Latest from North Branford Girls’ Soccer, Volleyball, Cross-Country and Football

Football

The T-Birds' football team had its highest scoring game this season on Oct. 12 with a 70-39 win over Old Saybrook to improve to 4-0. North Branford held a one-point lead after the first quarter at 15-14, padding its lead to 35-27 at halftime. In the second half, the T-Birds scored five more TDs to the Rams' two for the big win.

Brandan Basil was 9-for-14 passing for 288 yards and six touchdowns, also running in one score. Dale Hausman the T-Birds in rushing yards with 151 with Joe Delucia (37), Basil (30) and Gary Falanga (25) also running the ball. Chris Caron had 183 receiving yards, while Delucia had 54 and Falanga had 36. 

Delucia and Caron each had three touchdowns, Hausman had two and Alex McGuigan and Basil each scored one. Delucia was 6-for-7 on PATs.

Defensively, North Branford tallied 77 tackles, led by Falanga with 10 and Josh Melaccio with nine. Others contributing big numbers on the defensive line were Hausman (7) and McGuigan, Nick Whited and Christian Sgro with five tackles apiece.

Girls’ Soccer

On Oct. 9, the North Branford girls’ soccer team fell to Old Saybrook 2-1. The Rams struck first when Molly Beck scored unassisted in the second half.

Emmy Dulak tied it for the T-Birds 10 minutes later off an assist from Jess Zumbo. With 5:30 to play, Beck struck again with the game-winner.

North Branford outshot Old Saybrook 10-5. Julie Castillo (3 saves) and Sarah Minnicucci (2 saves) split goaltending duties for the T-Birds.

Two days later, Coginchaug handed the T-Birds their eighth loss of the season. Dulak scored just five minutes into the game from Fran Kaiser for an early lead, but Coginchaug came back to take a 2-1 first-half lead with scores from Allie Doolittle and Kayla Votto.

In the second half, Dulak completed her second hat trick of the season to tie it 3-3. Laurin Gagne assisted on one and Sam Stowe assisted on the other. The goals pushed Dulak’s weekly total to four and her season total to nine.

With only 1:10 remaining in the game, the Blue Devils took the win as Zoe Stublarec scored an unassisted goal.

Coginchaug outshot North Branford 20-12 with Castillo (6 saves) and Minnicucci (5 saves) again splitting time.

North Branford got its third win of the season on Oct. 18 with a 1-0 victory over Westbrook. Senior captain Jessica Iannucci scored in the second half with an unassisted corner kick.  

The T-Birds outshot the Knights 12-8 with Minnicucci making seven saves for North Branford.

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Volleyball

On Oct. 9, North Branford volleyball fell to a strong East Hampton team 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-17). East Hampton improved to 9-1 on the season, the T-Birds fell to 2-8.

Kayla Nowak led North Branford with two blocks, four kill and two aces; Julia Reis had 11 digs and an ace, Deanna Gallo had two kills and two aces, Tori Ramada had four assists and one aces and Bryana Saroka had three kills.

The next day, North Branford lost to Hale Ray 3-1 (25-18, 25-15, 21-25, 25-11). Nowak had two blocks, a kill and six aces and Reis had six digs.

On Oct. 12, North Branford earned a 3-0 victory over Hyde, winning 25-13, 25-7, 25-12.

Nowak had four kills and four aces, Saroka had a kill and nine aces and Allie Sanzari had five aces and an assist.

Despite a tough battle, North Branford fell to Cromwell 3-2 on Oct. 15. North Branford took the first two games, 28-26 and 25-19, but Cromwell came back to win the next three 25-20, 25-18 and 15-7.

Nowak had eight kills, three solo blocks and six aces; Gallo had four kills, four aces and five digs; Ramada had seven assists and two aces; Rachel Funaro had 15 digs and Ashley Poston had two kills, a block and two aces.

On Oct. 17, Valley took a 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-15) win over the T-Birds to drop North Branford's record to 3-11 in 2012. Nowak was strong again for the T-Birds with three kills, a solo block and an ace. Reis had 15 digs and an ace. Ramada added four assists and an ace.

Cross-Country

On Oct. 10, the cross-country team participated in the Shoreline Mega Meet hosted by Valley Regional High School at Jonathan Winthrop Middle School in Deep River. The meet served as a warm up for this week’s Shoreline Conference Championship, which will be held on the same course today, Oct. 18.

In the Mega Meet, the girl’s team was entered in the Unseeded Division and the boys’ team was entered in the Seeded Division on the 5K course over covered terrain consisting of grass, blacktop hill and woods. 

The boys came in fifth place out of six teams. Top finishers for the boys were Ryan Proto (20th, 18:15), Sean O’Connor (24th, 18:20), Jason Conforte (25th, 18:26), Zach Augur (38th, 19:18) and Chris Olsen (62nd, 20:33).  Also finishing for the boys were Isaac Cammarata (20:51), Richard Hernandez (22:35), Jared Miket (23:43), Patrick Fisher (23:51) and Jackson Myers (25:21).

The girls’ team came in fourth place out of four teams. The top finisher for the girls was Marissa Bale (5th, 23:12).  Also finishing for the girls were Chelsea Meagher (27:10), Grace Carr (30:29), Jessica Munck (30:38), Jen Berube (31:43), Alana Cotton (32:10) and Meghan McCarthy (32:29).

Cheerleading

The North Branford cheerleaders have been working hard this season. After learning some new moves at NECA camp and then perfecting their Patch cheer, the T-Birds' cheer squad has been busy with their new routine, that they showed off at the homecoming game.

Thanks to Janice Despotakis for the great video she posted in Pics & Clips! Check it out and don't forget you can add your own photos and videos, too!