16 - December 16, 2011


by Marc Ayotte On Friday, December 9, the Campbell varsity basketball program enjoyed a twin bill sweep of Raymond High. In the Cougar Den, the girls jumped out to a big lead in the first eight minutes of play, as they cruised to an 83-41 thrashing of the Rams. Meanwhile, Pat Roye’s boys’ team hit the pavement when they traveled to play their season opener at Raymond. The Cougars, on the heels of a fine defense effort, boarded the bus back home to Litchfield on the heavy side of a 53-42 verdict. Just 38 seconds into the game, Becca Arnone scored the team’s first two home points of the season. Exactly two minutes later, senior Liz Pettis rained in the first ‘tres’ of the season giving Campbell a sluggish 5-0 lead. Despite continued early game shooting woes suffered by Campbell, in which they missed nine shots from inside the paint in the first quarter alone, the Cougars did eventually ignite their offense at about the half way mark. A superb full court dash by Arnone who finished off the play with a cross-lane pass to Pettis for an easy deuce gave Campbell a 19-4 advantage. Pettis then returned the favor to her fellow senior by hitting Arnone under the hoop with a terrific pass from half court, with just under a minute remaining in the opening stanza. Arnone continued the first quarter deluge when she drained a triple of her own before the buzzer sounded. The long range ‘j’ put the finishing touches on an impressive first quarter which saw the Lady Cougars leading 30-9. Raymond came out battling in the second quarter and actually outscored Campbell 10-6 through the first three minutes and 30 seconds. However, any thoughts the visitors may have had about disrupting Campbell’s home-opener


Hudson~Litchfield Sports Hudson~Litchfield Sports


Silence of the Rams: Lady Cougars Win Home Opener; Boys Open With Road Win


Defending champs and their mascot enjoy their home opening victory over Raymond


party were soon dismissed by #23 in white. Consecutive steals and subsequent full court lay-ups by Arnone gave the Cougars a 46-21 lead, putting the potential Ram’s comeback on permanent shutdown. In the closing 30 seconds of the half, Hannah Neild conducted her own personal 5-0 run. The freshman connected on a rainbow from beyond the arch and then converted a steal into an easy lay-up, giving Campbell a 30-point cushion at 51-21.


More of the same entertained the Cougar fans in the third quarter as Campbell pushed their lead as high as 42 points with just under 3:00 remaining.


With most of the starters now relegated to supportive roles on the sidelines, the younger players acquired some valuable court time. And in so doing, they continued to increase the Cougar lead to 67-29, as ‘Sweet Caroline’ echoed in the Den as the two teams prepared for the final eight minutes of play. The highlight of the final session saw Shannon


Lavigne take full advantage of her time on the hardwood. The senior, in her first season at the varsity level, brought the players on the bench to their feet when she knocked down a ‘stop and pop’ three pointer from the right wing. Lavigne


made it five consecutive points moments later with a low post hoop that pushed the Campbell lead over the half-century mark, at 83-32. The Cougar’s outside shooting vastly improved from their opening game at Prospect Mountain. The home hoops were a comforting sight to Campbell players as they shot a respectable 43 percent overall and pleased head coach Shawn Flynn by going 28 of 56 (50 percent) on two point attempts. The win was the result of a well- balanced Cougar effort that saw several players light up the stat sheet. Becca Arnone once again had a monster outing. In seeing only two and a half quarters of action, the senior center tickled the twine for a game high 25 points while pulling down 10 boards. Liz Pettis continued to impress with her play-making abilities, leading all players with six assists. The Cougar guard also chipped in with a dozen points and shined defensively with three steals. Sophomore Alex Trevains had a very impressive performance, scoring 12 points and recording eight rebounds to go along with two helpers. Hannah Nield had a second consecutive strong showing with nine points, four rebounds, and four assists. Aly O’Donnel pitched in with eight points; including a fourth quarter 3-pointer. With the win, the Cougars improve to 2-0 on


the young season. In a post-game assessment of his team’s performance, Coach Flynn noted that they were able to be effective both inside and outside of the bucket. Flynn also addressed his team’s slow shooting starts in the first two contests; “we lost a wealth of experience last year, it’s going to take time-we know that.” However, the Cougar coach had difficulty containing the excitement regarding the potential strike force of the offensive arsenal under his wings;


Silence of the Rams - continued to page 15


HUDSON KENPO KARATE STUDIO Located in the Hudson Village Shoppes


290 Derry Rd., Hudson • Call 595-4507 for details


Introductory Price with this


$19.95 HLN coupon


Includes official Uniform Plus 2 Private Lessons


Lichtenberg Captures First Place at Bronco Invitational


PUBLIC SKATE


Tues. & Thurs. 12pm-1:20pm (Stick & Puck, too!) (check schedule on website for changes)


Sat. & Sun. 3pm-4:20pm Adult & Kid Rentals


TEEN NIGHTS 8:30-10pm


Little Cyclones “LEARN to PLAY Hockey” Join Any Time!


Mondays at 5pm, Saturdays at 8am


20 Constitution Drive, Hudson (near Rt 111) • www.northerncyclones.com 603-880-4424


(start anytime and your fee will be pro-rated)


by Marc Ayotte The Alvirne Broncos hosted the 2011 version of the Bronco Invitational wrestling tournament on Saturday, December 10. Seven teams competed in the annual event including nearby schools Pelham and Londonderry. The remaining competing teams joining host Alvirne were Exeter, Timberlane, Manchester West and Keene. The Broncos had a very productive tournament with six individual wrestlers finishing in the top three spots of their respective weight classes.


