Winter Sports Arrive with Huge Wins, Upsets for Paramus Schools

With all winter athletics in full swing, the Spartans and Paladins had good showings in their opening salvos on the court and mat, while PHS hockey picked up its first win of the season.

Wrestling

Paramus Catholic placed 8th overall in the Frank Dawson Jr. Memorial Holiday Tournament at Garfield HS. Zack Avallaro (120), Jake Pletsch (160) and Marcos Pantoka (285) all fell in the quarterfinals. Justin Costello (170) pinned his first opponent in 2:51 before falling in the semifinals; he later took third place in the consolation round with a 1:51 pin. William Duby III worked his way into the 145 weight class finals but came up against Becton/Wallington's Tyler Loughlin and finished in second.

The Paladins dropped their first two dual meets of the season, 52-21 to Becton/Wallington and then 50-12 to Bergen Catholic. Scoring points against the Wildcats were Mike Scaravilli (126), Pletsch (160), Pantoka (285) and Cavallaro (120). Only Joe Zueglarz (106) and Evan Latrella (182) put points on the board against the Crusaders, both by forfeit wins.

The Spartans won their first dual meet of the season by upsetting neighboring rival Ridgewood, 36-27. Paramus took three of the lower weights (Nick Petineo at 106, Nick Caimbrone at 113 and Joe Trovato at 120), a middle weight (Laith Abwini at 138) and three upper classes (Nick Bucci at 170, Brandon Sebahie at 182 and Matt Tozzi at 195).

Ice Hockey

Paramus got its first win of the season 3-2 over Fair Lawn as Alex Kellenberger made 52 saves between the pipes. Tom Palestina scored twice and James Lyle once. Before that the Spartans fell 7-1 to St. Joseph Regional as Rich LaBarbiera netted a first period goal and Kellenberger stopped 32 shots.

Paramus Catholic remains undefeated after downing Dumont/Demarest 10-0 with four goals in the first and six in the third. Alex Fleischmann netted a pair while Kevin Booth, Anthony Caporrino, Matt Confrancesco, Keith Henning, Dave Mozieka, Matt Rainey, Derek Sabato and Kyle Wolf each contribute a tally. 

Swimming

Paramus boys and girls fell to Ridgewood this week with final scores of 101-68 (boys) and 93-70 (girls). The Spartans were led by Harold Cho (200 free, 100 breast), Eric Kim (100 fly), Eric Gritz (100 back), the boys 400 relay (Kim, Cho, Jon Scrivanich, Jeff Park), Tiffany Hsiang (200 IM, 100 Fly), Amanda Bocekei (100 free), the 200 free relay, Christine Boyedji (100 breast stroke) and the 400 free relay (Boyedji, Bocekei, Laura Okechiku, Hsiang).

Bowling

The Lady Paladins finished third overall in the Holiday Team Classic girls division with 2,480 points, defeating Northern Highlands in the quarterfinals before falling to Holy Angels in the semis. Anastasia Deleon had a high series of 613 for an individual second place. Nikki vucak rolled a 540 series.

During the regular season, PC split their meet with Indian Hills and Don Bosco/IHA as the boyys fell twice by scores of 5-2 while the girls swept the Braves 7-0 and lost to IHA 5-2. James Kane had a high series of 620 for the week.

Paramus split their win/loss to Bergenfield as Brittany Hovan had a high series 696 in the Lady Spartans 7-0 victory. Takuya Tokinaga rolled a high game of 215 in the a 5-2 loss to the Bears.

Basketball

Paramus boys got off to a rough start with three losses in a row to begin their 2012-13 campaign. Matt Pechman and John Morella, averaging 20 to 30 points in three games, were clutch down low as the Spartans fell 71-48 to Indian Hills, 63-53 to Westwood and 73-57 to Ramapo.

The Paladins never led through four periods in a knockout opener loss to Don Bosco 85-64 as Jalen Henriquez netted 26 points and Kyle Menard 18. PC led for most of their game with DePaul before a late final period Spartan surge and a 50-47 loss. Marcus Dickerson led all scorers with 17 points followed by Menard’s 16.

Brittany Stone picked up where she left off last season, recording 53 points in the first two games, to bring herself within 140 points of her career 1,000th. She will most likely hit that milestone for the Lady Spartans in early January and be the first in school history to do so. The Paramus girls fell to Indian Hills 57-53 and Ramapo 63-28. 

PC just barely had the lead against IHA before a 21-point Eagles fourth period go-ahead doomed the Lady Paladins, 56-43. The squad rebounded with a 50-47 win over DePaul to just overcome a scrappy Spartans late period comeback.

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