Stow hockey had their first season game against Kenston on Dec. 1.

     In preseason they were struggling to catch a rhythm. 

     “We have a lot of younger talent this year. We lost a lot of key players that held our team together last year, so we have to rebuild our team this year,” senior Aiden Brebant said. 

     Hockey lost four starting players last season, all being key components on offense, as well as their goalie. As the team is working on connecting the puck on the ice to catch momentum during games to get ahead during preseason, they had previously played Kenston. 

     “They play dirty, and last time we played them they injured one of our players, and he’s no longer allowed to play as of now until he is healed. He was a strong player, and with him being out it is really hurting our team,” sophomore AJ Halsne said.

     Liam Schelien had his clavicle broken last time Stow played Kenston, and with angry teammates, the game against Kenston was bound to be an aggressive game. 

     “We can win–we just all have to focus. We can’t get caught up in the anger. We have to play the puck and ignore Kenston trying to get in our heads and not stoop to their level of playing dirty,” senior Alessio Simpson stated. 

     Bulldogs headed to the Pond to face Kenston for round two, and they already did not have home rink advantage, so they really had to focus and work together. The game started at 8:50 p.m. The Bulldogs were out to avenge their teammate and take a win to start their season off on the right foot. 

     Each game consists of three periods, each 15 minutes long. When the first period started, they started off strongly attacking the Kenston goal and getting good opportunities to score, but nothing seemed to hit the back of the net. 

     Kenston took the lead early in the first period. Towards the end of the first period, the Bulldogs fell behind 4-0. The first intermission started and both teams headed to the locker room to regroup. 

     “We were all frustrated, but we couldn’t get in our heads. We were still in this game–we just had to connect more on offense and not force shots that aren’t there,” senior Mason Schelien said. 

     They were falling behind, but there were still two more periods for them to get in rhythm with each other and come out on top. They hit the floor running in the second period. Schelien found the back of the net first and put Stow back in the game. 

     With a point on the board, the Bulldogs were out for more. Simpson found the net not too long after Schelien, and Stow was only trailing by two. Stow fans spirits were high in hopes they could keep up this momentum and come out victorious. 

     Kenston came back with some defense and scored for a fifth time. Both teams started playing dirty, and many athletes ended up in the penalty box. 

     Close to the end of the second period, senior Reed Surrena scored, which helped the Bulldogs keep their heads up as they headed into the third period. 

     Both teams were off to the locker rooms where they go to debrief the past period and get a game plan for the final period. The third period started, and it was back and forth, no scoring for the majority of the last period. 

     Finally, freshman Lex Watts had a big goal to get Stow’s energy back up. There was still time for the Bulldogs to come back, as they were only down by one. The game got very physical as both teams were going at each other. It became less about the puck and more about slamming one another into the boards. 

     Schelien got a penalty, which if he served, would have given Kenston an advantage; instead, Stow took a risk, and Kenston got to take a penalty shot. The goalie, freshman Seraphina Nyitray, could not let her team down. 

     With only minutes to spare and Stow only trailing by one point, it was a huge play that could change the energy of the game. The shot was taken, and saved. 

     A huge save from Nyitray, put the Bulldogs back even with Kenston as Shelien was still on the ice. 

    Even with the momentum of a save, Stow could not seem to find the net for a fifth time in the last remaining minutes of the game; however for Kenston, they were able to score two more times to end the game 7-4. 

     Stow battled to the very end, but struggled on offense to make something happen. They will face Kenston again later in their season and hope to have a better outcome.

Lucas Cochran / Staff Writer

The season of winning continues for the Lady Bulldogs cross country team. 

     The team placed 8th overall at the their biggest moment of the year, the state meet. The team reached new heights, and that was a huge part of the reason for them doing so well at states. 

     All the runners had different views going into this race. 

      “I was a little nervous for the race, and my main focus was just to impress with my time,” sophomore star runner Jayla Atkinson said. Jayla ended up doing extremely well at the race, placing 30th overall. 

     Another star runner of the Lady Bulldogs was sophomore Deena Ingrassia; she took a different route to states.

“I wasn’t as nervous as I normally am because there was nowhere else to go after states,” Ingrassia said. 

