Girls Cross Country Team Competes at Wilton

Junior Kara O'Rourke, sophomore Penn Boucher, freshman
Sarah Gallagher, and freshman Kelly Richter run hard.

By Mary Lawrence Huffman

On Tuesday, September 27th, the Girls Cross Country team traveled to Wilton High School to run against Wilton.  Many runners had just recently competed at the Ocean State Invitational in Rhode Island and had a great showing despite racing on a difficult course a couple of days earlier.

Senior captain Ali Barnard said, “Wilton was tough competition but it was a great course and everybody ran really well.”  Barnard ran a very competitive race against a large pack of Wilton runners, managing to break up their top five over the last half mile and placing fifth overall with a time of 16:51 seconds.  Junior Emilia Callery and sophomore Sophie Hill also had very strong performances.
 
The Girls Cross Country team is hoping to do well at their next meet on Tuesday, October 4th at Greenwich.   

Boys Varsity Soccer Ties with Stamford

By Madeleine Ostertag

The Boys Varsity Soccer team took on Stamford on Monday, September 26th, at Stamford High School after losing to Danbury 0-2 on Thursday, September 22nd. Darien now stands at 3-3-1 after a game where neither side could gain the upper hand. Senior Sam Pfrommer scored in the 31st minute off an assist from senior Ben Bidell, but Stamford equalized the game on a penalty kick before the half was out. “I think we played a very good game and we were unlucky not to walk away with a win,” Pfrommer said. The team was able to turn the disadvantage of having three starters out on injuries, including senior Pablo Martinez, into an opportunity for underclassmen to step up to the plate. “A few players were out with injuries so I’m glad we were able to cope with that,” Pfrommer said.

Be sure to cheer on the boys as they take on Norwalk today at 7:15 PM away.

Photo: Senior Ben Bidell with an assist (Courtesy DAF).

Girls Varsity Field Hockey Triumphs over NC

By Carson Halabi

This past Friday, September 23rd, Wave Girls Field Hockey battled the Rams, and they certainly drowned ‘em. Junior Erica Blaze commented, “NC has some really great individual players and are pretty good in one to one scenarios, so we focused on maintaining possession and connecting on the field.” This connection and composure on the field pushed them to victory, winning 3-1. Goals were scored by junior Kendall Wisinski, senior captain Campbell Matheis, and senior Emily Gianunzio. Matheis led the team, as did senior Kallie Coughlin, who had a ton of saves in the second half of the game. Junior Kerry Blatney commented, “As a team we are excelling, but we could work on keeping our composure in stressful situations.”

We will look forward to seeing improvements in the Wave’s next game on Tuesday, September 27 at Westhill!

Senior Kallie Coughlin with the save 

Darien Football Defeats Greenwich at Homecoming

By Cord Fox

Juniors Nick Green and Charlie Zuro celebrate after a touchdown (Courtesy DAF)

The Blue Wave football team took on a strong Greenwich Cardinals team for their homecoming game. For the first time in a while the Blue Wave had a challenge. After stopping the Cardinals first drive, Darien was able to get on the board first with a touchdown pass from senior Brian Peters. Greenwich would answer quickly with its own long touchdown pass. It was a back and forth battle, but Darien took a 20-14 lead to the half. The Wave scored quickly coming out of halftime, but Greenwich came roaring back to tie the game up at 28-28. Two fourth quarter touchdowns would help seal the game for Darien, remaining undefeated and beating Greenwich by a margin of 42-35.

The Wave passed their first big challenge of the year, but it didn’t come easily. “A wins a win, but we made a lot of mistakes during the game that we need to improve on,” Senior defensive end Quinn Fay said. Darien now looks to an out of conference game against Norwich Free Academy next Saturday at 1:30.

Darien Football Trumps Stamford in Home Opener

By Cord Fox

This past weekend the Darien Blue Wave Football team took on the Black Knights of Stamford in their first home game of the season. The Wave jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after scoring on the first drive of the game. The team dominated on both sides of ball putting up big numbers on offense and the defense shutting out Stamford’s offense. Special teams even got in on the scoring action with a blocked punt, which was returned for a touchdown.

Senior and Defensive End Quinn Fay commented on the play: “Andrew Stueber got a good jump off the snap and was able to block the punt. I was fortunate enough to have the ball to roll in my direction and I picked it up and ran it into the endzone. Darien went into the half with a 34-0 lead. Midway through the third quarter, the second strings were able to get into the game with a comfortable lead.

The final score was 51-14 with Stamford scoring two touchdowns in the 4th quarter.

