Featured Story
Week of October 9-15
Boys Varsity Soccer
Tension filled the air as St. Luke’s faced FAA rival Rye Country Day School on Saturday, October 14.
Both teams came out strong and were evenly matched in play making for an exciting afternoon. Rye had the first shot on goal but it was easily saved by goalie Ryan Neafsey ‘18, as was the next attempt.
Soon after the Rye offensive, St. Luke’s freshman Jake Kavan ‘21 sent the ball toward the Rye net, but narrowly missed. With 23 minutes left in the half, Rye attacked again with a shot to the upper right corner of the net, but Neafsey was there with another impressive save—keeping the score at 0-0.
Chris Besgen ‘18 came through for the Storm with 13 minutes left in the half with a beautiful bar-down goal to put St. Luke’s ahead 1-0 after an assist from Robbie Smock ‘18.
Jack Halsey ‘19 managed one more shot on the Wildcat’s net with a minute left of play before the half but missed high.
During the second half, the Storm continued to play an excellent defensive game with tenacious protection of the goal by Chase Zammit ‘18, Bear Crystal ‘20, Desmond Pratt ‘21 and CJ Woodbury ‘20.
Rye managed to get the ball past the Storm defense only once, and fortunately, the goal was called offside.
The entire team was tireless and resolute in their play and demonstrated their impressive passing game. St. Luke’s continued counter-attacking in the second half with Max Mitchell ‘20 and Besgen leading the offensive push. The score remained 1-0 for a thrilling FAA win for the Storm.
Next up: Boys Varsity Soccer travels to Greens Farms Academy on Tuesday, October 17 before Saturday’s Homecoming matchup against King School.
Varsity Volleyball
In a Storm vs Storm match, the St. Luke’s girls quickly defeated EF Academy on Tuesday, October 10 by a score of 3-0.
The sweep gave Head Coach Abby Abbott an opportunity to give valuable playing time to some of our newer players. Tierney Schiff ‘19, Susanna Montgomery ‘19, Maddie Harris ‘19 and Elyse Kim ‘21 were all able to showcase their skills and dominated the action on the court.
Our Storm moment (play of the game) goes to Montgomery who contributed to the front row action with her first kill.
Next up: Varsity Volleyball takes on King who are the reigning FAA and NEPSAC champions on Wednesday, October 18 before Saturday’s Homecoming game against Greens Farms Academy.
Varsity Field Hockey
The Storm was playing with a full roster for the first time in several weeks and responded with a dramatic last-minute 3-2 victory over Kingswood Oxford on Wednesday, October 11 on the Hilltop.
Both teams came out playing outstanding defense going scoreless until Abbey O'Meara ‘20, in her first game back after being out for a week, scored with 10 seconds left in the half, putting St. Luke's up 1-0 at halftime.
However, Kingswood Oxford came charging back in the 2nd half, scoring at 14:14 and 10:41 to take a 2-1 lead.
SLS wasn't done though and with 4:12 left in the game Lucy Ehlers ‘21 scored with an assist from Kendall Boege ‘19 to tie the game at 2-2.
With time running out, Hannah Haden ‘18, in her first game back after missing three weeks with a hand injury, passed the ball to captain Sophia DellaRusso ‘18 who scored the game winner with 2:12 on the clock.
The Storm hosted Rye Country Day School on Thursday, October 12 in the second game of a back-to-back.
St Luke's came out playing strong defense, held their opponent scoreless in the first half, and went into halftime tied up at 0-0. In the 2nd half, RCDS finally scored at 27:18 to take a 1-0 lead but SLS maintained their defensive intensity, led by Sophia Feldman ‘18 with help from Kirsten Pastore ‘19 and Kathleen Ehlers ‘21 to stay in the game until the closing minutes. Finally, SLS gave up goals at 5:04 and 4:18 to lose 3-0 in a game that was much closer than the final score indicates.
St Luke's traveled to Farmington on Saturday, October 14 to take on Miss Porter's School. Once again, the Storm got off the bus a little groggy and gave up a quick goal 1: 44 into the game to trail 1-0.
After the slow start St. Luke's was very evenly matched and competitive in the midfield and had many offensive corners and scoring opportunities.
The Storm defense held Miss Porter's scoreless for the final 58 minutes of the game. SLS went into halftime down 1-0, but in the 2nd half, Boege took control of the game, scoring on a corner hit at 14:31 to tie the game at 1-1, and then scoring the winning goal on another offensive corner at 10:47 to put SLS on top 2-1, in a dramatic come-from-behind victory.
