County Dreams Alive for Lady Hawks, Crusaders

Heading into this weekend, the River Dell field hockey and girls soccer and Bergen Catholic soccer teams are all still dreaming of a County title after wins over Ridgewood on the pitch and Old Tappan on the field.

Soccer

The 12th seeded Ridgewood Lady Maroons and 80 minutes were all that stood in the way of the 5th seeded River Dell Lady Hawks making their way to the Bergen County quarterfinals and a rematch with Glen Rock. And seven members of the squad found the back of the net in a sweeping fashion as River Dell downed Ridgewood 8-2 to advance. The Lady Hawks also surpassed Mahwah, 3-1, and Westwood, 5-1, in the regular season this week. Senior midfielder Frankie Maier led the charge blasting in four goals over three games. River Dell faces Glen Rock on Sunday, 3:30pm at Indian Hills in the quarterfinals.

Bergen Catholic also faced Ridgewood in their County match-up and while the boys game was less of a blow-out, the Maroons made the Crusaders work for their 1-0 overtime victory. Armin Grossrieder has been tearing up the pitch for the red and gold as he netted the game-winning goal. Bergen's 9-game unbeaten streak was kept alive as the Crusaders overpowered Wayne Hills, 2-0 behind Erick Alonso and Gerard Quinn. Bergen faces Bergenfield on Sunday, 6pm at River Dell in the quarterfinals.

River Dell boys, who are not competing in the Bergen County tournament, shutout Westwood, 5-0 earlier this week with Brett Lubben, Michael DeBenedtto, Nich Shannan, Zachary Hubner and Ryan Zaccaria all netting goals. The squad then tied Pascack Hills, 0-0.

Field Hockey

Twice this week Marina Reilly has played an integral part in the 4th seeded Lady Hawks victories over 5th seeded Old Tappan with the first coming in a 1-0 County quarterfinal victory. In the County tournament, Reilly scored off a Meghan Ennis assist in the second half; she would then feed the ball to Catherine Antonelli in the regular season for the win. Splitting the wins over Old Tappan was a tough 2-0 loss to Wayne Hills where Emily Rizzo made 11 saves. Field Hockey will face top seeded Ramsey on the Rams hometurf on Sunday, 11am in the County semifinals.

Volleyball

River Dell is very likely on a crashcourse route to face Demarest in the County quarterfinals if they play the ball well after earning the number four spot in the bottom bracket. Prior to receiving their County tournament placement, the Hawks swept all four matches this week with victories over Westwood (25-10, 25-16), Rutherford (25-19, 25-19), Pascack Hills (25-8,23-25, 25-15) and Dumont (25-12, 25-20). Mary Maccabee who recently returned to the line-up has continued to lead River Dell with 43 kills. Kalette deMarrais contributed 53 assists and 7 digs and Sarah Recanati had 20 digs. The Lady Hawks face 29th seeded Waldwick on Saturday, 11am at home.

Football

One day from his 18th birthday, Bergen Catholic signal caller Jon Germano threw his way in the Crusaders record-book with a career high 49 touchdowns. Germano and the Crusaders surpassed DePaul, 55-19 at home. The Hawthorne-native opened the game's scoring with a 61-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage and ran in another late in the game. He would then connect with John Feaster (twice) and JJ Kulcsar for three TD passes. James Dawson, Johnny Sebastian and Nasif Chowdhury each added their own scores during the game.

Ryan Duran and the Golden Hawks just survived a late charge by Ridgefield Park for a 14-13 victory, stopping the Scarlets momentum just inside the Hawks' 25. Duran threw a TD pass to Shane DiMasso and scooted one in himself, both in the second quarter, for the win.

Cross Country

Running at Darlington Park, Emily Croonquist was the top place River Dell runner in the girls Patriot Division Championship as she finished in sixth place. The girls finished in fourth overall. The boys team was just barely denied a League title finishing second overall behind Ramsey as Stefan Schuster clocked in for sixth place followed by Timothy Olsen in 17th and William Daly in 19h.

Bergen Catholic was also denied a United Division title coming in second place, one point behind arch rival Don Bosco. Michael Whalen came in fifth place followed by Matt Morano in seventh, Michael Sondej in 11th and Thomas Selvaggi in 15th.

Tennis

It's been a rough week on the courts as River Dell was shutout by Pascack Hills and Pascack Valley by 5-0 scores. 

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