Sports
By Don Lyons - January 18, 2007
Tisbury's Ryan Fisher can only watch as O.B.'s Randall Jette takes flight for two of his 33 points. Photos by Ralph Stewart
Oak Bluffs blazes trail
of perfection
The 2006 Island Interscholastic basketball champions reside in the Cottage City. Cheered on by a raucous capacity crowd of 300 plus at their home school, Tuesday, the Oak Bluffs squads put the exclamation points on their magical seasons by winning both finals, the girls over Edgartown, 27-17, and the boys over Tisbury, 66-38.
Each team played eight games this season and each team won them all.
Credit must also go to O.B.'s coaching staff - girls coach Josh Aronie and boys coaches Alex McCluskey and John Blau, who had their teams superbly prepared from day one.
The O.B. girls came closest to tasting defeat in a 35-34 thriller with Tisbury in game three, but those troublesome Tigresses were knocked out by Edgartown in last week's semi-final. The Eagles showed all the toughness required of a finalist, however, baring their talons at O.B. with the same relentless defense the Blazers are used to dishing out.
Madison Hughes dashes for the hoop, pursued by Eagles Hanna Persson, Tara Morris, and Jessica Willoughby.
The first half ended with a hard-won 22 points, 13 for OB, 9 for Edgartown.
The second half was really just as close, except that the ball simply would not do what the Eagles wanted it to. It clanged, bounced, rolled around and over the rim time and again, but would not go in. Oak Bluffs was a bit rushed in trying to pull away at first, but gradually settled down and picked their spots. Gillian Sedlier, the game's high-scorer, played particularly well in the second half, scoring all of her nine points. Other Blazers on the scoreboard were Emily Williston (6 points), Catherine Todd (3), Molly Ciciora (3), Alicia Oliveira (2), and Madison Hughes (2).
Hanna Persson led Edgartown with 6 points. Tara Morris had 5, Jenny Lindland 3, Jill McHugh 2, and Amanda Rose 1.
The game came to a screeching halt six minutes from time when Edgartown sixth-grader Jenny Lindland took a nasty spill on the floor, following a mid-court collision. She was treated by Oak Bluffs paramedics and taken to Martha's Vineyard Hospital. As of yesterday, she'd recovered and was back in class.
In the boys contest, the Tisbury Tigers made a game out of it in the first half, handling the fearsome Blazer pressure defense with aplomb. In fact, their patient attack and solid rebounding had O.B. rather out of rhythm and in early foul trouble. The Blazers led by 10 twice, but could not run away as the Tigers, propelled by Mike Araujo's ten points, cut the lead to 26-20 at the half.
In the second half, the Blazers were just too much. They were the team from the previous seven games whose closest call had been a 28-point win against these same Tigers. They defended at a fever pitch, broke quickly and accurately on offense, and unleashed in full force their not-so-secret weapon - a Jette named Randall, fueled and ready for take off. What a flight it was. He scored a quiet 16 in the first half, but his 17 points in the second were dazzling.
Ben Ciciora (16 points) and Jack Wadleigh (10) also hit in double figures for the champs. William Stewart (3 points), Billy Anderson (2), and Tyler Araujo (2) also scored for O.B.
Mike Araujo was the top cat with 16 points. Gussie Maki had 6, T.J. Van Gerven, 5, Ryan Fisher, 4, Eric McElhinney, Ryan Dunbar, and Trenton Brown, 2 each, and Derek Andrade, 1.
Semi-finals
As expected, the Oak Bluffs girls defeated the West Tisbury girls, 55-24, Wednesday, but the up-Islanders did not go quietly. At the half, the Blazers led by just two points.
Also Wednesday, the Edgartown Eagles swooped into Vineyard Haven and flew off with a 35-32 win and the chance to challenge O.B. in the finals. Edgartown led by 10 at the half, 22-12.
The Edgartown vs. Tisbury boys game, Wednesday, was a case of too much Michael Araujo for the Eagles to handle. He scored 22 of Tisbury's first half 49 points and finished with 30. Gussie Maki added 18.
The Tiger's lead at the half was 49-22.
Bryan Montambault and Jon Dorr were high for the Eagles; both had eight points.
