This article was submitted by the athletic director.
The 2nd grade St. Joseph’s Celtics Rookie team made their debut on their home floor on Sunday, taking on St. Agnes in their third game of the season. The Celtics did not disappoint the capacity crowd, thrilling onlookers with several highlight reel plays including a buzzer-beater jump shot from Jerry Browne at the end of the first quarter, a dazzling assist and finish on a fast break by Kieran Dawkins and Thomas Campbell and an acrobatic drive and score from Flynn Larson. Katie Callahan led the Celtics with 5 rebounds, highlighting her aggressive play from a guard spot. Forwards Harrison Zabik and Luke Davenport patrolled the baseline for the Celtics, preventing the opponent from getting good looks at the basket and also narrowly missing several scoring chances on the offensive end. Alex Szczepanski, Adam Marek, Fiona McGowan, Timothy Van Der North and Steven Copeland shared time at point guard, handling the ball and breaking down the defense to create multiple scoring opportunities for teammates.
The St. Joseph’s Pee Wee 3rd grade Blue team lost to a consistently strong St. Helen’s team 20-9. John Pirone and Henry Aaron provided the scoring, with 6 and 3 points
respectively. Pirone and Declan Cavanaugh each had a strong performance under
the boards with three rebounds each. Lukas Alexander and Aaron led the team in
steals with three a piece, and Ian Webber, Pirone, DeVomecourt and Liam Haley
each had one. Cian O’Connor, Matthew Corr and Cade Minerley were pesky on
defense and caused multiple turnovers.
The St. Joseph Celtics 4th Grade Green boys team split a pair of thrilling nail biters over this past weekend. On Saturday, the Celtics built a seemingly insurmountable 9-2 lead early in the second half against St. Helen’s of Westfield powered by stellar ball distribution from guards Patrick Campbell, Liam Laskowski and Nicholas Franklin. Mike Pirone, who contributed two points, Owen Holt and Nicholas Alexander patrolled the paint and anchored the Celtics aggressive man-to-man defense. However, St. Helen’s put together an impressive 8-0 run to take the lead late in the 4th quarter. Danny Guarnieri shook off an early injury and drew a key foul late in the game and Brendan Dawkins, who led all scorers with 8 points, calmly sank a bucket with less than a minute remaining to power the Celtics to an 11-10 victory.
The Celtics returned to action against another St. Helen’s team on Sunday and battled in a tight contest for 32 minutes. Max Larson turned in his best performance of the season, filling in at center, grabbing six rebounds and stifling St. Helen’s interior players. A clutch fast-break basket in the final minutes by Mike Pirone and a free throw from Brendan Dawkins brought the Celtics to within a point. Key late steals by Liam Laskowski, Nicholas Alexander (1 point) and Patrick Campbell (4 points) gave the Celtics several opportunities to tie or take the lead, but strong defense from St. Helen’s prevented the Celtics from sweeping the weekend’s contests. Owen Holt aided the Celtics by contributing 5 rebounds and key 4th quarter defense. Derek Mingmongkol demonstrated his versatility filling in at guard, forward and center and he even serenaded his mother with a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday before a full-house at St. Joseph’s gym before the 4th quarter of the game.
Showing excellent defensive form against St. Helen’s are St. Joe’s players 40 Justin DeVomecourt, 35 Henry Aaron, 10 John Pirone and 22
Declan Cavanaugh.
