RallyNorth.net

LOWELL — Arlington Catholic head coach Joel Burke was almost hoping against hope.

Trailing 12th seed North Reading, 2-1 late in the twice-delayed Division 2 North semifinals yesterday, Burke thought his eighth-seeded Cougars still had a shot if they could get their first three hitters up one more time.

After the first two batters in the top of the seventh were retired, Kirsten Morrison walked and a single and a base on balls later came around to score on a walk to Brittany Venezia for the deciding run in No. 12 North Reading's 6-5 victory over No. 4 Wilmington in the Division 2 North quarterfinals.

The Methuen girls' tennis team and the North Reading boys' team each exited their respective tournaments - each with a 5-0 loss

North Reading fought off a pair of deficits, scoring two runs in the top of the eighth inning to deal fifth seed Burlington a 5-3 defeat in the first round of the Division 2 North playoffs. Jenn Shields had a pair of hits and Kirsten Morrison drove in two runs for the No. 12 Hornets, who next face the winner of today's Wilmington-Swampscott contest in the quarterfinals.

With Derek Marenholz finishing up a suspension, North Reading needed others to make up for the standout's absence. Dylan Poor (4 goals, 2 assists) and Matt Robinson (3 goals) were up to the task as the Hornets drubbed Upper Cape Cod 13-4, in their tourney opener.

Brittany Angiolillo earned two thirds, in the long jump (16-3 1/2) and the triple jump (34-3) to help North Reading to a 10th-place finish (out of 36 teams) at the Eastern Mass Division 4 meet.  Kristina Martin won the pole vault with a 9-0.

Mark Rollfs tooks second in the mile (10:02.61) and Nick Capezzuto was third in the 400 (50.89) as North Reading placed 11th at the Eastern Mass. Division 4 meet.

Super goaltending from Paige Murphy (14 saves) allowed Georgetown to get past North Reading, 16-11. Combined with Ipswich's loss to Hamilton-Wenham, the Royals clinched their fourth straight Cape Ann League Small championship. Despite suffering the loss, Hornet netminder Kiara Zani also excelled, turning aside 18 shots.

 Daryl Varney set a meet record   4:22.1 - meet recordByung Cha won the 100 meters for the second straight year - 10.9 and anchored our 4x100 to a win "We almost didn't run him today because he was a little beat up.  We were 50-50 and he wanted to run today and be part of the team effort and he convinced us and the results stand for themselves."

With Derek Marenholz sparking the offense and Brian Smith buttressing the defense, North Reading dispatched Wilmington, 11-5. The Hornets registered assists on all of their goals and Marenholz' savvy ball movement was the key, and Smith intercepted Wildcat passes and generally disrupted their transition game.