Plympton-Halifax-Kingston Express

You are here: Home / Archives for Nate Rollins, Express Sports Correspondent

Quigley signs with Cincinnati Reds

By

Nate Rollins
Express correspondent
He’s headed pro.
Halifax native Stephen Quigley has signed with the Cincinnati Reds organization.
The Silver Lake alum graduated from Wheaton College in 2022.
Quigley made the transition from shortstop to the mound for Wheaton during his junior year and was named to the D3baseball.com All-Region Second Team as a utility player following the season.
In 2021, Quigley was named the Region 1 Pitcher of the Year by both the American Baseball Coaches Association and D3baseball.com in addition to previously earning Pitcher of the Year honors from the New England Women’s & Men’s Athletic Conference. He capped his breakout season by being selected a Third Team All-American by the ABCA and earning a Fourth Team All-America designation by D3baseball.com. Quigley struck out a league-high 73 batters, while posting a 2.22 earned run average for the Lyons.
He then went on to play two seasons at the University of Connecticut where he continued to flourish.
He earned First-Team All-Big East accolades in his debut season with the Huskies. His calling card was the strikeout, duplicating his effort with Wheaton by striking out a team-high 74 batters for UConn in 76 innings, which also topped the staff in 2023.
Quigley fanned a career-high 87 batters to lead all BIG EAST hurlers, en route to being named to the ABCA All-Northeast First Team.
The 24-year-old finished his collegiate career with an 18-10 win-loss record between Wheaton and UConn to go with 253 strikeouts, while issuing just 72 walks in 266 innings pitched. He recorded a 3.62 ERA, while making 52 appearances, including 44 starting assignments.

 

Halifax’s Quigley named ‘Pitcher of the Year’

By

There may be big things in store in Storrs this spring for Stephen Quigley.
The Halifax native and graduate student on University of Connecticut’s baseball team was selected as the Big East Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
In his first season at UConn last year, Quigley was named First Team All-Big East after tying a team-high with 74 strikeouts over a team-high 76.1 innings in which he went 4-3 with a 4.83 ERA.
The righty spent his first four years of college at Wheaton before transferring over to UConn. Quigley was a shortstop at Wheaton until his junior year when he transitioned to the mound and was dominant. Over 86 innings, he posted a dazzling 2.08 ERA and fanned 92 batters to just 18 walks. At the plate, Quigley hit .279, drove in 49 runs and scored 44 times playing for the Lyons. The Silver Lake product was the Region 1 Pitcher of the Year and First Team All-Region by both ABCA and D3Baseball.com. He was also named the NEWMAC Pitcher of the Year and a First Team All-Conference selection during his final season at Wheaton.
Stephen’s younger brother, Michael, a senior, is also a pitcher for UConn.
Quigley and the Huskies, the preseason favorites to win the Big East, open play Friday, Feb. 16 down in Tampa against South Florida at 6 p.m.

Icing on the cake

By

They are the champions — the state champions that is.

The Whitman-Hanson Kingston Peewee A U12 Hawks hockey team wrapped up their season with a 2-1 victory over Burlington to win the Peewee Tier II Small State Championship on Sunday, Feb. 27.

The Hawks did it in style, too, flying back from a 1-0 deficit with five minutes to play.

Amari DeJesus of Abington knotted the score at 1-1 with under five minutes remaining off a play set up by Whitman’s Max LaRosa and Collin McLaughlin as well as Hanson’s Shaun Farrell and Sean Sweeney.

Sweeney wasn’t done there.

Just minutes later, he won the puck at the middle of the ice and split two defenders for the breakaway goal to put WHK up 2-1. That was the difference.

Hawks goalie Bren Dougherty, also of Hanson, gave up just six goals in five games during WHK’s tournament run.

