Fairfield Prep wins SCC boys lacrosse championship

By Pat Pickens, CT Post, May 24, 2013

WEST HAVEN -- Fairfield Prep boys lacrosse coach Chris Smalkais stresses winning the first 300 seconds -- five minutes -- of each game his club plays. The Jesuits did just that Thursday, and that's why they are the SCC champions yet again.

Kevin Brown scored six goals, earning most outstanding player honors, as No. 1 Prep claimed its third straight conference crown with a 13-6 victory over second-seeded Guilford at Ken Strong Stadium. Junior Burke Smith scored three goals, and David White and Austin Sims each had two goals, as Prep (14-3) claimed its sixth SCC crown in seven years. "It's always nice to compete and win championships," Smalkais said. "We hope that as the state playoffs begin, we can be successful in our endeavors with that."

Six different Guilford players scored, and freshman goalie James Bright made 17 saves, as the Indians (13-5) fell to Prep for the second time in six days. "The first time around, we were in shock, because they move the ball faster than a lot of the teams we played," Guilford coach Brian White said. "A lot of those guys are three- and four-year starters, and on the field when we're playing these guys, it's tough to catch up speedwise ... the level and speed of the game is a lot faster."

Prep took control from the outset -- Brown scored just 66 seconds into the game. Even after Mark Lisitano tied the score at 8:51, Prep answered just 16 seconds later, as Brown gave Prep the lead for good. "Coach always says, 'Let's try to win the first five minutes," Brown said. "We try to do that every game, and we ended up coming out pretty hard this game."

Sims and Brown each scored, and Smith -- playing his first game at attack this year -- scored twice, giving Prep a 6-1 lead after one. "My teammates really helped me out," Smith said. "They were supportive of me. I definitely didn't do as well as I could have, but it's a good first step for attack."

After the teams played an even second quarter, Zach Cattaruzza scored for Guilford just 55 seconds into the second half, cutting the Jesuits' lead to 7-3. "We kind of stopped playing a little bit," Smalkais said. "Our players need to be better prepared for the challenges ahead."

But Prep scored the next two. White set up Sims' goal, then scored himself shortly afterward. White netted his second later in the frame, and Prep led 10-4 after three. "They have some of the best players in the country," White said. "This is one of the better teams in the state and in the country, maybe."

GUILFORD 1 1 2 2--6
FAIRFIELD PREP 6 1 3 3--13

Records: GHS 13-5, FP 14-3; Scoring: G--Kevin Carregal (1g) , Mike Serra (1g), Zach Cattaruzza (1g), Eric Zergiebel (1g), Fred Trotta (1g), Mark Lisitano (1g); FP--Kevin Brown (6g), Burke Smith (3g, 2a), David White (2g, 3a), Austin Sims (2g), Tim Edmonds (2a); Goalies: G--James Bright (17 saves); FP--Connor Henry (10 saves); Shots: GHS 16; FP 43.

Barry Wallace is voted Most Inspirational Teacher by Class of 2013

At the Senior Send-Off for the Fairfield Prep Class of 2013, Barry Wallace, beloved English teacher, spoke to the seniors about their Prep experience and his advice for the future. After the speech, Tim Peterson, student government president, honored him with the Most Inspirational Teacher Award, as voted by the seniors. Pictured from left with senior student government representatives: Will Voss III, Matt Noone, Will Riley, Mr. Barry Wallace, John Meyers and Tim Peterson. Watch Prep YouTube for the entire speech plus award.

Flag Football Intramurals culminate in Championship!

For the second straight year, Fairfield Prep’s Intramural Flag Football League provided heated competition. Moderated and officiated by Mr. Corey Dennis, ten teams (divided up by four divisions, AFC North/South and NFC North/South) of 62 Prep players battled on “The Hill” for five weeks until a champion was crowned. In the League, the top two seeded teams earned a first round bye in the playoffs. All division winners earned a spot in the playoffs, in addition to two Wild Card teams. At the end of the season, an undefeated Sophomore-lead NFC Champion “The Black Mambas” competed against the AFC Champion “Team Four” in the Championship Game of the League. While The Black Mambas put together an undefeated season to that point, they were overcome by the organized and physical “Team Four.” For the second straight year, underclassmen have made it to The Championship Game only to fall short to senior teams. Congratulations to “Team Four” for winning the second Fairfield Prep Intramural Flag Football Championship!

CLICK ON PHOTO TO VIEW SLIDESHOW!

