The excitement of last week's Varsity Girls and Boys IPPSAL Basketball semi final victories over the opposing teams from Solomon Schechter, although still palpable in Wellington Gym, has toned down a bit as it has been buried under several feet of snow. Even so school will eventually reopen on Tuesday or Wednesday, and the reality that Portledge is seven wins away from holding the Championship trophies in Girls and Boys Basketball and Girls and Boys Ice Hockey will eventually sink in. This is something incredible and unheard of at a small school like Portledge. To have all four major Winter Varsity teams challenging for titles is really special. A great deal of credit has to go to all the players, particularly all the Senior leaders, and the coaching staffs of these tremendous teams. This Saturday will start an eight day stretch during which all these championships will be decided, so if you have any lucky charms or know of any lucky chants, well by all means get them out or let's hear 'em, cause the Panthers smell trophies and they are on the hunt.
Things will start off with the WIHLMA Championship Tournament to be held at the Hill School next Saturday and Sunday, February 2oth and 21st. There our Lady Panther skaters will try to defend their title from last year against the likes of the home team Hilltoppers, long time rivals Rye Country Day School and the always tough girls from Morristown Beard School. Portledge plays Hill in one of the semis and the girls will have to find a way to put some pucks behind the leagues best goalie, while still holding down an improved Hill attack. If they can manage that, they will almost assuredly face the undefeated in league play ladies of Morristown Beard. Twice the Crimson has topped the Portledge girls by one goal during the season, so the Lady Panthers will have to come up with a formula for turning the tables on the favorites, if they hope to hoist the Championship banner once again. This Portledge team has a lot of experience in the presence of defensemen Chelsea Caraccilo, Emily Prey and Erin Brand, as well as some good fire power up front in the form of Senior Addie Reilly and Juniors Ashley Wade and Maria Robbins. Two freshmen players, goaltender Gaby Pilson and sharp shooting winger Julie Devlin will also have to play well if the Lady Panthers are to skate with the trophy. Go get em girls!!!
Then on Tuesday, February 23rd it's the turn of the Girls and Boys Varsity Basketball teams as they will take on the battle tested squads of Lawrence Woodmere Academy and The Walsorf School, respectively, for a chance at IPPSAL glory.Ironically, the last time the Varsity Boys team won the IPPSAL Basketball Championship in 1982, the Varsity Girls team also hung a Championship banner. The Lady Panthers then went on to win championships in '97, '98 and '99, but the banner wall has not changed in the basketball section since then.
The Girls game will come first and should be a real battle. Both games between Portledge and LWA during the regular season resulted in hard fought wins for the Lady Panthers, and to pull off a third straight victory it will take a really sound effort. Coach Amadio will certainly count on starters Robyn Worrall, Mo Kelly, Akanksha Trivedi, Marian Juste and Claudia Rogers, as well as the other Senior leaders to bring the championship home. That 15 - 1 regular season league mark tells me that these girls are up to the challenge. Finish it off right girls!!!
There is no secret that the key to the Varsity Boys game will be how Portledge decides to defend Waldorf's leading scorer and certain IPPSAL Player of the Year Landon Twine. The big guard has netted over thirty points on avarage and has gone off for more than 40 on several occaissions. Once again the play of Portledge Seniors will determine the outcome as starters Mark Dourmashkin, Jon Braisford, Christian Sbarro and Big Ben Shapiro will look to leave Portledge with a victory and a banner in their name.
Last but not least, will come the Empire Cup Boys Ice Hockey Tornament held at the Millbrook and Trinity Pawling Schools on Friday and Saturday, February 26th - 27th. The recent flurry of activity surrounding basketball has somewhat obscured the fact that Portledge Varsity Boys Ice Hockey team is having its best season since at least 2003. Currently standing at 13 wins and 3 losses the Panthers will play twice more, on Tuesday, Feb 16th @ Morristown (5:15) and on Monday, Feb 22nd v. Brunswick @ Beaver Dam (5:30), in preparation for the big season ending tournament. If they can play well in these last two regular season games, Portledge might have the best winning percentage of all the teams heading to the tournament. The boys will not have it easy though as they will have to face some combination of Millbrook, Albany Academy, Lawrenceville, Trinity Pawling, Brunswick, Wyoming Seminary and Hoosac to claim the prestigious title. This group just might have the depth to do it though as several injuries have forced coaches Coope and Sandos to dig deeper on the bench and develop more players. It all might be a blessing in disguise though, as some of these late season bloomers could play some critical shifts during this very tough tournament to win. The Panthers will not go far though, if there big guns don't have a stong finish to the season. Up front the line of Benyamini, Goldstien and Conslato has been tremendous all year, while the play of sophomores Matt Crockett and Jesse Schandler and Junior Matt Janketic is coming on strong. The return of Junior power forward Kurt Krotz could also really help the Portledge squad. Junior Tom Parisi, after filling in up front earlier in the year, has been playing as a very skillful defenseman lately. This has allowed the strong Junior duo of Pat Condon and Ron Fishman a chance to breathe and heel up a bit. While Junior Ryan Gottfried and Sophomore Matt Sullivan have been steady throughout. Finally, this will be the last few games in net for Senior Sal Magliocco, whose career between the pipes here at Portledge is surpassed by only the great Bobby Goepfert. A skate around the Millbrook rink with the Empire Cup sure would be agreat way to send ol' Sal out. Good luck fellas...we are behind you all the way.
So, as you can see, there certainly is plenty to get excited about as the Winter Athletic Season comes to a close. If you have missed all the action, come join us for what should be some incredible tournament play, or catch some of the highlights filmed throughout the season by Cablevision's MSG Varsity channel, which can be accessed through the Athletics section of the Portledge website by looking for Portledge on MSG Varsity found on the left side of the Athletics landing page. GO PANTHERS!!!
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