Update from WH Athletics

This week in Whitman-Hanson Athletics:

 

1)      What a day for Whitman-Hanson football on Saturday!  The Panthers stormed out to a 25-0 halftime lead and held on to beat Marshfield for the first time in more than a decade, 39-24.  Senior quarterback Tommy Sapienza had a career day running for 106 yards and passing for 292.  This is the first year Tommy has played quarterback and his performance in the first two weeks is a big reason why the Panthers are now 2-0.  The defense also came up huge for the Panthers on Saturday with Captains Jerry Thompson and Matt Hughes both recording 13 tackles apiece.  The Panthers return to action Friday night in Foxboro at 7pm.

 

2)      The girls soccer team had a grueling schedule this week with 3 games and to no one’s surprise they were up to the task.   The Panthers won all 3 games to improve to 4-0.  WH has yet to give a goal this season!  Alyssa Eaton scored the games only goal on a penalty pick in the closing minutes of the Panthers 1-0 win at Silver Lake on Friday.  The week began with a very impressive 2-0 win over one of the league favorites, Duxbury High School.   Devon Howard and Kelsey Gilbert both scored for WH. The team is off until Thursday when they host Middleboro at 3:30pm

 

 

3)      The boys soccer team is still searching for their first win, but there were many positive signs this week.  The Panthers were tied with Duxbury 2-2 in the final minute of play before giving up the game winning goal. Connor Ross scored both goals.  It was another heartbreaker on Wednesday when the Panthers were scoreless with North Quincy in the final minutes when the Red Raiders scored the game’s only goal.  Despite the record, the team has show great progress and when they get healthy and everyone back on the field, we expect to see their hard work pay off. The team is off until Thursday when they travel to Middleboro.

 

4)      The boys and girls cross country teams are still dominating their opponents.  Both teams turned in another perfect race this week posting identical scores of 15-50 over Middleboro.  This is the best possible score in cross country.  Gianna Cacciatore, Sam Coletti and Rachel Baker took the top 3 spots for the girls at 20:27.  Leading the way for the boys was senior, Nate Stephansky, who covered the 3.1 mile course in 17:28.  Rounding out the top five:  2. Pat Mulrey (SR) 18:20, 3. Brian Sheppard (JR) 18:20, 4. Sam Evans (FR) 18:21, 5. Chris Londergan (SR) 18:44.  Both teams compete in a tri match on Wednesday 9/19 at Silver Lake against the Lakers and Scituate high school.

 

 

5)      The golf team evened its record at 2-2 with a win over Middleboro at Lakeville Country Club on Thursday.  The team won 43-29 with Senior Sam Webster defeating his opponent easily, 7-2, while brothers Cam (sophomore) and Cole (freshman) Manning won their individual matches by the same score of 6.5-2.5.  The golf team plays host to Martha’s Vineyard tomorrow (Monday 9/17) at Ridder Country Club.

 

6)      The volleyball team dropped a straight set match at Pembroke but the energy and enthusiasm of this young team is translating into excellent improvement on a daily basis.  They will attempt to pick up their first win tomorrow (Monday 9/17) when they travel to Middleboro.

 

7)      It was great for our Panther fans and community to see our cheerleaders in action on Saturday.  Under the direction of their new head coach Tanisha King, the girls gave a spectacular performance at halftime (sporting brand new uniforms which they fundraised for as a team).

 

8)      The SuperFan program kicked off this past week with the Captains Council producing a Public Service Announcement regarding the SuperFan program, school spirit and sportsmanship.  Click here to see the PSA - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWExdY-Sq6k .  The captains are committed to getting more students involved in our various school activities.  As a group, they have pledged to get their teammates to go to the plays, concerts and other non-athletic events.  The teams have already been great supporters of each other this Fall as it is quite common to see the stands filled with student-athletes from other sports at each game.  By the way, a brief explanation of the SuperFan program may be in order.  Students are encouraged to sign a contract regarding behavior at games and overall sportsmanship.  They are given ideas on how to show positive school spirit at WH events.  In exchange, they get a SuperFan card which gets them into some games for free and others for a discount.  It also enters them into contests to win prizes such as hats, shirts, pens, etc.  SuperFans may also be lucky enough to win a chance to sit in the Super Seats where they can watch the game in comfort on a couch or chair in the endzone while receiving pizza and drinks.

 

9)      The MIAA has done a great job in producing a new website for schools to use for scheduling.  We are confident it will be a  great resource for all of us.  However, we felt like the schedule at this point is a little awkward to navigate so we produced an easy to read calendar like we made last year.  You can see all Whitman-Hanson sports in one easy place.  You can find it at our blog at www.whathletics.blogspot.com .  By the way,  there are new pictures added to the site daily courtesy of Sue Moss.  Just click on the link that says pictures and then navigate to the sport that interests you.  Last season, we had more than 2 million views of the pictures on the site!  If you missed the football game Saturday, you could have had live updates right to your phone by following us on twitter at whathletics.