The 2013 Intramural Flag Football Champion “Team Four” roster:

Dan Passarelli '13
John Marsalisi '13
Dan Cunn '13
Will Coupe '13
Ta’von Givens Hunter '14
Jim Kavulich '13
Tom Kavulich '14
Tony Sanfilippo '13

Annual Prep Golf Outing

Alumni, Parents, and Friends of Prep are invited to play in the annual golf outing. Men and women, too! Please join us for a great day on the links! The net proceeds from this golf outing are allocated to a financial aid award in honor of Roger Ratchford, former Prep teacher and Golf Coach. The award is given to a Prep student who demonstrates financial need. Sponsorship opportunities available, also.

Friday, June 14, 2013
(formerly on Columbus Day)

Great River Golf Club, Milford, CT

11:00 Registration - Putting contest & lunch

12:30 Shotgun start- Shamble format

 5:00 Cocktails, dinner, prizes & raffle prizes

Cost: $265 per Golfer - REGISTER ONLINE

Any Questions please contact the Prep Development office at 203-254-4237.

Fairfield Prep tops ND-West Haven to reach SCC baseball semifinals

By Pat Pickens, CT Post, May 21, 2013

FAIRFIELD -- Pitching, defense and timely hitting led the Fairfield Prep baseball team against Notre Dame-West Haven, yet again. And because of that, Prep is moving on in the SCC tournament.

Kyle Mollo scattered nine hits over five-plus innings, and the third-seeded Jesuits hung on for a 4-3 win over the sixth-seeded Green Knights in Tuesday's SCC quarterfinals at Alumni Diamond. Chris Collins had two hits and scored two runs, and Kevin Stone's third-inning two-out, two-RBI double helped Prep (15-6) advance to Thursday's conference semifinals at West Haven's Quigley Stadium against Amity at 4. "We got big hits in key spots," Prep coach Rudy Mauritz said. "We're happy to win today, and we're happy to be putting the uniform on again Thursday."

Notre Dame pitcher Greg Zullo scattered eight hits, struck out six and allowed four runs over six innings, despite dealing with a hamstring injury. "He pitched well enough to win," ND coach Lou Kessler said. "He's banged up, I hope he's all right." The Green Knights (13-8) stranded nine and fell to Prep for the fourth straight time and third time this year.

"It's one of those years with them," Kessler said. "They're good. They can do a lot of different things." Tied 2-2 with two outs in the third and Collins and Joe Ganim on, Stone roped a line drive to the gap in left, scoring the two and putting Prep ahead for good. "I was just trying to put a good swing on a good pitch," Stone said. "After I looked in the dugout, everyone was pumped."

ND answered with a run in the fourth but stranded two after Mollo struck out Griffin Garabedian looking to end the frame. "I was just mixing speeds and getting ahead with the fastball," Mollo said. After Mollo surrendered a leadoff single to Zach Ardito in the sixth, senior David Gerics came in and retired six of the seven batters he faced to pick up a save.

Prep's first three batters singled in the first, with Ganim scoring on Shawn Blake's RBI hit. Collins scored after Zullo induced Stone to ground into a double play. The Jesuits led 2-0 after 1. ND got those runs back in the third, socking four hits. Zullo's one-out, two-RBI single tied the score. The Green Knights loaded the bases with two outs, but Mollo forced Brian Gargiulo to fly to center field to end the frame.

"We had a shot of knocking them out right there," Kessler said. "And it didn't happen."

SCC quarterfinals
ND-WEST HAVEN...............002 100 0--3 10 2
FAIRFIELD PREP................202 000 X--4 9 2

Records: ND-West Haven 13-8, Fairfield Prep 15-6. Batteries: NDWH--Greg Zullo (L) and Aiden Burton; FP--Kyle Mollo (W, 4-1), David Gerics (6, S, 1) and Jake Berry.

Fairfield Prep rolls past Guilford, wins SCC regular-season title

By Dave Phillips, Shoreline News, May 18, 2013

GUILFORD — Just like almost every spring, Fairfield Prep is the Southern Connecticut Conference boys’ lacrosse regular-season champion. The Jesuits (12-3) captured the title for the third consecutive season and seventh in the last eight years with a dominating 14-3 victory over Guilford at Kavanaugh Field Friday night. Fairfield Prep, ranked second in the New Haven Register Top 10 poll, is undefeated in the state this season. Ninth-ranked Guilford finished its regular season at 12-4.

“You’re always happy when you can win your league,” Fairfield Prep coach Chris Smalkais said. “Hopefully we can win the league tournament next week and get prepared for the state tournament. We’re hoping to play our best lacrosse in June.”

Fairfield Prep opened the game with the three goals in the first 5 minutes, two of which came from Tim Edmonds (four goals and four assists). Kevin Carregal scored for Guilford to close it to 3-1 with 3:48 remaining in the first quarter.

