At Rye Neck High School, the middle weekend in October is officially Homecoming, the time when graduates, parents, and the student body come together to root for the school’s sports teams.

By Mitch Silver

At Rye Neck High School, the middle weekend in October is officially Homecoming, the time when graduates, parents, and the student body come together to root for the school’s sports teams.
The Black Hats dominated the days leading up to the celebration. And the winning was still going on even afterwards.

Football first. Coach Nick Ianello’s Black Hats put a hurt on Tuckahoe in the 26-7 win at home. Gio Maffei did a lot of the damage, running for 179 yards and three touchdowns while also grabbing an interception on defense.

Assistant Coach Mark Poniros enthused, “It was a great win! We play at Woodlands for another shot to make it to the Section championship for the fourth year in a row.” The return match (the Falcons won 44-18 two weeks ago) will take place tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.

Boys’ Soccer is also on a winning run. Like last year, the team led by Coaches Frank Gizzo and Bryan Iacovelli barely kept their heads above .500 before turning it on as the playoffs approached. The Panthers are now 7-0-1 in the last eight games, including signature wins over Hastings, Dobbs Ferry and, most recently, Sleepy Hollow. Kol Lewis scored the lone goal against Sleepy on an assist from Reed Peterson. The 9-5-2 squad is seeded seventh heading into the Class B Sectionals.

Sue Hannon’s Girls’ Soccer team made a real turnaround. A 3-3 overtime draw with Dobbs Ferry October 15, was tougher than it sounds. Dobbs led 1-0 lead at halftime, and scored twice more to go up 3-0. The Panthers have had trouble scoring this season, but for six magic minutes in the second half, everything they touched turned into goals.  

Aly Abbatantono sent a ball into the corner to Annie Masciopinto, whose cross found the head of Kayla Casas to get on the board. Then Sophia Wice’s high arcing shot made it 3-2.  Finally, Lanie Jones sent in a corner kick. The ball squirted out to left back Luisa Tito, who passed it back over to Jones, whose cross turned into a spectacular goal. Meanwhile, Julia Kelly had 12 saves to keep Dobbs at bay until the final whistle.

Forty-eight hours later the two teams were back at it again. This time Rye Neck went ahead in front of their Homecoming throng, only to be pulled back by a late Dobbs Ferry goal. But when the refs called a penalty on Dobbs in overtime, Lanie Jones calmly stepped up and placed the winner in the corner of the net.

Lori Penesis sent her cross-country team to Hastings for the League championships, and Conner Sexton came in second in 15:51, 28 seconds behind the winner. Brendan Tuohy finished 11th. In the Girls’ race, Rye Neck’s Kiara O’Day was 10th in 21:12, with Kate Brennan 22nd in 23.39.

Finally, Rye Neck’s top two tennis players, sophomore Clemence Balzano and senior Mizuki Shionoya, teamed up to win the Conference III doubles tournament last week. In the finals they faced another Bronxville singles tandem, Christina Brumbaugh and Caroline Schletlick. The Panthers dropped the first set tiebreaker, rebounded to win 6-3, and closed out the match by winning the super tiebreaker, 10-6.

This week, the newly crowned Conference champs were seeded second in the Sectional tournament at Harrison High. At press time, they were halfway home, defeating Harrison’s own Saviano twins, 6-0, 7-5. It was dark before they took on Edgemont’s Chao and Lazar (a team they beat in Conference play) under the lights, winning 6-1, 6-3.

With the draw going to form, the Rye Neck duo played the third seeds, Campos and Caino from Ursuline, in the semifinals for a trip to the State tournament. Fingers crossed.