New Canaan Football Club ’07 Boys Black Defeat Westport 2-1
—ilubmitted by Greg Martin
Holden Prymas, Gregory Martin, Oliver Sturn, Stuart Hellmann, and Tommy Havens mounting an attack from the back.
The New Canaan F.C. 2007 Boys Black Team, coached by Han Park, improved their record with a 2-1 win on the road against Westport. As usual, New Canaan started the game on the offensive with Gregory Martin being robbed 5 minutes into the game on a great save by the Westport goalie on left footed blast from just inside the box. Shortly thereafter, Donovan West hit the post on a Sportscenter worthy shot from 25 yards away.
Just past midway through the first half, New Canaan finally broke through and opened the scoring on terrific wing play on the left side from Gregory Martin who sent in a pinpoint low cross to Parker Della Bitta on the near post who adeptly one touched the ball into the goal. New Canaan maintained the pressure on Westport and were rewarded with their second goal on a nice corner kick taken by Holden Prymas with Donovan West picking up the deflected ball in the box and shooting the ball on the ground through the oncoming defenders legs into the goal.
Westport continued to fight hard and with a minute left in the half they nearly cut the lead in half. Westport came in on a breakaway when their two forwards got behind the New Canaan defense. Tommy Havens stepped up with two brilliant, back-to-back, point blank saves on strong shots from each Westport striker, enabling New Canaan to go into halftime feeling confident with a strong first half performance and a 2-0 lead.
Early in the second half, however, Westport closed the gap to 2-1 on an unstoppable shot from outside the box. After a terrific first half playing outside back, Drew Zoccolillo took over in goal for the second half and closed the door after that goal. It was a terrific team effort and a hard fought second half. Oliver Sturn and Stuart Hellmann dashed the hopes of the opposing team time and again with key stops on defense throughout the game. Mason Park and Quinn Scanlan played outstanding in both offensive and defensive roles throughout the game. It was a great team win with each boy contributing to the win.
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The National Champions Sitting Next To You
—submitted by Tom Severance
New Canaan Crew boats with their gold medals and trophies. Contributed
The result was stunning: nine National Champions, all from the New Canaan Crew team, emerged from the 2018 US Rowing Youth National Championships held June 8 – 10 at Lake Natoma, Rancho Cordova, California. Eight boats and 32 members of the New Canaan Crew, rowing out of Maritime Rowing Club, qualified for the event—more boats and crew than any other club, high school or prep school in the nation.
The nine National Champions came from two of those boats: the men’s Lightweight 4+, crewed by Reece Gregory, Tyler Brennan, Ryan Borsy, Ryan Sill and Coxswain Carly Legenzowski; and the Men’s 4, crewed by Will Legenzowski, Salim Onbargi, Nate Phelps and Liam Galloway.
These neighbors and classmates are a truly dedicated lot, rowing six days a week, four hours per session. They eat salads to maintain their weight, down protein shakes to stay strong and measure their output on ergs. Vacations and holidays are simply opportunities to spend even more time rowing. Focused and driven individuals, they have worked for four-to-six years to reach the pinnacle of youth rowing in the United States.
The three-day National Championship had rowers racing at least every day and sometimes twice a day—and the New Canaan Crew kept winning as the weekend progressed. The team had, 2 – Golds and finished in 7th, 7th, 11th,12th and 16th. More medals might have been in the offing if not for a last minute injury that forced one of the boats to withdraw from competition. Two of the team’s crew—Alex Abbruzzese and Coxswain Skylar Severance—raced in two different boats, competing in seven races in three days.
It was a truly impressive showing for the New Canaan Crew and Maritime Rowing, especially considering that a third of the athletes were juniors and sophomores. Congratulations to all athletes for their remarkable accomplishments.