Sports
By Ralph Stewart - February 1, 2007
Darren Gazaille cuts toward the cage with a Bear in hot pursuit. Photos by Ralph Stewart
Vineyard icemen are South Coast champs
If the Vineyard boys hockey team has played their final South Coast Conference contest, then they have gone out on top, clinching the league crown with a 12-4 pasting of Greater New Bedford Saturday night at a packed MV Arena.
The Islanders, SCC co-champs with Bourne last year, left no doubt this time around, finishing with a 5-0-3 conference record. They are currently 8-1-5 overall with six games to play in the regular season.
Joel Rebello had a hat trick and an assist, as M.V. scored four times in each period.
The game was an undisciplined affair with the teams combining for 29 penalties, 13 in the third period alone.
The belligerent and overmatched Bears had 18 of the infractions, including a game misconduct, following an inappropriate gesture directed at the Vineyard crowd.
Chris Davies dekes the Bears goalie out of his skates for the eleventh Vineyard goal.
For their part, the M.V. faithful were given a referee's warning for taunting following the sixth goal, due to some overzealous fan behavior along the corner boards behind the plexiglass. As a result, fans will not be allowed to stand in the area around the boards between the goals on the team side of the arena for remaining contests.
The Vineyarders came at GNB in waves right from the start. Darren Gazaille and Nick Billingham set up Tad Gold for a chip-in at the left post to begin the onslaught at 5:51.
Thirty-two seconds later, Scott Cleary punctuated another Vineyard rush off a beautiful Billingham goalmouth feed from the left circle. Colin Hurd had the other assist.
Even shorthanded, the home side was dangerous. Joel Rebello stole an errant pass at the Bears' blue line, streaked in alone, deked Matt Lucio to the right, and slid in the backhander for a 3-0 lead at 10:04.
Davey Campbell scored on a slapshot from the right point two minutes later, assisted by Mitch Pachico and Truman French to close out the scoring in period one.
M.V. potted two tallies in a 1:12 span early in the second period. Stephen Greenberg got the first from Darren Gazaille and Tad Gold after three or four pokes at the puck in the crease. As that goal was announced over the PA system, Pachico and Rebello set up French for goal six.
The Bears briefly showed some spunk with a quick pair of goals, 56 seconds apart.
The Vineyarders ended any Bears momentum abruptly, as Zach Sylvia cashed in on the power play, assisted by Rebello and Cleary.
The Bears made matters worse by going two men down and Rebello made them pay with his second of the night from Sylvia and Greenberg at 13:34.
Through two periods, M.V. led 8-2 and held an enormous 40-10 shot advantage.
Six goals were scattered betwixt and between all the penalties in the final period.
Mitch Pachico scored the first Vineyard marker from Trey Rasmussen. Joel Rebello completed his hat trick during a four-on-three power play to put the Purple in double digits at 10-3. Stephen Greenberg earned the assist.
The final two goals came with nearly as many players in the penalty box as on the ice. The game was now reduced to three-on-three, allowing ample space for two breakaway goals from freshmen Chris Davies, assist to Greenberg, and Antone Sylvia, unassisted.
The Vineyard finished with 53 shots to GNB's 19. Alex Minnehan and Mike Capen shared the netminding chores.
Jan. 24, the Vineyarders defeated Wareham 8-0.
Tad Gold scored a pair of goals and set up a third. Stephen Greenberg and Darren Gazaille had a goal each and two assists.
Zach Sylvia, Truman French, and Colin Hurd were the other goal-scorers.
Mike Capen kept out all the Viking shots, getting the shutout in his first start.
Next up is a significantly more demanding test, as powerful arch-rival Hanover comes to town tomorrow night at 6 pm.
The boys JV hockey team lost to Worcester Vocational, 7-2, Monday and stand at 9-4-2. They travel to Needham on Feb. 5 and Marshfield, Feb. 7.
The M.V. Islanders celebrate their tourney triumph.
Vineyard triumphs at Ryan Mone
The Vineyard squirt Bs took both championships at the Ryan Mone Memorial Tournament last weekend at the M.V. Arena.
The M.V. Islanders beat Cape Cod Canal 3-1 in the first final and the M.V. Warriors surprised the previously unbeaten Reading Rockets 7-5 in the second.
