‘A trip down 69’: Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015

State tournament matchups took place throughout the state this past week and were the focus of many high school sports fans. I’ll talk about some of those, along with some football. Let’s start in Bristol:

Bristol Eastern girls volleyball back in state semifinals
The No. 6 Lancers advanced to the Class L state semifinals for the fourth straight year with a 3-0 win over No. 14 Avon on Saturday at Bristol Eastern High School. Seniors Angela Daley (14 kills), Megan Gettings (14 kills), Chyna Barrett (6 kills) and Paisley Tucker (5 kills) led the way. Daley and junior Hannah Langlais had four aces apiece while senior Bailey Wyrebek and junior Jessica Kenney had two aces each. Kenney dished out 33 assists while Wyrebek led the way with 14 digs. Those stats were put up on MaxPreps.com by Eastern volleyball.
Eastern will face No. 7 Platt Thursday night in a semifinal at a place and time to be determined.

St. Paul football loses overtime thriller to Torrington
The Falcons forged a late 38-38 fourth quarter tie against the Red Raiders by scoring a touchdown and getting a two-point conversion with 22 seconds to play. In overtime, Torrington was able to score, then stop St. Paul on its lone overtime possession to pull out a 46-38 victory. The Red Raiders unofficially clinched a Class L state tournament berth with the win. The Falcons hope to clinch a .500 season in their finale when they host Oxford on Thanksgiving Eve at 6 p.m.

Bristol Central football wins third straight game
The Rams took down East Hartford 14-6 on Friday night at Muzzy Field for their third straight win. Bristol Central improved to 6-3 on the season and can finish with a second consecutive campaign of 7-3 with a win over city rival Bristol Eastern in the annual Battle for the Bell on Thanksgiving morning at 10:30 at Muzzy.
The Rams will be looking to snap an eight-game losing streak against the Lancers. Central last beat Eastern in 2005 by a score of 20-7. The teams tied at 14 in 2006, and it’s been all Lancers since then. The Rams hope to change that and complete what has been another successful season.

Wolcott football needs help to reach postseason
The Eagles’ Class S state playoff hopes took two sharp blows in the last two weeks with losses to Seymour (61-41) and Ansonia (49-7 Friday night). Wolcott (6-3) is ranked No. 13 in Class S, and while still alive for a playoff spot, it needs plenty of help. The Eagles need to take care of business against Holy Cross on Thanksgiving morning, then see where the chips fall after that.

Legendary Crosby coach Augelli inducted into Waterbury Hall of Fame
Crosby boys basketball head coach Nick Augelli added Hall of Famer to his long list of accolades on Saturday.
Augelli
was inducted into the Waterbury Hall of Fame, along with Frederick
LaBreque, M.D.; Donna Palomba; Timothy Porter; Sheryl Lee Ralph and John
Miles Stocking. The ceremony was held at the Mattatuck Museum on
Saturday afternoon. The Hall of Fame is made up of diverse nominees, ranging from sports figures to war heroes to historians.
Augelli, who recently had the Crosby Palace’s court named after him, has certainly had a legendary career with the Bulldogs. He has been a positive influence on many of Waterbury’s youth, and he continues to do so.

Holy Cross girls soccer’s amazing run continues
The No. 8 Crusaders have made a remarkable run to the Class S state semifinals. The last two wins came in dramatic fashion on penalty kicks, including an upset of top-seeded Housatonic on Friday.
Holy Cross takes on No. 5 Old Lyme tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at Rosek-Skubel Stadium on the campus of Middletown High School. The winner faces the winner of No. 18 Notre-Dame Fairfield and No. 11 Bolton on Friday or Saturday at a time and place to be determined for the state championship.

Crosby needs one more win for Brass Division title
The Bulldogs took down Wilby 34-14 on Saturday at Ray Snyder Sr. Field to improve to 3-0 in the Naugatuck Valley League’s Brass Division. Kennedy also has a 3-0 mark in the division, which means that their annual Thanksgiving morning game at Snyder Field (10:30 a.m.) will be for the Brass title. The thought of winning a division title certainly adds some spice to the game. 

As always, if you have something you would like to see in next week’s edition of ‘A trip down 69’, you can email me at sportsonct69@gmail.com

You can also tweet at me at @sportsonct69