Hey Fairfield –

Hop on board.

Today, programs throughout Fairfield join the rest of the region by getting their seasons started.

And there are a couple of noteworthy coaching debuts.

Let’s get right to it, shall we:

• John Wiseman makes his debut as Wilton coach with a 4 p.m. game at Westhill and Roy Colsey debuts as Ridgefield coach with a 3:30 p.m. contest against visiting Bridgeport Central.

Predictions:

Wilton 11, Westhill 3

Ridgefield 15, Bridgeport Central 4

• In other Fairfield action, Norwalk plays at Greenwich and Staples visits Darien at 3 p.m. The latter game marks the Staples debut of new coach Paul McNulty, the former Wilton head coach and a Staples alumnus.

Predictions:

Greenwich 12, Norwalk 7

Darien 14, Staples 3

• In Suffolk, there are a couple of intriguing showdowns as Shoreham-Wading River hosts Mount Sinai at 11 a.m., and Smithtown West visits Rocky Point at 2 p.m.

Predictions:

Mount Sinai 7, SWR 5

Smithtown West 8, Rocky Point 7

• There’s a huge Long Island showdown as Ward Melville looks to bounce back from its loss yesterday to Lindenhurst with a game at Garden City.

Prediction:

Garden City 7, Ward Melville 5

• The big game in Westchester is Rye playing at Iona Prep at 4:30 p.m. The Garnets, who edge Iona by a goal last season, allowed an uncharacteristic 13 goals yesterday in a loss at John Jay. This may give Putnam Valley some hope at unseating the Garnets as Class C sectional champs. The Tigers have a big game today at 10 a.m. at Pleasantville.

Predictions:

Iona Prep 11, Rye 5

Put Valley 10, Pleasantville 4

SCORE UPDATES

From FCIAC:

Staples-Darien

Darien leads 5-0 after the first quarter.

The Blue Wave extended the lead to 7-2 at the half. Matheis and Foley each have three goals, Gleason has the other for Darien.

It’s Darien 9-3 after three. Foley now has four goals, Matheis three, Gleason and Bolton one each.

Final: Darien 13-6. Final stats: Foley 4-1, Matheis 3-1, Gleason 3, Bolton 2, Annechino 1.

Notes: The game marked the debut of new Staples coach Paul McNulty, the former Wilton head coach and a Staples alumnus.The Staples-Darien game will be broadcast on Cablevision channel 84 tomorrow and Friday at 7 p.m.

Final: Greenwich 10, Norwalk 2

Final: Wilton 21, Westhill 2

Final: Ridgefield 21, Bridgeport Central 0

From Section 1:

Final: Rye 13, Iona Prep 8

From Long Island:

Final: Garden City 7, Ward Melville 6

Final: Rocky Point 11, Smithtown West 8

Final: Shoreham-Wading River 9, Mount Sinai 4

Final: East Hampton 8, Islip 2

Other Conn., Long Island scores:

Brunswick School 13, Taft School 4

Hauppauge 13 Half Hollow Hills West 10

Kings Park 16, Southampton 0

Sachem North 17, Longwood 4

Westhampton Beach 14, Bellport 7

Be sure to post your comments and weigh in with your picks.

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You can also reach Joe Lombardi at joe@laxlessons.com.

Posted In: General

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36 Responses to “Wednesday's Top 5/Predictions/Score updates”

  1. BigBadBear says:

    Joe:

    If your picks come true, and I think they are solid, PV has to be considered the favorite in C.

  2. CTnow says:

    I’m liking the Fairfield picks. Darien, Ridgefield, Greenwich should all roll. You never know about Wilton though.

  3. Taz says:

    SWR 9-4 over Mt Sinai

  4. dee-up says:

    score from another site has Putnam Valley 12 to 13 .

  5. dee-up says:

    that should read Putnam 20 to Pleasantville 13

  6. syracuse says:

    I think Joe is being awfully generous with the “Big 3” FCIAC predictions for today, but with benches expected to empty early things could appear closer.

    I like Rye to bounce back a bit today. The Garnets will certainly do a better job against Iona Prep than they did against Jay. It will be close, but I have to agree with Joe that IP will win, but I say more along the lines of 9-7.

  7. Joe Lombardi says:

    You mean generous in terms of picking too close a score or too lopsided?

