e White House Marauder on the Move Who will win the election?

The Dedham Mirror • Tuesday October 7, 2008
8 Sports
Football re-energized by new coach
By Rory O’Hanlon
Mirror Staff
Despite coming off
two tough seasons and a 0-4
start to the 2008 campaign
the <strong>Marauder</strong>s are thinking
positively. The <strong>Marauder</strong>s
are down but not out.
Taking the reigns
this season is Coach Keith
Comeau. With previous
coaching experience at Salem
High and college football
experience under his belt, he
brings a strong football background
to the program.
“I hope to bring a
change in attitude here and
add more intensity to the
program and start to move
in a positive direction,” said
Comeau.
With losses to Needham,
Wellesley, Braintree,
and Natick the boys have got
off to a bumpy start.
“We have had a rough
start but we are getting better
every week,” said senior
captain and quarterback John
O’Connell.
The <strong>Marauder</strong>s are putting
their losses behind them and
looking forward. Unfortunately,
many of the powerhouses
like Walpole, Weymouth, and
Norwood are ahead of them.
While John O’Connell
will be under center leading
the offense at quarterback,
senior Joe Mahoney and senior
captain Robbie Zarthar
will be handling the running
back duties. Both backs are
extremely strong which suites
their power running style.
Senior captain Paul Sullivan
is O’Connell’s main target
downfield at wide receiver.
With Sullivan’s height and
good hands look for the Sullivan-O’Connell
combo often.
The defense is led by
a handful of seniors including
Zarthar, Sullivan, Ma-
honey, Nick Tannetta, Billy
Grenham, and Mike Carilli.
The defense, built around
seasoned veterans, will definitely
hold its own against
the run.
Unfortunately, the
<strong>Marauder</strong>s suffered a big loss
in the first game of the season
when Senior Jeff Sweeney
went down with a severe
ankle injury. Sweeney was
the starting nose tackle and
brought energy to the “D”.
Many underclassmen
also have big roles in
the 3-5-3 defense including
Frankie Mahoney and Glenn
Ghizzoni at linebacker and
Nick Walsh at safety. There is
no question that the defense
is one of its stronger assets.
This solid core of
experienced seniors is very
familiar with how tough this
league is.
“The Baystate League
is one of the hardest leagues
in Massachusetts. Every
game is competitive because
there aren’t any teams far behind
the others. With so many
great teams in the league it’s
tough for us when only a little
over 30 kids come out for
the team,” said Sullivan.
With a majority of the
season left there isn’t any reason
why the <strong>Marauder</strong>s can’t
catch someone off guard and
pull off an upset. The <strong>Marauder</strong>s
have no where to go
but up. They are hungry for a
few wins so it is only a matter
of time before this team
clicks.
Boys Soccer hits the ground running
By Sarah Mosca
Mirror Staff
The boys soccer team
started off fantastically, beginning
the second half of
their season with a record of
5-3-1.
Doing better than expected,
the boys have had
crucial wins against Norwood
(twice), Milton, Randolph,
and a tremendous, 1-0 upset
against Weymouth.
“It was a great win,”
said senior captain Rory
O’Hanlon, “Nobody really expected
us to win. We went out
there and worked really hard
and were able to pull off a
great win for the program and
shock Weymouth.”
The boys’ strengths
consist mainly of the midfield
and defense. The team has
only three returning starters
from last year’s squad: senior
captains Brian Chin and Rory
O’Hanlon at midfield, along
with second year starter, junior
Jeffrey Farrell.
The team suffered a
huge deficit from the parting
of last year’s seniors. They lost
their two starting forwards, Phil
Weltman and Giovanni Castro-
Byrd. Along with midfielders
Mike Zazzara and Ryan Murray,
and also the heavily experienced
play of Joe Weltman.
Alvaro Delapuente (junior),
Brian Boggie (junior)
and Mike McFarland (freshman)
have taken the place of
Weltman and Castro-Byrd at
forward and have had creditable
success so far. The team
plays with a two forwards,
with McFarland, Boggie and
Delapuente rotating to head the
<strong>Marauder</strong>s attack.
The team was also affected
when senior Dan Driscoll
graduated. With no other experienced
goaltenders, the coaches
looked to anybody to fill the
position. Their search came to
an end when junior Scott Murphy
tried it out. After not only
his first year on varsity, but his
first year in the goaltending
position, he’s showed no butterflies
between the posts.
“Watching him play,
you wouldn’t even know that
it was his first year playing
goalie,” said O’Hanlon, “He’s
really stepped up and all of our
confidence in him has grown
as the season has progressed.”
The worst circumstance
that the team has faced
is a little bit of inexperience
and uncertainty amongst the
younger players of the team.
