Sports: Herlihy’s Heroics Leads Girls’ Soccer to Shutout Win

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With seven minutes gone in the second half of Belmont High School’s Girls’ Soccer game with Woburn High at Harris Field on Monday, Sept. 22, a Belmont defender shanked an attempted clearance that flew backwards falling at the feet of a Tanner forward with no one between her and Marauder senior goalkeeper Linda Herlihy.

The player took four steps then hit a low, hard shot from 16 meters towards the open right side of the Belmont net. A goal would bring Woburn back from a 2-0 hole and provide a critical lift for the Tanners in the match.

But for the fifth time in the game – and not the last – Herlihy stood up to pressure, lunging to her left to block the drive and preserve the shutout.

“You just have to go for it, honestly,” Herlihy told the Belmontonian about the save. “Part of it’s luck. I just do what I can.”

“[Assistant Head] Coach [Stacie] Marino says you go for it fully or you stay off; you can’t hesitate. So I went full out and it worked,” said Herlihy.

In a career performance, Herlihy stonewalled six open shots, including two breakaway attempts, to earn her fourth clean sheet of the season and propel Belmont to the 2-0 victory over Woburn.

The win gives Belmont a 5-1-0 record, its only loss a 4-1 defeat to host Arlington at the beginning of the three game stretch.

“It was one of my best games but I had a lot of help from everyone else especially our defense. It’s nice since we’re all veterans in the back,” said Herlihy.

“There was a cast of thousands that were stars tonight,” said Paul Graham, Belmont’s longtime head coach.

“It started with [Herlihy], she was spectacular. Then there was the made-up midfield of [freshman] Emma Sass and [senior] Alexandra Dionne who went after the ball and were relentless,” said Graham.

For the second game, the play was particularly physical – Belmont earned a pair of yellow cards for rough actions – in which the opposing coach told Graham the game was won “because you muscled us off the ball.”

Belmont first goal was typical of the match’s hurly-burly nature as senior midfielder Sophia Eisenbach-Smith reached a long pass from Katrina Rokosz just ahead of Woburn goalkeeper Olivia Carbone. Rather than step aside or set up a pass, Eisenbach-Smith slammed the ball off Carbone, and saw it float into the back of the net within the final 7 minutes of the first half. 

Before the half ended, Herlihy would make a spectacular save off a sharp shot from her right as the ball hit the post and stayed out.

Belmont started fast in the second half, pressing Woburn which set up the Marauders’ second goal when Kristin Gay’s kick in the 36th minute was redirected off a Woburn defender past Carbone for an own-goal.

Then it was up to Herlihy to save the points for her team; coming out to stuff a breakaway on the left, parrying away a tight angle shot on the right, the aforementioned spectacular save and finally reaching back to save a certain goal off a shot from a Woburn corner kick in the final minutes. (see photo sequence of the save in the photo gallery below)

“What can you say,” said Graham. “Linda was great.”

 

Sports: Girls’ Soccer, Field Hockey Back to Their Winning Ways

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After stumbles to solid teams in league play, Belmont High School’s Girls’ Soccer and Field Hockey got back on the right foot winning their latest contests against tough completion.

McCarthy’s hat trick paces Field Hockey over Arlington

All Kate McCarthy needs to do is keep her stick to the ground and the ball will find its way into the back of the field hockey goal.

“Having your stick down is really important when you’re a forward,” said the junior forward after scoring her first career hat trick in the final 10 minutes of Friday night’s game, Sept. 19, as the Marauders took the measure of Arlington High, 5-0, at Harris Field.

“I’ve scored before but it was good today,” she said.

“Today she showed me that she can touch the ball in front of the net and you need that in field hockey. A hat trick is spectacular, especially in field hockey,” said Belmont Head Coach Jessica Smith

It’s either feast or famine for Belmont (3-2); each of its victories have been via the shutout as the team scored at least five goals; each loss has been 4-0 affairs (although both were to a ranked team.)

After a disappointing loss earlier in the week to 11th-ranked Reading Memorial High School – “Don’t ask,” said Smith – Belmont needed a strong game to get back on their winning ways.

And a pair of veteran varsity players put Belmont out front and kept them there.

Senior midfield stalwart Susanna Noone put the Marauders’ in the lead in a game Belmont had most of the best chances when she scored seven minutes from the end of the first half with an unassisted bullet.

