April 12, 2010
HS notebook: Cranston West girls seeking title
by Roger Brown/
Cranston (R.I.) High School West has produced some exceptional girls lacrosse teams in recent years, but none of those teams was able to capture a state championship. The Falcons lost the Division II championship game in 2007 and 2008, and had their season end after a loss in the semifinals last season.
This year’s Cranston West team may have more to celebrate.
“We’re trying to pick up right where we left off,” Cranston West coach Mike Soscia told the Cranston Herald. “We’ve got a good group coming back. They’ve had a lot of success and they want more.”
Cranston West has nine seniors on its roster. Most of those seniors received significant playing time last season.
The returning starters include attack Ashley Signoriello – the team’s top returning scorer − defense Danielle Andrade and goaltender Taryn Carbone
Andrade, Renee Cocozza, Ariana DeSimone and Sam Nolte give the Falcons a defense that has four players with at least three years of varsity experience.
“We’re more of a defensive team than anything else,” Soscia said. “We have a lot of experience back there and I think that makes us more defensive-minded.”
Cranston West split its first two games, which came against perennial powerhouses Bay View and Prout.
“We’ve got a healthy group of starters (returning) and they’re ready to contend for another shot at a championship,” Soscia said.
Connecticut
►Katharine Eddy’s 2009 season had a memorable ending, but one she’d probably rather forget. Eddy, a senior at Cheshire, needed one goal to break the school record for goals in a season when she suffered an ACL injury to her left knee in the first half of a first-round tournament game against Avon. Eddy finished the season with 81 goals and 37 assists. The school’s single-season record for goals is also held by Jen Martha (2001) and Dana Heritage (2006). Eddy missed the fall and winter sports seasons while rehabilitating her knee, but was given the green light to play lacrosse this spring.
►Fairfield Prep, which has captured the last four Class L championships, has seven players who have committed to play in college on this year’s roster.
Maine
►Ralph Ruocco, who guided Dover (N.H.) to a state championship in 2001, is in his first season as the boys head coach at Marshwood High School. Ruocco coached Dover from 2001 to 2005 before joining the coaching staff at Division 2 St. Anselm College. Marshwood failed to qualify for the Class A tournament last season, when it struggled through an 0-14 season. The Marshwood roster doesn’t include many players with varsity experience, so the Hawks will rely heavily on senior goalkeeper Louis Beote.
►The York boys are coming off a five-win season, but received some offseason help when goaltender Dodge Tucker transferred from St. Thomas Aquinas in Dover, N.H.
Massachusetts
►Billerica’s Grant Whiteway III, a junior attackman, has been named an Adidas High School All-America and will represent the New England region in the 2010 Adidas National Lacrosse Classic, which will be held in Germantown, Md., from July 5-8. Whiteway, who has committed to play college lacrosse at UMass-Amherst, has 124 goals and 60 assists in his 40-game high school career.
►A strong offense helped the West Springfield boys get off to a 5-0 start. West Springfield averaged 15 goals per game in those five victories. Sophomore attackman Brendan Boss has collected 20 goals and 14 assists in the five games.
New Hampshire
►Exeter is among the teams that could challenge Bishop Guertin for the Division I state championship this season, but if the Blue Hawks are going to make a serious run at a state title they’ll have to fill a scoring void left by Mac Johnson, who collected 65 goals and 35 assists in his senior season. Johnson, who is now playing at St. Lawrence, finished his high school career as Exeter’s No. 2 all-time scorer (265 points). Much of the scoring burden will fall to attackers Zach Kelleher, Chris Casserly and Will Vogt. Casserly scored 29 goals last season. Vogt and Kelleher finished with 26 and 24 goals, respectively.
►Bishop Guertin returned 13 players from a team that lost to Hanover in last year’s Division I championship game and will be tested early. BG’s first six games includes three contests against top-tier New Hampshireteams − Hanover, PinkertonAcademyand Exeter. The Cardinals will also play out-of-state games against Needham(Mass.), Fairfield(Conn.) Prep and St. Joseph’s in New Jersey.
Vermont
►The Burlington girls lacrosse program has never advanced past the Division I quarterfinals in the program’s seven-year history, but that might change this season. The Seahorses return 12 seniors from a team that won 10 games last season. The returnees include Olivia Steimke, who scored 44 goals last spring, and Sikora Cain, who finished the 2009 season with 40 goals.
►The Flynn triplets are all playing lacrosse for Rice Memorial this season. Kasey (36 goals, 20 assists) and Molly Flynn (30 goals, 17 assists) were the top two scorers for the girls lacrosse team last spring, and Mike Flynn has been penciled in as the starting goaltender for the boys team this season.
