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Girls Hockey Team Shutout by Arlington
January 14th, 2011By Brian Williamson
Staff writer
The WA Ghosts Girls Varsity Hockey team was shutout Thursday, January 13th against Arlington, losing by a score of 8-0. The Girls were handed their second lose in three games, making their record 4-3-1.
The first period was an offensive explosion by Arlington who made some good shots, but also got lucky by mistakes by WA’s goaltender, Jenny Grischuck and the rest of the team. Arlington scored four unanswered goals just 10 minutes into the period. Towards the end of the period, WA went on the powerplay getting a chance to get back in the game but they could not get the puck out of their defensive zone and Arlington scored a shorthanded goal putting them in a big hole going down 5-0.
The opening minutes of the second period WA got numerous chances to score but all shots were saved by the Arlington goaltender who played outstanding the entire game. WA had many chances on net, but they could not score any goals because the Arlington goaltender was in the zone. In the period Arlington had 4 penalties giving WA a chance to try and cut the deficit but they went 0 for 4 on the powerplay. Arlington scored another goal in the middle of the period putting them up 6-0. The WA goalie, Jenny Grischuck made a great save on a breakaway keeping the Ghosts from being behind 7 goals.
The third period started out very slow and no one started really getting many shots on goal until half way through the period. There were many possession changes, and no team had the puck for a long time. The Ghost were the first to get going and start creating chances while Arlington was still having trouble making anything happen. Despite that, Arlington was the first to score a goal in this period with 6:10 to go in the game making the score 7-0. Just after that WA scored what they thought was their first goal of the game, but it was ruled no goal because it was kicked into the net. With 2:25 left in the game, Arlington scored another goal, and then right after the goal, WA got a powerplay opportunity. WA could not make anything happen and with less then 30 seconds left in the game they got 2 penalties out of frustration. The Ghosts were shutout 8-0, as they were completely outplayed.
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Girls Hockey Team Loses a Close Game
January 14th, 2011By Brian Williamson
Staff Writer
The girl’s varsity team lost an evenly matched game to Lincoln-Sudbury on January 6th by a score of 5-2. This is just their second loss of the season, making their record 3-2-1.
The first period of the game was full of offensive chances, and the Ghost’s put the first goal of the game in the net in the middle of the period when Kim Lizotte scored. Quickly after WA’s first goal, LS put their first goal of the game on the board. Late in the first period, WA killed off a crucial LS powerplay keeping the game tied before the start of the next period.
The start of the second period did not start off as well as the Ghosts may of hoped, as they let up an early goal to LS off of a strong breakaway . Then just a short few minutes later, another goal was scored by LS on a shot that should have not gotten into the net. Through two periods the LS goalie outplayed WA’s goaltender, Jenny Grischuck, who let up another goal a minute or so later putting the Ghosts in a bit of a hole. Before the end of the second period, the LS goalie let up a well earned goal by Cara Curran using great stick handling skills.
Both teams came out shooting in the third and had many offensive opportunities. Although there were many shots, there were no goals until late in the third period because both team’s goalies shut down these chances. The Ghost had more offensive chances,and the puck stayed in their offensive zone for most of the period, even then they could not find the back of the net. WA dominated the period with their offense and Grischuck stepped up her level of play not allowing any goals in the third. With 1:30 left in the game WA pulled Grischuck hoping to get back in the game, down a two goal deficit. With the goalie pulled, they still could not get any goals and ended up giving up an empty net goal to LS.
The Girls hockey team looks to bounce back with a win against their next opponent Acton-Boxboro.
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Coach Scollan Celebrates 300th Win
January 10th, 2011By Brian Williamson
Staff Writer
Coach Ed Scollan has come a long way from his varsity team’s first win during the 1986-1987 season.
On Tuesday, December 28th Scollan got his 300th career win coaching the Westford Academy Boys’ Varsity Basketball team beating Lowell High in a convincing 52 to 39 victory in the annual Lowell spinners/IAABO 95 holiday tournament at UMass Lowell’s gymnasium with a solid defensive outing.
Scollan has coached over 25 years now and has shared many memories and experiences with numerous WA players and teams.
Scollan explained how over the years he has improved as a coach, saying, “when I look back at decisions I have made in the first couple years, even coaching at the freshmen and junior varsity level before I became a varsity coach there was definitely improvement, probably the same as any other profession as you go along and get more experience handling any previous decisions and issues within the team.”
Coaching and teaching have become a very large part of Scollan’s life but he says, “Teaching is primary, but I have been involved with the Westford Academy basketball program for thirty-three of my thirty-five years [teaching], and it’s not only the winter season. We do a lot of things in the off season so it has really had a big impact on my life.”
Scollan enjoys hearing about how his former players have changed and grown since he coached them at WA.
“Seeing alumni come back and seeing graduates come back from many years ago, hearing from them and how they are doing, hearing how successful they have become, and hopefully some of the things they have learned in basketball, more than just winning and losing, and dealing with adversity maybe has helped them somewhere along the line,” said Scollan.
When commenting on his accomplishment, Scollan said, “I think it just makes me old.”
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Box office #1 movie Paranormal Activity 2
November 4th, 2010Last weekend the sequel to Paranormal Activity opened in the box office. It had the best grossing for a horror movie ever (according to MSN.com) taking in an estimated 41.5 million dollars. That’s over double the amount of money the next movie had in the box office.