  8. syracuse says:

    Too close. But I can understand why.

  9. Joe Lombardi says:

    15-4 is too close? I guess it could be. But yeah I don’t like to make them too bad.

    Anyway, we’ve already started our score updates for today, gang.

    Check the main body of this post.

  10. LAX says:

    Joe any updates on the Rye-Iona game?

  11. LAX says:

    Just found out Rye is winning 12-5 end of third. Joe you’re gonna get it from Rye fans…

  12. Lax Novice says:

    Great job today by Case Matheis, a freshman attack for Darien, 4 points in his first varsity game, well done.

  13. Joe Lombardi says:

    Just got word Rye won 13-8. Let’s hear some insights from folks who were there.

    The fact Rye won is not as big a surprise as to how they won — scoring 13 goals. Rob Santangelo has carried this team on offense so far, but other players are starting to emerge. And anytime you have a player as dominant on FOs/GBs as Cole McCormack and a defenseman as talented as Donald Keough and a player as versatile as Patrick O’Callaghan, you certainly have a shot to win any game if the offense is there.

    I remember when Iona Prep beat John Jay in a scrimmage a few weeks ago, I was chided for saying I wouldn’t make any evaluations based on a scrimmage. As we know, JJ beat Rye 13-7 yesterday and now Rye beats Iona 13-8.

  14. Joe Lombardi says:

    Lax Novice –

    Great point about Case. He is the first freshman to start in Coach B’s 26-year tenure. Think this kid has a bright future? It’s nice to work with some experienced seniors too like Tyler Foley, who had 4-1 today.

  15. ripo says:

    iona is to cocky they beat jj in a scrimmage and think they are good. JJ was still playing kids that will not play much this year. Iona is not an elete team, they can not bang with good teams day in and day out like JJ.

  16. Doid23 says:

    If scrimmages counted they would be called games…

    Nice win by Rye, shows some heart to bounce back after a tough loss

  17. LAX says:

    McCormack definitely makes a big difference. Rye was up 2-0 at JJ soon after the game started because of faceoffs, but instead of getting rattled JJ rallied to score 5 1st quarter goals. At Iona it may have been a different story and seems like the defense couldn’t stop Santangelo, big win for Rye playing on Iona’s home field.

    JJ doesn’t have any superstars this year but they have enormous depth and there’s never a shortage of good players who could step up at any time. Look at the first game against Brewster, Daniello has 5 goals 2 assists. Look at the game against Rye, another sophomore, Walter, has a 5 goal game when Keough is guarding Daniello. Drew Beck, a senior attackman who was injured last year (also one of the captains of the football team, Joe), has 3 goals and an assist. Even in the loss against Manhasset JJ impressed me by competing with them to the end, sophomores assisting on 4/5 goals. Sophomores Daniello, Walter, and Weil are starting and others such as the Morris brothers, Caviola, and Winter, to name a few, are getting significant playing time, these kids have really impressed me so far and scored most of the goals so far this season. And of course senior captains Stewart and Silver are always big weapons. Defense is looking good as well led by Pickel and senior captain Stearns. They don’t have any Bocklets but right now they’re looking like a team, and a good one too. The JJ program has gotten to the point that even in a “down year” they can still compete with the best, the Savs will ensure that.

  18. ripo says:

    Joe when was the last game Rye has given up 13 goals????

    2 years?

    3 years?

    do your home work!

  19. ripo says:

    It also goes to show you how bad Iona is because Rye played back to back games. JJ on tuesday and Iona on Wed.

  20. Joe Lombardi says:

    Ripo – You’re quite a piece of work.

    OK, I did some homework, but unfortunately I’m not done yet.

    Rye’s 13-7 loss to JJ yesterday was the most goals the Garnets have allowed in at least 50 games.

    Interestingly enough, the most goals the Gaels allowed in 2008 and 2007 both came in their season openers — 9-2 to Wantagh last year and 11-1 to JJ in ’07. This year’s JJ game was the Garnets’ second of the season.

  21. LaxFan says:

    Rye let up 19 in section semi’s in 2004. That’s the last time I remember.

  22. syracuse says:

    Hey, just wanted to give a quick shout out to Rye today. Great job!

  23. slacrosse says:

    Yes good win for Rye which they needed after that “bad” loss to Jay yesterday. This will be a real confidence/morale booster.

