Page 12 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, OCTObEr 20, 2023 ~ SHS Sachems Sports roundup ~ SAUGUS GIRLS’ SOCCER NETS 10TH WIN The Saugus High School girls’ soccer team notched its 10th win of the season with a 6-0 victory over Northeastern Conference rival Salem. Madi Femino netted a hat trick, and Shawn Sewell, Shay Sewell and Taylor Deleidi had the other goals. Shawn Sewell added an assist, and Veronica Ortega and Liliana Hernandez added helpers. Danvers handed Saugus its third loss of the season, 4-1. Natalie Justice scored unassisted for the Sachems. SAUGUS GOLF GETS SPARK FROM YOUNGSTERS IN LOSS Beverly topped Saugus on the links, 51-21. Captain Ryan Jones tied his match at the number one spot. His play highlighted a great day for the team and its young eighth-graders. SAUGUS VOLLEYBALL FALLS IN FIVE TO SWAMPSCOTT Saugus took Swampscott to a fifth set but fell short in a 3-2 loss. “It was back-and-forth each set with each team staying within three to five points,” Saugus coach Mikayla Niles said. “Our girls are playing phenomenal.” Setter Aly Mabee has been working very hard with an assistant coach “and it has been such an improvement from her,” Niles said. “And I am so happy to see her setting to the ability I know that she can.” Outside hitter and captain Ava Rogers has been having a phenomenal year. Ana Silva, Saugus’ Libero, another captain, sacrifices and leaves her body on the floor every single day. “She leaves her heart and soul out there after every game,” Niles said. “I couldn’t be prouder of her and her effort.” The coach also cited Nina Penachio. “She’s been having a phenomenal game upfront,” Niles said. “Her attitude has just been so well keeping the girls’ heads in the game. Everyone else has just been contributing so much on and off the court. It’s just been really good. We’re getting really close to the end of the season and we definitely want to clinch a playoff game so we gotta pull some strings and get some wins out of these next couple of weeks, but I definitely have faith in the girls.” SAUGUS FIELD HOCKEY COMPETITIVE IN LOSS TO TOP-TIER TEAM Saugus has dropped its last four field hockey games but has been showing marked improvement. “We have been battling with just enough players on varsity with some of the games bringing up one to two junior varsity players and only having six players on junior varsity,” Saugus coach Barbara Guarente said. “Although our young players have improved tremendously, it is tough to ask them to be at the level of the seniors of the other teams. That is a five-year difference. We are extremely proud of the level of play the girls are demonstrating in the last few weeks. We have gone from losing badly in the beginning of the season to now being very competitive with the top teams in our league.” For instance, the team lost to Danvers, 2-0. This was a battle where the girls played great defense, according to their coach. “We held them in the first quarter,” Guarente said. “They scored in the second, and their second goal came in the second quarter off the stick of one of my players. We held them for the rest of the game. It’s tough playing these talented teams with no subs.” Saugus’ Senior Night is Friday night, Oct. 20. Ceremonies begin at 5:15 at home against Revere. The team’s seniors are Jessica Bremberg, captain, Grace Fiore, captain, Bella Natalucci, captain, and Samantha Murray. SAUGUS BOYS’ SOCCER SPLITS A PAIR OF 2-0 MATCHES Saugus beat Salem, 2-0, at home last week. Nick Oliveira had a goal in that match. Northeast Metro Tech topped Saugus, 2-0. SAUGUS RUNNERS POWER NORTHEAST Northeast Metro Tech cross country held a home meet against three other teams last week. It raced against Innovation, Greater Lawrence Tech and Mystic Valley. The team did not pull off a win, but a few of its runners improved their times including Saugus runner Gino Chiaravallotti with a time of 21:27. He finished 18th overall, and he was the fifth runner for Northeast. Kason Imbrogna continues to improve his times each week too. He ran the 5k course at Breakheart Reservation in 24:48. The girls’ team did not win, but they continue to improve each week, too. Amanda Oliveira of Saugus was the seventh runner across the line and she ran the 5k course in 24:52. She was the first Northeast girl to cross the line. Annabella Tum of Saugus was the fifth Northeast runner across the line with a time of 29:25. Football Sachems look to snap three-game slide after Gloucester loss By Dom Nicastro T he Saugus High School football team dropped its third straight game – 27-8 on the road to Gloucester last Friday – and fell to 3-3. The Sachems are hoping to bounce back on the road in a non-league matchup at Falmouth at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21. Falmouth is 1-5 and coming off a 27-6 loss to Dennis-Yarmouth. Gloucester led Saugus, 21-0, at halftime and never trailed. Jordan Rodriguez found Ameen Taboubi for a 35-yard touchdown pass for Saugus’ only score. And Tommy DeSASKS| FROM PAGE 4 dustry. The thing that’s always frustrated me is people are so willing to say “Put it down there.” Q: So, what are pressing imone had an interception for the Sachems. “We’ve got hit bad by the injury bug,” DeSimone said. “It’s especially hard to lose your starting quarterback and captain for the year especially with the kind of player Cam Preston is. Also losing Braden [Faiella] for two games and losing Danny Shea for the year. It’s been tough, but it’s easy to use injuries as an excuse. Things like this happen in life. It’s about turning adversity into opportunity.” Faiella had a knee injury and returned for the Gloucester game. He said he is feeling good right now and lookissues for you in Precinct 10? What would you like to see happen to improve your neighborhood? A: Two things that I would like to see; I want the ash landfill shutdown. I don’t ing to help Saugus turn things around in the final two regular-season games. Saugus is ranked No. 25 in Division 5 and needs to be in the top 16 to make the postseason. “We definitely need to work on our offensive line for Falmouth,” Faiella said, “but we’ve already started the week hot on the line and gotta keep on working. The first three games the run game was very strong so that is a real big strength and also our defense as a whole when we are on our game is very strong.” Faiella said Falmouth seems like it has some good athletes. It runs the triple option, “which think the people of Saugus and East Saugus should have to bear the burden of accepting a substandard trash-burning facility that can’t possibly meet current emission standards and – might be complicated, but I believe in the team to shut that down,” he added. DeSimone said Saugus this week has been getting back to basics on improving everything. “Football is a team sport,” he said. “It’s hard to say there is only one area of our game to improve on. We need to be better as a team. When we were at full strength our offense was extremely balanced, we were hard to stop. Not much to do when the run game was rushing for over 100 yards and we were throwing for 300 yards a game. Not to mention coach [Greg] Bluestein’s defense has been currently outrageous – is to allow an unlined ash landfill to double in height over the next 20 years. The second thing I’d like to see happen would be the demolition of the Balshut-down all year and won us some games early on.” As for Falmouth, DeSimone said the record is deceiving. “I think Falmouth is a really good team,” DeSimone said. “Their record doesn’t show it. They’ve also played a really tough schedule but played all those teams extremely tough. They’re a big triple option team which can create problems for us defensively if we aren’t on our keys. But overall I feel good about the game, hopefully to get things rolling again going into senior night vs. Winthrop.” Winthrop comes to Saugus Friday, Oct. 27 at 6:30 p.m. lard School and the creation of the Ballard Gardens Passive Park. Q: Any historical markers in the precinct? ASKS | SEE PAGE 14
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