CHS Roundup
Ieng runs wild in 36-12 CHS victory
Nick Ieng turned in one of the all-time great performances for a running back in Chelsea High football annals to lead the Red Devils to a 36-12 rout of Charlestown Friday evening at Chelsea Stadium.
Ieng ran for an amazing 242 yards on 14 carries and scored three touchdowns on runs of 80, 50, and five yards. He also picked off two Charlestown passes to contribute mightily to the CHS defensive effort.
Teammate Ky Che intercepted a Charlestown pass on a two-point conversion attempt that Ky returned 90 yards for an unusual pick-two. Brian Rivas scored on a 13 yard run and Kevin Ruiz went over from five yards out to account for the rest of the Red Devil scoring.
Head coach Jack Halas and his crew will travel to South Boston for their contest this week.
CHS boys soccer ready for tourney
The Chelsea High boys soccer team, which punched its ticket for a Journey to the Tourney early in the season, was awaiting word of its seeding and opening-round opponent in the Division 2 North sectional of the MIAA state soccer tournament. The announcement of the tourney teams and match-ups was expected to be made yesterday (Wednesday) as the Record was going to press.
Coach Mick Milutinovic’s crew concluded its regular season last week against Wachusett Regional, which made the long trek from Central Mass. to Chelsea.
Although the Red Devils came out on the short end of a 3-1 decision, the contest proved a good warm-up for the tourney against a quality D-2 opponent.
Wachusett grabbed a 1-0 lead in the opening half and made it a 2-0 contest 15 minutes after the intermission, with both goals coming via the penalty kick route.
“We made some mistakes in the defensive end of the field and then tried to compensate with some poor tackles, for which the refs correctly awarded the penalty kicks,” said CHS assistant coach Evan Protasowicki.
Wachusett made it a 3-0 contest before Red Devil Humberto Suarez reached the back of the Wachusett net with about five minutes to play. Humberto was in the right place at the right time to put home a rebound from an almost-perfectly-placed direct kick by Kevin Umanzor-Torres that banged off the post.
However, the tally proved too little, too late for a CHS comeback.
Two key Red Devil players, Carlos Cruz and Carlos Cartagena, both were back on the pitch for the contest after recovering from injuries. However, junior forward Christian Hernandez, who was becoming an integral part of the CHS offense as the season progressed, will be out of action for the tourney after being diagnosed with a foot fracture.
With a final record of 11-4-2, the Red Devils, the co-titlists of the Large Division of the Commonwealth Athletic Conference, likely will host a home game in its opening-round contest.
Deras wins girls’ CAC cross country title
Sophomore Yarid Deras took the lead from the outset and never looked back to win the individual cross-country championship of the Commonwealth Athletic Conference Saturday at Essex Tech in Danvers, thus becoming the first-ever Lady Red Devil to claim the individual championship of the CAC.
Yarid’s wire-to-wire conquest of her CAC rivals included avenging her only losses during the regular season. This time around Deras handily defeated the two Notre Dame of Tyngsboro girls who had edged her previously, winning by margins of 25 and 54 seconds at the league meet.
The only serious challenge to Yarid’s championship run came from Shakiria Henriquez of Presentation of Mary Academy, who put on a burst late in the race to close the gap. However, Deras responded to the challenge to win by a comfortable gap of nine seconds, a distance of about 75 yards.
Yarid’s winning time was 21:08 over the three mile course.
“Yarid ran a terrific race,” said CHS head coach Don Fay. “You always tell an athlete to get out strong and start in a good position so they can have a chance to win the race. She did that and never looked back.
“At one point after the hill going into the third mile, you could tell she was fatigued and in distress,” added Fay, “but she composed herself and lengthened her lead by a couple of seconds in the final half mile.
”Yarid has worked very hard for this,” Fay continued. “She has not missed a practice in two years and had a great training program over the summer. She is also more importantly, a straight A student and has a great attitude.”
CHS senior captain Melanie Nguyen ran 23:36 to finish 17th overall in the field of 63 runners. Sophomore Jocelyn Poste was right behind Nguyen in 18th place with a time of 23:53. Senior Owliyo Mohamed was 23rd in 24:42, followed by freshman Karina Avalos in 36th in 26:51 to complete the CHS scoring.
Freshman Sandra Tun also finished well for the Lady Red Devils, who finished in fifth place in the upper division CAC race, only six points out of fourth.
Members of the team will compete in the State Coaches Meet Saturday in Wrentham, with races for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors/seniors.