The acting in this film was very good and they chose good actors for this film. There were no big time actors in the movie but the actors that were in it did a great job. Some of the actors include Brian Boland, Molly Ephraim, Katie Featherston, Seth Ginsberg, Sprague Grayden.
The special effects were what made this movie so good, and also so scary. In scenes in the movie, people would just be dragged across the room, and in one scene all the cabinet doors flew open by themselves and pots, pans, plates went flying out. The special effects are what made the movie.
The movie begins by showing the Rey family happily returning home with their newborn son, Hunter. You meet the mother Kristi, the father Dan, their daughter Ali, and their German Shepperd, Abby. Eventually, you meet some of the supporting characters: Kristi’s sister Katie, her boyfriend Micah and The Rey’s housekeeper Martine. The opening of the movie was a bit boring, but was needed to set up the rest of the movie.
The movie starts slow with home videos of Hunter and the family. Eventually, the movie starts to speed up and grab your attention. The family returns home and finds furniture and various objects everywhere on the floor, making it look like someone broke into the house. The only problem was nothing had been stolen, and there was no sign of forced entry as all the doors were looked. This was the first sign something eerie might be going on in their house.
After this incident, the movie’s scare factor starts picking up. Dan decides to install cameras in most of the rooms in the house, except the basement and the bathrooms.
Later in the movie, Kristi enters Hunter’s room and won’t let anyone go near the baby when she becomes possessed by the demon. Ali calls Dan who is at work and tells him to get home immediately after seeing the security camera footage of what happened to Kristi while they were gone at the vet the night before. At this point Dan and Ali are totally freaked out . They call Martine their former housekeeper. She is going to use a cross to get the Demon out of Kristi. The only problem is that when they do this, Dan explains that the demon will be transferred to a blood relative of Kristi’s. In order to save Hunter and Kristi they decide to do this anyway. This is around when the movie really started catching your attention and started to get scarier.
When Dan goes to put the cross on Kristi she attacks him, then takes the baby running off down stairs to the basement. Dan reluctantly follows Kristi into the basement. At this point the power goes out, now Dan is using the night vision on the camera he has to see. Dan finds Hunter in a corner the cluttered basement. When he picks Hunter up he is attacked by Kristi who is still possessed. When attacked he touches her with the cross and she is knocked out cold. She will not remember anything that happened to her while possessed. Dan and Ali decide not tell anyone what happened and ignore this event ever took place.
The end of the movie skips ahead three weeks when Katie is visiting and she asks if the strange things had still been happening to Kristi. Kristi told Katie that they had stopped and explained how unusual things have been happening at her house now. Katie after leaving goes to Micah’s house where in text on the screen of the movie it says that this was the night Micah was murdered. The next night Katie, now possessed, breaks into the Rey’s house, goes into the family room, snaps Dan’s neck, killing him. Then in the last scene, she goes upstairs to Hunter’s room kills Kristi and takes Hunter. The credits at the end explain that Ali was on field trip and returned home to find her parents dead and Hunter and Katie were nowhere to be found.
This was one of the better scary movies I have seen, this movie seemed to be very well written and had a great story line. At the end of the movie they made it so some of the movie’s mysteries were never solved, and when the movie ended it left you wondering. The movie also was very realistic and there was not anything that made you think that movie was completely fiction, even though it was. This movie had a good amount of parts that were not even that scary, especially at the beginning, but the parts that were scary were very creepy.
Book scanners are a success
October 28th, 2010Brian Williamson
Staff Writer
Westford Academy has implemented a new system for keeping track of text books by using a book scanner. “You plug the scanner into the computer and scan the bar coded books,” said assistant principal Adam Goldberg.
The process was a group effort.
“Volunteer parents coded the books,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg says how much he loves the book scanners, and how well they have worked.
The scanners are “incredibly effective, easy to use, very time efficient, and are also fun to use,” says Goldberg.
Eventually, all teachers and classrooms will have book scanners and use them regularly.
The new scanners will effect how WA confronts the problem of lost or stolen books.
“At the end of the year we will be able to see which ones are still out and who the owners of the books are,” said Goldberg.
There haven’t been any major problems getting the scanners up and running.
“Up to this point the scanners have been working fairly well,” said Goldberg. ”for what you would expect for glitches. It’s just a learning curve.”
WAXC Succeeds in Revenge over LS
September 29th, 2010By Brian Williamson
Staff Writer
On Wednesday two rivals faced off at Lincoln Sudbury High as the WA varsity boys’ cross country team looked to take revenge against LS and AB on 2.7 mile course. The undefeated LS was the DCL champion last year. LS beat Westford last year 21 to 34.
During the bus ride to Lincoln Sudbury team captain John Ryan gave a speech trying to encourage the runners. He spoke of their ailing coach Mr.Poisson who was currently in the hospital at the time, to help set the intense mood for the race.
In total there were thirty-five runners in the varsity boys’ race. Runner John Ryan, took home first place for WA and first place overall in the race with a time of 14:20.
Rounding out the top ten in the race was Andre Lacroix in 8th overall, Rob Desisto 9th and Pat Turpin 10th. Steve Messina also finished 13th overall, but the story of the day was Bryan Widdman who in the last part of the race beat two kids from LS to secure the one point victory over LS.
Unfortunately Westford Academy lost to AB who had three runners in the top five. The final score on the day was WA 28, LS 27. WA lost to AB by a score of 30 to 26.
At the conclusion of the race WA and LS exchanged goodbyes and thanked the other team for the good spirit and the clean race. The bus ride home was very spirited as WA celebrated there win over LS, and began to enjoy the victory.
