5540 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MABYR 1O3 O- MKALYY N19 M, 2E0D1I6A GROUP sports ROC 47 an absolute success! Parkville Youth Organization Minor Division It was another sold-out show for Lou Neglia’s Ring of Combat as the Tropicana Casino played host to ROC 47 in January. The atmosphere was electric and fight fans packed the venue to show support for the long running promotion and to also cheer on their favorite fighter. “I am always proud for the support we get receive from the fight fans and the community, said Neglia, Ring of Combat president. “A lot of hard work goes into each and every Ring of Combat show and when you receive that kind of support from the fans, you just can’t say “thank you” enough.” Bonnies come back to beat Molloy At a time when MMA promotions are battling for the number two spot (behind the UFC) or busy calling each other out, Neglia’s Ring of Combat continues to stand behind its successful formula of keeping it simple and giving the fight fans what they pay to see — great, evenly matched fights from tomorrow’s superstars. This formula was again in play for ROC 47 as five fighters have earned the right to wear ROC gold in competitive and entertaining matchups. All titles were vacated by ROC alumni who now compete in the UFC such as current UFC Middleweight champion Chris Weidman and undefeated prospect, Ryan LaFlare, to name only a couple. Neglia feels this group of newly crowned champions will also go on to compete in the UFC just like their predecessors. Julio Arce fighting on his way to winning fighters where Ring announce •Chris Champion; •Julio Champion; •Elijah •Keith Champion; •James Fontbonne falls to St. John’s in Brooklyn/Queens semi-BY JIM DOLAN Fontbonne’s Adrienna Boumoussa (nine points) goes up for the rebound high scorer (20 points) Amalia Downer. In the fourth quarter, Downer baskets that would propel St. Johns to a 47-43 win over Fontbonne Brooklyn/Queens semi-finals. GEORGIA BULLDOGS Coaches; Fred Perez, Jack Lally Players: Abdul Karim Abuzahreih, Ameer Abuzahreih, Alesandro Aliota, Luis Cruz, Andrew Kashman, Edra Lally, Liam Lynch, Enrique Martinez, Joseph Mattera and Alfredo Perez. “This group of new Ring of Combat champions is a very talented This season’s new leadoff hitter, junior Samantha Marletta (left) is joined by Alexa Bertelle, the first freshman to make the 2016 Varsity Fontbonne Softball Team. group of fighters,” affirmed Neglia. “I have no doubt that they will be getting the call to compete in the UFC and just to make it to the big stage alone makes the ROC team and me very proud.” At ROC 47, Neglia was joined by good friends and also former Ring of Combat alumni Weidman, Frankie Edgar and Matt Serra, who all went on to become UFC champions. All three are regular attendees at Ring of Combat events as they always support the Georgia Bulldogs. St. John’s Prep 47, Fontbonne 43 Earning a buy for the first round of this season’s CHSAA Division II Brooklyn/Queens playoffs, the first seeded Bonnies were naturally looking forward to cruising past their semi-final opponent to go straight to the championship game. After completing a strong 14-2 season for first place, the Bonnies never counted on fifth seeded (8-8) St. John’s Prep to come to the semis on fire. During Fontbonne’s two previous regular season encounters, the Bonnies had handily beaten the Red Storm twice, by 19 and 12 points respectively. Now the Bonnies were facing a re-energized team that gained a 10-8 lead in the first quarter. Although Fontbonne clawed their way to a 25-19 half time lead, the Red Storm played tougher than expected and managed to throw off the Bonnies’ offensive rhythm. Although the Bonnies held on to a 32- 28 third quarter lead, it appeared that the Red Storm was playing a more relaxed game while the Bonnies labored for each of their baskets. That relaxed game finally erupted for a stinging lead in the fourth quarter at the 5:14 minute mark when Amalia Downer drained a long three point shot for a 38-36 St. Johns lead. Downer (20 points), the Storm’s high scorer, struck like lightning twice more with a consecutive pair of three point shots to give the Red Storm a demoralizing 44-38 lead over Fontbonne with 1:32 left in the