Her fellow senior goalkeeper Kate Saylor kept the SpyPonders at bay when she stopped three breakaways and several shots from the side of the goal.

“If she had let one go in, this is a much different game. It’s great to have a senior back there,” Smith said of Saylor.

For pure field hockey playing pleasure, sophomore standout Annemarie Habelow apparently heard Smith yelling that the team still had 30 seconds to score. She then dribbled by two Arlington midfielders, lost the ball, got it back, took a few steps inside the scoring zone then rocketed a shot passed the goalie with 13 second left in the half.

“Both (Noone and Habelow) are really distributing the ball better and not taking it all on themselves which makes them better players and everyone around them better,” said Smith.

With the game in the balance as Arlington began pushing players forward, McCarthy was in the right place – the right side of the net – and pounced on a loose ball and knocked it in at the 10 minute mark. It didn’t take long for the second – just 64 seconds – and the third came with 4 minutes left to complete her first career hat trick.

McCarthy acknowledged her teammates for getting the ball to her.

“There was really good passing in the midfield. They do a good job getting the ball to the goal,” said McCarthy.

Rough and tumble Saturday matinee as Girls’ Soccer gets by Medford

Harris Field resembled a rodeo arena Saturday afternoon,  as players from Belmont and Medford high school girls’ soccer teams kept falling to the ground as if thrown off a nasty buckin’ bronc. 

While the teams were playing soccer, it was on the physical side as each team challenged for the ball to gain even the slightest advantage.

In the end, Belmont’s tall midfield co-captain senior Lizzie Frick scored the brace to lead the Marauders by the visitors, 3-1, in the matinee.

“We were shaky today; our first touches were not good,” said Paul Graham, Belmont’s head coach after the game.

Frick scored her first goal before most in the crowd got to their seats, ripping in the shot by Medford’s goalkeeper Mary Donnelly after only 130 seconds.

It looked like it could be a run away as sophomore forward Julia Cella slotted in a rebound of a shot from Sophia Eisenbach-Smith that eluded Donnelly at the 34 minute mark in the first.

But Medford has improved as a team since last playing Belmont a year ago, using the speed of their wingers to sneak away for two clear breakaways only to be stopped by great positioning from Belmont senior goalkeeper Linda Herlihy.

But the Mustangs broke through on a wonderful dipping goal by Korey O’Rourke that beat Herlihy at the 26 minute mark.

Frick took her second goal in the 9th minute before the half after a Medford foul 25 meters from goal. Set piece specialist Katrina Rokosz lofted the ball into the box where Frick headed the ball past an on-rushing Donnelly.

The second half was as physical as Belmont has seen this year with knocks handed out for the rough but mostly fair “rough and tumble.” Yet the Marauders controlled the midfield and were not threatened in the final 40 minutes.

Sports: Boys’ Soccer In Tester; Girls’ Soccer, Field Hockey Hit Bumps

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The competition level rises and with it changes to Belmont High School Athlete’s seemingly endless winning streaks.

Belmont High School Boys’ Soccer remains undefeated as they defeated a gritty Arlington High School team, 2-1, on Harris Field’s cushiony turf surface Thursday afternoon, Sept. 18.

After playing what Head Coach Brian Bisceglia-Kane called his team’s “the best 15 minutes of soccer this season” to start the game, Belmont (5-0-0) were in a battle for the rest of the contest against the Spy Ponders (3-2-0).

“The guys are excited. While we try to taper expectations, this was a big game for us,” Bisceglia-Kane told the Belmontonian.

 

Belmont struck twice in the first 11 minutes on quick counter attacks. Just seven minutes in, midfield standout Charlie Frigo outran the Spy Pond back line to head in a bouncing ball from Luke Gallagher past Arlington goaltender Anthony Aggouras.

The Marauders doubled up the score at 11 minutes from Ben Lazenby‘s screamer 20 meters out – coming off an Andrew Eurdolian assist – beating Aggouras to the left post.

After settling down, Arlington took away the Marauders’ momentum by staying close to the ground with short, quick passes resulting in a pretty goal by sub Phineas Santello who dipped a shot over Belmont’s goaltender Peter Berens with five minutes remaining in the half. The goal ended Berens shutout streak to begin the season at 355 minutes.

Despite the lack of scoring in the second half, the match resembled a baseball pitching duel between two aces in which purists would enjoy how the teams attacked and countered their opponents. 

