Basketball
Marianapolis
MPS 68 Hotchkiss 67
In a battle of two NEPSAC Class AA teams with aspirations of big seasons, the Golden Knights matched up with the Hotchkiss School in Thompson. The Knights dominated the first half with balance scoring from Kristian Medina, Nigel Sydnor, and Kachi Nzerem. The change of defenses and overall toughness propelled the Knights to a 10 point halftime lead. In the 2nd half, Hotchkiss began to chip away at the Knights lead, but could never pull ahead, as a layup by Bobby Ahearn (9 points, 13 rebounds) sealed the victory for the Knights. Medina and Sydnor led Marianapolis with 21 points apiece. The Knights improve to 3-1 and 3-0 in NEPSAC Class AA. They return to action at home on Friday to take on Class AA opponent Masters School (CT) at 6pm.
MPS 68 Christian Heritage 53
The Marianapolis Golden Knights opened up on the road at Christian Heritage and came home with a 68-53 victory over the home team. Guards Nigel Sydnor and Kachi Nzerem led the Knights with 16 and 15 points respectively, and Junior Greg Senat controlled the glass with 13 rebounds to go along with his 11 points. The Knights also got solid bench play from Alex Dubovitskiy and Eric Teixeira. The Knights are back in action on Saturday and Sunday at the Hoop Mountain Prep Classic @ Marianapolis.
MPS 71 Proctor 37
The Golden Knights had their home opener in front of a great crowd of Marianapolis students and faculty and also Prep Basketball fans around the country for the Hoop Mountain Prep Classic. The Knights were focused and didn’t disappoint the crowd, earning a 71-37 win over Class AA opponent Proctor Academy (NH). Balanced scoring based the Knights as 5 players finished in double figures led by Kachi Nzerem’s 17 points and Kristian Medina’s 16 points. Marianapolis improves to 2-0 overall and 2-0 in NEPSAC Class AA. The Knights have a taller order on Sunday as they host Class AAA opponent Bridgton Academy.
Bridgton 88 MPS 78
In front of a standing room only crowd the Golden Knights had a big task at hand as the battled Class AAA powerhouse Bridgton Academy. The Knights fought out throughout the entire game leading with 5 minutes to go in the half, and then trailing by just four with 10 minutes to go in the game, but a very talented Bridgton squad held of the Knights for an 88-78 win. Nigel Sydnor led the Knights win 21 points and 6 assists and Greg Senat opened a lot of coach’s
eyes with a 14 point, 13 rebound performance.
Ice Hockey
Pomfret School
Pomfret 4  Dexter 5
Dec. 16: We faced off for the third time in 24 hours against Dexter. Groton has two rinks, and this game was played on the larger of the two. In an effort to use our energy efficiently and to cover the ice better, we installed a new 1-2-2 forecheck that the boys executed well. Ryan Hall ’12 notched the first goal of the game after his line created a turnover, then slippery Andrew Slotnick ’14 scored 41 seconds later to put us up 2-0. Brian Miller ’12 added a third marker with 1:31 remaining in the first period to give us a 3-0 lead at the first intermission.
Dexter changed goalies at the beginning of the second period, a strategy that seemed to backfire when Slotnick scored his second of the game just 1:01 into the period. Dexter, however, gained life when they scored a powerplay goal at 11:02 and added another two-and-a-half minutes later. A Dexter goal early in the third period made it a 4-3 game, and they tied it on a wraparound with 1:09 remaining in the game after pulling their goalie. Though we had given up four consecutive goals, we rallied in the five-minute overtime period and competed hard. Being a tournament game, we went into a shoot-out to determine a winner, which is where things got interesting.
Each team submitted the names of five shooters to the referees, and we shot first because we were the visiting team. The puck rolled off Slotnick’s stick near the Dexter goal, so he did not have much chance to score. The first Dexter shooter scored on Nick Ellis ’13 (who made 50 saves during the game), then our second shooter, Jay Kourkoulis ’12, rung a shot off the right goalpost that undoubtedly would have gone in had it been a quarter-inch to the left. Controversy ensued when the second Dexter shooter tripped over his own feet just before he began to push the puck forward on his shot, and fell flat past the red line. One referee declared the shot null and void, the other looked confused, the Dexter coach added his input to the resulting conference of officials, and the end result was that the Dexter player was allowed a “re-do”. Coach Wolanin asked the referees point blank if they knew the rule, they all replied “No,” but despite Coach Wolanin’s argument that the call should not be changed by the referees without knowing the rule, their decision stood. Of course the Dexter played scored on his second attempt, and neither Brian Miller nor Ryan Hall were able to light the lamp, so we ended up with a remarkable 5-4 shoot-out loss.
Pomfret 2 Groton 1
Dec. 17: One goal was scored in each period, and Slotnick opened the scoring with his team-leading sixth goal, a shorthanded marker 5:49 into the first. Ten penalties were called in the opening frame, so it was a challenge in the early going to establish any sort of rhythm with our lines. The game turned into a track meet in the second period, with good scoring chances at both ends of the rink. Groton knotted the game at 1 when their best player slipped behind our defensemen, settled a long clearing pass, then backhanded the puck under the crossbar as if it was no big deal. Despite repeated shots from us – we had 40 shots on the day, many of which came from Kourkoulis – it was Groton who went ahead 2-1 midway through the third. We pulled Ellis with about 1:40 remaining in the game, had the players we wanted on the ice for the 6v5, won face-offs, had scoring chances, but somehow the puck would not go into the Groton net. Special thanks to Mr. Ford for rooting us on; he went out of his way to attend the game and to watch some of his English students in a different setting.
Wins, losses, and ties aside, the team has made tremendous progress in the one month we have been together. We opened the tournament with only four players in the lineup who played for the team last year. Our perspective always is to improve, and we have done so; Michael Revelakis ’14 and Adam Ganley ’13 played their best games of the young season.

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