    Great that Santangelo is starting to break out and start scoring in bunches. Great game for Foristel who may have also broken out with I think 3 or so goals. D was definitely tighter then yesterday but still definite room for continued improvement in the basics. McCormack came back again with a dominant FO role and is also stepping up his presence as an offensive weapon.

    I said yesterday after the Jay loss that Rye had to step it up. This win doesn’t get them “all the way there” at all–but its a step in the right direction.

  24. LIGuy says:

    Just got back from a great game – GC vs. Ward Melville. Both teams in midseason form. Very heated game. GC pulls it out 7-6.

  25. syracuse says:

    LIGuy,

    Please give us as many details of the GC-Melville game as you can.

    ‘CUSE

  26. LIGuy says:

    GC was down 6-5 then tied it with two minutes to go. Then they got the ball back and scored the winner with around 35 seconds left. Cody Ferraro for WM had a big game. Very good player. Both goalies made some big saves.

  27. Joe Lombardi says:

    Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls …
    I have a special announcement.
    Just a few moments ago, the 1,000th comment on this blog was posted.
    Considering this blog has been in existence for just about three weeks, that’s pretty impressive. So thanks to all of you for your thoughts and contributions!

  28. Dee-up says:

    i only counted 998 and was hoping to be the 1000th. Congrats Joe , Cuse and all involved bloggers included

  29. Rye Toast says:

    Nice comeback by Rye, No need to panic, yet..Keep playing with the passion you showed today and good things are possible! Be safe on break! Come back to Rye and continue to build on your talent and get it going….

  30. Joe Lombardi says:

    Just a quick comment from Iona Prep coach Rick Trizano on yesterday’s Rye game that I received from him by e-mail.

    Trizano said the Gaels “laid an egg” against the Garnets, and called it “a real poor performance on our part.”

    He said Iona “will be figuring out why we made so many mistakes.”

  31. Old Timer says:

    Please say he gave Rye SOME props?

    … like Rye has a good team and you can’t make mistakes against good teams or Rye contributed to IP’s poor performance or Rye was the best team they had played this year and IP had gotten to used to playing the patsies or something….

    … or was it all about how IP gave it away 8-13 ???

  32. Lacrossegeek says:

    I agree with old timer. Whenever a coach says his team played lousy its just an excuse. Give some credit to Rye. They just came off their three toughest games of the season most likely. To finish 1-2 is not to bad. They just have to take one game at a time. There are some tough teams in class c.

  33. BigBadBear says:

    will we look back at this Rye game after the season and say, “this is the moment they truned it around”? or do we need to wait until they play PV?

  34. slacrosse says:

    BigBadBear,

    At this point definitely wouldn’t go far enough to say they’ve turned it around full course. Lets say they turned in the right direction but still has room to improve greatly as the season progresses. I’m guessing the kids were really pissed, down, etc. after the Jay game and are determined to get the ship righted!

    Rye has a number of sophs and a senior (Matt Foristel–3 goals yest) new to the varsity and they’re still learning to play with one another and compliment the 4 ESG players. I think Dooley is still trying out new kids at certain positions. The first goalie played Town and half of Jay. Now Rye has another goalie who finished the Jay game, and looked pretty strong yesterday at IP.

    Wouldn’t imagine Rye looking ahead to anyone except their next game vs HH.

  35. Pinky says:

    Joe,
    Who scored for Ridgefield? Is there a summary?

    Who the heck is BigBadBear and what is he talking about??? Turned what around for Rye? After two games against powers like Town and JJ???

  36. dee-up says:

    Never just overlook Rye, Their first two games were against top teams. Then the did what was expected to iona. I will say i’m a little surprised the IP coach would say it was their bad play and not that Rye just beat them. You heard alot of excuses from IP when Westrock beat them (big) in the fall as well. Ip = good team but not up with the big boys .
    Putnam Valley is putting the ball in the net as evidenced by their scores and the Goal & D have been steady. Is it the Valley has caught teams on a bad day or are they the real deal , we shall see. I expect Rye to be right back where they belong at the top and the Put Valley vs Rye game to one hell of a game. I’m going with the valley this year they have to much fire power led by Jimmy Van. Ryan Fitz & Dillion Chestnut GO PUTNAM VALLEY

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