0020SportsOS12Jun2015

BY DOMINICK POLLIOTHE OCEAN STAR

POINT BORO — The PointBoro girls lacrosse teamtraveled a long and tough

road this season, endingwithout a victory in the wincolumn for the second sea-son in a row. The funnything about losing, though,is all the benefits that comewith it.

The team has grown sig-nificantly since the begin-ning of the season despitewhat the scoreboard reads.

“I thought we were a bit

more competitive this year,”said head coach MeganFritz. “The Ranney game inovertime [and] the JacksonLiberty loss [8-7] weregames we really didn’t seelast year.”

In the Panthers’ firstmeeting with Ranney thisseason, they lost by one goal

SPORTSThe Ocean Star

FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015 PAGE 37

ICE HOCKEY 38GOLF 38BASEBALL 38GAMES OF THE YEAR 39-42

BY DOMINICK POLLIOTHE OCEAN STAR

POINT BORO — Now that sum-mer is here, the door has beenclosed on high school sports.Now, this does not mean that theathletes stop playing until fallrolls around. They take advan-tage of the weather and work toimprove their game by partici-pating in summer leagues.

On Monday, the Ocean Coun-ty American Legion Baseballleague opened the summer sea-son and on Tuesday, the PointBoro Panthers played their sea-son opener at home.

They hosted Toms River Eastand shut them out 10-0 throughfive innings of play.

It was definitely a positivestart to the season, and headcoach David Drew has a positiveoutlook for the summer.

“Compared to last summer weare hoping to have a much moresuccessful season than we didlast year with many returningplayers to the roster, many ofwhom received a varsity letterthis spring during the high schoolbaseball season,” Drew said. “Wehave big goals this summer andthe biggest would be to be a partof the American Legion WorldSeries. Even though that wouldbe a remarkable feat, we don’t seeany reason to take the field ifyou’re not dreaming of thebiggest accomplishment theleague has to offer.”

The American Legion agerange consists of high school tofreshmen in college. Accordingto Drew, there is an unwrittenrule the teams in Ocean Countylike to follow, which is to playand compete against each otherwith players who will be enter-ing high school to those playersentering their senior year ofhigh school. This leaves theteam at a slight disadvantagesince they face teams with olderand more experienced playerswhen the state tournament rollsaround.

The advantage that Drew seesis the opportunity to developyounger talent for the highschool baseball season, andplaying against tougher compe-tition will bring out the best. He

AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL PREVIEW

Point Boro Panthers shut outToms River East in five inningsRossi pitched afive-inning shutoutwith eight strikeouts

STEVE WEXLER THE OCEAN STAR

Point Boro had no problem getting the bat on the ball in Tuesday’s season-opening game against Toms River East at home. The Panthers shut out their opponent 10-0 through five innings of play.

POINT BORO GIRLS LACROSSE NOTEBOOK

Boro keeps positivityFavato led Pantheroffense with 36goals this season

STEVE WEXLER THE OCEAN STAR

Haley Hanrahan makes her way around a fallen opponent during a game against Ranney this season.

BY DOMINICK POLLIOTHE OCEAN STAR

POINT PLEASANT — The stu-dents of both Point PleasantBeach High School and PointPleasant Borough High

School have banded togetherin the hopes of achieving acommon goal.

That goal is to bring backthe Boro vs. Beach Thanks-giving Day football game,something that has not beenaround for quite some time.

Point Boro’s Noah Husakand Sam Livolsi put theirheads together and drafted apetition and took to Twitterto bring attention to the mat-

ter. The petition was set intomotion on June 8.

The petition reads as fol-lows.

“To whom it may concern— This is a petition involvingboth Point Pleasant Beachand Point Pleasant Boroughfootball teams. Over thecourse of the late 20th, early21st century the Borough and

Will tradition return?Students: Bringback ThanksgivingDay rivalry game

My oh my,what a year!

