Large in part to Johnny Tighe’s goal and two assists, his top-ranked St. John’s Prep Eagles flew to Sunday’s Division 1 boys hockey championship with a 4-0 victory over No. 4 Xaverian at Loring Arena in Framingham.
AJ Farese picked up his second consecutive shutout for The Prep, which outshot Xaverian by 32. Jake Vana, Christian Rosa, Brendan Powers also found twine.
The Prep takes on No. 11 Winchester next Sunday at TD Garden for all the marbles. Puck-drop is set for 5:30 p.m.
BOYS HOCKEY
St. John’s Prep 3
Hingham 0
With traditional rival Xaverian waiting for a dance partner in the Division 1 boys hockey semifinals, top-seeded St. John’s Prep faced a tough task in No. 8 Hingham, which sported a 15-7-2 record heading into Thursday night.
But three periods later, zero goals just won’t suffice. The Prep won the game, 3-0, and lived to see a few more days.
The Prep’s Mason Luciano wasted little time in this one, tucking a goal on his team’s first shot of the game (1-0).
Truth be told, it was a defensive thriller, as Prep’s next tally was late in the third period on an empty-netter, courtesy of Johnny Tighe (2-0). Jake Vana scored shortly after past Hingham goalie Mike Karo (3-0).
AJ Faroese played well between the pipes for the Eagles, who now face a tough test in Xaverian, which defeated Franklin, 4-1, in its Elite 8 matchup.
TRACK AND FIELD
Peabody High was well-represented at the 2024 Nike Indoor Nationals (March 7-10) at The Armory in New York City. Eli Batista, Dorlyn Morel, Brian Stevens, and Owen Brennan were its top performers. The group finished 10th (3:42.49) in the Emergency Elites Sprint Medley Relay.
The girls 4×400 relay team of Ava Champigny, Avery Marcus, Madison Barrett and Stella D’Ambrosio ran a personal record 4:14.08 and finished 23rd.
Declan Smith (5-08.75) and Harrington Senfuma (5-08.75) finished 24th and 31st, respectively. Evan Bedard secured 26th in the triple jump (40-07) and also finished 27th in long jump (20-7.75).
Peyton Smith finished 28th and set a PR (8.77) in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries, and also finished 28th (8.13) in the 55-meter hurdle preliminaries. Higgins Middle School 8th-grader, Ella Braz, the daughter of Peabody head coach Fernando Braz, finished 31st in the middle-school mile with a PR of 5:37.10. Batista, Morel, Kobe Avery and Abou Kaba finished 24th in the preliminaries of the Championship Division 4×200 relay (1:32.67). Higgins 8th grader Lea Deronja finished 36th in the Middle School 60-meter dash (8.71).
Marblehead High’s Thomas Carlson and Alex Hersey ended the season on personal-record high notes. Carlson (7.11) finished 146th in the Championship Division’s 60-meter dash preliminary, while Hersey (8.50) finished 102nd in the 60-meter hurdles, also in the Championship Division.
