Sports Roundup: Football Wins Again, Field Hockey & Volleyball Celebrate Seniors
David Creed •
This Whaler sports roundup includes an update on the football team following another convincing victory to remain undefeated, the field hockey team following a pair of wins, and the volleyball team following a home victory.
Hanlon’s Three Touchdowns Lead Whalers Past Dennis-Yarmouth
The Nantucket football team made their way over to Dennis-Yarmouth on a windy Friday afternoon to play the Dolphins, and sailed home with a convincing 49-22 victory under their belt to improve their record to 6-0 this season – led by senior captain Arann Hanlon and junior running back David Guillen-Taveras once again on offense, something that has become a common theme with the duo combining for five touchdowns.
Head coach Reese Everett felt his team was challenged by the Dolphins when DY made it a 27-14 game. While the Whalers were able to pull away and earn the win by a large margin, Everett sees this as a game that will bode well for his players moving forward as they approach state tournament time.
"I think we needed that," Everett said. "It was kind of like a wakeup call for us. The main conversation is we can't give away free touchdowns. We got to make sure if our opponents are going to put points on the board, we got to make sure they earn it every step of the way. So when it comes down to it, we got to clean up the mistakes and understand that we can't make these mistakes from this moment on going forward because it is just competition after competition, big games after big games coming up.”
Hanlon had another fantastic day for himself – running for 186 yards and scoring three touchdowns. Guillen-Taveras scored one rushing touchdown and one receiving touchdown, and now has a team-high 11 scores on the year.
“Arann has always been that guy for us for the past three years," Everett said. "Arann, you hear his name every week or every other week. He's always going to be a playmaker. He should be. A lot of our opponents underestimate him. He proves every week that he's someone that other teams have to prepare for. David is definitely stepping into himself but I'm not going to lie, even though we keep hearing his name over and over and over again, he hasn't reached his full potential yet. We're trying to produce David to be a little bit more physical, a little bit more agile, and just be a full running back. We see signs of him doing it. He's a very hefty dude. He's great in the weight room. He's putting up a lot of weight. We want him to display that on the field. It's not just do that in the weight room and not take care of your opponent, demolish your opponent, dominate your opponent. We have to show what he's doing in the weight room on the field, and that's our plan.”
Defensively, Everett continues to attribute the team's success to a team effort. He has loved the way his team flocks to the ball and gang tackles. He said when it comes to pointing out any specific players, it becomes difficult to pinpoint one specific player above the rest.
"We're all rallying to the ball. It's 11 heads to the ball," Everett said. "I've been preaching that since year one. They're all getting their job done."
Nantucket is currently the #7 team in the Division 6 state tournament bracket and has now outscored their opponents 244-58 through six games on their way to the 6-0 record. Everett has been adamant from the moment he took over as head coach last season that his team was capable of winning lots of games, but the margin of victory has taken him surprise not because of how good his team has been playing, but instead because he feels they haven’t come close to their potential yet and have been making avoidable mistakes.
"The margin of victory, I'm very surprised by that with the mistakes that we're making week after week," Everett said. "We have had the same conversation about these mistakes week after week, and the fact that we can rally back and find our rhythm again and continue to put up numbers is just a great sight to see. That just means going into the playoffs, we have that momentum to find ourselves again and rally back. That's been a huge sight for me and the coaching staff, and we're excited to see what we look like as a complete program.”
Nantucket will host the Sandwich Blue Knights on Saturday, October 25th at 3:15 p.m. for their homecoming game as they hope to improve their record to 7-0.
Field Hockey Earns Two Victories
After a tough midseason stretch where the Whaler field hockey team lost four of five games from late September into the first week of October, the Whalers have bounced back and won back-to-back games over the weekend to improve their record to 9-4 while extending their win streak to four games.
The first win was a 3-2 victory over St. John Paul II at home on Friday. Senior Sadie Paterson scored two goals while Evie Phelps scored one goal. The second victory was a 7-0 win over Sharon High School on the road. Paterson scored two more goals in this victory while Rowan Paul scored a hat trick and Clementine Kelly scored two goals of her own.
"I'm definitely really proud of them, particularly after we had that little hiccup in the middle of the season where we weren't playing so well," head coach Dan Weber said. "We had that Sturgis game last week (7-0 win), which kind of got us back on track, then we had a really gritty and really good win on Wednesday (1-0 over Dennis-Yarmouth) and then (Friday) might have been even more so after two of our better players go down with injuries. For them to play together and be composed and play strong after that happens… it's hard to see your teammates go down, and the girls did a good job staying focused and staying composed. Back-to-back games are hard no matter what, so it was great that we took care of business and did what we needed to do.”
Nantucket will try to win their 10th game of the season on Monday, October 20th when they travel off island to play the Falmouth Clippers at 3:15 p.m. and then play Nauset on the road Tuesday, October 21st at 4 p.m. You can view more senior day photos here.
Volleyball Beats Rising Tide On Senior Day
The Whaler volleyball team earned a win at home against the Rising Tide Herons Friday afternoon, beating them 3-0 on their senior day.
The sets for volleyball were:
Set 1: 25-7 Nantucket
Set 2: 25-12 Nantucket
Set 3: 25-7 Nantucket
The win came following a pair of close losses on the road against the Monomoy Sharks and Mashpee Falcons October 15th and October 16th in five set matches, finally giving the Whalers a result they deserved.
Nantucket has a young team, so only two seniors were recognized during their ceremony before the game: Mariana Silva (Captain) and Lee Moore.
Nantucket is now 3-9 this season and will try to earn their fourth victory on Monday, October 20th at home against St. John Paul II at 4 p.m. You can view more senior day photos here.
SCHEDULE AHEAD:
Monday, October 20th:
The boys soccer team will be at home playing Nauset at 3:30 p.m.
The volleyball team will be at home playing St. John Paul II at 4 p.m.
The field hockey team will be on the road playing Falmouth at 3:15 p.m.
Tuesday, October 21st:
The volleyball team will be at home playing Mashpee at 4 p.m.
The cross country team will be on the road racing the Monomoy Sharks at 4 p.m.
The field hockey team will be on the road playing Nauset at 4 p.m.
For more Whaler sports coverage, photos, and updates, follow the Current Sports Instagram page here. You can view the updated MIAA power rankings for each team here.