However, that’s nothing that
can be improved as the season
moves along.
Other seniors Nick
Terzian, David Delendeck and
Ryan Birchall are three new senior
additions to the team who
have come off the bench during
games as reinforcements.
With tournament close
in reach, the boys are eager
to get those next few wins to
solidify their amount of qualification
points to accomplish
their goal. Although they only
need a small amount of wins to
achieve what they’re striving
for, the boys are still trying
hard and fighting it out until
the end of their season.
Girls soccer
ready to get back on track
By Sarah Mosca
Mirror Staff
Due to a lack of experience
and a somewhat young
team comparable to years past,
the DHS girls soccer team started
their season with a bit of turbulence.
However, room to improve
is an upside as the team’s development
has gotten more consistent
as the season has progressed
so far.
The losses of last year’s
seniors hit the team hard. Erin
McGaffi gan, Krista Bradbury,
Madison Farrell, Amanda Shay
and Kayla Cammaratta were fi ve
strong players whose college
departures made an irreparable
dent in the team atmosphere and
playing chemistry, but is something
that the remaining players
strongly aspire to overcome.
Although Kayla Cammaratta
will be missed by the
team, Jess Robinson (capt.) has
been doing an outstanding job
fi lling her space between the
pipes and impressing everybody
on the sidelines.
“Goaltending is defi -
nitely one of our biggest strengths
on the team this year,” said four
year starter, junior Patrice Vettori,
“I’m defi nitely comfortable
with [Robinson] back there in the
net and she is doing a great job. I
have confi dence in her when she
takes shots from the other teams
and I know everybody else feels
the same way.”
Undoubtedly, experience
is what is holding the team
back. The talent is there, but the
age and familiarity isn’t. Unlike
last year, the team has very few
four and fi ve year starters.
The only fi ve year member
of the team is senior captain
Nicole Savi. So far, she’s been
a strong leader in the midfi eld
and one of her highlights of the
season was her two goal score
performance in the game against
By Erin Briscoe
Mirror Staff
The girls volleyball
team has had a tough start to
the season with an unexpected
record of 1-6 (press time). With
the addition of fi ve new players,
including sophomore Tori Wood,
as setter, they have yet to really
show the talent they have.
The team’s toughest
games this season were against
the always competitive Natick
and Walpole. Dedham lost both
games, 3-0 but did not go down
without a fi ght.
The team had high expectations
of making tournament
this year but came up short due
to two injuries this season. Seniors
Jackie Chen (outside hitter)
and Caitlin Driscoll (setter) have
been in and out of the lineup with
Milton. The only two four year
members are Vettori and Robinson,
leaving Vettori as the only
fi ve year starter to lead the team
next year.
Sarah Maki, senior captain,
is a three year member of
the team contributing to the midfi
eld. She’s another one of the
players that will be looked to for
the remainder of the season for
her experience on the fi eld and
leadership.
The team has six new
players that will be fulfi lling
their fi rst year on the varsity
team. Of those six are seniors
Amy Munchbach and Stephanie
Lloyd, who are looking to get
some playing time in the midfi
eld. Two new freshmen additions
have also been placed on
the team, Jenna Savi and Sarah
Warjas. With plenty of observation
of the team over the past
few years, the two freshmen
were eager to hear the news that
they would be starting their fi rst
year on the team.
“[Warjas and Savi] have
really stepped it up so far,” said
Robinson “Although newcomers
to the varsity level of play, they
don’t seem to be phased by their
age and inexperience.”
With tournament rapidly
approaching, the team is determined
to win their upcoming
games and with the look of their
schedule and the statistics of the
other teams, the goal of making
tournament is looking within
reach for the girls.
“At the beginning of the
season we were hoping to take
the Herget,” said Robinson, “but
now we’re mostly focusing on
making tournament. The hardest
part of our season is over and
now we know that with a more
evenly leveled match-up, we can
defi nitely show the other teams
how much we’ve improved and
how good we can really perform
on the fi eld.”
Volleyball setting up
injuries.
“Our goals for this season
would have to be to work on
our upcoming setters,” Senior
Jill Moses (outside hitter).
Jill has played as starting
outside hitter for the past
three years. With a team made up
of four senior starters, preparing
for next year is also a big concern
for Coach Margery Bohan.
The starting lineup this
year includes Jill Moses (outside
hitter); Vivian Daley (middle hitter);
Julia Berkey (middle hitter);
Jackie Chen (Outside hitter);
Caitlin Driscoll (setter); and Tori
Wood (setter).
The <strong>Marauder</strong>s have
had a tough start but will continue
to battle down the stretch. The
underclassman will certainly use
this season to build for the future,
which looks bright.