“People watching a game think poorly of a team that’s possessing the ball in their back half they think things are going wrong but that’s something we strive for,” said Bisceglia-Kane, saying it allows the team to work the ball up efficiently and create more scoring chances. 

Belmont also employed a diagonal long pass to quickly switch its attack from one side of the field to the other.

“We’ve been working on that with Gallagher doing it a lot. This game Matt Lawson and Ed Stafford began possessing the ball in the middle of the park then switching the field. Luckily, it paid dividends with one of our goals,” he said,

Five games in and Bisceglia-Kane sees a special characteristic evolving with a team-first mentality, a sort of Belmont Mannschaft.

“They take pride in the fact that they do it together. This team in particular is a group of players that sees themselves as team and not caring about individual statistics or personal achievements and that is one of their strengths,” he said.

Belmont Girls’ suffer first loss at Arlington

Belmont High School Girls’ Head Coach Paul Graham knew that Arlington High’s girls’ soccer team was good this year but did not know just how good.

It turns out the answer, to Graham and his team’s chagrin, is really good.

Belmont visited the Spy Ponders on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 18, and was sent home with its first loss of the season, 4-1. Coincidentally, the Marauders’ record stands at 4-1-0.

“You have to give it to them, they’ve got some great players,” said Graham after the game.

Despite losing, Graham was pleased with his team’s effort, saying that Belmont took control of the field for most of the first half and despite the first goal of the game, continued to be Arlington’s equal until a second goal snuck in.

“You could then see the kid’s looking down at their feet,” said Graham.

Graham thought some of the team’s lack of scoring punch – it came into the game with 21 goals – was nerves, heading into a game with an undefeated opponent appeared to bring an air of caution to the team’s play.

“They went back to not shooting the ball,” said Graham.

Only when the game was at 4-0 did the team get its tally with Kristen Gay scoring off a Katrina Rokosz free kick.

Graham said he will not dwell on the loss, taking away only positives from it.

“I think we needed a game like this. Loss the nerves with this one,” said Graham.

Field Hockey falls to Rockets

One word of warning to Belmont High School’s Field Hockey team: stay away from ranked teams.

After falling to the Boston Globe’s number one team Watertown, 4-0, in its opener, Belmont traveled to number 13 Reading Memorial High School and came home with a 4-0 loss on Wednesday, Sept, 17.

Belmont Field Hockey Overwhelms Second Visiting Team

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Belmont High School Field Hockey Head Coach Jessica Smith is never one who wants to pile on the score line.

“I feel so terrible,” said Smith as the team was ahead 6-0 with a minute left to play … in the first half of the Marauders game against visiting Stoneham High School on Friday, Sept. 12.

“I’m not that type of coach but what can I tell my team? Not shot?” she said, pulling off veterans to allow substitutes to play long stretches of the game.

By the end of a long day – the game started 45 minutes late due to travel problems for Stoneham – Belmont would score a pair of second half goals to win 8-0, creating a nice bookend for the week as the Marauders drubbed Melrose 7-0 on Tuesday.

“Two big scoring victories with lots of players getting goals but just as important, everyone got to play,” said Smith.

Kerri Lynch and the team’s midfield leader, senior Suzanne Noone, scored twice while starters sophomore Annemarie Habelow and Jacqueline Hill scored a goal each. Tallying goals off the bench were Kate McArthy and Hillary Fay. Goalies Kate Saylor and Nicole Crowley shared the clean sheet. 

“Gosh, this is a great team. We really don’t have a weak spot anywhere on the field and I have really good subs that I can put in who have been scoring and other good stuff on the field. It’s like I have a second layer in some positions,” said Smith.

And while the Marauders have put in 15 goals over the past two games, Belmont will be meeting teams with greater skills and talented players. On Wednesday, Sept. 17, the team travels to Reading Memorial High School, a team that “is always very hard. It’s a game that you really want to win and it’s hard every single time and it’s never easy,” said Smith.

 

 

Football: Promise Amidst the Pain in 31-0 Opening Loss to Stoneham

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Belmont High School Football team’s game and the season didn’t start the way Yann Kumin had hoped.

Belmont’s head coach – his first ever in charge of a program – saw Stoneham High School recover the on-side kick on the opening kickoff under the Friday night lights on Stoneham’s forlorn grass field on Sept. 12.

