Red Devil gridders return to action
The Chelsea High football team will swing back into action after a bye week, traveling to Shawsheen Tech Saturday afternoon for what promises to be a rugged encounter.
Coach Mike Stellato’s Red Devils stand at 2-1 on the season, having defeated Trinity Catholic and Greater Lawrence on successive Friday nights after dropping their season opener to Lynn Tech.
Shawsheen, which plays in the Large School Division of the Commonwealth Athletic Conference (Chelsea plays in the Small Division), is 1-3, but that victory came over Cambridge, a Division 1 school, by a convincing 26-7 score. In addition, Shawsheen battled Lynn Tech in a close game, falling by a 28-21 decision. By contrast, the Red Devils fell to Lynn Tech in the season opener, 32-8.
However, the Red Devils are a much improved team from that contest, with junior quarterback Steven Dwyer, who stepped into the starting role this season, directing an offense that features a trio of experienced and talented running backs in Raul Flores, Juan Martinez, and Hector Rivera.
The CHS defense also has shown its mettle in the two victories, essentially putting up shutouts in both the Trinity and GL victories, with the lone TD allowed by the Red Devils in those two encounters coming via a kickoff return.
Game time for Saturday’s contest at Shawsheen is 1:30.
Another fine week
for boys soccer team
Although the Chelsea High boys soccer team absorbed its first loss of the season, a 4-2 decision to Division 1 Cambridge, the Red Devils won both of their contests against their Commonwealth Athletic Conference opponents to improve to 9-1 on the season. Those victories not only moved the Red Devils closer to a CAC championship, but also clinched a spot for Chelsea in the post season state tournament.
Red Devil captain Carlos Martinez continued to burn a hole in the enemy’s nets, as Carlos scored seven goals in the three games to raise his season total to 19.
“Carlos just keeps scoring goals,” said CHS Asst. Coach Evan Protasowicki. “He’s on an amazing run for us.”
Martinez pumped in three goals in a 6-1 triumph over Greater Lowell last week.
Teammates Dennis Martinez, Captain Hugo Erazo, and Kilmer Carillo also took turns reaching the back of the GL net.
In the 4-2 loss to Cambridge this past Monday , the Red Devil captains, (Carlos) Martinez and Erazo accounted for the tallies, with Hugo assisting on Carlos’s goal.
“We had a couple of defensive lapses early in the game and that allowed Cambridge to jump out to an early 2-0 lead on us,” noted Protasowicki. “But we settled down nicely and played them fairly evenly after that.”
After Martinez made it 2-1, Erazo nearly tied it up, but his shot hit the post. Cambridge then reversed the momentum quickly and came back to make it 3-1, from where the Cantabs went on to hand the Red Devils their first loss of the season.
However, Chelsea remained undaunted after the defeat and bounced back nicely to record a huge 3-2 triumph over CAC archrival Northeast Regional on the local turf. If you’ve been counting since the second paragraph of this story, you know that Carlos Martinez had four goals in the first two games described above and, it being stated in para. 2 that he had seven goals on the week, then that means (okay readers, do the math right now) that Captain Carlos scored all three goals for the Red Devils for his second hat trick in six days.
All of the goals in the game by both teams were scored in the opening half. Martinez gave Chelsea leads of 2-0 and 3-1 before Northeast sliced the margin to 3-2 before the intermission. But after the offensive fireworks of the first half, the defenses took over for a scoreless 40 minutes of play that left the Red Devils on top. Josue Miraldo and Erazo were credited with assists on Martinez’s first two markers.
The Red Devils travel to Greater Lawrence today (Thursday).
Cross country teams
remain undefeated
The Chelsea High boys and girls cross country teams enjoyed another fine week, defeating all of their rivals to remain undefeated.
Last week both squads traveled to Danvers to take on Essex Aggie. The boys cruised to victory by a score of 19-42. Joseph Arroyo was first overall, followed by Edgar Ocana in second and Chester Rath in third. Jay Pedrero was sixth, Jeffrey Estrada was seventh, Faisal Nasimi was eight, Calvin Hernandez was ninth and Oscar Sabillion was 10th for the Red Devils.
On the girls’ side, the final tabulation saw the Lady Red Devils also attain a big win, 18-43. Arandeni Ramos was first overall, followed by teammate Tatyana Almedia in second. Neris Yanes was fourth overall, Yareli Sanchez took fifth, and Monica Hernandez came across the line in sixth overall to conclude the scoring for Chelsea.
On Friday the girls traveled to Methuen to take on Presentation of Mary in a girls only meet. Arandeni Ramos suffered her first loss of the season, but finished second overall. Tatyana Almedia was third, followed by Duska Cvjetan in fifth, Neris Yanes in sixth, Yareli Sanchez in seventh, Monica Hernandez in eighth, Andrea Umana in ninth and captain Patricia Guardado in 10th. .The final count showed a Chelsea victory, 23-38.