The Islanders faced off against Concord in Saturday's opener and romped to an 11-2 victory. South Shore was similarly dispatched, 6-1. Against the Canalmen, however, the Islanders met their match, falling behind 6-0 before making a spirited comeback in a 7-4 loss.
The momentum from the final period carried over into Sunday's rematch in the final.
The Islanders got great goaltending from Noah Kleinhans, stellar defensive work and strong games from Andrew Carroll, Aubrey Ashmun, Kyle Stobie, Marco Petricone, Bradley Fielder, Nicklas Kent, Kyle Lyonnais, and MVP Brian Fraser to win the final.
M.V. Warrior Tyson Araujo blasts off through a sea of red-clad Redding Rockets.
Matt Davies, Carroll, and Callie Jackson scored for the Islanders, with assists going to Ashmun and Dorian Johnson.
The Warriors started their championship run by defeating the New Hampshire Avalanche, 5-2. In game two Saturday night against the Medfield Devils, the Warriors lost a heartbreaker, 4-3.
They finished the evening against the Reading Rockets, falling behind 3-0, before fighting back and cutting the margin to 3-2 by game's end.
As N.H., Medfield, and M.V. were all 1-2 to Reading's perfect 3-0 mark, tournament tie-breaker rules put the Warriors in Sunday's final because the home side had won the most periods.
One had to think the hockey gods were smiling on the Vineyard Sunday morning as the first goal in the final was scored by a Reading defender skating the puck over his own goal line in an attempt to move a lose puck out of the crease.
Tyson Araujo got credit for the mishap and scored four proper goals later, adding one assist for good measure.
The game went back and forth until a third period surge put the Warriors in the driver's seat at 6-3.
The home side refused to give Reading the lead at any point, getting inspired and unselfish play from Alexander Vukota, William McDonald, Andrew Wiley, Oren Osnoss, Austin Morley, Emerson Mahoney, Mac Sashin, Sydney Davies, and goalie Jack Slayton, the tourney MVP.
Great support from all six visiting teams matched that of M.V.'s and made for a fun, well-attended event.
In other youth hockey action, the M.V. Travel Mites enjoyed a successful weekend, winning at Yarmouth-Dennis, 9-0, and at Barnstable, 12-1.
Joe Davies had six goals and two assists, while James Sashin and Aksel Cooperrider had five goals and an assist apiece.
Others who made the score sheet were Brahmin Thurber-Carbone (two goals, one assist), Anthony Jackson (one goal, one assist), Mason Jeffers (one goal, one assist), Joshua Forend (one goal), and Greg McCarron (one assist). Even goalie Wyatt "Squid" Jenkinson had an assist.
The Vineyard Pee Wees dominated visiting Falmouth, 7-1, Sunday.
Harrison Rodriques led the way with two goals and one assist. Joe Uva, Eamon MacKenzie, Max Davies, Thomas Wilkins, and Jake Hart were the other goal-scorers, with assists going by the pair to Ben Bilzerian, Shay Hill, and Brian Hurley, and singly to Uva and Wilkins.
The Vineyard girls also took to the ice, with Amanda Gonsalves scoring the team's second goal of the season in a 4-1 home loss to the South Shore Ladyhawks, Saturday.
Jessica Willoughby competing in forms at the 2007 Kickoff Tournament in Fitchburg.
Karate Tournament
Strictly All Contact Tae Kwon Do school of Edgartown sent over 20 Island competitors to Fitchburg on Jan. 20 for the Independent Practitioners and Promoters of New England) (IPONE) 2007 Kick-off tournament.
The Vineyard students competed in three disciplines: fighting, forms, and weapons.
Placing were:
Julia Bettencourt, 1st forms, 2nd fighting.
Madison Hughes, 1st fighting,
2nd weapons.
Nick Fiore, 1st fighting, 2nd forms.
Abby Willoughby, 1st fighting, 2nd forms.
Ian Brew, 1st fighting.
Michaela Gaines, 1st fighting.
Jean Cleary, 2nd fighting, 2nd forms.
Gord Bailey, 3rd fighting, 3rd forms.
Tayla Kuehne, 3rd fighting, 3rd forms.
Additionally, Cal Fiore, Madison Hughes, and Jessica Willoughby placed second overall in the IPONE junior blackbelt division for 2006.
Students from Strictly All Contact will perform a demonstration during the Oak Bluffs School talent show, tomorrow
at 6:30pm.