BY DOMINICK POLLIOTHE OCEAN STAR

POINT BORO — From the Battle of Point Pleasantto division title wins, it’s been quite a year for thelocal sports scene.

This week, check out a roundup of the topgames of the 2014-2015 year, starting on page 39.

SEE PANTHERS PAGE 38

SEE BORO PAGE 38

SEE RETURN PAGE 38

WWW.STARNEWSGROUP.COMPAGE 38 THE OCEAN STAR FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015 SPORTS

Jim Dowd not returning as co-op team ice hockey coachBY LEN BARDSLEYTHE OCEAN STAR

POINT BEACH — The Man-asquan-Point Beach ice hock-ey team is looking for a coach… again.Jim Dowd will not return to

the position after one year be-hind the bench for the War-riors.The departure of Dowd will

leave the team looking for itsfifth coach in the last fiveyears.Dowd confirmed he would

not be returning, but did notwant to talk about the situa-tion, offering no comment.Manasquan athletic director

Ron Kornegay said it wasDowd’s decision to step awayfrom the position.“He had some business op-

portunities he was looking at,so it was difficult for him tocoach,’’ said Kornegay.A job posting for an ice

hockey coach was placed onthe websitewww.njschooljobs.com onJune 7.Dowd was a high-profile

hire by Manasquan HighSchool.A 17-year veteran of the

NHL, Dowd won a StanleyCup with the New Jersey Dev-ils.

It was a tumultuous seasonfor the co-op team due to asimple assault accusationagainst Dowd that was filed bya parent of a Manasquan play-er who claimed Dowd kickedhis son in the back while onthe bench.The alleged incident hap-

pened during a game at theJersey Shore Arena during ahome game against Red BankRegional.Dowd was suspended for

three games during which theWall Police investigated the in-cident; he returned to coachthe team when police decidednot to file charges.Dowd was also cleared in

the parent’s civil suit againsthim on May 21 by Wall Munic-ipal Court Judge Joseph Defi-no.Dowd came to the Warriors

with plenty of energy and en-thusiasm to coach a youngteam.He obtained locker space at

Jersey Shore Arena, givingManasquan-Point Beach itsfirst home locker room duringthe regular season, and had theroom painted Warriors colors.Despite struggling record-

wise on the ice in a very com-petitive Shore A Central Divi-sion, Dowd got strong supportfrom parents and players dur-

ing the simple assault allega-tions.The co-op team finished the

season with a record of 6-15with a lineup that featuredmostly freshmen and sopho-more players.Since the ice hockey team is

a co-op program it allowedstudents who attend Point

Pleasant Beach to play for theWarriors since the GarnetGulls have no ice hockey pro-gram.The number of players who

played for the Warriors and at-tended Point Pleasant Beachspiked when Dowd wasnamed head coach.

The team had four playerswho attended Point BeachHigh School during the 2013-2014 season and 10 last season.Dowd also confirmed he

would not be holding his an-nual high school all-star game.The game, run through his

Shoot for the Stars Founda-

tion, had been a Shore Confer-ence summer tradition.It was scheduled for the first

Sunday in August for its 18thgame with the money raisedgoing to a local charity, such asthe FoodBank of Monmouthand Ocean Counties.

hopes to see a productive sea-son, saying, “As for our goals,we would have to start withthe hope of winning the OceanCounty American Legion reg-ular season title, which willguarantee us a spot in the stateAmerican Legion baseballtournament. We also hope towin the Ocean County Ameri-can Legion Baseball doubleelimination tournament at theend of the regular season,which doesn’t guarantee you aspot in the state tournament,but certainly prepares you forelimination baseball.”The goals do not seem too

lofty this year seeing as thePanther team is returning agood amount of players fromlast year. Returning to theteam, all of whom have earneda varsity letter during thespring high school season, areSebastian Severio, Mike Fal-conetti, Bill Feehan, Mark Ley-ble, Frank Graziano, TimRossi, Ryan Carne and JustinRafi.“All of them are looking to