This past Monday Coach Don Fay’s teams hosted Mystic Valley at Admiral’s Hill. Joseph Arroyo remained undefeated with a thrilling come from behind win over MV’s top runner. Francisco Colindres was third, Edgar Ocana was fourth and Chester Rath was fifth for Chelsea. Faisal Nasimi set a new freshman record with his time of 19:55 on the 2.9 mile course and Jay Pedrero and Jeffrey Estrada finished up the scoring for the Red Devils. All of Chelsea’s top seven runners set personal records en route to a 22-33 triumph.
The girls battled MV in their closest meet of the season, narrowly prevailing by a score of 26-31. Arandeni Ramos and Tatyana Almedia were two and three for Chelsea. Neris Yanes was sixth and Andrea Umana ran her best race of the year to finish seventh. Monica Hernandez finished eighth and Yareli Sanchez finished ninth to clinch the win for the Lady Red Devils. The girls now stand at 6-0 and the boys are 5-0.
The Chelsea teams host Minuteman today (Thursday).
Girls soccer team
splits two contests
The Chelsea High girls soccer team turned in two fine efforts this past week in exciting games that were decided by just one goal on each occasion.
The Lady Red Devils took on North Shore Tech last Wednesday. Chelsea and Tech battled to a scoreless deadlock through the first half as both teams played a fiercely competitive contest.
However, midway through the second half, North Shore broke the deadlock to take a 1-0 advantage. Although the Lady Red Devils had their chances to get back to even, they were unable to dent the Tech goal.
“We had some great runs and combinations, but we were unable to score,” said CHS head coach Kim Huffer. “We had our opportunities to tie, or even win, the game, but our shots fell a little short or went wide. We put together some great runs toward the end of the game, but just ran out of time. The girls played an overall solid game against a tough opponent.”
Chelsea took on another conference foe, Whittier Tech, on their home turf on Monday. Similar to the Lynn Tech encounter, the first half was a battle up and down the field, with possession quickly changing between the visiting Lady Wildcats and the Lady Red Devils. And similar to the Lynn contest, the score was 0-0 at the intermission.
However, the second half saw Chelsea gain the majority of possession and put together a few runs. Midway through the second half, Loren Ramos fed a ball to Sarah Bourouis who scored a breakaway goal to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead.
The Lady Red Devils then maintained a tough defense throughout the second half to keep Whittier scoreless. In her first full game as goalie, freshman Delmy Mejia had seven saves.
“Delmy did very well in goal for us,” said Huffer. “She was vocal with the defense and did a good job with some hard-kicked balls. We were missing a few key players in this game, but I’m proud of the girls who were able to step in and play key roles in our victory.
“Katherine Velasquez had a great game in midfield,” continued the coach. “This was a new position for her and she did a great job of pushing the ball forward and stopping the forward movement of one of Whittier’s strikers.”
The win improved Chelsea’s record to 4-3 on the season. Huffer and her crew were set to travel to Greater Lawrence yesterday (Wednesday) and return home to host Shawsheen Tech tomorrow (Friday).
Volleyball team
tops Mystic Valley
The Chelsea High volleyball team had an up and down week (or more accurately, a down and up week), dropping its first two contests, but coming back nicely to record a win over Mystic Valley Tuesday.
The Lady Red Devils took on Fellowship of Christian Academy last Wednesday with high hopes of knocking off a Fellowship team with whom Chelsea shared the Small Division championship of the Commonwealth Athletic Conference last season.
Both teams were undefeated in the CAC Small coming into their encounter, but Fellowship emerged a 3-1 winner to move into sole possession of first place. “We didn’t play as well as we needed to play in order to beat Fellowship,” said CHS head coach Lisa Ceccherini. “We didn’t communicate well or play together as a team.”
The following day, Chelsea’s foe was Presentation of Mary, perennially one of the top teams in the CAC Large Division. Despite the stronger opposition, the Lady Red Devils turned in one of their best performances of the season, extending PMA to five games before the visitors finally prevailed.
“We were a totally different team the next day,” said Ceccherini. “I was very proud of the way the girls came back and showed their resiliency against a very good team.”
The Lady Red Devils, who now stand at 4-6 on the season, got back on the winning track with a 3-0 shutout victory over Mystic Valley. Ceccherini was able to utilize all of her players and noted in particular the fine play of sophomores Amanda Nabasaliza, Rebecca Torrento, and Marina Melendez, as well as the stellar passing and setting of senior defensive specialist Helen Ngo.
Ceccherini and her crew were set to host Greater Lawrence yesterday (Wednesday) and travel to Shawsheen Tech tomorrow (Friday).