Sports 10-12-2017

CHS Roundup

CHS boys soccer top Northeast Regional, 2-1

The Chelsea High boys soccer team turned in what CHS assistant coach Evan Protasowicki termed “our best game of the season” to earn a 2-1 victory over Northeast Regional Vocational School last Thursday on the turf at Chelsea Stadium.

“We played a full 80 minutes against an excellent Northeast team,” said Protasowicki of the Red Devils’ performance, for which a large crowd of Chelsea supporters were on hand for the battle with the Red Devils’ perennial archival.

The Chelsea victory avenged an earlier loss to Northeast at the beginning of the season and gives the Red Devils a good chance of capturing the championship of the Large School Division of the Commonwealth Conference.

Chelsea drew first blood 10 minutes into the game when senior defenseman Carlos Arevalo made a nice run up the left sideline, dribbling past a Northeast player and keeping the ball just inbounds along the sideline.

Carlos then delivered a nice cross into the box, where sophomore midfielder Eric

Barahona one-timed a perfect shot into the back of the Northeast net.

The teams battled evenly over the rest of the half, leaving matters at 1-0 in Chelsea’s favor at the intermission. The scoreboard remained locked-in at that reading through most of the second half, until Northeast finally broke through with 11 minutes to play to bring the contest back to level, 1-1.

“We knew that a tie with Northeast would not be good enough for us,” said Protasowicki. “We had to win if were were going to catch them in the standings, so we went all-out to try to pull ahead.”

The Red Devils launched a furious offensive effort which paid off when Delmer Romero carried the ball into the box on the left side, worked his way into the Northeast defense, and then let go what Protasowicki described as a “perfect shot” that landed into the lower right of the Northeast net.

“Delmer had a small window from a tough angle, but he made it,” said Protasowicki. Romero’s goal, coming with just three minutes remaining in the contest, caused the CHS bench and fans, the largest crowd of the season, to erupt with joy.

CHS keeper Bryan Armas, who made some nice saves throughout the contest, earned the victory in net.

The big victory was followed by a disappointing 1-1 tie this past Tuesday with always-tough rival Lynn Tech. Romero scored the lone CHS goal just two minutes after the opening kickoff when he buried a rebound from a shot by Jephte Marcellus, who had made some nice moves past the defense to draw close to the Tech keeper.

However, despite many opportunities throughout the game, the Red Devils were unable to dent the Tech net over the remaining 78 minutes of play.

Tech brought the contest to level three minutes into the second half, where matters remained until the final whistle.

The tie means that Chelsea still needs some help if the Red Devils are to claim another CAC Large title. Northeast is one point ahead of Chelsea in the standings, but still has to play undefeated Mystic Valley, which sits atop the standings in the CAC Small Division.

The Red Devils are set to host Minuteman Regional today (Thursday) and will travel to Greater Lowell next Thursday.

CHS boys outrun Greater Lowell, 23-38; Leclerc sets course mark

The Chelsea High boys cross country team improved its record to 3-2 with a solid 23-38 victory over Gr. Lowell last Wednesday on the Red Devils’ home course at Admiral’s Hill.

“It’s been a number of years since we have beaten Gr. Lowell, so this felt good,” said CHS head coach Don Fay.

Senior captain Jose Leclerc crushed his previous course record by more than 30 seconds to outdistance all competitors with a clocking of 17:31.

Gr. Lowell runners finished second and third, but Chelsea took the next eight places to win going away. Wuilfido Hernandez came across in fourth place in a personal record (PR) time of 18:48. Demitrius Martinez finished fifth in a season-best of 19:34.

Senior captain Alex Pedrero also had a PR time, finishing sixth, and  Raphael Castillo was seventh overall in 20:01.

Limilson Tavares and Jazmany Reyes were one second apart, 20:09 and 20:10 respectively. Yosef Ruben and Justin Turner ran 20:12 and 20:16 to finish 10th and 11th.

“We had eight runners finishing within 90 seconds of each other,” noted Fay. “That is what we have been looking for all year.  If we can continue to race like this, then we have a chance at the league meet title.

The boys were set to travel to Wakefield yesterday (Wednesday) to compete against Northeast and Minuteman Tech.

This coming Wednesday they will journey to Essex Tech for a quad-meet with Essex Tech, Shawsheen, and Lynn Tech.

CHS girls run record to 6-0

The Chelsea High girls cross-country team remained undefeated with a convincing 22-38 victory over Greater Lowell last week on the Admiral’s Hill course. The triumph improves the Lady Red Devils’ record to a perfect 6-0.

CHS junior captain Yarid Deras cruised to a first-place finish coming across the line 40 seconds faster than the rest of the field in her season’s best time of 22:15.