The Wave proved its dominance on the field Saturday, but the team has one of the biggest games of the season on the horizon. Darien will play the Greenwich Cardinals to get an advantage in the class “LL” standings. “We had a good win against Stamford, but now we have to turn our attention to Greenwich because they are going to put up a fight and this is a big game for us,” junior Max Grant said.

Come support the Blue Wave for their homecoming football game this Saturday, September 24, at 1:30.

Girls Swim and Dive Defeat the Rams

By Taylor Davis

On Thursday September 15th, the girls DHS Swim and Dive team took on rival New Canaan at the Darien YMCA. After a win against St. Joe’s last week, they proved to be successful yet again with a score of 102-66, dominating the Rams.

With a challenging meet so early in the season, it was questionable what the results would be, but the strength of the team carried them through. They swept the 500 free and won all of the relays. Junior Isabel Blaze showed her satisfaction with the team’s performance, “It was exciting to see everyone do things that they didn’t think they had in them. The rivalry with new Canaan brings that out in us” .

After an upset last year at FCIAC's, this victory shows that Darien is capable of taking the triple crown this year. “I think that Blue Wave Swim and Dive is going to make a comeback this season and surprise everyone,” Blaze said.

On September 28th, come watch the Wave take on Fairfield Ludlowe at Fairfield University at 4 p.m.

The Wave captains after their victory (courtesy Darien Times)

Boys Cross Country Takes on Danbury, Staples, Norwalk

By Claire Borecki

On Tuesday, September 13^th, Darien Boys Cross Country ran their first meet: a 5k at Staples High School. The field included two of the best teams in the state of Connecticut: Danbury and Staples. Although Darien lost to both of these powerhouses (with a cruising victory over Norwalk, also present at the meet) solid performances among DHS team members hold promise for the season to come.

Senior Captain James Johnson topped the Darien field, placing 7^th of 63 with a time of 16:36.24, fifteen seconds behind Staple’s first-place finisher Zakeer Ahmad. Other impressive DHS placements included Junior Alex Klarer in 9^th, followed by senior Captain Jimmy Conroy in 11^th and Junior Griffin Ott in 14^th. James commented positively on the meet, saying “The team is off to an excellent start and is looking to have a great meet at FCIACs. Alex Klarer and I had excellent races and were up with the lead pack of the Danbury and Staples team, who are two of the best teams in the state.”

Some of Darien’s strongest senior runners are primarily sprinters and mid-distance runners, such as Captains Keenan Warble and James Johnson, respectively, both of whom attended nationals for these events during the spring track season. With good coaching and talent, it’s likely that some of these strengths can transfer into XC success.

Photo: Darien’s Matthew Guttuso in action. 

Darien Falls to Greenwich 2-0

by Sam Hickey

Last Friday, September 9th, the boys varsity soccer team took on Greenwich at Greenwich High in their first official game of the season. Coming off another successful season, the Blue Wave looked to build on some of the big strides they made in the playoffs last year. As most will remember Darien made it to both Fciac and State championship games, raising the question of whether this is finally Darien’s year to win it all?

However this game against Greenwich proved to be a huge step back. The Cardinals controlled the game, scoring a goal in the 1st half and another in the 2nd to cruise to a 2-0 victory. Darien did have chances, but lacked the finishing to make this a competitive game. Senior Casey Brown reflected this sentiment saying “We had opportunities to score, but we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net”.

Come support the Blue Wave today at 4 p.m. at home, as they take on Brian McMahon.

Photo: Senior Forward Pablo Martinez fighting for possession against a strong Greenwich defense. (Courtesy Greenwich Times)

The Darien Football Dynasty?

By Jack Tierney

The Blue Wave Boys Football team cruised to a victory last Saturday with a blowout win over St. Joseph's High School in Trumbull . The winning tradition continued from last year as the final score was 48-14. Strong play from junior running back Mitchell Pryor helped lead the way as he boasted 178 yards on only 11 carries, averaging 14.8 yards every time he touched the ball. 

Senior Finlay Collins added two scores, one on a nine yard run and the other through the air receiving a 47 yard pass from Brian Peters. Speaking of Peters, the senior quarterback was very poised and tossed three touchdowns on his way to a nearly perfect outing. 

The concern of this team in the offseason was how many star players they graduated, but this issue  was nowhere to be found on Saturday. When asked about the rest of the season, junior running back Mitchell Pryor added, "we wanted to build on last year and I think we did that today".

Darien looked sharp in all categories and will hope to continue this success against Stamford (9/17 at DHS).

Pryor sheds a tackle en route to his monster performance. (@dhsbwfootball Instagram)