The Berkshire Beacon’s best sports stories of 2012

With stories from throughout the county, including Lenox’s Scott Carpenter going undefeated and winning state; Williams College football, basketball and hockey coverage; Wahconah and Mt. Greylock winning state football titles; Lee girls winning the Gene Wein basketball tournament; and even the induction of five local members into the Berkshire County Baseball/Softball Hall of Fame, The Berkshire Beacon is a leader in countywide sports coverage.

Here are the top 10 sports stories in 2012 from your Berkshire Beacon:

1)  Carpenter wins state as Lenox finishes strong

Scott Carpenter and the Lenox cross-country teams won Western Massachusetts and carried their success to Northfield to support Carpenter, who came across the finish line ahead of the pack as the first representative of the Division 2 boys’ field.

“I had a plan going in and I stuck with it. I didn’t care where everyone else was going up the first hill – I knew I was going to put in a certain amount of effort,” Carpenter said.

2)  Mounties win third Super Bowl in a row behind Ryan

Mt. Greylock did the unthinkable in beating Greenfield 62-0 and Belchertown 24-0 to win their third straight Western Massachusetts Super Bowl title behind the sensational running back Ethan Ryan.

“Ethan is a special back and a special player for the last two years – he did a fantastic job and had a fantastic career,” said Mounties Head Coach Shawn Flaherty.

3)  Wahconah adds Division 2 Super Bowl Championship to resume

Gary Campbell Jr. returned to Dalton and brought home a Super Bowl trophy after Wahconah hung on to beat South Hadley 24-21 at Gillette stadium. A last-second first half touchdown and a late interception sealed the game.

“There is no doubt it was the tale of two halves,” said Warriors head coach Campbell Jr. “First half was all about big plays – it was an incredible offensive back and forth show. The second half- we both settled down and we talked about defense – we shored up our adjustments.”

4) Young reaches 1,000 points as Wildcats cruise in opener

Lee’s all-star point forward Stephanie Young notched her 1,000th career point in the Lee opener, a 55-28 win over Mt. Anthony. Young, who completed a life-long dream to have her name hung in the Lee rafters, then switched her focus on the rest of the season and winning a possible state title.

“This is a redemption season – this is our year and we are trying to move on from the past,” said Lee’s leading scorer.

5) UNICO inducts five into Berkshire County Hall of Fame

Pittsfield’s UNICO chapter inducted five people into the Berkshire County Hall of Fame. Heather Capitanio, Donald Gleason, Kara Nilan, Tony Procopio and Mitch Wood were honored on Nov.16.

With over 150 attendees at the dinner ceremony at the Berkshire Hills Country Club, UNICO has now raised over $90,000 for scholarships for Berkshire County residents.

6) Lenox girls’ soccer shocks many in finals win over Gateway

Lenox girls won the Western Massachusetts title without their star forward, Jen Delasco. The Millionaires were able to get by a tough Granby team before taking the title over Gateway.

“It’s funny, we are a good team – but at the beginning of the season – I didn’t know,” Coach Matt Cote said. “This is a little bit of a Cinderella story.”

7) Ephs football expects perfection this season

While the Williams football team may have had high expectations this past season, a rough 1-3 start, including a change at quarterback, led to its first four-loss season since 1986.

“I think we have a chance to have a pretty good team, “ said third-year Head Coach Aaron Kelton. “Winning every game on our schedule is our goal every year.”

8) Lady Spartans tie Generals to keep tourney hopes alive

The Spartan girls’ soccer team came just shy of knocking off the undefeated powerhouse from Pittsfield, with a 1-1 tie on a rainy a slick day in Great Barrington. The point gave Monument a shot at reaching the post-season with a win over Cathedral – something they couldn’t do.

“The girls are psyched,” said Monument Mountain Head Coach Jess Platt after the game. “In order to make tournament we need to win two and tie one [in the Spartans’ three remaining games].”

9) Eph’s offense starts clicking for undefeated women’s hoops

The Williams women’s hoop team is off to an impressive start under the helm of 23-year Head Coach Pat Manning. The Ephs easily defeated MCLA earlier in the year to improve to 4-0.

“The key for us is to stay in a good rhythm,” Manning said. “We had a good first half, but we wanted to build on it in the second half – our goal is to put together 40 solid minutes.”

10) Lee football can’t catch up to Monument Mountain, 44-17

In a local rivalry, the Wildcats couldn’t keep up with the aerial attack of Monument’s Ryle O’Brien, who threw for over 200 yards and four touchdowns in the win.

“[O’Brien] did a fantastic job,” said Spartan Head Coach Todd Tinker. “I told Ryle – a big performance you may be on top [of the county’s best quarterbacks stat sheet].”

Posted by Tim Davis on January 3, 2013. Filed under College Sports,High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry