tying basket or free throws. Needless to say, the Pentucket partisans weren’t thrilled with the call.

Joe Mussachia hits clutch free throws in last minute.

Joe made the two free throws and ME had the win.

Alex Porter (8 points) was back with Manchester-Essex after missing a number of games with an injury.

One of the neat matchups to watch was Chris Bishop covering Corey McNamara. Pentucket’s motion offense had Chris fighting over and under screens to stay with Corey.

Joe has signed to attend Division 3 powerhouse Amherst.

Pentucket was 8-for-8 from the foul line.

ME shot over 50% (25-for-49) from the floor. Included in that shooting was 6-for-11 from 3-point territory.

There are numerous lefties in the Hornet starting lineup.

Both these teams should make the MIAA tournament. Manchester-Essex should do very well in Division 4 especially if Joe becomes not your average Joe.

(I keep my own stats. I take my own pictures and create my own captions. I also draw my own conclusions. Any mistakes are unintentional.)

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Filed under Cape Ann League, Manchester-Essex, Pentucket

Tagged as Alex Porter, Chris Bishop, Corey McNamara, Jason Stasiak, Joe Mussachia, John Modlish, Manchester-Essex Hornets, Parker Kelly, Pentucket, Sean Nally, Will Angelini

March 9, 2010 · 7:55 pm

Manchester-Essex Ousted by Undefeated Cohasset 50-40 in D4 Championship

Meredith Kelly (19 points) defends Lizzy Ball (14 points) in the key matchup of the game.

(Boston) Meredith Kelly led Cohasset (25-0) to the Division 4 title on Tuesday afternoon at the TD Garden as the Skippers defeated Manchester-Essex (13-13), 50-40.

Meredith led all scorers with nineteen points but that was only half the story. The defensive job she did on ME’s main scoring threat, Lizzy Ball, was the game decider.

Lizzy ended up with fourteen points but they’ll be the hardest points she’s ever gotten. She made six free throws (6-for-8) but only 3-of-18 from the floor and nothing (0-for-3) from long range. Credit Meredith and the Skipper help defense, which stepped in when Lizzy broke free.

The final score in this one is misleading. The Hornets were very much in contention (trailing only 15-14) with 5 ½ minutes left in the first half. Julia Martz (11 points) had eight of those points in what looked like anyone’s game.

However, ME’s chances slipped through the cracks over the next 7 ½ minutes of playing time, stretching into the second half. The Hornets came up pointless in the next fourteen possessions while the Skippers produced twelve points over the same span.

Seven turnovers by the Hornets during that scoreless segment were the chief contributors to the resulting 27-14 deficit 2 ½ minutes into the second half. ME would carry that double-digit deficit for the rest of the game.

Undefeated Cohasset (25-0) poses with D4 championship trophy

Cohasset had the senior leadership with the lead to be patient on offense and used the clock. They settled for high percentage shots (their last six baskets were layups) and prevented ME from getting into any kind of comeback rush.

The final score is also misleading since ME scored the last seven points of the game over the last three minutes after Cohasset had turned things over to its reserves.

I saw St. Mary’s of Lynn defend Pentucket star Erin McNamara out of her normal game in the D3 North tournament (held to 9 points after averaging 20) but have teammates pick up the slack and carry the Sachems to victory. Lizzy Ball faced the same defensive situation versus Cohasset, but on this day, the talented junior found teammate help wanting.