Norton Boys Soccer Recap

Coach Eric Greene and the team came into the year with one goal, to bring home a banner. Boys Soccer has done nothing at Norton High ever since joining the Tri Valley League. This team wanted to be remembered as the best to come out of the school. The season was impressive, but the Lancers came just short of their goal.

The Boy's championship hopeful season got off to a fairly rocky start. They started off 2-0-2, tying to Medfield and Ashland, who finished at the bottom of the league the previous year. These two ties acted as fuel for captain Wayne Belcher and the rest of the squad. They then won their next 5 games, including against undefeated Holliston and Medway, to finish the first half of the season without a loss. At this point, The Lancers were at the top of the league and had confidence running through them. The team then fell off a bit in the second half of the year.  They went 5-2-2, including a loss away against Holliston, which pretty much put the nail in the coffin on their Tri Valley League Championship bid. Even though Norton fell 3 points short of Holliston for the title, they still posted the school's best ever regular season record (12-2-4), and their shot for a playoff championship was not out of the question.

Going into the state tournament the boys were a #6 seed and were scheduled to play #11 Rockland at home. From the start whistle, it was clear that Norton was the superior side. The Lancers handled them easily in a 4-0 win. In a game which 4 different players scored, Evan Winfield recorded his first goal of the year to guarantee the victory. Looking forward to the next round, Norton was scheduled to play top-of-the-league rival Holliston on the Panther's home turf. The boys held their own for the entire first half, and even had many more scoring chances than Holliston at a 0-0 halftime. In the opening minutes of the second half, Holliston's star striker put away a break away goal, and the Lancers could never recover. Their season ended with a 1-0 loss on that turf.

Even though the team did not accomplish what they were looking for, several parts about the season were success stories. Coach Greene won Tri Valley League coach of the year for leading the team to its best ever regular season record. Also, The Lancers had multiple all-stars including Jon Lach (Sun Chronicle), Matt Erickson (TVL/Sun Chronicle/Taunton Gazette), Wayne Belcher (TVL/Sun Chronicle/Taunton Gazette/Boston Globe), Joe Maia (TVL/Sun Chronicle/Taunton Gazette/Boston Globe) and Matt Bukowski (TVL/Sun Chronicle/Taunton Gazette/Boston Globe/E. Mass/ All-State). Two of team's top scorers, Matt Bukowski and Jon Lach, are underclassmen and will captain next year's squad. They will look to repeat and add to this past year's success!

Men's Curling Preview: Who's got the edge to medal?

Curling is not like baseball, football or basketball. It's not a popular sport in the states, and many people are not even aware of the game at all. A standard curling team consists of 4 players at a time, One, called the skipper, controls the stone. The stone is a large piece of rounded rock with a handle that is slid across the curling sheet to get it closest to the center of the house, or target, at the end of the sheet. Two sweepers on either side of the moving stone can manipulate its path in order to perfect the shot. A spotter is positioned close to target to communicate with the skipper and get the shot right (Keeney; Bleacher Report).

In the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, curling is already underway. The Men's competition involves 10 different teams and the events started February 10th and will run through the 21st at "The Ice Cube" in Sochi (NBC). To medal in this event these athletes must be even more mentally tough than they are physically. Strategy and planning is what winning curling competitions. The favorite of the competition features Canada, who have dominated the sport over the past few years, and won gold in 2010 in Vancouver (Dator; SB Nation).

Other squads to look out for include Great Britain, Sweden and China, who all rank at the top of the world. But, one of this year's top curling stories is about the Norway team. The jokesters have a uniform trick up their sleeve where they are planning to wear a different pair of funky pants to every match they participate in (Zaccardi; NBC OlympicTalk). They may not be the forerunner to win a medal, but Norway should provide some entertainment in this year's games.

Curling is one of the most underrated sports of the winter Olympics, and this year will definitely not disappoint. Take a look at any games possible over the next couple weeks, they should be fun!

Michael Sam

Michael Sam, the first openly gay player entering the NFL draft, will go through a unique rookie experience. The spot light will be on him, and it could be tough. But, I believe the players themselves will accept him easily. When you're on a team, things like that don't matter.

A Misleaded Star

Aaron  Hernandez was bred to be a an athletic star. He came from a family with a male history of football success. His father, Dennis, was a high school star running back and received a full scholarship to play at The University of Connecticut. Despite Dennis' few violence affiliated tendencies when he was younger, he never gave Aaron anything but positive support and training when it came to school and football. Aaron's brother also led him to a positive path. The one factor that pushed Hernandez to the wrong path is the death of his father, which led to an awful family life. Aaron's mother married a violent drug dealer who was abusive to the family. Over the next matter of years, he was involved in multiple questionable events, including the murder of 2 Cape Verdean's, and sucker punching a waiter at a bar. During Aaron's pre-draft mental evaluation, he received the lowest possible score for maturity, and found evidence that he, in simple terms, liked to live on the edge. Belicheck, being a risk taker, was the only head coach willing to draft the tight end after all these incidents. Obviously, it may have been the wrong choice. Overall, this can not be blamed entirely on Aaron. His mother introduced him to a life of crime and drugs, and his coach at Florida University, Urban Meyer, could have done far more to prevent his actions. Every incident that Hernandez went through at the University, including failed drug tests and gang fights, was overlooked by the head coach. Aaron was only suspended for one game at his time at Florida. The forgiving nature and leniency of Meyer may have been just what Hernandez needed to skyrocketed his not-so-successful life. Some discipline could have gone a long way. Nobody stepped in until it was too late.

Post Super Bowl

Super Bowl XLVIII could not have gotten off to a worse start for the Denver Broncos. In the first play from scrimmage, the center snapped the ball over Manning's head into the end zone for a 2 point safety. But, starting off, we'll talk about something I was dead wrong about, but most people were wrong about this. Peyton Manning, a future hall of famer and one of the greatest QBs to ever play the game, did not even show up to play in one of the biggest games of his life. Manning sported and stuck with the best Offense to ever play the game. He had weapons on every side of him, and they tallied up the most points in regular season history. But, last night was different. Peyton was not on his game, and made very little happen for his offense. He threw for 280 yards and a touchdown, but he lacked in key points of the game. Peyton could not convert on 3rd down all night long, and he turned it over much too many times with 2 interceptions and a fumble. Peyton was the MVP of the league, and the Broncos could not win a Super Bowl without their MVP quarterback playing to his full potential.

Besides Peyton's lack of performance, my prediction was pretty correct. Russell Wilson had an above average night with 2 TDs and 200 yards. Also, Richard Sherman and the rest of the Seattle secondary came to play. They proved that they are the only squad in the league that can contain the Bronco's powerful wide receivers.  Malcolm Smith came up huge earning game MVP honors with 9 tackles, a fumble recovery and an interception that was returned for a touchdown. Percy Harvin also had to impact that I predicted. He had 2 big carries for 45 yards and a kick off return for a touchdown to open the second half. My prediction that Seattle's defense would overpower Denver's offense in a 24-27 victory would have been correct if Manning came to play. The 43-8 final score in Seattle's favor was an unpredictable score, everyone thought it was going to be a close game either way.

On another note, I enjoyed the half-time show. Chili Peppers are one of my favorite bands and they killed it. Also, I may not love all of Bruno Mars' songs, but he has a great voice and is a musician to respect. The commercials were subpar this year and I laughed at very few.

But what matters is the game, and this was a great Super Bowl!