“Not the way to start,” commented Kumin when the referee pointed towards Belmont’s side of the field.

Despite the hope for a big performance on the first game under a new football mindset, the Marauders stumbled in the season opener, losing 30-0 to the Spartans.

“Disappointing,” said Kumin after speaking to his team, greeting people he knew from when he was Stoneham’s associate head coach last season and receiving congratulations from Belmont Athletic Director Jim Davis.

“I’m proud of my guys. We fought and we were a discipline football team from start to finish. That’s what we wanted to be. We worked hard but we did not get the result we wanted,” he said.

What Belmont could not control was the quickness and football IQ of Stoneham which ran a variety of rushing plays that found gaps in and around Belmont’s front line. Stoneham’s players experience within a system that relies on technique and speed paid off for the Spartans as they made plays that the Marauders could not.

Kumin said the team was not beaten in the physical portion of the game “but [Stoneham] is a team with three years of really quality coaching and teaching them how to tackle. We have had three weeks of coaching so it’s going to take a little bit more time for us.”

“You have a series of bad habits that have been instilled and repeated over and over again,” said Kumin of Belmont’s  past football culture.

“So when our guys find themselves in situations where they’re ‘behind the eight-ball’, it’s easy to revert back to what they’re comfortable doing, So all we, as coaches, have to do, day-in and day-out, is to break those bad habits and get great habits in place,” he said.

Throughout the contest, Kumin and his young assistant coaching staff were either making every play – and mistake – into a teachable moment or encouraging the effort of players. And Kumin saw great promise in several aspects of the Maruaders’ game.

“The positives exist in the fact that we are capable of making mistakes and coming back and try to do good things. We moved the ball really well and by the end of the second quarter, our offense was clicking,” said Kumin.

As he was walking off the field, Kumin told a Stoneham acquaintance that “you’ll have to come next year to [Belmont’s] Harris Field and we’ll be ready for you.”

A New Era Begins Tonight for Belmont High Football

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This is it: the start of a new era for Belmont High School Football begins tonight, Friday, Sept. 12 as new varsity head coach Yann Kumin and his young group of assistant coaches will lead a new look Marauder team to Stoneham for the season opener against Stoneham High School beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The game marks a return to Stoneham for Kumin, who matriculated at Harvard and teaches English at Cambridge’s  Matignon High School, where he was the associate head coach last season. 

The team, which finished 0-11 last season, will bring back talented sophomore Cal Christorfori as quarterback and five senior captains including Max Jones, Austin Lutz, Nick Ryan, Omar Escobar and Darren Chan.

All you need to know about this team can be found in a remarkable video made by a pair of Belmont High School students, Lucas Tragos and James Neylon.

Boys’, Girls’ Soccer: Three Wins, Three Shutouts, All Good

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Walt Whitman wrote in his collection “Leaves of Grass” of “the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!/ The brooding and blissful halcyon days!”

These are indeed the halcyon days for both of Belmont High School soccer teams. In the first three games of the new season, the teams are undefeated (3-0), scoring goals (the boys have tallied seven over that stretch while the girls are averaging a gaudy six per game) each win has been via the shutout.

And to the delight of the head coaches – the boys’ Brian Bisceglia-Kane and Paul Graham for the girls – the games has seen long stretches (sometimes the entire match) in which the Marauders have dominated possession with an aggressive brand of attacking soccer backed by a solid two-way midfield play.

In the latest pair of games, the girls’ have gone on the road to defeat Melrose, 3-0, on Tuesday, Sept. 9, and Stoneham, 6-0, on Thursday, Sept. 11. The boys’ have enjoyed their stay on Harris Field’s new turf rug with victories over Melrose, 2-0, on Tuesday and a 3-0 win over Stoneham on Thursday.

“I think the group is doing a great job staying focused on what we are trying to do,” said Bisceglia-Kane after Thursday’s game where the Marauders

scored three times in the final 20 minutes of the first half.

Senior Co-Captain Norman Kilauititu scored his second goal of the year – although his best play occurred in the second half when he nearly scored from a wide bicycle kick to the thrill of the assembled girls’ team in the stands – followed by Danny Rizzo‘s 18 meter rocket set up by a wonderful series of short passing and finally Alex Berets flew by a pair of Stoneham center backs to volley David Chen‘s pass into the side of the goal. The game was the third clean sheet for senior goalkeeper Peter Berens.