Leclerc is third in CAC meet
Chelsea’s Jose Leclerc finished in third place among boys’ large school opponents at the Commonwealth Athletic Conference’s All-League cross-country meet Saturday at Essex Tech in Danvers.
Shawsheen’s Jake Ferri and Greater Lowell’s Allen Mukundi, the only two CAC foes to top Jose during the season, took the top two spots in the meet.
“Jose ran a smart race,” said CHS head coach Don Fay. “He was in contention until about the final half mile when the top two pulled away from him.”
Leclerc’s time was 17:27 for the 3.0 mile course.
“This is Jose’s first season of cross country, so he should be very happy with the result,” noted Fay. The top eight runners receive all star status and will attend a banquet later this month to honor their achievement.
CHS freshman Demitrius Martinez finished in ninth place, a mere six seconds out of all-star placement. “Demitrius ran a good race and was just out of the money. I look forward to his future this year and in the upcoming years. This will be good motivation for him to get better,” said Fay.
Senior captain Adriel Cedano finished in 26th place and teammate Alex Pedrero came across in 28th. Freshman Abraham Barrientos completed the scoring for Chelsea with a 33rd place finish in 21:02.
The Red Devils finished in fifth place in the large school division of the CAC. They will compete Saturday at the State Coaches Meet in Wrentham.
Bruins Beat by Bob Morello
Bruins show promising signs
With just a single game remaining to be played tonight (Thursday), on Tampa Bay Lightning’s ice surface, the Bruins hope to take the momentum they’ve created with their two recent wins that began this road trip, and attempt to earn a ‘hat trick’ of wins. Mostly riding the wave of goaltender Tuukka Rask’s steady and confident play (5 games, 5 wins), Boston suddenly finds themselves on a two-game winning streak, following a disastrous three-game losing streak. Victorious in all five of his starts thus far this season, Rask has stood tall in net, allowing a mere six goals in those five games, and posting impressive numbers – 1.20 goals-against-average, and a save-percentage of .961. Rask has been exceptionally sharp in the two games since his return, having faced a total of 57 shots from the Detroit Red Wings and Florida and only allowing a single goal.
Facing the Panthers in Florida on Tuesday night, the Bruins got off to a really poor, sloppy start, allowing 13 shots on Rask, while only able to garner three shots themselves on Florida’s Roberta Luongo. Fortunately, one of the three shots was a penalty shot taken by Brad Marchand, who scored easily to give Boston a 1-0 lead. Picking up their play in the second period, the Bruins’ Dominic Moore scored a shorthanded marker to up the lead to 2-0. While the team continues to be weak on the power play, their solid work on penalty killing has served them well, as they shut down all seven of Florida’s power-play opportunities.
With Rask back and on track, the Bruins are playing with a renewed effort, as the win on Tuesday upped their record over .500 (5-4-0). Following tonight’s (Thursday) encounter with the Lightning, the Bruins will return to Garden ice for a brief two-game home stand with the opposition coming from two teams playing well, the New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres. The Bruins will host the Rangers on Saturday, November 5th at 7:00pm, and take on the Sabres, Monday, November 7th at 7:00pm. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the locals, as they are back on the road again for a Tuesday night (November 8th) confrontation with the red-hot, yet to lose a game (at press time), Montreal Canadiens in a 7:30pm start, before returning to home ice to face the Columbus Blue Jackets (Thursday, November 10th at 7:00pm.
Bruins winger David Pastrnak and the Boston Bruins Foundation are offering up his customized, pregame skate lavender Hockey Fights Cancer jersey worn October 25th prior to the game the team hosted the Minnesota Wild. The Boston Bruins Foundation is giving one lucky fan the chance to win Pastrnak’s autographed warm-up worn jersey via a raffle that will run through November 9th at 5:00pm. Proceeds will benefit the Boston Bruins Foundation. Tickets can be purchased at www.bruinsraffles.org.
On Sunday, November 6th 11:00am – 1:00pm, the Boston Bruins and March of Dimes will surprise 50 expectant military moms and dads with an educational baby shower at the Boston Harbor Hotel. The moms-to-be will have the opportunity to mingle with the Bruins’ wives and girlfriends, and hear from national parenting experts in an effort to empower them through education, resources and the local community. Attendees will receive the latest pregnancy and newborn health information from the March of Dimes Mission: Healthy Baby® program along with gift boxes filled with baby supplies courtesy of Safety 1st® and Philips Healthcare.