Weekly Update

This week the Whitman-Hanson girls soccer program had a surprise visit from former Panther and current pro soccer and World Cup player Kristie Mewis. Kristie met with the team before a game (https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=E88DFA4145281542!142&authkey=!AEj5oyNBaLoCFu8&v=3 ) and reminisced about how much her time at Whitman-Hanson meant to her. Despite all of her great accomplishments and experiences beyond WH, Kristie said her time at Whitman-Hanson is still some of the most rewarding and happy times of her life. Aside from being a world class professional athlete, Kristie is a first class person who will continue to make all of us in Panther nation proud. Now on to our weekly update: 1) The football team showed a lot of character on Saturday by rallying from a 21-0 deficit to take a 4th quarter lead only to see Scituate stage a comeback of their own to win the game, 35-34. Despite the Sailors taking a 7 point lead in the final minutes, senior quarter James Intravaia engineered an impressive drive which was capped off by an 8 yard touchdown run by junior Mike Lenane. The touchdown brought the Panthers to within a point but WH tried a fake kick and was stuffed one yard shy of the 2 point conversion which would have given them the win. Intravaia had a phenomenal day going 13 for 16 for 223 yards while also carrying the ball 13 times for 40 yards. Lenane who was celebrating his 17th birthday carried the ball 11 times for 51 yards. Zach Downey and Nick Villanueva had big days receiving as they both had touchdown catches. The Panthers play under the lights Friday in Quincy. 2) The boys and girls cross country teams continue to dominate the field picking up 2 more wins by beating Scituate and Silver Lake. The boys swept the first five places: 1- Brian Sheppard 2- Pat Brett 3- Sam Evans 4- Lukas Moscoso 5- Tyler Durant The girls took 5 of the top 7 places: 2- Sam Coletti 3- Kelsey Tierney 5- Megan Concannon 6- Caroline Mulrey 7- Shawna Ryan 3) The boys soccer team played a gutty game against Scituate early in the week as they battled to a scoreless tie in the first half before the Sailors netted 2 goals in the final 40 minutes to take the lead. The Panthers kept fighting though and senior captain Stephen Stephansky connected on a laser from almost midfield to cut the deficit in half. Unfortunately, that was as close as WH would get though. The boys return to action on Tuesday in Hingham. 4) The girls team hit a little bump in the road last week when they were shutout at Scituate for their first league loss in recent memory. However, they came back later in the week to earn a hard fought 1-1 tie against Silver Lake. It looked like the Panthers would be headed for their second straight loss but Katherine O’Kane found the back of the net with 13:21 left to play to earn the important point in the standings. Elise McDonough who has patiently served as Lauren Clark’s backup was tremendous in net for the Panthers in his first ever varsity start. This promises to be a dogfight in the Patriot League Keenan division as Hingham, Duxbury, Silver Lake and Whitman-Hanson are all strong teams. The Panthers host Hingham on Tuesday. 5) The volleyball team earned their first win of the year last week by beating Middleboro, rallying after losing the first game to win the next 3. The girls showed tremendous resiliency in picking up head coach Josh Gray’s first win as the coach of Whitman-Hanson. No matter the score, these girls are extremely enthusiastic and displayed tremendous sportsmanship and team spirit. 6) The golf team snapped their 3 game losing streak with a 235-268 win over Middleboro on Thursday. Sophomore Cole Manning continued his impressive season firing a 2 over 36 while senior co-captains Shane Devlin and Cory Cocchi both shot 38. Their big challenge this week will be hosting the Duxbury Dragons on Tuesday. 7) Our cheerleaders don’t get much publicity this time of year, but they are hard at word everyday as they prepare to maintain their place as one of the top teams in the state. They don’t have any competitions until October but you can see their talents on display at the football games.