make their marks this seasonas all of them are looking toplay college sports, but ulti-mately, they want to be asgood as possible for the overallteam accomplishments and re-alize the better the team is, themore exposure they will have,”Drew explained.Rossi pitched the five-in-

ning shutout against TomsRiver East and racked up eightstrikeouts while only walkingtwo batters. Coupled withstrong bats and RBIs from Fal-conetti, Feehan, Severio,Graziano and Kyle Lauria, thePoint Boro team played a well-balanced baseball game.“Tim, like most of the pitch-

ers we have on staff, wants theball every at bat, every inning,and every game, no matterwho the opponent is or whatthe situation may be,” saidDrew. “That’s what I like abouthim and the whole pitchingstaff we have. Tim is a greatcompetitor and I am extreme-ly happy the team was able to

get him some run support tomake his job a bit easier than ithas been for him in the past.”Severio had the big bat with

two doubles, one single andfour RBIs. The team was real-ly seeing the ball and waitingpatiently for pitches the play-ers could hit.Drew says he was happy the

team was able to get the bighits when they were needed,as opposed to the high schoolseason, where they could notconsistently come up with thebig hits.“Tonight we were capable of

making the most of our oppor-tunities with runners in scor-ing position and hope to buildon that all season long,” hestated.The Panthers will need their

bats to be strong as they areone of the smallest schools inthe league. The defendingchampion of the summerleague is Mystic Islands, whichis Pinelands High School.Drew says he would definitelylike to beat the defendingchamps, but they are not theonly squad to beat.Teams like Toms River,

Brick or Lacey are always bigcompetition since they have alot more players at their dis-posal. Drew also pointed outthat Manchester and DonovanCatholic have both finishedhigher than Boro during thehigh school season, so if theycould get wins over thoseteams, it would mean goodthings come next spring.American Legion Baseball

league is a great outlet forthese high school players to re-ally develop their games, andthe Panthers look to have avery promising season thisyear.Point Boro had a bye yester-

day and will play its next gameat home tomorrow morning.They are playing Toms RiverPost 129 and the game isscheduled to begin at 11 a.m.

Dominick Pollio covers sports for TheOcean Star. He can be reached at [email protected] or 732-899-7606Ext 15. Follow him on Twitter @dompol-lio.

Rossi off to good startPANTHERSFROM PAGE 37

Beach football teams devel-oped a tradition on Thanks-giving Day of playing a com-petitive football game,conceiving a healthy rivalrythat still goes on to this day.After the 2009/2010 season,this tradition was strippedfrom not only the programs,but also the players and fans.This list of names representsboth the Point Borough andPoint Beach football teamsand our desire to relive thetradition of the ThanksgivingDay game.”Below that paragraph are

designated signing spots forBoro head coach Sean Henry,Boro athletic director ChrisFerrone, Boro principal KurtKarcich, Beach head coachJohn Wagner and Beach ath-letic director Ellen Magliaro.Below those names are

lines for students or anyoneinterested in signing the peti-tion to print their name, signtheir name and write whatschool they affiliate with.“We knew Beach and Boro

kids wanted to get it startedso we thought the petitionwould be a good first step,”said Husak.One of Husak’s friends and

Point Beach football playerMatt Zuhowski jumped at theopportunity to get the ballrolling on his side of town.Husak had contactedZuhowski on Twitter to lethim know what they wereplanning on doing and he hadno doubts about getting in-volved.“It’s a tradition, and