game. Still clawing to make a comeback in the last minute and a half, the Bonnies could only eke out five more points to the Red Storm’s three points for a final score of 47-43. Despite Kate Oliver’s usual strong scoring effort (17 points), the ball just wasn’t dropping as usual for the team, especially for Fontbonne’s recently hot scorer, freshman Meaghan Glynn, who scored only eight points. Besides their offensive swoon, the Bonnies entered this semi-final round without star center Kristen Sullivan who was out to a season-ending knee injury. Good for at least 10 rebounds and 10 points a game, it was evident that “Sully’s” game was sorely missing. After St. John’s “Cinderella win” over Fontbonne, the Red Storm cooled off in the CHSAA finals on Saturday March 1, when they were beaten by second seeded Bishop Kearney by the score of 55- 28. In addition to Kearney’s Varsity championship, the Tigers also brought home another championship when their underclassmen beat Fontbonne for the JV crown, 40-32. Commenting on the bitter loss to St. John’s, Fontbonne’s Head Coach Stephen Oliver stated, “We all took this loss very hard considering all the work we did this season to finish in first place with a 14-2 record.” Photo by Jim Dolan Noting that this unexpected loss turned out to be a life lesson for him and his team, Oliver told his girls that this loss underscored the necessity to focus on issues at hand and not to be distracted by looking too far ahead. Still not out of the playoff picture, Fontbonne was awarded the number two seed for the School Diocesan of top Manhattan After capturing Queens Championship, Kearney will City wide tournament one seed. Photos courtesy of Lou Neglia Lou Neglia with Matt Serra, Frankie Edgar and Chris Weidman. Special Awards All Star MVP – Juan Vasquez Team MVP – Charles Kitsakos Coaches Award – Andrew Echevarria Outstanding Back – Edwin Perez Outstanding Lineman – Juan Vasquez BY JIM DOLAN The Bonnies were looking to snap their three-game league-losing streak by hosting the 2015 State Champion Molloy Stanners at Dyker Park. However, things seemed like they were not going to go Fontbonne’s way as Bianca Marletta gave up three singles and a walk in the first inning for an early 2-0 Molloy lead. Although she would give up an early lead to the state champs, Marletta would stay in the game to collect the game-winning hit in extra innings. Fontbonne 9 Molloy 8 Down only by two runs, the Bonnies came back in the bottom of the first inning to make it a game. Leadoff batter Samantha Marletta started the inning with a walk, followed by a single by Abigail Fogliano and a walk to Natalie LaCognata. With the bases loaded and no outs, Bianca Marletta followed with a deep drive to left center for an out that advanced two runners to score. On a force out in the infield, the third run of the inning scored as the Bonnies continued to make contact to drive in runs. A single and a double put runners on second and third for Nicole Fallon who singled to right to end the scoring in the first inning with the Bonnies up 5-2 on Molloy. In the seventh inning, the Bonnies’ lead unraveled after a number of errors to put runners on base, followed by a two-run homer to give Molloy the lead 8-6. The Bonnies then followed in the bottom of the seventh inning with an Abigail Fogliano single to right to score two runs to tie the game at 8-8. Going into extra innings with the international rule of a runner in place at second base with no outs, Marletta sent down the Stanners in order to end the inning. In Fontbonne’s half of the inning, all it took was one batter to win the game as Marletta hit a hard grounder in the hole to score the runner from second. With the win, Fontbonne now improves to a 3-3 record. Special Awards All Star MVP – Enrique Martinez Team MVP - Alfredo Perez Coaches Award – Jack Lally Outstanding Back – Enrique Martinez Outstanding Lineman – Andrew Kashman Syracuse Orangemen. SYRAcUSE ORANGEMEN Coaches: Alex Kitsakos, Juan Vasquez Players: Mark Kiss, Charles Kitsakos, Ferguson Gabriel, Edwin Perez, Elija Deciembre, Sevastian Ortiz, Matthew Paleogos, David Rosales, Juan Vasquez and Andrew Echevarria.
BSM05122016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above