     Another runner, junior Sydney Pitcovich, had been running through an injury her whole season, and what she did at states was a performance she won’t want to forget.

“The state meet was different from others because of the competitive atmosphere,” Pitcovitch said. “I treated the race just like it was any other race, so my stress level was a lot lower.” 

     All of the runners at states did extremely well.

“All of the runners had a lot of fun hanging out and just being able to share the experience,” Atkinson said.

     These girls have all been working since June for this goal, which was their main goal overall this season and set in August. They were thrilled to achieve it.  

     The Lady Bulldogs had a huge walkout from the high school, and then visited Highland and Lakeview, walking in the parking lot, reading signs from the younger students.

     The team said that was a great start to an amazing weekend; being able to visit the younger schools and hearing them so excited got the athletes pumped up.

      A very big accomplishment for the team was the top five runners earned times all under twenty minutes.  

     Senior Kendra Cassiday received a new personal record at this meet with a time of 19:16.1 and finished 63rd in the field of 184 runners.

     Cassiday mentioned her main goal this season was to make states not just with the team, but as herself individually, as well. At regionals she did just that, placing 32nd and taking the last individual spot to states.  The team overall performed extremely well and Stow hopes to see many more great seasons ahead of this one.

Freddy Houlihan / Staff Writer

After an electrifying season of high school football, the Stow-Munroe Falls Bulldogs played their last game on Nov. 5. Stow lost to the St. Ignatius Wildcats in a 42-12 defeat in the second round of the playoffs. Although the team did not make the championship, they had a very successful season on and off the field.

Although the season is finished, that does not mean the athletes’ careers are done. Coming off their 9-3 season, our senior student athletes still have much going on for them after their season came to a close. Some might never pick up a football again, but some might take their talents somewhere else to continue their pursuit in a successful career in the sport.

Keen Shyjka has been a force to be reckoned with on Stow’s line for years now. This past season, he won the honor of being named First Team All Conference and was described as an amazing teammate by other players on the team. Shyjka spoke in an interview about what his plans are after high school. 

“Now that high school is over, I’m going to graduate early and study education wherever I go. I have an offer to Youngstown State but I have also had interest from schools like Bowling Green and Buffalo,” Shyjka said.

Shyjka will not be the only senior leaving the team this upcoming summer. Listed on the roster from the 2021 season, there are twenty six seniors who are leaving after this year. This will shape up to be huge for the program, as losing this many players will make it hard to fill in the spots that they will now be missing.

Another one of the seniors moving on from the football team is middle linebacker Ryan Orosz. Orosz was also named to a First Team All Conference placement and left his own mark on the field. He was always vocal on both sides of the ball and he was known to have crazy electrifying plays that would jumpstart his team into overdrive. 

Orosz mentioned what his favorite aspect was about playing for his high school team this year.

“My favorite part of the football team this year was probably how close our offense and defense were because everyone would notice a good block or a nice run, and it helped us throughout the tough games,” Orosz commented.

His crazy playstyle and his dominance at his position will be sorely missed by everyone remaining on the team. Oroz also mentioned what his plans are after he finishes high school.

“My plans are to play football in college. I’m talking to division three and division two schools all around Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana,” Orosz noted.

Football around Stow-Munroe Falls can become a huge component to the lives of many of the student-athletes and their families. Growing up playing football in the Stow Youth program and going all the way to the playoffs at the high school meant a huge amount of commitment to the sport. The bitter loss in the playoffs was not the best way to end the seniors’ final season at Stow, but many still believe their seasons were a success.

The season was very bittersweet with the amount of injuries the team had to withstand to get where they wanted to go. Shyjka explained his feelings on the past season, and how happy he was to be a part of it.

“I believe the 2021 season was a great success because of winning the Suburban League Championship and just the amount of injuries we had on the team,” Shyjka said. “They made it hard, but we wanted to win it all, and we ended up taking the conference championship.”

The 2021 Stow-Munroe Falls football season is over, but the overall feelings about the season are quite high. It is true the team dealt with an abnormally large amount of injuries and that they did not make it all the way to the state championship, but with all these negatives placed upon them, they broke every expectation they were supposed to have never met. The season is done, but the experience will always live on.