Thanksgiving around here is

not the same without the ri-valry,” stated Zuhowski.The left tackle and defen-

sive end recalled a time whenhe was younger and the rival-ry was still around. Accord-ing to him, it was an excitingevent that the two towns par-ticipated in and enjoyed thor-oughly.Husak also has memories

of the event as a child, saying,“I remember going when Iwas a kid because it was afamily thing. My grandpa ac-tually used to referee thegame.”Husak pointed out that he

feels keeping the tradition isone of the main reasons tobring back the game.“I think the big thing is tra-

dition,” he explained. “We allgrew up and went to thegame as kids. We want tocontinue that tradition andlive what we grew up with.”According to Husak, in the

first two days of the petitionhe has picked up between 50and 60 signatures after circu-lating it through his school.On Twitter as of yesterday,the tweet regarding the peti-tion had 66 favorites and 48retweets. The petition was onits way to Point Beach, whereZuhowski had been generat-ing interest by word ofmouth.Zuhowski was confident

that more names would beadded to the list, saying,“Everyone wants to do it.Wrestling has a great atmos-phere and that’s a popularevent. It’s a great experience.Everyone gets into it and itbrings the two towns togeth-er.”While the students make

the effort to bring attention

to their desire for the rivalrygame, a lot of other thingsneed to come into play for itto become a reality.The high school football

schedule and dynamic is adifferent giant compared toother sports. It is not easy tojust throw in an extra gameduring the season like withbaseball, when teams playmore than one game a week.And although Point Beach

football has seen strong sea-sons these past few years, therivalry game used to be large-ly one-sided, which led to aless competitive and enter-taining Thanksgiving Daygame.Wagner, the Garnet Gulls

football coach, appreciates ahealthy rivalry but also rec-ognizes how much highschool football’s time tablehas shifted throughout theyears with football seasonscoming to an end closer tothe beginning of Novemberrather than the end. Thismakes it logistically difficultto keep the athletes engagedfor a competitive and enter-taining Thanksgiving Dayfootball game.While the rivalry game

may see a comeback, it mostlikely will not be in the nextfew years.“All I’m focused on is As-

bury Park and getting thefootball team prepared tomake it into the playoffs thisseason,” stated Wagner.“While a healthy rivalryholds a lot of appeal, it is notsomething that is going to fitin the schedule as of now.”Point Boro head football

coach Sean Henry has thesame mindset when it comesto the rivalry game. He point-

ed out that the scheduling issomething that is out of hishands and while he respectsWagner and the Beach foot-ball program, the GarnetGulls football team is on theback of his mind.“I understand where

they’re [the players] comingfrom as a past Boro footballplayer,” he said. “But we havenine other teams to worryabout this season and I’mconcentrated on Pinelandsright now.”While the coaches will

keep their concentration onthis year’s schedule and theirrespective season openinggames, the students of PointPleasant will continue circu-lating the petition and hopeto reach out to members ofthe community to gaugemore support.In the end, though, logis-

tics will play more of a rolethan anything in bringingback a tradition from seasonsbefore.Athletic directors Ferrone

and Magliaro could not bereached for comment bypress time.

Dominick Pollio covers sports for TheOcean Star. He can be reached at [email protected] or 732-899-7606 Ext 15. Follow him on Twitter@dompollio.

Scheduling a game is not all that easyRETURNFROM PAGE 37

that came in the second halfof overtime. Senior NicoleFavato led Point Boro andnetted seven goals and hadone assist.Fellow senior Liz Peled

manned her station in goaland recorded 25 saves duringthat game. Ultimately thegame ended in a 13-12 loss forPoint Boro but it spoke vol-umes to the potential level ofplay the girls are capable of.Fritz has noticed the team’s

progress and pointed out acouple players that reallystood out this year.Sophomore Sydnee Biel

became more proactive onoffense and had a stronggame against Manchesterwith four goals. Fritz washappy to see her become lesstimid and take more chancesto score.Another sophomore that

showed progress was DevinMoeller, a player Fritz hasworked with in field hockey.“She plays offense in field