It was no competition at O.B. as the Blazers ran off to a 27-0 lead in the first half en-route to a 44-12 win over West Tisbury.
Chris Hathaway slammed the door shut on the D-Y Dolphins to earn the shutout in the jayvee game, Monday afternoon.
Hockey boys surge to conference lead
The MVRHS boys ice hockey team ran roughshod over the opposition in three victories this week, outscoring their prey 21-4.
The Vineyarders sailed to the Whaling City Wednesday and mauled the Greater New Bedford Bears, 9-2. They were even more dominant Saturday at the Gallo Arena versus Bourne.
Against GNB, the Islanders roared back from a 1-0 deficit and potted six goals in the second stanza.
Joel Rebello posted the first two goals assisted first by Darren Gazaille and Matt Flynn, then by Stephen Greenberg and Tad Gold.
Ten seconds later, Greenberg found the net with help from Davey Campbell.
Before the period ended, Henry Smith, Zach Sylvia, and Tad Gold beat busy goalie, Matt Lucio. Credit for assists went to Nick Billingham, Colin Hurd, Truman French, Greenberg (2), and Gold.
Third-period scoring was by French, Sylvia, and Gold, aided by Rebello, Campbell, Gazaille, Flynn, and Greenberg.
Alex Minnehan made 20 saves in goal.
Tad is good as Gold with his second tally in a four-goal Vineyard first period as the varsity beat the Dolphins 4-2.
Bourne buried
A suffocating Vineyard defense held Bourne to a scant seven shots for the game - six in the first period, one in the second, and none in the third.
Meanwhile, the Islanders were peppering three Canalmen goalies with 34 SOG, eight of them finding the back of the net.
After a scoreless first period, Tad Gold put the first point on the scoreboard before the second period was a minute old. The Vineyarders followed up with four more in the final 2:43. Nick Billingham struck first, followed by Darren Gazaille, Davey Campbell, and Gazaille again.
Assist credits went to Gazaille, Henry Smith, Billingham, Colin Hurd, and Matt Sylvia.
Third period goals were by Billingham, Josh Rebello, and Matt Flynn, assisted by Hurd, Campbell, and Scott Cleary.
The junior varsity also defeated Bourne, 6-1. Daron Stobie notched the hat trick with ample help from linemates Oliver Osnoss and Jock Cooperrider.
The previous day at the MV Arena, the jayvees took the first inter-island clash of the season, sinking the Nantucket Whalers, again by a 6-1 count. Daron Stobie tallied twice. Oliver Osnoss had a goal and two assists. Logan Russell, Jarek Peters, and Brooks Billingham all scored with Henry Smith, Curtis Maciel, David Flanders, and Billy Johnson earning an assist each.
Dolphins downed
The Vineyarders, so dominant in their road work over the weekend, were merely good enough in a 4-2 home defeat of Dennis-Yarmouth, Monday afternoon. They did all their scoring in the first period and hung on the rest of the way.
The Dolphins struck first with an early power-play goal 3:24 into the game, but Tad Gold got the Vineyard even 20 seconds later with a snap-wrister from the left circle.
M.V. struck double Gold as Tad lit the lamp again. The goal was unassisted, but, in truth, was facilitated by Stephen's Greenberg's stand-up check at the Vineyard blueline, which sent Gold in alone.
M.V. closed out the period with another one-two punch 45 seconds apart. Darren Gazaille made it 3-1 at 11:20 and Joel Rebello slid the disk through the D-Y goalie's wickets at 12:05.
The Dolphins got one back in the second session and outshot the Vineyard 11-3 in the third, but to no avail. M.V. stands at 6-1-4 overall and first in the South Coast Conference at 3-0-2.
The jayvee squad improved to 8-2-2 by blanking D-Y 4-0 earlier in the day. Connor Johnson scored in the second period, assisted by Logan Russell. Daron Stobie, Jarek Peters, and Jock Cooperrider tallied in the third with assists to Brooks Billingham, Cooperrider, and Teddy Kram. Chris Hathaway earned the shutout.
Next Saturday, the Vineyarders are at Mattapoisett versus ORR. The jayvees host Barnstable Friday at 3:40 pm.
