Walpole's offense played a key role in their victory over Falmouth.

On Wednesday June 2, the Walpole Rebels Girls Lacrosse Team took on the Falmouth Clippers in ther first round of the MIAA State Tournament.  The Rebels, who finished the regular season with a 15-5 record, began their pursuit of a State Championship with an impressive 12-1 victory over the Clippers.

The first half was dominated by the Rebel offense.  Senior captain Shelby Guisti, along with junior standout Sarah Buckley seemingly scored at will against the struggling Clipper defense.  Both of these Rebel scoring leaders surpassed the hat trick landmark before the end of the half.  Guisti scored two quick goals within three minutes of the starting horn, giving the Rebels an instant edge in momentum and a 2-0 lead on the scoreboard.  Two minutes later, Buckley added a goal to the Rebel lead with a spectacular shot from the left wing that barely snuck by Falmouth goalie Melissa Romiza.  Romiza showcased her skill in the net on the next Rebel possession, making a remarkable save on a shot attempt by Guisti.  Romiza’s save provided the Clippers with a glimpse of momentum, but Guisti forced this momentum to be short-lived, scoring two consecutive goals, giving the Rebels a 5-0 lead.  Buckley responded to Guisti by scoring two quick goals of her own, putting the Rebels ahead 7-0.  It was not until 5:00 remained in the first half that anyone other than Guisti or Buckley scored a goal.  Junior midfielder Kim Walsh, wove her way to the net before firing a shot past the outstretched stick of Romiza, making the score 8-0 in favor of the Rebels.  While the Falmouth defense struggled immensely in the first half, the Rebel defense looked as good as they have all season, shutting down the powerful Falmouth offense.  Senior defensemen Brooke Waite, Alicia Tosone, and Molly Grimes, continued to shut down Falmouth powerful scoring tandem of senior captains Jacqueline Sartell and Amber Morse.  Senior goalie Kayla Cullen shutout the Clippers until the final minute of the first half, when Sartell scored the only Clipper goal of the half.  This lone goal left the score at 8-1 after the first half of play.

With a comfortable lead, the Rebels seemed to focus more intently on their defensive play in the second half.  Merely advancing the ball past midfield became an incredibly challenging task for the Clippers, as junior midfielder Rachel MacMillan forced consecutive turnovers to begin the half.  Cullen held down the Rebel fort in net, stopping every shot she saw in the second half.  Despite the decrease of intensity on the offensive end of the field, Guisti managed to score an impressive goal in the first five minutes in the quarter, leaping above Falmouth defenders before firing a shot past Romiza.  Buckley netted two more goals before the midway point of the quarter, putting the Rebels on top 11-1.  With a 10 goal lead with 10 minutes remaining, it seemed as though Walpole Head Coach Tim Drummey had “called off the dogs”, removing his starters and allowing for his reserves to take over for the remainder of the game.   Junior attack Cecelia Abely, scored the final Rebel goal of the game with seven minutes remaining, putting the Rebels ahead 12-1.  Walpole held Falmouth scoreless for the remainder of the game, making the final score 12-1.

Walpole will take on the Wellesley Raiders on Saturday June 5.  The Rebels suffered two dissapointing losses to the Raiders in the regular season and will certainly be looking for revenge over their Herget rivals.

The Rebel offense attacked Dracut’s defense from the opening face off.  After only 28 seconds of action, senior Adam Niden scored the first goal of the game, giving Walpole a 1-0 advantage.  Niden would then score again on the Rebels next possession giving him two goals in under two minutes.  Walpole would then double their point total to four, following goals by senior Phil Nash, and junior Kyle Guilbert.  Dracut scored their first goal with 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter, leaving the Rebels ahead 4-1 after the first quarter.

As the second quarter began, it became obvious that the Rebels were determined to stop the Middies from gaining any sort of momentum.  Niden raced down the field and through the Dracut defense to score his third goal of the game, putting the Rebels on top 5-1.  Guilbert would then score on a rebound after a great save by Dracut’s goalie.  Guilbert’s goal seemed to demoralize the Middies as it put Walpole ahead by a score of 6-1.  Senior Ryan Izzo proved to be a catalyst in the second quarter, scoring two impressive goals in a three minute span, putting the Rebels on top 8-1.  After a Dracut goal, senior Tim McDonald responded by firing a shot past the Dracut goaltender, putting giving the Rebels a 10-3 lead, a score that would hold until halftime.

A reason for this Rebel dominance was the impressive work by the faceoff men.  Izzo was superb as usual, winning almost every faceoff.  Juniors Donny Delpha and Chris Norberg also showed the Middies that they had some talent as well.

Despite the comfortable Rebel lead, Walpole made it clear that they were the hungrier team in the third quarter.  Guilbert netted two quick goals to put the Rebels up 12-3.  Senior Tim Bailey would then score his first goal of the game, making the score 14-3 in Walpole’s favor.  Following a goal by junior Nick Foley, Dracut would score their fourth goal of the game, making the score 15-4 after three quarters of lacrosse.