hockey but I needed herspeed and aggression on de-

fense and she rose to the oc-casion,” explained Fritz.Moeller was an in-your-

face defender, making it diffi-cult for opponents to navi-gate and hang on to the ball.Strong improvement in theyounger core of players is agood sign for the Panthers,who graduate four seniorsthis year in Favato, Peled,Erin Hoffman and Tori Zac-cheo.The four seniors laid a

strong foundation for theyounger players to emulate,outside of securing wins.They created an atmospherethat promotes perseverance,teamwork and, most impor-tantly, fun.“The graduating seniors

will be seriously missed,”said Fritz. “Their love andpassion for the game is infec-tious and really permeatedthe program. They showedthe younger girls how hardwork and determination canmake a difference.”With the team set up with

the right attitude and desireto succeed, all that is left todo is work hard in the offsea-son in preparation for nextyear.

Fritz has provided the teamwith clinic and camp infor-mation for local lacrossecamps that the players canparticipate in. She suggeststhey try out for club teamsfor experience and knowl-edge and to basically playlacrosse year round.Fritz is also working to im-

prove herself as the coach ofthe team.“I’m continually learning

and growing and trying newthings as a coach to help myplayers be the best they canbe,” she said. “I’m neverafraid to seek assistance andinput from other coaches andplayers. Just getting them toplay year round is a huge ac-complishment.”The Panthers are not let-

ting this winless season cast ashadow on the progress theyhave made this year and willutilize the offseason to im-prove individually and as aunit.

Dominick Pollio covers sports for TheOcean Star. He can be reached at [email protected] or 732-899-7606 Ext 15. Follow him on Twitter@dompollio.

Offseason work will pay offBOROFROM PAGE 37

THE OCEAN STAR

The Point Pleasant Borofootball and wrestling pro-grams will hold their secondannual golf outing at Gam-bler Ridge Golf Club, CreamRidge, on Monday, July 27.The outing starts with reg-

istration at 11 a.m. with a shot-gun start at 1 p.m. A cocktailhour and dinner will followat the Elks in Point Pleasantstarting at 6:15 p.m.Individual golfer cost is

$100; foursome cost is $400.Individuals can purchasetickets for just the dinner andbeverages for $35.Features of the golf outing

include a longest drive andclosest to the pin contest, ahole-in-one contest and mul-ligans for purchase. The golfouting is made possiblethrough the sponsorship ofthe Point Pleasant WrestlingClub.Money raised from the golf

outing will assist in purchas-ing equipment for the teams.For more details regarding

the golf outing or for abrochure, call Sean Henry at908-489-4992 or email him [email protected] interested can also

contact Pat Brady by phoneat 732-773-4532 or by email [email protected] more information, visit

Pt. Boro Football andWrestling on Facebook.

Annual golfouting setfor July 27

WWW.STARNEWSGROUP.COM FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015 THE OCEAN STAR PAGE 39SPORTS

T h ea tmo s -p h e r ew a selectricand thes t a n d -i n g -r o o m -o n l yMemori-

al Middle School gymnasi-um provided a wrestlingmatch that will not be for-gotten for years to come.Point Boro vs. Point Beach:a crosstown rivalry andtown-wide spectacle thateveryone enjoyed.The Panthers got off to a

good start with a win in the132-pound weight class and

the first bout of the rivalrymatch.Point Beach was not go-

ing down easy, though, andwon the next six bouts.After Garnet Gull Jake

Fioretti wowed the crowdwith big takedowns of hisopponent in the 182-poundweight class, he secured avictory by technical fall,giving Point Beach a com-manding, 29-3 lead.In a bout that no one

predicted, Boro freshmanGabriel Fattizzi ripped themomentum out from underthe Gulls’ wings.“Fattizzi was the one.

That was the match thatsparked us right away,”graduating senior Dan

Nobbs said after the matchthat night.Fattizzi pinned his oppo-

nent after falling behind 2-0 in the first period, andthe Panther Pit roaredlouder than ever before.After giving up one more

bout by decision, PointBoro won the next four tobring the deficit to 32-28with only one match to go.The battle was in the

hands of Nobbs in the 126-pound weight class, and hecould not settle for a winby decision or major deci-sion.It took Nobbs all of 46

seconds to pin his oppo-nent and complete the dra-matic comeback at home.