“It was an overwhelming feeling when that final buzzer went off and we had achieved our goal,” said WHK head coach Ryan Cole. “Our team has all types of players on it. We have been focusing on that every player has role on a team and that individual skill doesn’t win championships. It is doing the little things that wins championships. This group of young boys and girls was able to understand that and made a dream come true.”

WHSL Girls Hockey co-op deals with inconsistency

By

Sophomore goalie Kat Gilbert, of Halifax, has been a key playmaker this season. (Photo by Sue Moss)

Inconsistency. It was a thorn in the Whitman-Hanson/Silver Lake high school girls’ hockey team’s side all season.

“We’ll play two really good periods and have one really bad period and every time we had a really bad period, it hurt us,” said fourth-year WHSL head coach Kevin Marani, whose team finished the winter 4-13-2.

The co-op’s youth played a large f

actor in its inability to string together a full three periods. Fifteen of its 19 skaters were either freshmen or sophomores. They dropped five games by two goals or less. Wins came against Stoughton (twice), Quincy/North Quincy and Shawsheen.

I said to the girls, ‘We’re so close. Once you start to win, it becomes a habit,’” Marani said. “We had a ton of one-goal games, two-goal games with an empty net.”

The Panthers did make strides from last season, doubling their win total, upping their points total from four to 10 and potting 62 goals as opposed to 31.

Back with WHSL  after playing club hockey last season, junior captain Alyssa Murphy (Kingston) was a force on offense, netting 27 goals and dishing out 15 assists. She was in on 67 percent of the team’s tallies.

“She’s such a good talent,” Marani said. “Her talent speaks for herself. She was very unselfish, all about the team. Everything she does is team first. “

Sophomore Emily McDonald (Hanson) was second on the team with 15 points (6 goals and 9 assists). Not only did she play on the same line as Murphy, but she’ll serve as a captain with her next season as well.

“She’s another great kid,” Marani said. “She’s a leader. She is  quiet girl that leads by example. She is probably the hardest working player on our team. Every practice she is there. She is exactly what we want from every single player. If we had 20 Emily’s we’d be very, very good.”

Surprisingly enough, Marani said the strength of the team was defense. To be strong on defense, you need a steady presence in net, and sophomore Kat Gilbert (Halifax) provided that, turning away 481 shots.

“Kat is becoming a real goalie,” Marani said. “She is one of the better goalies in the league and that is a big part because she was committed. A lot of her issues were concentration.”

Freshmen Lilly Ulvila (Kington) and Abby Powers (Kingston) provided the Panthers with a look into the future. The two combined for 11 goals and 10 assists.

Marani said he has the same expectations heading into the offseason as he did coming into this year.

“We should make the state tournament next year,” said the coach. “If we don’t, it’s going to be a disappointment.”

Deuces wild: WHSL skates to 2-2 tie vs. Cohasset-Hanover Skippers

By

KINGSTON — After steamrolling its first two opponents — outscoring them 14-1 — Whitman-Hanson/Silver Lake seemed to have met their match in Cohasset/Hanover as WHSL skated to a 2-2 tie against the Skippers Wednesday evening at the Bog.

“Cohasset/Hanover is a very good team,” WHSL head coach Kevin Marani said. “We had a lot of opportunities but we just didn’t capitalize and that’s hockey.”

WHSL (2-0-1, 1-0-1 SEMGHL NE) dominated possession of the puck in the first period of action — outshooting C-H nearly 2-to-1 — senior forward Mel McAleer almost got the Panthers on the board midway through the frame, but her wrist shot dinged off the post and it remained 0-0 at the end of 15 minutes.   

Just 39 ticks into the second, the Skippers (2-0-1, 2-0-1) got on the board via senior captain Alex Martini’s third goal of the winter to make it 1-0. WHSL was in uncharted territory as it found itself trailing for the first time in more than 105 minutes this season. 

“The first goal sort of caught us by surprise,” Marani said. “We were outshooting them and they had a nice goal. We had a lapse in defense and then after that they said we have to bear down a little more on defense.”

