Sports
Darien Boys Hockey Wins 5-2 over Fairfield
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1. Darien boys hockey wraps up top seed
The boys hockey team clinched the top seed for the tier one FCIAC playoffs with a 5-2 victory over Fairfield on Wednesday afternoon at the Darien Ice Rink.
Dana Wensberg, Brendan Hathaway, George Gregory and John Knowlton scored for the Blue Wave, who improved to 14-5 overall and finished 11-1 in FCIAC play.
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The Blue Wave conclude their regular season at home on Thursday against North Haven before earning a bye in the first round of the six-team tier one playoffs that begin Saturday.
Wensberg scored an unassisted goal in the first period to give Darien the lead before Hathaway scored a four-on-four goal to make it 2-0 in the second.
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Fairfield's Tom Kryspin cashed in a power-play goal less than a minute later to halve the deficit, but Gregory answered to give Darien a 3-1 lead with four minutes left in the middle period.
Knowlton scored before the end of the period to extend the Blue Wave's cushion to 4-1. Tyler DeMilt tallied with 4 1/2 minutes remaining to pull the Mustangs within 4-2.
Fairfield concluded the regular season at 10-10 and 7-5 and will compete in the tier two playoffs for the seventh- through 10th-place teams.
Darien dropped two spots to sixth in the New Haven Register top 10 media state poll following last week's 4-0 loss to New Canaan.
Despite a 2-0 loss to Notre Dame of West Haven, Fairfield Prep (14-3) held on to a share of the top spot with the Green Knights (14-3-1).
Notre Dame did collected one more first-place vote than the Jesuits with eight of the 15.
Ridgefield (18-2) is followed by Hamden (10-4-2), Glastonbury (13-5-0), Darien, West Haven (10-6), Xavier (9-7-1), St. Joseph (14-6-0) and East Haven (11-5-2).
St. Joseph and East Haven were unranked last week with the Cadets entering the top 10 for the first time. New Canaan (12-7-1) is just outside the top 10 at No. 11.
Ridgefield posted an impressive 6-1 win over Glastonbury on Tuesday to conclude its regular season.
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2. Darien girls hockey falls
Led by Olivia Hompe, the New Canaan girls hockey team stormed into the FCIAC finals Wednesday with a 6-1 victory over rival Darien at the Darien Ice Rink.
Hompe scored four goals, raising her season total to 64, as the Rams improved to 20-1.
After a scoreless first period, New Canaan broke it open with five goals in the second period, three of them by Hompe. Abbey Buckenheimer and Holly Burwick had the only goals for New Canaan.
Britt Gardellla faced only eight shots for New Canaan, giving up a second-period goal toEllie Bennett. Shannon Hall made 15 saves for Darien.
New Canaan will face Greenwich in Saturday's championship game set for 4 p.m. at the Terry Conners Rink in Stamford.
The Cardinals advanced with a 4-3 win over Ridgefield in Wednesday's first semifinal, rallying from a 2-1 deficit after the second period.
Hannah Jeffrey scored a hat trick and Emily Bacon had the other goal for the Cardinals. Allie Schiffer, Cara Lockwood and Kerry Sheehan-Delany scored for Ridgefield.
Dart Freccia made 16 saves for Greenwich and Heather Ogden stopped 22 shots for Ridgefield, which cut the deficit to 4-3 on Sheehan-Delany's goal with just over four minutes remaining.
3. Darien boys hoops drops finale
The Fairfield Ludlowe boys basketball completed a strong finish to the regular season Wednesday with a 51-34 win at Darien.
Mark Cerulli scored 16 points and Tyler Bulkley added 10 for the Falcons, who won six of their final seven games to post their second straight 9-11 regular season under coach Brian Silvestro.
After being 3-10, Fairfield Ludlowe (9-9 in the FCIAC) missed out on an FCIAC playoff spot by only one game. The final three berths went to Stamford, Danbury and Bristol Central, who all won Wednesday.
Justin Berardino added eight points and six assists for Ludlowe, whose playoff hopes basically ended with Monday's 46-36 loss at Trumbull.
