Girls Basketball Splits Wins/Losses, Boys Struggle on the Court

The Lady Spartans and Lady Paladins are showing they will each be a force to reckon with this season on the court while their male counterparts are struggling early in the season. PHS wrestling and PC hockey are on high notes while the Spartans ice squad has been running into tough competition.

Basketball

The Lady Spartans split their matches this week with a 57-28 regular season victory over Hackensack and a 40-29 setback to River Dell in the Soaring Eagle Holiday Tournament at Union City. As lead scorer junior Brittany Stone (17 points this week) faces heavy pressure from opponents, freshman Nicole DiPasquale has stepped up to lead the Lady Spartans with 28 points in two games.

The Lady Paladins, who are competing in the Joe Poli Holiday Tournament have done 2-1 in three games recently with a heartbreaking loss to Old Tappan, 45-41 and wins over Holy Angels, 51-42, and Pascack Hills, 60-41. PC has relied on its quad of starters Dejah Taylor, Jasmin Wilson, Tiania Smith and Eboy Gilchrist to set the tempo and force a fastpaced game.

Both the Paladins and Spartans boys teams are still seeking victory on the court as PC dropped to Old Tappan, 75-74 and Bergen Catholic, 67-62 as the squad struggles to finish a complete game. PHS recently faltered against Northern Highlands, 73-62.

Wrestling

The Spartans came away with a 57-0 win over Old Tappan via six pins (Joe Trovato, Alex Sebahie, Justin Cochran, Nick Spinosa, Matt Tozzi and Brandon Manosalva), two forfeits (Nick Pettineo and Nick Simbrone), a technical fall (Laith Abwini), and two decisions (Nick Bucci and Brandon Sebahie). 

Ice Hockey

Paramus fell for the second time to St. Joseph Regional, this time by a score of 6-5 as Alex Kellenberger stopped 30 shots. Rich LaBarbiera had a hat trick while James Lyle and Dean DeLucia had one tally each. PHS was shut out by Morristown as Kellenberger made 47 shots prior to their opening round competitive 11-7 loss to Indian Hills in the Ice Vault Pepsi Holiday Classic. Tom Palestina had a hat trick, Dean DeLucia netted a pair while LaBarbiera and Steve Giambagno scored one each. Kellenberger stopped 24 shots.

Paramus Catholic remains on top of the Big North Gold Division standings after defeating Ridgewood, 5-2, and River Dell, 2-0 and then downed DePaul, 5-2 this week. Dan Sowinski leads with three goals for the week, followed by Brian D'Erario and Brian Nagy at two apeice. Alex Fleschmann, Keith Henning, Kevin Booth, Anthony Caporrino and Matt Confrancesco have one tally to their names. Netminder Thomas Pyrka stopped 41 shots in three games.

Swimming

Paramus Catholic boys and girls picked up wins over Leonia/Palisades Park previously as the boys won 97-75 and the girls 125-45. The Paladins were led by John Nunez (200 free, 100 Fly), Maciek Paz (200 IM, 100 Back), Jacek Deputla (50 Free), 200 Free Relay (Deptula, Alex Crudello, Ja Hwan Lee, Nunez), and the 400 free relay (Paz, Mike Pacheco, Crudello, Nunez).

The Lady Paladins surged ahead courtesy of Juliana Lally (50 Free, 100 Back), Marie Guerrero (200 Free, 100 Free), Jen Antonietti (200 IM, 500 Free), Nicole Jaramillo (100 Fly), Allyson Archer (100 Breast), the 200 Medley (Lally, Jaramillo, Antonietti, Isabella Akhtarshenas), the 200 Free Relay (Archer, Antonietti, Akhtarshenas, Guerrero), and the 400 Free Relay (Archer, Jaramillo, Lally, Guerrero).

Follow Patch on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to our free daily newsletter.