ME Hornet second singles player, Jack Cummins, serves to his Rockport opponent in a game on Wednesday the 11th. The Hornets took 4 out of five matches. At this point in the season ME sits at 9-2, second place behind the Generals in the CAL Baker Division.
On Tuesday, May 10 the team raced Landmark School in boisterous winds but relatively flat conditions, given that we set the course under the shelter of Gales Point. The winds were gusty with some irregular shifts which added an element of chance to the decision of covering opponents or trying to find favorable wind shifts. The Hornets prevailed by winning three to nil in the best of five series. Captain Anna Brzezinski with her crew Aiden Harrison distinguished themselves with aggressive team racing maneuvers, such as sailing back from an easy first place to come to the aid of a team-mate being covered by an opponent. The team still has much to learn about the racing rules and team racing. But it was a satisfying win, nevertheless. The following day Winchester High School came to race us in Manchester Harbor. Once again, strong winds were the order of the day, so we had the course tucked up underneath Glass Head, to be sheltered by the bluffs. This breeze was somewhat diminished, but with strong variations in speed and direction. The racing was extremely close, and the meet was only decided on the last weather leg of the fifth race.
Winchester took the first race with a very thin margin of 10 points versus 11, winning two of the three pairs of boats. Manchester won the second with a strong 1, 2, 6, and then the third race with a weak 1, 4, 5. Winchester came back to win the fourth race with a 1, 2, 4. We were all tied up with two apiece, requiring the fifth race to break the tie. The last race was close from the start, given that Anna, who had been getting impressive starts throughout the meet, was over early this time, and had to go back to restart, putting us immediately behind. But over the next four legs of the race, the ME sailors gradually picked up places on the competition. At the start of the last leg, however, we were still behind. Responding well to the shifts, and keeping up their boat speed, at the finish line the Hornets had scored 10 points, with a 2, 3, 5, and beat out Winchester with the 1, 4, 6 or 11 points. The thinnest of margins. Next week we will race for the Mass Bay League Fleet Racing Championship at Community Boating on the Charles River and compete in the New England Fleet Racing Championship at MIT.
The Hornets hosted the Hamilton Wenham Generals in their second match up of the season. Game trends during the first contest between these teams consisted of large leads, sloppy play on defense and penalties. The second game was much different. Hamilton Wenham scored the first two goals of the game, one in transition and the other on settled offense. The Hornets would quickly respond with a goal from Junior Cam Hubbard, sticking his shot near side to cut the deficit to 2-1 late in the first quarter. Junior Captain Declan Kirk would dodge to score and make if 3-2. Sophomore Quinn Brady added two of his own goals to give the Hornets a 4-3 lead heading in to the second quarter. The visitors would score a late goal to end the half tied 4-4. It would be Quinn Brady again to open the second half scoring a goal from the left side and added another later in the quarter. Strong stops and efforts by the Hornets defense allowed Manchester Essex to maintain possession often. Junior Brennan Twombly also scored in the second half to help keep pace with the Generals. Senior Defensemen Jacob Brown and Andrew Amigo along with Senior goalie Hayden Brady provided the backbone of the defense in the second half. Hamilton Wenham would score 3 goals with the game tied at the end of regulation 7-7. An overtime period began and with the Hornets possessing the ball in the final minutes Sophomore Henry Thurlow would dodge his way to the middle of the field and dunk the ball on the crease between Hamilton Wenham’s goalie’s legs to give the Hornets the win 8-7 and move to a 4-8 record with two weeks left of regular season play.
The Hornets Boys Tennis Team picked up 3 wins over Pentucket, Rockport and Amesbury last week to bring their overall record to 9-2 and their State Tournament ranking to the number 8 spot in Division 4. At first singles, John Pope remains unbeaten on the season at 11-0 and during the entire week the Hornets as a team collected fourteen of fifteen possible points. Another very busy week awaits this week with matches against Newburyport, Marblehead, North Reading, and Hamilton Wenham.