The Indians had a couple chances to close the gap to a goal, but a couple of unforced errors gave the ball back to the Jesuits. That two-goal deficit was the closest Guilford came for the rest of the night. Fairfield Prep broke the game wide open when it scored the next nine goals to take a 12-1 lead midway through the third quarter.

A lot of the Jesuits’ damage early came as Guilford allowed Fairfield Prep to run right to the cage up the middle. “Our offense is really starting to click,” Edmonds said. “If they give us the middle, we’ll take it. Then they’ll crouch toward the middle and we’ll have outside shots.”

Guilford coach Brian White knew his team had to play a mistake-free, nearly perfect game to have a chance to win. “I think if we came out as clean as we possibly could and they played poor, we could have had something,” White said. “We came out intimidated and got outclassed all over the field. I think we played a little more scared offensively and some of our kids were afraid to go to the cage.”

The Jesuits took Guilford’s top three scorers in Carregal, John Lisitano and Andrew DePattie out of the game. “Anyone who comes and watches us knows those are our three top scorers,” White said. “If you take them away, we have to find scoring somewhere else. If you look for someone else against this team, it may not come.”

Smalkais said two of the three goals the Jesuits gave up came on transition. “I thought our defense did a great job on their attack,” Smalkais said. “They tried to attack our short stick and midfield defenders and we did a great job.” The Jesuits were also extremely physical, going after Guilford’s sticks with hard hits. “They were coming out on their Senior Night and we knew they would be hyped up,” Edmonds said. “We knew we had to shut them down physically.”

Seven different players scored for Fairfield Prep. Kevin Brown and John Edmonds each scored three times. “We’ve been sharing the ball great of late and finishing our chances,” Smalkais said. “Our guys are unselfish and work every day at making the difficult pass, which makes for nice looking lacrosse goals.” Mark Lisitano and Eric Zergiebel each had a goal for Guilford.

Fairfield Prep outshot Guilford, 35-21. James Bright had 18 saves for the Indians, while Connor Henry had 13 for the Jesuits.

Fairfield Prep tops Wilton in boys lacrosse

See MSG Varsity Interview Michael Fornabaio, May 9, 2013, CT Post

Shots kept coming for the Fairfield Prep lacrosse team. The Jesuits' coach even wished they had finished a few more of them Wednesday. Prep, the state's No. 2 team, still broke away from Wilton in the second quarter, beating the Warriors 16-9 at Tom Fujitani Field. "This game was definitely a breakout game for our offense," said Jesuits senior Tim Edmonds, who had two goals and three assists.

Fairfield Prep (8-4) moved the ball around, withstood Wilton's first pushback in the first quarter and scored five in a row to take a 7-2 lead. It led 9-4 at the half. "We had 25 shots in the first half. The one thing was we just didn't finish chances," Jesuits coach Chris Smalkais said. "I thought we should've finished a lot more opportunities." They finished plenty: a game after scoring a season-high 17 against Amity, they nearly matched it against the Warriors (6-7).

"They're a good team, and we made a lot of mental errors," Wilton coach John Wiseman said. "The kids played hard. It didn't translate. A good team like Prep will capitalize on those mental errors."

Kevin Brown and Austin Sims scored four goals apiece for Fairfield Prep and Brown added an assist. The Jesuits were up 2-0 92 seconds into the game. Wiseman called his first timeout. Ted Ottens won the draw, the Warriors set up in the Prep end for four shots, and the fourth went in for the first of Tom Hayes' three goals. Brendan Devane tied it three minutes later. "We kind of answered back, which I was pleased with," Wiseman said. "Silly mistakes cost us."

The Jesuits scored the next five, capped by the second John Edmonds-from-Tim Edmonds goal of the game. "Playing with my brother, we've got great chemistry," Edmonds said. "I've known Kevin (Brown) for years. Middies like Sims, he's a returning guy; (David) White and (Sean) Henry played great."

They had the ball quite a bit with help from senior Troy Foreit. Foreit finished roughly even on faceoffs with Wilton's Ottens, but Foreit controlled most of them early as the Jesuits built their lead. "Troy went 50 percent against one of the top faceoff guys in the country," Smalkais said. "He's a converted defenseman. He committed himself to learning faceoff this year."

Ottens scored two Wilton goals himself directly off faceoff wins. The first ended that 5-0 Prep run. "That kid's really good," Foreit said. "I tried to have a quick reaction time. He's really strong. I faced him all winter (at Chelsea Piers in Stamford)." Wilton had good possession time in the third quarter but emerged no closer. Hayes' hat-trick goal was answered in 30 seconds by Burke Smith.