Yet Bisceglia-Kane, who is in his first year as the Marauder’s head coach, said he is not concerned with the score of the games.

“I really don’t determine success by winning; you can win a game when you don’t deserve it and lose a game when you do,” he said, but rather determine success based on the goals they set for themselves before the game.

“That is how players stay focused … and allows them to work out of situations when they are down in a game,” said Bisceglia-Kane.

For the Belmont Girls’, the attacking beat goes on as six different players scored in the first 16 minutes of their game at Stoneham as the Marauders made fast work breaking down the Spartans.

But it’s not the number of goals that has impressed Graham so far this season but in the variety they are scored. Scores are coming from set pieces (corner kicks), physical scrambles in front of the net and building up from the midfield.

“This is the first year where when I put our subs in we do not go down in quality. Everyone of these kids want to play,” said Graham.

Yet Graham, who is nearing his 300th victory, is not about to proclaim this team as anything other than “good, so far.”

“Let’s put this into prospectus; we still haven’t played the better [Middlesex League] teams,” said Graham, who believe that Arlington and Lexington “are the class of the league as of right now” followed closely by the Marauders and their arch rivals Winchester.

“We are way ahead of last year’s team but I try to be a realist. I will know much more when we meet Arlington (away on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 3:45 p.m.),” said Graham.

Belmont Field Hockey Rebounds Past Melrose

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The first two games of the 2014 seasons has been like night and day for the Belmont High School Field Hockey team.

It was like night when the Marauders visited defending state champions (and undefeated for more than four years) Watertown High in the season opener last Friday as the Red Raiders kept the Marauders in the dark on how to break down the four-time consecutive state champs, losing 4-0..

On Wednesday, Sept. 10, the light was back on for Belmont as they celebrated playing on their newly-renovated turf field for the first time with a convincing 7-0 drubbing of Melrose High on a cool night, Sept. 10.

Where Belmont was sputtering at times against Watertown, the team – and especially the offense – was playing with all cylinders running as six players scored and everyone played.

“Things that we have been hoping would occur actually did,” said Head Coach Jessica Smith.

“I was looking for Suzanne [Noone] and Annemarie [Habelow] to work well together and they did,” said Smith pointing to the most impressive goal of the night when the senior midfielder Noone fed the high-scoring sophomore Habelow a picture perfect pass into the attacking circle that the talented 10th grader buried in the back of the net from distance.

“I’m picturing that play many times this season,” joked Smith.

Yet Smith said the win was impressive because everyone played with “a real drive” after the first-game loss.

And that determination led to a battery of goals from a slew of players. Habelow scored twice with fellow starters Noone, Kerri Lynch and Julia Chase picking up one each while subs Jacqueline Hill and Kate McCarthy each got their first goals of the season.

Senior goalkeeper Kate Saylor shared the clean sheet with backup Nicole Crowley who kicked out a breakaway attempt late in the game to preserve the shutout.

With the midfield, led by varsity veteran Noone, communicating and working together better and the defense, backstopped by Lauren Noonan and Emma Pejko, being more assertive and confidence, the team “is showing they can compete.”

“But there are a lot of teams between Watertown and Melrose in talent so I want to see how we handle teams in the middle of the group,” said Smith.

Fast Freestylers Wanted: Contact Belmont High Swimming

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All Belmont High School Girls’ Swimming Head Coach Ev Crosscup wants are a few freestyle swimmers who can quickly travel from Point A to Point B.

That would make the legendary coach happy.

After the season opening duel meet clash with powerhouse Acton-Boxborough High at the Wenner Field House Pool in Belmont, on Wednesday Sept. 10, Crosscup was clearly pleased with the overall performance of his team as the Marauders held their own against the visitors who placed fourth in last year’s Division 1 championships.

“I thought we had some real strong efforts. I was happy and pleased with that but we have to get better in some important areas,” he said, after the final score, a 96 to 87 A-B win, was announced.

And that area is the team’s current deficit in the shorter-distance freestyle events. The lack of a steady point producer in the 50 and 100 yards has been a thorn to the team’s side for the past few years and Wednesday’s opener was not an encouraging one for Belmont’s long-time coach.

“That was glaring again as it was last season,” said Crosscup, a season which Belmont took second in the Division 2 state championships.