Walpole’s fourth quarter performance shut the door on any thoughts of a miraculous Dracut comeback.  Senior Ryan Hourihan scored a goal to put the Rebels ahead 16-4.  Senior PJ Painten, who lost his position at goalie after a devastating knee injury, was limited to play a small number of minutes at attack at the end of the fourth quarter.  In one of the most touching moments of the season, Painten scored a goal to put the Rebels on top 17-4.  Walpole would put another goal on the board, courtesy of Foley, before the final whistle, making the final score a 18-4 victory for the Rebels.

Walpole opened many eyes around the state with this impressive victory in the first round.  The Rebels will look to continue their run for the State Championship on June 4 against the Marblehead Magicians.

Lopez plays Zoe, a successful and seemingly lonely young woman. She wants a family but has not found the one yet. She decides that she wants a baby no matter what and gets artificially inseminated. Not to the audiences’ surprise, she bumps into a man on her way home from being artificially inseminated in an unusual way, and can’t stop thinking about him. She sees him again, and they go on a few dates. To her dismay, the procedure actually worked and she has to tell him she is pregnant. After what seemed to be a few weeks he decides to raise her child with her. To make matters worse, they discover she will be having twins at the ultrasound appointment. The pregnancy and their relationship is dragged through the rest of the movie, with a breakup and some comic relief. In the end, the movie obeys the chick flick formula by providing a happy ending. Shocker.

Jennifer Lopez has had a reasonably successful career as an actress in romantic comedies. Her most successful movies were “Monster-in-Law”, “Maid in Manhattan”, and “The Wedding Planner”. After five years off camera, her comeback fell short of expectations. Her previous movies were popular, although, just like every romantic comedy, very unsurprising. Lopez’s performances are not awful, as she draws audiences in and has a good presence, but the movies she chooses to be part of do not help to show her ability as an actress. Unless her choice of movie roles are selected in order to hide her inability to act, she should start choosing scripts that do not consist of her playing the same character in a different wardrobe with a new love interest.

“The Back-up Plan” seems to follow in the footsteps of other pregnancy comedies such as ‘Baby Mama’ or ‘Knocked Up’, but it is not nearly as funny. It tries to balance a love story with crude jokes. Hence, it seems like the characters do not have many thoughts going through their heads. Their decisions, especially Zoe’s, are not thought through fully and everything is approached as a problem of little importance, and this inconsistency in tone distances viewer’s from the character’s problems. The situation that the characters are put in is not very realistic. Of course it could happen, but it is very unlikely. 

The plot of the movie is very unoriginal and has definitely been done before. There were many funny moments and a few comical jokes, but only a few of the cracks about pregnancy were comical. Pregnancy humor appears in many movies and television shows and it is beginning to become cliche. If this movie was released a few years ago before ‘Knocked Up’, maybe it would have been a box-office hit. Now, pregnancy humor is played out and not very funny. It’s gotten old and there are only so many funny things that can be said about child birth that are not completely repulsive.

“The Back-Up Plan” is not horrible, but it is not worthy of the anticipation. It switched back and forth between the cliche love story and cliche pregnancy comedy, but unfortunately neither was especially interesting.

Senior Tim Connors delivers a first inning pitch to Natick.

The Walpole Rebels and Natick Blue and Red squared-off in an important Bay State League game on Thursday, May 13 at Elderacher field. The Rebels were looking for revenge after they lost to Natick 7-5 by a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth in their last game.  Anchored by the superior pitching of senior Tim Connors, the Rebel’s thirst for vengeance was quenched.  

During the first meeting between the two teams, the last hit, the three run homer, was the hardest hit ball of the game [CHOPPY]. In the most recent meeting  on May 13 the hardest hit ball of the game came from Natick’s lead-off hitter Brett Flutie. With a 1-0 count Flutie hit a triple deep in left-center. Flutie then scored on a sacrifice fly to left to give Natick an early 1-0 lead. “The triple by Flutie was on a second pitch fastball.  After the bomb, I started throwing quality pitches and let the defense play behind me,” said Connors. 

The Rebels did not wait long to get the lead back; however, they did not hit the ball as hard as Natick. The Natick pitcher led off the game with a walk on four pitches to sophomore Craig Hanley and proceeded to walk the next three batters to score the first Rebel run.  The Rebels scored two more runs on fielder’s choices before the Blue and Red were able to stop the bleeding. Hence - by the end of the first inning the Rebels went ahead 3-1 without even recording a hit.  

After the first inning both pitchers settled down and the game quickly became a pitchers duel.  Connors kept the Blue and Red guessing by mixing his fastball slider and curveball effectively.  Connors got into a jam in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and no outs, but was able to pitch his way out of it.  Shortstop Matt Lavanchy recorded an out by throwing a runner out at first, but Natick scored their second run on the play to make the game 3-2. Connors struck out the next batter and forced another to pop-out to third base to stop Natick’s last chance of a late inning rally.

Connors finished the ninth inning with relative ease.  After a single by the first batter, Connors buckled down and recorded a ground-ball out and two strikeouts to secure the victory. When asked about the game Connors said, “Our catcher Dan King and I were on the same page the whole game and the offense was able to get enough run support to get the victory.”