The St. Joseph’s 4th grade boys White team got its first victory of the season with a 23-18 win over St. Helens of Westfield. Jeremiah Cook, Declan O’Conner and Charlie Giannone were tremendous on the boards. Sean Kagel, Conor Kagel, Sebastian Pappas, Ronan O’Beirne and Callan Bauer dove for loose balls and played good defense. Connor Ward led the team with 14 points, while Malachy Meyer made 3 of 4 foul shots in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
St. Helen’s defeated St. Joseph’s 3-4 Grade Pee Wee Girls on Sunday 11-8. St Joseph’s came out fast with a score by Evelyn Calabrese and Leah Connell and Neve McGowan pounded the offensive boards looking for easy scoring opportunities. St. Helen’s controlled the tempo by pushing the ball catching St. Joseph’s in transition for easy scores. To start the second half St. Joseph’s turned the ball over giving St. Helen’s multiple opportunities to score but St. Joseph’s defense was able to only give up 6 points. Zhara Alexander closed the gap in the fourth quarter by completing a 3 point play making the score 11-8. Katie O’Mara and Ruby Aylward worked hard to put pressure on St. Helen’s defense by penetrating and looking to shoot or pass to Talia Baptiste. Neither team would score again as tight defense was played by both teams.
St. Joseph JV 5th grade Boys came up short, losing 12-9 to St. James of Springfield on Sunday. St. James set the tone early, racing out to an 8-4 halftime lead by hitting a number of outside shots against the St. Joseph zone-defense. But St. Joseph stepped up its effort on the defensive end of the floor, preventing St. James from getting into the flow of its offense.
St, Joseph then went on a 5-2 run to cut the lead to a point, capped by a jump-shot from the baseline by Alex Iozzio. Following several possessions where neither team could score, St. James managed to get a timely basket off a missed free-throw with 30 seconds left to help put the game out of reach. St. Joseph received a number of valuable contributions throughout the game, thanks largely to Nico Reyes, who made a number of passes to open teammates. Damian Cataneo and Buchi Amobi controlled the backboards, limiting St. James to one-shot throughout the 2nd-half. Kye Haniph also lent a hand, keeping St. Joseph within striking distance by coming up with a number of steals which lead to a number of extra possessions and fast-break opportunities.
The JV 5th and 6th grade Girls beat All Saints of Bayonne 8-7. Annibell Callahan, Kate Meyer, Sophia Noll and Mollie Gray each had 2 points. The girls played really strong defense, both man to man and press, to hold All Saints for the win. JV Girls are now 4-2 on the season.
The Saint Joseph JV 6th grade boys defeated St.Theresa of Kenilworth 31-12. Derrick Baptiste (10 pts), Perry Reyes (8 pts) and Ben Sczepanski (8 pts) led the way in scoring for the Celtics. Cole Latimer and Devin Brown rounded out the scoring for the Celtics while Matt Morales, Anthony Fuschetto and James Griffis contributed with tough defense and rebounding.
The 6th grade boys then traveled to Bayonne on Sunday and faced a tough All Saints team and lost 36-18. Perry Reyes was hot from the perimeter sinking two three pointers and ending up with 8 points. Derrick Baptiste, Patrick Dawkins, Matt Morales and Ben Sczepanski rounded out the Celtics scoring. Dawkins, Baptiste, Morales and Nicholas Aaron led the way with rebounding; each contributing at least four boards. Cole Latimer, Gunner Craig and James Griffis played staunch defense throughout.
The St. Joseph’s Varsity 8th Grade boys team had a great weekend with two wins. On Saturday, the team posted a 40 to 29 win over St. John’s followed by a win over St. James 51 to 33. Liam Kagel and Spencer Melee each contributed 21 points with Liam O’Neill adding (18), James Bristol (14), Justin Cook (12), Aidan Bird (3) and John Lawall (2) points. The entire team provided great defense and ball handling with Dominic Ragno, Peter Glynn, Roan Price and Anthony Stocia contributing to the team’s success.
The St. Josephs Varsity Girls lost a tough match-up against an undefeated St. James of Springfield by a final score of 23-12. The Celtics came out strong in the first half holding the lead midway through the 2nd quarter with baskets by Abbie Garaban, Abbie Valente, Merry Meyer and Sarah Johnson. The Celtics press in the 2nd half caused several turnovers keeping the game close. Strong defense and rebounding were provided by Ellie Rounsavill, Zoe Gill, Cece Clarke, Grace Petroccia, and Ellie Clarke. The Celtics crisp passing created multiple 2nd half shots that unfortunately would not go in. The Varsity girls now have a 3-3 record for the season.
