Boys basketball
The Vineyard boys traveled to Nantucket on Saturday, and matched the girls’ results in Oak Bluffs with a varsity and JV sweep of the Whalers.
MV led by double digits through most of the varsity game, and won, 56-43, improving to 3-2, both overall and in Cape and Islands League Atlantic Division play. Senior forward Rammon Dos Santos, back in the lineup since the win at Dennis-Yarmouth on Jan. 26, scored 11 points in the first quarter, and finished with a game-high 24 points.
“Rammon had a good game, Mike Trusty had another good game — I think he had eight points — they really were concentrating on trying to limit him, because he’d been our leading scorer the previous four games,” Vineyard Coach Mike Joyce said. “We did a good job being aggressive, because they played zone a lot of the game. We attacked the seams of the zones, and that’s where we got a bunch of dunk downs to Rammon, and Nico Depaula got a few baskets that way as well, just because of the way Nantucket was focused on our guards because they had been scoring a lot of points for us.”
In the JV game, the Vineyarders used a balanced attack to win, 42-23. Nate Story scored eight points, followed by Parker Bradlee, Josh Lake, and Geo Meikle (seven each) and Toby Roberts (six). Ryan Koster added four points, and Cam Napior had three.
The Vineyard varsity and JVs have a busy week ahead, with road games at Barnstable (Feb. 4), Sandwich (Feb. 5) and Nauset (Feb. 10), while the freshmen boys host Monomoy at the high school on Monday at 4 pm.
Boys hockey
The Vineyard icemen posted a second consecutive shutout by blanking the Nauset Warriors 3-0 in Cape and Islands League interdivisional play on Saturday at Charles Moore Arena in Orleans. Oliver Lively stopped 12 shots to get the win in net, and MV had 28 shots on the Nauset goal.
Cam Geary scored in the first period from Liam Marek and Nick BenDavid, Jake Scott lit the lamp in the second period with stellar help from Mike Wallace, and Pete Gillis supplied the coup de grace, scoring from the high slot on a perfect feed from Aiden Marek off a two-on-one break. Eli Gundersen set the play in motion and picked up the other assist.
“It took us a little while to get going, but after that, I got a goal from all three lines, so that’s pretty good,” Vineyard Coach Matt Mincone said. “It was a good win. Defensively, we haven’t allowed a goal in six periods, which is pretty good no matter who you’re playing, especially in high school hockey.”
Coach Mincone switched up his lines prior to the start of the game, and his decision to reunite the trio of Cam Geary, Liam Marek, and Nick BenDavid from last year’s playoffs paid quick dividends. “They did a good job,” Mincone said. “They were buzzing all over the ice. They probably should have had more good scoring chances than they did, but they got us on the board in the first period.”
The Vineyarders have also had to cope with injuries, losing defensemen John Coogan (femur) and Noah Smith (collarbone) for the season. Freshmen Aiden Conley and Chase Grant, along with sophomore Harper Hearn, have stepped up to give Mincone solid help on the backline, while returning defensemen, senior co-captain Eli Gundersen, junior Charlie Lakis, and sophomore Nick Rego, have seen lots of ice time and played extremely well.
After playing St. John Paul II at home on Wednesday afternoon, the Vineyarders host the Nantucket Whalers in a big Lighthouse Division showdown on Saturday afternoon. The puck drops at 1:30 pm.
Girls hockey
The MVRHS girls hockey team capped off a busy Saturday afternoon of Island sports by hosting Cape and Islands League powerhouse Sandwich at the MV Ice Arena. The Vineyarders played well in the first period, but couldn’t maintain the same quality of play for the duration, and lost, 4-1.
The Purple got off to a great start, carried the play early, and looked dangerous on attack. Marin Gillis made several promising rushes into the Sandwich zone, and Paige Anderson put an exclamation point on the period when she burst through the Lady Knights’ defense and snapped a wrister into the top right corner of the net with 1:14 left to give MV a 1-0 lead.
Neither team was at its best throughout the middle period, but Maura McIver managed to slip the puck past Vineyard goalie Sarah Hartenstine from the left circle at 9:22 to tie the game and give Sandwich some momentum.
After the puck dropped to start the third period, the Lady Knights skated in a different gear, and turned up the heat in the Vineyard zone. When Sydney Sawyer scored at 3:29, Vineyard Coach John Fiorito called a time-out for his team to regroup, but to no avail. Two minutes later, Megan Barrett floated a wrister from the point that ticked off the crossbar and dropped over Hartenstine’s shoulder for a 3-1 lead. Adrianna Kelsch closed out the scoring with 42 seconds left to play.
Sandwich improved to 7-1, while the Vineyarders fell to 0-4-1.
“We had a great first period, although we had some mistakes,” Coach Fiorito said after the game. “It was disappointing. We’ve worked hard to be in these games, and it’s a 1-1 game against a really good team, but if we don’t play really smart and well in our defensive zone and have full-on effort at all times, we’re going to get exposed.”
The Vineyarders hit the road for Nantucket on Sunday, and travel to Nauset to play the Cape Cod Furies on Wednesday.
Swimming
As the Times went to press, the MVRHS swim team competed against Nantucket in a virtual meet on Wednesday evening. The Vineyarders swim against Nauset on Thursday from 5:45 to 7 pm. The meet will be streamed live via the MVRHS Swim Team Facebook page.
