In the Hornets Nest | Sept. 22 Edition

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Checking in on last week’s games, meets and matches from the Manchester Essex Regional Middle High School teams.  Go Hornets!

Cross Country:

Manchester Essex Cross Country split their opening meet at Amesbury.  

The boys won 24 to 34.  Scoring for the boys were Finn O’Hara 1st, Charlie Lations 4th, Lyall Cunningham 5th, Henry Stevens 6th and Colby Rochford 8th.  Also affecting the score was Aidan Woods 10th, displacing Amesbury’s fifth runner.

The girls lost a close meet 28 to 27.  Scoring for the girls were Sabine Cooper 3rd, Whitney Turner 4th, Faith Castellucci 5th, River Silva 7th and Libby McKinnon 9th.

Our next meet is against Ipswich at Ravenswood Park on Wednesday September 20.  

Cheer:

The cheer team has been hard at work at practice, working on bettering their skills with stunts and tumbling.  Also they have been hard at work learning their halftime dance routine.  We continue to work and perfect our Matt routine. The girls cheered the football team on during Friday’s game and continue to show their support. 

Golf:

The Hornets Golf Team is off to a 2-3 start, with wins over Triton and Amesbury. We’ve lost three close matches to North Reading, Newburyport and Rockport.

This coming week is a big week with matches against new Cape Ann League member Essex Tech, and Lynnfield.

Our young team is led by our only senior, Captain Lilly Brigham, and is improving with every match! The rest of the Varsity squad includes Gray West, Jack McCavanagh. Matt DeOreo, Matt Graeter, Jake Zschau, Luke Holmes and Jack Lawler.

The JV squad, who starts their schedule this week includes Elliot Davis, Eoin Doyle, Connor Dickson, Ian Campbell, Jack Bediz, Will Connell, Robbie McLaughlin, Peter Langendorf, Carter Smith and Henry Swerdoff.

Girls Soccer:

In the team’s third game of the season the Manchester Essex Hornets rallied from a lackluster 1st half performance to win 3-0.  Mechi O’Neil opened the scoring 30 seconds into the 2nd half, chasing after a long pass from Mackay Brooks and finding the back of the net for her 4th goal of the season.
Anna Gardner made it 2-0 with an unstopped left-footed shot after another great pass from Mackay Brooks.  Meg Hurd capped off a great performance with a goal off of Izzy Zagrobski’s pinpoint cross. 

Hornets fall on the road to Pentucket 2-1.  The standout performer for the Hornets was Grace Scarborough who put in an excellent defensive display at left-back.  Down 2-0 with 10 minutes to play the Hornets rallied and tested Pentucket’s keeper multiple times. Pippa Spingler finally scored with a fantastic shot (assisted by Mechi O’Neil) but with only 5 minutes remaining, Manchester Essex was unable to equalize despite their best efforts.

Boys Soccer:

The Manchester Essex boys’ soccer program brought its record to 2-1-2 with a win a loss and a tie during the week of competition.  On Monday, the boys traveled to Ipswich, and after conceding early in the match, they came back to tie the Tigers on a great individual effort from Sammy Bothwell as he drove the ball past several Ipswich defenders on a short corner and passed it to fellow striker Finn Birkeland who buried the equalizer past the Ipswich keeper.  On Thursday the boys battled hard but lost a close match 2-3 to Pentucket.  On Saturday with some excellent ball movement the Hornets dominated the match against Nashoba Valley Tech 8-1.  The scoring came early from the combination play between strikers Birkeland and Bothwell whose passing and finishing helped the Hornets strike hard early.  Bothwell finished the match with three goals and four assists, while Birkeland and center mid Ali Erdogan each had two goals apiece.  The goal of the match may have come late with Sam Porter making a run through and cracking a bar down shot over the keeper’s head on a pass from Ali Erdogan.  The Hornets play North Reading and Rockport this week.