Mike Burns scored on a man advantage with 1:31 left in the period; quick Jesuits passes set up Sims for his third goal, making it 11-6 after three. It could've been worse for the Warriors, but David White scored just after the third-quarter buzzer.

FAIRFIELD PREP 4 5 2 5--16
WILTON 2 2 2 3--9

Records: Fairfield Prep 8-4; Wilton 6-7. Scoring: FP--Kevin Brown (4 goals, 1 assist), Tim Edmonds (2g, 3a), Austin Sims (4g), John Edmonds (2g, 1a), David White (1g, 1a), Sean Henry (1g, 1a), Burke Smith (1g, 1a), James Marusi (1g), Strecker Backe (1a); W--Tom Hayes (3g), Brendan Devane (2g), Ted Ottens (2g), Luke Reyes Guerra Dunn (1a). Goalies: FP--Connor Henry (6 saves); W--Connor Johnson (9). Shots: FP--45; W--38.

Fairfield Prep lacrosse edges Greenwich

By Ryan Lacey, Thursday, April 25, 2013, CT Post

See MSG Varsity Video Highlights!

The Jesuits had to dig deep to pull out a win against one of many teams trying to take away their title as the best team in Connecticut. Kevin Brown (four goals, one assist) and David White (two goals) combined for seven points as the Jesuits held off hard-charging Greenwich for a 7-6 victory on Wednesday, their fifth straight win. Greenwich (6-2), meanwhile, saw its six-game win streak come to an end.

"We have a battle-tested group," said Fairfield Prep coach Chris Smalkais, whose team improved to 6-2. "We have a number of seniors that have been three-year starters. They know what it takes to perform at a high level; they understand what competition is."

After tallying just three goals in 40 minutes of action, the Cardinals' offense burst into life in the form of Kyle Foote. The senior scored consecutive goals 43 seconds apart, on identically positioned isolation sets, cutting a 6-3 deficit to 6-5. Brown reestablished a two-goal lead with 5:15 left before Alex Moeser made it 7-6 with 3:31 left.

"Every game you're not sure who's going to get it but (Foote) started getting hot and we rode him," Greenwich coach Scott Bulkley said. "He's a very special player for us. With Kyle, (Moeser), (Declan Curran) and a lot of other guys, we have guys that can fill it up."

And then the drama began. Moeser fired wide with 2:21 left, but the Jesuits were unable to run out the rest of the clock. The Cardinals took possession with 1:16 left and had multiple chances to tie. Foote fired a shot that bounced off the post and clear, and a last-ditch shot from 25 yards out by Ryan Flippin with seconds remaining was blocked by the Jesuits' defense.

"I'm extremely proud of my team, they didn't give up and they fought back," Bulkley said. "If you want to win a game like this, you have to bury those shots (Greenwich hit the post six times) and they're going to learn that. I'm extremely proud of my guys. There is a lot of good things we did; the only thing we missed was finishing our own shots."

The defending Class L champion Jesuits got just enough offense to win on a day when shooting accuracy was hard to come by. That, combined with a pair of outstanding performances in the cage by Prep's Connor Henry and Greenwich's William Waesche, made scoring very difficult.

"I thought we didn't finish our scoring opportunities throughout the game," Smalkais said. "We had lots of really good scoring opportunities and we didn't score, which didn't really allow us to separate ourselves like I thought we would at certain parts of the game."

Cardinals faceoff man Graham Savio kept his team in the game with crucial draw controls during the fourth-quarter frenzy. The senior captain had missed the last 10 days with a concussion but returned to make an immediate impact.

"(Savio) played great, he did have a little rust in the beginning, but I thought he really started to pick it up at the end," Bulkley said. "He's a huge part of our team. He can keep us in any game. Any game we fall behind in we can get right back in it because of him."

The two teams entered Wednesday ranked among the top five of virtually every state lacrosse poll. While that could mean a rematch between these non-conference foes in the state tournament, Smalkais wants his team to peak at the right time of the year.

"The season is a journey, not a sprint," Smalkais said. "It's April 24th; we have a long way to go to get to June. We are constantly improving on a daily basis; we hope to be playing lacrosse in June."

FAIRFIELD PREP 1 3 1 2--7
GREENWICH 2 1 0 3--6

Records: Fairfield Prep 6-2, Greenwich 6-2. Scoring: FP--Kevin Brown 4 goals, 1 assist, Austin Sims 1g, David White 2g, John Edmonds 1a; G--Kyle Foote 2g, Decker Curran 1g, Alex Moeser 2g, Will Gibian 1g, Jamie Paradise 1a. Goalies: FP--Zach White (11 saves); G--William Waesche (5). Shots: FP--24; G--35.