Fellow junior captain Jocelyn Poste was about a minute behind in third place. After a Gr. Lowell girl came across in fourth, the Lady Red Devils clinched the victory by grabbing the next four spots and seven of the next eight.

Junior Amanda Dias took fifth place in 24:29, followed closely by teammates Cynthia Mancia in 24:30 and freshman Kathy Lopez in 24:31.

Marissa Rivera was eighth in 26:04 and teammates Karina Avalos, Carla Romero and Stephanie Rodriguez came home in 10th, 11th, and 12th positions to complete the scoring for Chelsea.

“We had a great pack today and we ran well as a team,” said CHS head coach Don Fay.

The Lady Red Devils were set to race yesterday (Wednesday) against Northeast and Minuteman Tech.

“If we get by those two teams then we will have a showdown for the large-school dual meet title the next week at Essex Tech versus Essex Tech, Shawsheen, and Lynn Tech,” said Fay.

CHS football team plays at Mystic Valley

The Chelsea high football team, which earned its first victory of the season this past week, 22-0 over Minuteman Regional, travels to play Mystic Valley this Friday evening.

Kick-off under the lights at Malden Catholic Stadium is set for 7:00.

Bruins Beat

by Bob Morello

Bruins take to the road

With Monday’s holiday matchup with the Colorado Avalanche, a 4-0 loss, already in the rear view mirror, it’s time to look forward and prepare for Boston’s three-game road trip, which began last night (Wednesday, 9:30pm) in Colorado. Coach Bruce Cassidy will be looking for his team’s resiliency, especially from the youngsters in the lineup who did not display the tenacity and drive they displayed in the regular season home opener versus the Nashville Predators. The Bruins trip to Colorado affords them the opportunity in this second game of the home-and-home series, to extract some revenge after the Avalanche buried them on Garden ice last Monday.

While Cassidy did not point fingers, or name names, he did stress his common litany of, “we win as a team, we lose as a team.” There were many factors in Monday’s loss which proved surprising, such as their unimpressive start which found them in a hole quickly, when Rask allowed a couple of goals that could accurately be described as ‘soft,’ the play of the youngsters who had looked so solid just three days earlier, was totally the opposite. The work of Charlie McAvoy, Jake DeBrusk, and Ander Bjork, fell short on many of their shifts. Bad choices on offense and defense by the youngsters, hurt the team, offense and defense, as they created mere chaos with busted plays that resulted in missed chances and a loss.

The much needed offense of Brad Marchand was nowhere to be found in Monday’s contest, as he roamed the ice, often looking lost, and again showed the effect of not having the injured Patrice Bergeron on the ice to help him create the much needed offense. In these two games without Bergeron, Marchand has recorded two shots on net, and to make matters worse, Bergeron hasn’t skated full contact as yet, meaning his return to the ice could possibly be as early as the weekend, but likely longer, as he continues to suffer from an unexplained lower-body injury incurred during training camp. Torey Krug did return to the ice, but obviously will still need time to find his strength and rhythm. Adding the loss of Bergy to an injury list that already includes, David Backes and Noel Acciari, and you can cut the team some slack, but this is where other players need to step up and fill in.

Following the Wednesday (last night) game with the Avalanche, the Bruins’ weekend will consist of road contests with the Arizona Coyotes, Saturday at 9:00pm, and on Sunday in their first meeting with the newest NHL franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights in a 7:00pm start, before returning to TD Garden ice to host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, October 19 at 7:00pm.

THE TRADITION – Mark your calendars as The Sports Museum offers up one of its signature events on Tuesday, November 28, at the TD Garden when they present their 16th Annual The Tradition. The lineup of honorees for 2017’s The Tradition, include Bruins legend and Lady Byng Trophy winner (1982), Rick “Nifty” Middleton, former Celtic, and two-time NBA Champion (1973-74, 1975-76), Dave Cowens, New England Patriot linebacker and three-time Super Bowl Champion (2001, 2003, 2004), Willie McGinest, tennis superstar Martina Navratilova, winner of the Wimbledon title nine times between the years of 1978 to 1990, and former Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek, whose achievements include two Word Series championships (2004, 2007), Gold Glove winner (2005), and a Silver Slugger Award (2005).

Corporate sponsorship plays a critical role in the success of The Sports Museum’s signature events, such as The Tradition. By underwriting event costs a larger percentage of proceeds can benefit at-risk kids in the Boston area through their educational programming, as well as support The Sports Museum and its exhibits.  Corporate sponsors of The Tradition receive many benefits including marketing and brand exposure. For more information on sponsorship opportunities, please contact

Ashley Walenta at [email protected] or call (617) 624-1231.

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