The Panthers were flying down the ice with urgency midway through the second as freshman Natalie Nemes had a pair of blistering shots on C-H netminder Sarissa Fazio (32 saves) but nothing to show for it.

With 3:00 to go in the frame, McAleer was finally able to break through—beating Fazio through the 5-hole to knot the score at 1-1.

Less than two minutes later, freshman Alyssa Murphy was rewarded for crashing the net as she poked home her fourth goal of the season — beating the sophomore goalie to her blocker side to give WHSL a 2-1 lead. 

“Alyssa has been great,” Mariani said. “She’ll have many, many, many goals in her career, for sure.”

However, the Skippers would not go easily and with 8:13 left in regulation Maddie Murphy flicked a shot on WHSL goalie Melissa Crone (18 saves) that found its way past her to tie the score at 2-2.

“Melissa played well,” Marani said. “She had one fluke goal on her. That happens, that’s hockey. She could have hung her head, but she didn’t. She came out and made three really big saves in last four minutes of play in the game.”

C-H had its chances down the stretch to snatch a lead, including a power play with 6:58 remaining, but Crone stood strong in net.

Defenseman Katie Johnson turned in an impressive outing with countless breakups in her own zone.   

WHSL recorded 34 shots on net to C-H’s 20 in the draw. 

“I think we deserved to win the game,” Marani said. “You can outplay a team, you can outshoot them by 3-to-1 but you come out with a tie. We’re hanging our heads in there but they’re celebrating like they just won a championship.”

Silver Lake improves to 3-0 on the gridiron after 40-7 defeating Quincy

By

Everything seemed to be clicking on Friday evening as Chris Digiacomo’s Silver Lake Lakers routed the Quincy Presidents, 40-7 to remain undefeated.

It was a game to remember for the entire Lakers squad as they picked up their most decisive victory of the season.

Alec Snell led the Lakers aerial attack, completing nine of 17 passes for 220 yards, in their Patriot League opener. 

The Lakers’ (3-0, 1-0 Patriot League Keenan Division) defense came to play from the first snap in this one—forcing a three-and-out on the Presidents’ (0-3, 0-1 Patriot League Keenan Division) first drive.

A fumble on the punt return would give the Presidents the ball back, but the stout Silver Lake defense, led by junior linebacker Liam Kelleher, would hold them to another three-and-out to regain possession.

Though on the Lakers’ first offensive play of the game, they would turn the ball over again, giving the Presidents excellent field position.

This time the turnover would be costly, leading to 35-yard touchdown strike as quarterback Colin Keaveny would connect with Shorn Hawthorne for six.

That would be all the Presidents were able to muster up all game. It was all Lakers until the final whistle.

On Silver Lake’s ensuing drive, A. Snell would hit Kelleher for a 32-yard pickup, advancing the ball to the two-yard line. The completion set up a two-yard touchdown burst by running back Phil Lashley (PAT good), to tie it at seven.

With time running down in the first quarter, C. Snell (four catches for 149 yards and two touchdowns) would haul in a 54-yard touchdown from to put his team in front, 13-7.

The Presidents’ first turnover early in the second quarter, would lead to the Lakers’ third consecutive score as Max LaFerrara (81 receiving yards) would come down with a 41-yard touchdown catch from A. Snell.

Senior running back Cy Kenku would join the scoring action with a four-yard touchdown run to make it a 28-7 game at the half.

On the Lakers’ first play of the second half, LaFerrara would use his arm to connect with C. Snell on a 46-yard score.

Kenku’s second touchdown of the game, with 5:03 reaming in the third, pushed the Lakers ahead 40-7.

In the Lakers’ three wins this year, they are outscoring their opponents 93-36. 

Silver Lake has won six out of its past seven games, dating back to last season.

The Lakers will be at home next week, as they continue conference play, against the 2-1 Hingham Harbormen. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.