The classic sporting events

Boro Panthers win theBattle of Point Pleasant

The Gullswon their thirdClass B CentralDivision Titlethis year afterdefeating theHenry HudsonAdmirals athome, 65-37. Itis the third sea-son in a row

they have sat atop the Class B Cen-tral division.Point Beach seniors Jesse Hill

and Ryan Sheehan led the chargewith 12 points apiece. TeammatesTrevor Covey and Mike Rice eachadded 11 to the total.

The 2014-2015 high school sports seasons were full of thrilling games. With Point Boro comingback from behind to claim the Battle of Point Pleasant and Point Beach girls tennis winning the firstdoubles title at the Ocean County Tournament, there was plenty excitement for everyone this year.

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GAME OF THE YEAR

Gulls win third B-Central title in a row

1

STEVE WEXLER THE OCEAN STAR [ABOVE, LEFT & RIGHT]

MORGAN CAMPBELL THE OCEAN STAR [ABOVE]

STEVE WEXLER THE OCEAN STAR

WWW.STARNEWSGROUP.COMPAGE 40 THE OCEAN STAR FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015 SPORTS

Boro cross country wins B SouthT h e

Point Boroboys crossc o u n t r ysquad se-cured thet e a m ’ sf o u r t hstraight di-vision titlethis year.

They ran against bothLakewood and Pinelandshigh schools to claim the BSouth division.The Panthers won the race

with ease, with a 15-43 resultover Pinelands and 17-48 finalscore versus Lakewood.The Panthers were heavily

favored to win against bothteams.They took five of the top

six places.

Joe Busichio took first[16:38], Kameron O’Learysecond [16:40], Dylan Petersthird [16:54], Cortlandt Dalikfifth [18:02] and MattSchwartz sixth [18:03].Point Pleasant Borough

head cross country coachKevin Conheeney is pleasedthis year’s team was able tocontinue the Panthers’ win-ning ways.“We have a really good

group of leaders that formu-lated a winning tradition hereat Point Boro,” Conheeneysaid after winning the title.“All the kids buy into it andeveryone likes to win. Whenwe put the work in we wantto get the results. I try to rein-force to the team how impor-tant training is and stayinghealthy.”

The PointBoro boys soc-cer teamclinched the BSouth title athome this sea-son.The team

defeated Lake-wood HighSchool at

home 4-1 during the Panthers’senior night.Goalie Gabe Pesante began

the game up top and scored thefirst goal. Teammates Ryan Re-mondelli, Jake Woodring andSam Monaco each added a goalof their own in the win.The win marked the 12th win

a row for the Panthers, andthey didn’t stop there.The team went on to make

the streak 13 with a win overManchester.

The 4-1 road win saw all fourgoals scored in the first half ofthe game. Quin Hornish, AlexStupar, Harry VanWagenenand Woodring each scored agoal.The Panthers saw more suc-

cess the rest of the season, aswell. They made it through thepreliminary round of the ShoreConference Tournament with a1-0 win over St. Rose. Theywere knocked out of the tour-nament by St. John Vianney.They also earned the top

seed in the CJ Group II tourna-ment. They won the first roundover Raritan 3-0 and the nextover North Plainfield 3-0, put-ting them in the semifinalround for the first time since2009.They lost the semifinal game

against Governor Livingston 2-1 in overtime.

