Sports
St. Joseph's CYO Basketball Season Starts Strong
The 8th grade Celtics boys and girls, 7th grade girls and 6th grade boys all won their season openers.
St. Joseph's CYO Varsity 8th grade boys opened the season with a win over Holy Trinity of Westfield last Sunday with a score of 47-27. The season opener, played at Union Catholic High School, was a benefit for the Scholarship Fund for Inner City Children. The Celtics were led by Dalen Thompson with 13 points while Daniel (DC) Callaghan, Garland Barham, and Julien Henry each scored 7, with Barham snagging 6 rebounds.
The Celtics Varsity 8th grade girls Celtics won their season opener at Union Catholic High School against Holy Trinity of Westfield with a score of 30-18. The team was led by point guard Emily O'Connor who ran the offense, was a force on defense, and scored 8 points. The team's top scorer was Zhane Irby who scored 9 from outside and inside. The Labat Twins Phoebe and Zoe scored 8 and 5 respectively. Lezah Brown and Raven were defensive specialists who limited the other team to only 18 points. Daniella Clitus pounded the boards for 4 important rebounds in the 4th quarter.
Coach Chris Labot said, "It was a great start and we were missing 2 of our players – Morgan Ryan and Emma Unterkeofler – who we look forward to having at our next game." He added, "The girl's teamwork and communication on the floor was their key to victory."
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The Varsity 7th Grade Girls also won their opening game at Union Catholic High School with a 24-12 win over St. Genevieve's of Elizabeth.
A balanced attack on offense and defense gave St. Joseph's 6th grade JV boys team a season-opening 41-22 win over Bayonne's All Saints Academy Saturday in Jersey City. The game was played as part of the St. Peter's Prep CYO Invitational tournament. Thomas O'Connor scored a team-high 16 points on a variety of nifty baseline moves and sharp assists from CJ Carey and Zach Chmiel, who split duties at point guard. Thomas Fetner, who scored eight points, grabbed six rebounds and led the stifling Celtics defense and was named MVP of the game. Carey and Chmiel each had 5 assists, as they helped every Celtic score. Sean Grafing grabbed eight rebounds and Jack Harrigan pulled down five.
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St. Joseph's CYO is a shared parish ministry for the parishioners of St. Joseph in Maplewood and Our Lady of Sorrows in South Orange. This year St. Joseph is fielding 10 teams from grades 2 to 8. The home opener for the JV and Varsity teams is this Sunday, November 28 starting at 1:00 pm at the St. Joseph Gym in Maplewood.
