Patriots lose to top seed in quarterfinal

The Lenape Valley Regional High School girls basketball team’s season ended with a 43-37 loss to top-seeded Park Ridge in the quarterfinal round of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) North Jersey, Section 1, Group 1 tournament there March 1.

Lenape Valley, the ninth seed, was led in defeat by Juliane Cerullo (12 points, nine rebounds, two steals), Addison Coles (seven points, four rebounds), Regina Williams (seven points, five rebounds, two steals) and Gabrielle Kot (six points, two rebounds, two steals).

The Patriots (11-13), who finished second in the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference’s Freedom Division with a 6-4 mark, were led offensively by Cerullo (10.2 points per game, 5.3 rebounds, 2.3 blocks), Williams (8.1 ppg, 2.7 steals, 36 3-pointers), Coles (7.8 ppg, 4 rebounds, 2.1 steals) and Kot (9.9 ppg)

Here’s how other Lenape Valley teams fared recently:

Boys basketball

The Patriots closed out their 2024-25 campaign with a 58-50 victory over North Warren at home Feb. 19.

The win was paced by Tyler Brennan, who had a game-high 19 points; Matt Akerman, who added 13 points; and Ryan O’Toole, who netted nine points.

Wallkill Valley (4-17) was steered this season by Brennan (10.9 ppg), Akerman (10.2 ppg), O’Toole (7.2 ppg), Brailin Peralta (5.9 ppg) and Jackson McDonald (5.7 ppg).

Wrestling

Gage Graziano, a 144-pound senior, was the lone Patriot to qualify for the NJSIAA state tournament March 6-8 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

He lost by technical fall, 17-2, in his preliminary-round match against Ryan Mitchell of St. Joseph Regional before earning a fall in 2:00 over Collingswood’s Lino Bataloni in the first round of wrestlebacks.

Graziano then lost by fall to Attila Vigilante of Southern Regional to end his season with a record of 37-11.

Lenape Valley, which forged a record of 11-13 this season, saw Graziano (first at 144 pounds), Marc Pavese (third at 138), Alexzander Bachtler (third at 175) and Jakob Bell (fourth at 157) all place at the District 7 tournament Feb. 22 at Warren Hills High School in Washington Township.

From there, Graziano placed fourth at the Region 2 tournament March 1 in Mount Olive to qualify for the state tournament.

Ice hockey

The Newton/Lenape Valley co-op squad finished the season with a 5-18 mark led by Ty Dellicker (19 goals, 11 assists), Arsenni Pastukh (nine goals, 15 assists), Joey Gallucci (seven goals, 10 assists) and Sean Lockwood (seven goals, nine assists).

Goalies Adam Yacuk (420 saves) and Patrick Boden (345 saves) anchored the defense.

Bowling

Lenape Valley finished 4-14 this winter but did well to win three of its final four matches of the season.

Its only loss in that span was a 3-0 setback to top-seeded and No. 4 ranked Belvidere, 3-0, in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 tournament at Belvidere Pike Lanes.

The Patriots were led by Riley O’Toole (298 high series, 159 high game), Alex Ferreira Brandao (285 series, 159 high game), Megan Francis (268 series, 139 high game), Adam Wien (263 series, 150 high game) and Dillon Green (256 series, 138 high game).