Panther soccer clinchesdivision on senior night

3

4

STEVE WEXLER THE OCEAN STAR

STEVE WEXLER THE OCEAN STAR

WWW.STARNEWSGROUP.COM FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015 THE OCEAN STAR PAGE 41SPORTS

The PointBeach duo ofMolly Laterzaand ChloeJohnson knowwhat it takesto win.During this

year’s OceanCounty Tour-

nament, the pair won the dou-bles title as the second-seededteam.The two had a troubled road to

the finals, which included play-ing a talented Donovan Catholicteam of Angelica Merone andSara Hohwald, the third seed.The Gulls won 6-4, 6-2 earlierthis season when they played theDonovan Catholic team and won6-4, 6-3 in the Ocean CountyTournament.When the Gulls went on to

play in the finals, they went upagainst a tough Toms RiverNorth duo of Isabella Sierchoand Carly Cabey.

The first set was extremelyclose. The score went all the wayto deuce multiple times before apoint was scored.After winning the first set in a

nail-biter, Johnson and Laterzajumped ahead in the second setand the Toms River North teamstarted to fold. The last point washit into the net and instantly,Johnson and Laterza looked ateach other in surprise.“We have been working hard

this season and it didn’t seemreal we won it. We are still get-ting used to people saying con-gratulations,” Johnson said aboutwinning the title. “We just playedour best and were happy to bethere. It was extra to win.”The win was special for Lat-

erza, who had missed out on thetournament the year before.“I was upset I couldn’t be with

Chloe last year, but I believe itpushed me to go harder this sea-son and make up for lost time,”Laterza said.

Laterza, Johnsonwin doubles title

Vail-Stein, Zabelski first at Ocean Relays

Panthers lacrossegets first varsity win

The OceanCounty Relays al-ways bring to-gether some ofthe toughestcompetitors fromschools through-out the county,making for closeraces, throws andjumps.

During the spring relays this year, PointBoro athletes Nick Vail-Stein and MeganZabelski cashed in first-place finishes.Vail-Stein competed in the pole vault

event and cleared a height of 12-06 to tie forfirst. Teammates Joshua Schlanger and Har-ry VanWagenen took fifth after clearing 11-06.Collectively, the pole vault team was six

inches shy of tying the meet record.“These guys had an amazing day collec-

tively, and will certainly boost their confi-dence as we progress into the champi-onship season,” said boys coach MikeColonna. “These guys are one of the mostdeserving groups to walk away with a first-place finish, and had the mojo on Friday.”Pole vault coach Robert Dikun was also

proud of their performance in not-so-idealconditions.“They jumped really well in pretty bad

conditions. It was cold and it was windy,” heexplained. “I’m looking forward to thembeating their own expectations and gettinga little bit higher of a jump.”Vail-Stein ended up finishing the season

strong at the Meet of Champions with anew personal record of 13-06. He earned theopportunity to compete at the Meet ofChampions after placing fifth at the GroupII Championships in the pole vault event.There, he cleared 13-00, a personal record atthe time of the competition.Also at the Ocean County Relays was

Zabelski, who took first place in the highjump for the girls.She sat atop the competition in first

place, clearing 5-00.Teammates Robin Fiorentino and Kristi

Lennon both jumped over 4-06 to tie forsixth with jumpers from Barnegat andSouthern in the same event. All threeearned points for the Panthers.Like Vail-Stein, Zabelski ended her sea-

son at the Meet of Champions after takingfifth in the high jump at the Group II Cham-pionships. She finished her day at the Meetof Champions clearing a height of 5-02.

5

It is extremely tough to start anew program for a sport that notmany people know too muchabout.Although the task was daunting,

Point Boro boys lacrosse headcoach Guy Lassen was not going tolet that stop him.The team earned its first win as a

varsity team when it hosted LongBranch. The Panthers pulled out a

4-1 win in front of an ecstatic home crowd.“Hopefully this is the first of many wins,” Lassen had

said with a smile after the game.Long Branch was the first to strike in the game with

a goal five minutes into the first quarter.

The Panthers were not phased by the early goal andslowly started gaining momentum. This led to a goalfrom junior Darian Healy with 58 seconds left in thefirst quarter.Boro gained its first lead in the second quarter off a

goal from Cullen Zawcki and the first half closed withthe Panthers up 2-1.In the second half, the offense added two more goals.