Next up:Varsity Field Hockey is away at The Gunnery School on Wednesday, October 18 before the Homecoming matchup against Cheshire Academy on Saturday, October 21.
Varsity Football
The Storm Varsity Football team played their fourth straight road game as they traveled to Hopkins on Saturday, October 14 and, for the third time this season, they returned home winners as they improved their season record to 3-2 with a decisive 30-15 victory.
The Storm offense got things rolling right away as Shaka Moales ’18 took a pitch from Michael Hage ’19 and darted 63 yards through the left side for a touchdown run on the game’s first play that included great blocking from the entire offense. Andrew Lau ’21 added the extra point to make it 7-0 just 17 seconds into the game in front of a stunned Hopkins homecoming crowd that included many excited Storm fans.
It was then the Storm defense’s turn to shine as they forced Hopkins to punt on their first possession after a three and out from their own 35 yard line. Seth Kim ’19 gave the offense good starting field position returning the punt 15 yards to the Hopkins 46 yard line.
The offense then continued to run the ball effectively driving inside the Hopkins 10 yard line following long runs by Moales, Ben Joseph ’18 and Kenny Soares ’21. The drive culminated in a clutch 30-yard field goal by Lau to gave the Storm a 10-0 lead with 6:00 left in the first quarter.
The defense then forced two more Hopkins punts after Soares came up with a great defensive play to tip away a pass on a crucial third down and Noah Bailey ’19 and Joseph chipped in with big tackles for losses.
St Luke’s started their fourth possession of the game on their own 40-yard line and put together a 60-yard drive that include many key plays from different players. Chandler Greene ’19 ripped off a 13-yard run, Moales had a 13-yard run and Hage hit Soares for a clutch 19-yard pass on fourth and 10 to keep the drive alive.
Greene followed that up with a tackle-breaking 16-yard run and Joseph rumbled nine more yards dragging the Hopkins defenders to the 1-yard line. Greene finished off the impressive drive with a 1-yard touchdown run behind the dominating offensive line. Lau successfully kicked the extra point and it was a 17-0 Storm lead with 10:00 left in the second quarter.
After both teams traded possessions, the Storm took over on their own 28-yard line looking to score before the half. After a couple of runs, Hage hit Moales in stride at mid-field for a 72-yard touchdown pass that featured the explosive Moales breaking a tackle and outrunning the Hopkins defenders to the end zone.
Moales then made sure the first half shutout was intact as he thwarted a Hopkins drive in St Luke’s territory with an interception and the Storm took a 23-0 lead into halftime.
Hopkins came out of halftime with some adjustments and put together a touchdown drive that cut the Storm lead to 23-7 with 6:45 left in the third quarter.
The Storm defense then came up big s they came up with multiple stops that included a failed fake punt by Hopkins. Key defensive plays in the quarter included a sack by Michael Thompson ’20.
Hopkins put together another long touchdown drive in the fourth quarter that suddenly cut the Storm lead to 23-15 with 7:00 left in the game. However, any thoughts Hopkins had of pulling off the comeback win were quickly dashed by Moales as he alertly caught the ensuing kickoff and escaped numerous tackles along the sideline on his way to a thrilling 80-yard touchdown return that put the Storm back in front by two possessions at 30-15.
The long kickoff return capped a remarkable day for the St Luke’s senior as he displayed his versatility with touchdowns via a run, a pass and a kick return and led the team with 119 yards rushing. Greene added 54 yards on the ground while Soares and Joseph chipped in with 46 and 24 yards, respectively. Hage ended the day with 102 yards passing.
The defense was led by Joseph and Bailey, who led the team with eight tackles apiece. Greene also added six tackles and Jamie Krill ’18 pitched in with five tackles.
Next up: The Storm returns home this Saturday for their Homecoming battle vs Long Island Lutheran.
Girls Varsity Soccer
The Girls Varsity Soccer team faced Millbrook School at home on Wednesday, October 11 and had to settle for a 1-1 tie.
The Storm dominated for large periods of the first half but couldn’t find the breakthrough despite creating a number of goal-scoring opportunities.
Caroline Lau ‘22 found the back of the net midway through the first half but the goal was disallowed for offside.
St. Luke’s players were made to pay for the missed opportunities when the Mustangs took the lead early in the second period against the run of play.
The visitors continued to frustrate the Storm offense until late in the game when Ali Gall ‘22 produced a great strike into the top left corner with just over two minutes to play.
Next up: The Girls Varsity soccer team hosts King School on Wednesday, October 18 at 4:15pm. This is also Senior Day for GVS.
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
