The Blue Devil Special Olympics floor hockey team swept its division and took home a gold medal at the First Annual Huntington Floor Hockey Tournament in Louis D. Giani Gymnasium on Saturday.
Huntington’s Liam Mrotzek was a scoring machine with 11 goals on the day. Eric Vallecillo scored eight times and Brendan Higgins added two goals. Blue Devil goalkeeper Isabel Casey was once again magnificent tending to the net.
Huntington relied on offensive support from Rachel Stollmack, Lauren Gazza, Meghan Latini, (who also sang the national anthem to kick-off the event) and Chris Sorensen. Stephanie Quesquen, Andrew Oh and John Cronin were stifling on defense.
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Dozens of Huntington students, teachers, coaches and parents helped throughout the day and insured a smooth running operation. Plenty of fans turned out to cheer on the athletes. “It was a great day,” said Huntington’s head coach Linda Costello-Roth, who helped organize the event.
Supervisors for the day included Rob Gilmor, Ron Wilson, Marybeth Stahl, Diana Rich, Nancy Wilson, Trish Klee, Maureen Yostpille, Nancy Conlon, Karen Fischer, Marissa Bergmann, Steve Davis and Anthony Troffa.
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Members of Huntington High School’s student government, Habitat for Humanity chapter and sports teams were among the teenagers volunteering their time to help at the tournament. Senior Lucie Lavelle said the “event was incredible. Five teams competed and despite who won or lost, everyone had an awesome time. It was amazing to see how the player's faces lit up when they saw everyone in the gym cheering them on. It was such an awesome experience.”
The St. Anthony’s girls’ varsity basketball team led by head coach Ken Parham, who serves as J. Taylor Finley Middle School’s assistant principal also lent a hand and ran the skills component of the competition.
“The custodial staff, especially Lou and Steve was amazing as the building was in tip-top shape and many compliments were made about it by the fans and visiting teams,” Ms. Costello-Roth said.