According to Alvirne head


coach Tom Jackson, his Bronco squad was a young team.


He had some wrestlers with a fair amount of experience and others that were very young – not many in between. With a near full roster that saw all but one of the weight classifications having maroon and gold representation, Jackson was optimistic about his team’s chances in the meet. The Bronco coach admitted however, that the team has “a lot of work to do getting our technique and condition” adding “we’ve got to keep everybody healthy because we don’t have a lot of depth.”


Special Section: Area News Group’s


Well Care Advertise in


Running 2 weeks this January!


Jan. 13 & 20


2 Private Lessons, 12 weeks of Unlimited Classes, Official Uniform, 2 Family Guest Passes - All for just $129


For ages 2 1/2 - Adult - offer ends Feb 29, 2012


273 Derry Road, Unit #2 Litchfield, NH 03052 603-598-5400


www.gsakenpo.com www.areanewsgroup.com Call 880-1516 or visit


Coming off a nice 48-30 team win over Spaulding this past Wednesday, the Broncos again received many fine performances on Saturday. With one third place finish and four second place finishes in the Bronco medal parade, it was ultimately Stephen Lichtenberg in the 195-weight division that stole the show. The senior received a first round by early in the morning, but then proceeded to pin Christen Hernandez of Manchester West at 1:23 of their semi-final match. As a reward, Lichtenberg had to face Pelham’s Tom Gleason who was wrestling well as evidenced by his semi-finals dismantling of Exeter’s John Kulesza in just thirty seconds. In the finals, Lichtenberg got off to a quick and decisive 7-0 lead after the first two-minute period. It didn’t take the Bronco wrestler but 34 more seconds before he pinned the cross-town Python, on his way to taking home the gold. Although Lichtenberg was the only Bronco to take first place, there were three other teammates that reached the finals match. In the ‘battle of Josh’ in the 126 division semis, Alvirne’s Josh Metivier needed to get into the third period before he defeated Joshua Teixeira of Exeter. Metivier pinned his opponent 5:19 into the match and advanced to the finals where he lost, getting pinned by Londonderry’s Tyler Wilson at 1:17. Brendan Smith (132) trounced his opponent Karyanne Arthur of Exeter with a 16-0 technical fall in the semi-finals. However, Kyle Byrd of Londonderry ended Smith’s hopes of a championship medal by outscoring the Bronco, 9-2. The last bracketed second place finish for the host team came via Tyler Burgess in the 285-weight division. After a first round bye, Burgess pinned John Weare of West, 1:35 into the match. Unfortunately, Yao Ofori, also from West, sought and found wrestling retribution for his fallen teammate. Ofori defeated Burgess by pin at 1:01. In a four person round robin in the 106 classification, Taylor Thyne recorded a pin of Patrick Castricone of Timberlane on his way to


Special Section: Area News Group’s


Well Care Advertise in


Monthly


Stephen Lichtenberg receives congratulations from coach Tom Jackson as he proudly displays his bracket card and trophy; Lichtenberg walked away with first place in the 195-weight class


finishing second. Tyler Dube (170) brought home a third place finish as a result of a consolation bracket finals win by pin over Ryan Goss of Pelham, with only 21 seconds remaining in the match. Dube advanced to the consi-finals by virtue of a 1:53 pin over West’s Davie Pena. Another notable Bronco performance was turned in by Mike Meli in the 138 division. In his first match, Meli defeated Kevin DeAngelo of Pelham to advance to the semis. Meli lost by technical fall to Will Bean of Londonderry. As a result, the brackets had Meli once again facing DeAngelo in the consolation finals. In a very tight match, Meli was unable to put back-to-back wins together against the Python, losing 4-3 to finish fourth.


Despite the success during the invitational,


Weeks in January! 13th & 20th


TWO Call 880-1516 or visit


Jackson cited, “we’re going to have to do better if we want to achieve our goals.” Although, he did intimate that the season was young; “we are building to the end of the year- at the end of the year is when it all counts”. Newly hired assistant coach John Mirabella, who wrestled at Lexington (MA) High, echoed similar thoughts; “we’ve got to hit the mats on Monday, go over a few basics and get some more ‘W’s to be ready for the states”. If the first year Alvirne assistant coach looked familiar to you, Mirabella also wears another hat in the Alvirne building; serving in the capacity of the school’s resource officer as a member of the Hudson Police Department.


www.areanewsgroup.com


Alvirne athletic director Karen Bonney was pleased with the turnout, noting that Pinkerton was the only school that competed last year which didn’t return this year. Citing that there were competing schools whose teams had fewer members participating, notably Pelham with eight and Keene with just five, Bonney is considering the option of inviting more teams to next year’s event. In her 12th year in charge of AHS athletics, Bonney spent most of the tournament entering data, printing bout sheets and updating brackets. Lichtenberg Captures First continued to page 15


Friday


Nights!


and spirit


Mike Hogan's


healthy body


mind


staff photo by Marc Ayotte


staff photo by Marc Ayotte


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16