Healy added another goal to his total and Kyler Rossinetted one of his own in the third quarter.The defense remained resolute through the final 12-

minute quarter and kept Long Branch to only one goal.“I’m happy that we finally got a win,” said Healy.

“It’ll show the other teams out there that we are hereto stay.”Point Boro finished the season with three wins.

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6COURTESY OF EILEEN FLARITY LATERZA

DOMINICK POLLIO THE OCEAN STAR

STEVE WEXLER THE OCEAN STAR

WWW.STARNEWSGROUP.COMPAGE 42 THE OCEAN STAR FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015 SPORTS

The nameDan Nobbs isone that teamsthroughout thestate instantlyrecognize, es-pecially whenin regard to thewrestling mat.A formidable

and modelwrestler for

Point Boro, the senior won his third Dis-trict 23 title, this time in the 126-poundweight class. Nobbs’ other two titles wereboth in the 120-pound weight class in 2012and 2014.

Nobbs entered the tournament with thetop seed in his weight class, making himthe man to beat. He navigated through thebracket well, defeating his first opponentwith a pin in 27 seconds and his secondopponent with a pin at the one-minutemark. In the final bout for his weight class,Nobbs had a tough opponent in Nick Wag-ner of Wall.Nobbs persevered and took the victory

by decision, punching his ticket to thequarterfinal round of the Region 6 Tour-nament held at the Pine Belt Arena inToms River.Nobbs was the only Panther to claim a

District 23 title this year.

Mimi Leturgez issectional champ

Nobbs is back-to-back District 23 champ

In an impressive performance for thePoint Boro girls track and field team,freshman Mimi Leturgez jumped abovethe competition to finish first in the highjump at this year’s sectional champi-onship.She cleared 5-00 on her first try, beating

out teammate Megan Zabelski and com-petitor Caroline Buczynski from Arthur L.Johnson High School, who also cleared 5-

00 but in more jumps than Leturgez.She was surprised at her performance since she came late

to the meet after a soccer game, saying, “I wasn’t prepared orwarmed up or anything, but I ended up clearing all of myjumps in one try compared to the other two. It was a bigshock for me because it was the first time I had ever clearedfive foot on the first try.”Leturgez finished her freshman season at the Group II

Championships but did not place for the Meet of Champions.

Giordano defends his county titlePoint Pleasant Beach High

School senior tennis playerGerard Giordano won theOcean County Tournamentfirst singles title for the secondyear in a row. Giordano went into the tour-

nament seeded No. 2 and pro-ceeded to defeat all of hisopponents in two sets.His journey started with a

match against Lakewood’sIrving Sanchez, who was seeded at 15. Giordanotook the first-round win in two shutout sets.In the quarterfinal round, he faced a tougher

opponent in Nick Prestera from Barnegat.Prestera held the seven seed but Giordano wonthe match in two sets.The first set proved competitive, and Gior-

dano eventually won 6-4. The second set wasmuch stronger and he won 6-0.On the second day of the tournament, he had

to face third-seeded Brandon Gildea of South-ern. Giordano remained a force on the court,defeating Gildea in two sets, 6-1 and 6-1.The final round ended up a classic one-seed

versus two-seed match as Giordano went upagainst Boyle. Earlier in the season Giordanohad lost to Boyle, but the outcome was a bit dif-ferent this time. He defeated Boyle 6-4 in thefirst set and 6-2 in the next.“It felt really great to win it again,” said Gior-

dano. “Going into the season you always setgoals for yourself, and that was a really big goalfor myself to win that.”

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RYAN MAYER THE OCEAN STAR

DOMINICK POLLIO THE OCEAN STAR

STEVE WEXLER THE OCEAN STAR

DOMINICK POLLIO THE OCEAN STAR