Schuster, Whalen Seek County Titles Saturday

This weekend several River Dell and Bergen Catholic cross country athletes will take to Darlington County Park in search of an individual county title at the Lou Molino Bergen County Meet of Champions.

Cross Country

The Lou Molino Bergen County Meet of Champions girls race begins at 11am with the boys starting at 11:40am. Both races will be held at Darlington County Park, Mahwah.

After placing third overall in the Bergen County Group Champions, Bergen Catholic is posed to send two runners to Darlington Park again this weekend as Mike Whalen and Matt Morano secured their spots to attempt an individiual title. BC finished with 115 points to send the entire team to run with Whalen completing the race in 16:12 for seventh place followed by Morano in 16:45 (16th place).

River Dell boys sixth overall with 123 points and will be represented by Stefan Schuster (4th, 16:30), William Daly (19th, 17:33) and Tim Olsen (20th, 17:35). Emily Croonquist, who finished 9th in 20:37 will be the lone Lady Hawk to compete this weekend as the rest of the girls team finished out of contention.

Soccer

BC's crusade for a county championship continued as Bergen scored a late goal to hand archrival Don Bosco Prep a (2-1) loss and advanced to the County Final against Ramapo. The County final was played on Friday night.

BC took a (1-0) lead thanks to a goal from Armin Grossrieder off an assist from Erick Alonso in the first half, and the Crusaders enjoyed that slim lead heading into halftime. Don Bosco Prep would level the score at (1-1) in the second half, but BC's leading scorer Erick Alonso broke the tie with a beautiful goal off a perfect pass from Gerard Quinn with only 4 minutes left in the game.

Both the River Dell boys and girls squads suffered losses this week as Lady Hawk Danielle DeBenedetto made 10 saves in net as the defense held the IHA Blue Eagles off for the first half before IHA's Cami Didio and Alexandria Mesropyan netted a goal apiece in the later half to surge for a 2-0 victory. The boys team fell to Fort Lee 2-0 this week.

Volleyball

River Dell beat Rutherford for the second time this season when it really mattered to set a County Tournament semifinal date with Demarest.The Bulldogs won the first set 25-21, but the Lady Hawks were able to pick up a pair of 25-17, 25-20 wins for the right to advance. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, River Dell was knocked out of the county tournament by the Norsewomen, 12-25, 21-25. Splitting their County games, the Hawks surpassed Dwight Morrow 25-8, 25-6.

Mary Maccabee had 50 kills and eight digs for the week, Kalette deMarrais recorded 56 assists and Sarah Recanati had 21 digs.

Football

Held scoreless in the first quarter, the River Dell Golden Hawks ran in three consectutive touchdowns to lead 21-0 at halftime and shutout Indian Hills 35-0. Speedy Ryan Duran escaped for a 75-yard run TD followed by Max Cepeda running for 65 and 15 yards respectively for a pair of TD's Eric King ran in the final two in the fourth quarter on 12 and 32 yards. Kicker Ben Shapiro connected on all 5 extra points.

Bergen Catholic faces arch rival Don Bosco Prep this afternoon, 1pm at Overpeck Park as part of the Bergen County Fall Festival. Expect quarterback Jon Germano to write his name in the record books again as the Hawthorne-native is 12 yards shy of become Bergen Catholic's all-time passing yardage leader. He trails initial 1997 record setter Craig Pengitore (4,193 yards) with 4,181 yards. If he accomplished this feat, it would be the second record he has set this season. The football game will be played out at Palisades Park Regional Sportsplex, Roosevelt and Grand Avenue in Palisades Park.

Tennis

River Dell fell twice this week by score of 5-0, first to Mahwah and then to Ramsey.

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