The win against Natick was Connors third win of the year and boosted the Rebels record to 7-7 and was a moral booster sending the Rebels into the final six games of the season.  Now they need three wins out of their final six games in order to advance to the playoffs.

As usual, the meet started off with the two mile; however, both the boys and the girls raced together because there was only one Dedham runner. Both the boys and the girls finished came off the track with a nine point lead over the Marauders to start off the meet. The girls swept all three distance events. In the mile junior Brigette Lawton (5:46) senior captain Amanda Waldron (5:51) while junior Elizabeth Jelloe (5:55) took third place for the sweep. In the 800 meter race junior Courtney Shea (2:34) added another win to her repertoire while senior captain Kelly Burke (2:41) and junior Lane Kelleher (2:47) came in right behind Shea.

Sprinting and hurdles also brought in a considerable amount of points for the Rebels. In the 100 hurdles senior captain Erica Hawley (16.1) and freshman Nicole Browne (16.8) took first and second place increasing the lead over Dedham. The Rebels continued to dominate over the Marauders in the 100 meter dash and in the 400 hurdles taking second and third. Sophomore Erin McCarthy (26.9) and junior Caroline Malone (27.9) got first and third scoring six more points for the Rebels. In the 400 meters up incoming freshman Maddie Shea snagged first with a time of 62.1 while Dedham took second and third. 

The field also scored an immense amount of points to contribute to the Rebels’ win. Sophomore Elizabeth Almeda (25’4”) and senior captain Jayce Dold (23’6”) got first and third for shotput. Dold also placed in the javelin throwing 91’1” right behind junior Kristan Papirio who threw 92”8’ to take second. In the discus event freshman Michelle Monahan (71’4”) scored three more points for the Rebels.

In total the Walpole jumpers scored 25 points for their team. Senior captain Erica Hawley took first in two events: the long jump (16’3”) and the high jump (5’0”). Junior Amanda Carney also placed in two events coming in second in the long jump at 16’2 ½” and first in the triple jump (32’). Both of the relay teams- 4×100 and the 4×400- came in first for Walpole as well.  

The overwhelming win over Dedham brought confidence, but the Rebels now have to focus on the post-season and more competitive meets, such as the state relays and the Bay State League Championship meet in Weymouth on May 19, 2010. 

In reversing the trash limit, selectmen stated that they did not want to create what some termed as a “trash police.”  In reality, citizens should be enforcing the trash limits themselves and should do it in the name of supporting their school system through the budget savings.  Walpole residents already have the advantage of not having to pay flat trash fees for all of their bags - having just two bags for free is not only reasonable, but also generous given the difficult economic trouble the town is having and the constant calls from concerned parents to impose trash fees.  Citizens who are upset about the limit should instead look for ways to cut down their trash rather than complain about a system that still gives them what is essentially free curbside trash service.

The decision of selectmen to reverse the initial vote also sets a dangerous precedent for future selectmen and other municipal leaders.  By taking a truly courageous vote and limiting trash output, selectmen showed that they had the courage to take a stand for what is necessary.  They did not take a reactionary step to impose trash fees, but instead they took the more moderate approach to save the town money by respectfully asking some families, definitely not a majority of Walpole, to cut down on their trash.  Most Walpole families remain unaffected.  With the vote reversed, selectmen have shown that they will bow to public pressure when a small group of local residents are upset about an issue.  The selectmen make a lot of decisions, many of which will inevitably be unpopular, but true elected officials need to be able to take votes and stand by those votes.  Elected officials who can not support their own vote are letting the residents down.  Selectmen make mistakes and sometimes take votes without much time to consider the consequences, but they were all willingly elected to the Board of Selectmen with the express knowledge that they would be asked to make such quick-thinking votes under pressure.  Therefore, it is disappointing that our selectmen can not seem to firmly stand behind their votes in this situation.  There will always be public outcry over decisions made by the selectmen - but real leaders are the ones who can take brave votes on issues that a few may find difficult to support.

One only needs to walk through the halls of Walpole High School on a school day to see why more recycling is needed town-wide.  At the same time that class sizes rise because of low funding, students throw away bottles and other products that could and should be recycled.  The school throws away more trash than it needs to.  It is not much different at many homes throughout Walpole.  Many families, simply because of their size, do have to use more than two trash bags.  Perhaps the town can consider imposing a reasonable additional fee to those families every time they go over the limit.  Doing so would still allow the town to save costs while encouraging everyone to do more to recycle and save money.

Ultimately, the town will need to at some point face the complex issue of how to deal with the bloated and ever-increasing trash-related line item in the municipal budget.  Trash removal is a $1.5 million per year operation, coming out of the wallets of Walpole taxpayers and not out of trash fees.  Trash fees have already been rejected multiple times, so a trash limit is not only reasonable but a perfect compromise to cut costs.  Selectmen need to be courageous enough to take a vote in favor of the initiative and should be proud of where they stand.  Anything less is disappointing.