In the 50, 100 and 200, Belmont’s highest placement was third with the remaining swimmers finishing in 5th and 6th while the 200 relay finished in the bottom

“We don’t seem to have that sprint freestyler and that killed us again today,” he said.

While the shorter free distance races didn’t go to plan, there was a nice surprise in the 500 yard free with Sara Noorouzi taking first, breaking six minutes, with a 5 minute, 50.72 second race, and bringing home the sweep as Elizabeth Levy (5:57.21) and Dervela Moore-Frederick (6:07.07) followed.

As expected, Belmont’s big hitters came through, led by junior star Jessie Blake-West who won her speciality, the 100 fly (which she won the state championship last year), already breaking 59 seconds with a 58.75 in addition to winning the 200 Individual Medley by just about 10 seconds over teammate Maya Nagashima (2:13.41 to 2:23.31).

Also showing great form was Emily Quinn who held off A-B’s Tiffany Shao – who finished second in the Div. 1 state meet last year – in the best battle of the afternoon, taking the 100 breaststroke, 1:12.28 to 1:13.93.

Blake-West and Quinn have returned to swim the 200 Medley Relay this season – the relay is the defending state championships – finishing second to A-B’s number one in 1:58.03, swimming with Solvay Metelmann and Maya Nagashima

Nagashima placed second in the 100 backstroke in a fast time of 1:04.06.

And junior Thea Kelsey scored three 8’s for her reverse dive in the pike position which help win her the 1 meter diving competition with 210 points.

“You can see the effort they are putting into their swimming. It’s a good start to the season,” said Crosscup.

Now, about those freestylers.

Rookie Coach Leads Belmont Boys’ Soccer Over Powerhouse Watertown

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Brian Bisceglia-Kane is undefeated for his coaching career.

OK, he’s been in charge of Belmont High School Boys’ Soccer for just one game. But that contest was the season opener against two-time Div. 3 final-four participant Watertown High School in which Belmont took home a 2-0 victory.

Not bad for a rookie head coach.

“This was a good test of our play but then every game has its unique challenges,” said Bisceglia-Kane, who was Belmont’s JV coach for six years before moving up to the top spot this campaign.

“[Watertown] have many quality players; it was the first game of the season so we had a lot of nerves to start the game, and it was super hot (temperatures reached 90 degrees despite a 10 a.m. start time) so conditioning was a factor. Luckily those three things worked out for our team. Hopefully, we will keep progressing,” said Bisceglia-Kane, who played collegiately at Brandies.

Belmont’s victory Saturday, Sept. 6 at Victory Field, was constructed on top of the foundation of simply outworking their opponents – winning most of the contested ’50/50″ balls – and a willingness to emphasize team play over individual skills. While several Watertown players were adept in dribbling with possession – and enjoyed showing it – Belmont relied on the skills of each player on the field.

As commentators noted at the recent World Cup in Brazil while many teams were known for their superstars, Germany’s – the eventual winners – “star is their team.”

Saturday saw “Die Mannschaft” Belmont style.

“I just think we did the simple things right like possession of the ball and variations of passes,” said Bisceglia-Kane, who teaches third grade at the Butler Elementary School.

The first half was a back and forth affair with a few good scoring chance for both teams with Belmont’s senior goalkeeper Peter Berens making a one-hand save on a blistering dipping shot from Watertown’s Roman Davis.

“A couple of fixes at half time and I though we were more aggressive forcing them into mistakes,” Bisceglia-Kane said.

That push was rewarded when Belmont senior Danny Rizzo was fouled in the box in the 53rd minute with senior Charlie Frigo slotted the ball by Watertown’s goalkeeper Joe Keikian.

Belmont got its second score three minutes later after the Marauders took the play to the Red Raiders. After sophomore Marvyn Dorchin had battled to win procession deep in the Watertown end, the ball ended up off Luke Gallagher‘s boot which was parried into the air by Keikian. As the ball came down, Belmont’s senior forward Norman Kilavatitu out jumped a Red Raider and headed the ball over Keikian and into the net.

While he won his inaugural game of his coaching career, Bisceglia-Kane deferred any self-congratulation to praise his players.

“All the credit goes to them for the off season training for the hard work in the pre-season. They are probably the fittest group of guys I’ve seen in Belmont,” said Bisceglia-Kane.

Belmont’s next game is Tuesday, Sept. 9 against Melrose at 3:45 p.m.