Liam Naughton scored 10 points to pace Darien, which finished at 2-18 and 1-17.
Ludlowe got off to a slow start, trailing 15-12 after the first quarter, but the Falcons outscored the Blue Wave 12-7 in the second period to take a 24-22 lead at the half.
Ludlowe then broke it open in the third quarter, outscoring Darien 17-5 to take a 41-27 advantage into the fnal period.
4. Darien girls hoops has home game in state tourney
The 15th-seeded Darien girls basketball team (12-8) has earned a home game in the first round of the Class L state tournament and will host No. 18 Farmington (11-9) on Tuesday.
If the Blue Wave advance, they will play at No. 2 seed Pomperaug (18-2), which earned a first-round bye, in the second round on Thursday.
Pomperaug faces Lauralton Hall in the championship game of the South-West Conference playoffs on Thursday. Darien lost to top seed Danbury 63-40 in the FCIAC quarterfinals on Saturday.
WEDNESDAY'S RESULTS
Boys basketball
Fairfield Ludlowe 51, Darien 34
Boys hockey
Darien 5, Fairfield 2
Girls hockey
New Canaan 6, Darien 1
THURSDAY'S SCHEDULE
Boys hockey
North Haven at Darien, 2:40 p.m.
STANDINGS
BOYS BASKETBALL
West Division
FCIAC Record
Overall Record
Westhill* 13-5 14-6 Danbury*l 10-8 12-8 Bridgeport Central* 10-8 11-8 Greenwich 9-9 11-9 Trumbull 9-9 10-10 Staples 8-10 9-11Central Division
FCIAC Record
Overall Record
Ridgefield* 13-5 15-5 Stamford* 11-7 12-8 Fairfield Ludlowe 9-9 9-11 Norwalk 8-10 10-10 McMahon 4-14 4-16 Harding 3-15 4-16East Division
FCIAC Record
Overall Record
St. Joseph* 18-0 20-0 Trinity Catholic* 14-4 15-5 Bassick* 13-5 15-5 Fairfield-Warde 9-9 11-9 Wilton 8-10 10-10 Darien 1-17 2-18 New Canaan 1-17 2-18GIRLS BASKETBALL
West Division
FCIAC Record
Overall Record Danbury* 18-0 22-0 Trumbull* 15-3 19-3 Staples 11-7 12-8 Westhill 10-8 11-9 Greenwich 4-14 4-16 Bridgeport Central 1-16 2-17Central Division
Norwalk* 13-5 15-6 Stamford* 11-7 12-10 Fairfield Ludlowe 7-11 8-12 Ridgefield 7-11 7-13 McMahon 3-15 3-17 Harding 2-15 4-15East Division
St. Joseph* 15-3 17-4 Wilton* 13-5 15-6 Trinity Catholic* 12-6 13-8 Darien* 11-7 12-9 Fairfield Warde 10-8 12-8 New Canaan 8-10 10-10 Bassick 0-18 0-20BOYS HOCKEY
East Division FCIAC Record FCIAC Points Overall Record Darien* 11-1 22 14-5-0 Ridgefield* 11-1 20 18-2-0 St. Joseph* 9-3 18 13-7-0 New Canaan* 8-4 16 12-7-1 Wilton* 8-4 16 10-10-0 Trinity Catholic* 8-4 16 9-11-0 Stamford 4-8 8 6-13-1 West Division FCIAC Record FCIAC Points Overall Record Fairfield 7-5 14 9-11-0 Westhill 5-7 10 5-12-2 Trumbull 4-8 8 11-9-0 Staples 2-10 4 8-11-0 Greenwich 1-11 2 3-17-0 Norwalk/McMahon 0-12 0 2-18-0Girls Hockey
Teams FCIAC Record FCIAC Pts Overall Record New Canaan* 14-0 28 19-1 Ridgefield* 10-3-1 21 13-5-1 Greenwich* 10-4 20 12-5-1 Darien* 9-4-1 19 11-6-1 Fairfield 4-9 8 6-10-0 Wilton 4-9 8 5-11-1 Staples-Trumbull 3-11 6 6-12-0 Stamford 0-14 0 1-14-0
