LOOKING BACK | BY GEORGE ALBANO

10 years ago

For the second time in less than two weeks a Norwalk resident on the King Low-Heywood Thomas School girls basketball team scored her 1,000th career point as Domonique Carter-Stanley reached the milestone in a 58-34 win over Canterbury. It came 11 days after teammate and fellow Norwalker Tatiana Brown entered the 1,000-point club as the local duo became the fourth and fifth players in program history to accomplish the feat at the Stamford school. In fact, Carter-Stanley, who needed 21 points entering the game, hit the coveted mark on a layup off an assist from Brown. The two lifelong friends started playing basketball as fourth-grade teammates in the Norwalk Girls Basketball Association.

The Norwalk High boys basketball team inched closer to an FCIAC playoff berth with a pair of wins, including a 49-47 victory over New Canaan as Nick Boccanfuso hit three clutch free throws in the final minute to finish with a team-high 12 points ... The Bears then beat Darien 6553 as Roy Kane (16 points, 21 rebounds, five assists) and Saeed Soulemane (14 points, 12 rebounds) registered double-doubles.

Brien McMahon also beat Darien this week 52-41 behind a game-high 24 points from Larry McKinney.

25 years ago

The city of Norwalk was well represented in the winners’ circle at the 1998 FCIAC indoor track championship meets as five local athletes brought home individual titles. Nicole Hansboro was the city’s lone winner in the girls meet as the Norwalk High senior repeated as champion in the shot put. Her winning toss of 39feet, 10-inches also broke a 13-year-old FCIAC record by 13½ half feet. Meanwhile, two more NHS athletes captured titles in the boys meet as sophomore Pat Moffett won the 45meter high hurdles and Brian Hartley finished first in the shot put. Brien McMahon also had two FCIAC champions as Ali Joseph won the 45-meter dash and Chris Neil captured the high jump to lead the Senators to an impressive third-place finish in the final team standings.

For the second time this season the Norwalk High hockey team beat Brien McMahon as the Bears rallied from behind twice to post a 5-3 win at a packed Darien Ice Rink. Five different NHS players scored as Justin Lehn, Drew Roberts, Todd Yarnold, Paul Rodstrom and Mark Kohler all found the back of the net. The Bears, who beat the Senators 3-2 in December, found themselves in an early 2-0 hole in the rematch and after tying the score fell behind again 3-2. But Yarnold’s second-period goal made it 3-3 and set the stage for Rodstrom to break the deadlock with less than four minutes left in regulation. Dave Zatorsky scored two goals for McMahon while Mike Hazzard had the other.

A pair of youth hockey players from Norwalk helped the Mid-Fairfield Mites win the Central Connecticut Hockey Tournament in South Windsor. Team captain Frank Cosentino scored eight goals in the Mites’ four games while goalie Ryan Garvin made 40 saves in a 6-4 win over Twin Cities of Massachusetts in the tournament finals. The win avenged a 5-4 secondround loss to Twin Cities.

50 years ago

Norwalk High got the best of city rival Brien McMahon in two sports as the Bears beat the Senators in hockey and swimming. The two local hockey teams met for the second time this season with NHS winning the rematch 4-2 before a packed house at Crystal Rink, avenging a 4-1 loss in December. After Rick Welch of Norwalk and McMahon’s Joe Lynch exchanged first-period goals, the Bears scored three straight goals in the second stanza by John Belward, Steve Buono and Ben Kirtland to take a 4-1 lead. McMahon’s Jamie Schwartz scored the only goal of the third period as the Senators made it 4-2, but Norwalk goalie Bob Eglinton, who recorded 20 saves, made the two-goal lead stand.

Meanwhile, the city’s two high school swim teams came into their intracity showdown with identical 5-5 records, providing the backdrop for a tightly contested meet, which the Bears won 4946 at the NHS pool. McMahon won seven of the 11 events, but Norwalk collected more second and third-place finishes to pull out the victory. Tom Henika had a hand in half of the Bears’ four wins as he finished first in the 50 freestyle and was part of the winning 400 freestyle relay team, which clinched the victory in the final event. In addition, Craig Nelson set a new school record in winning the diving event. The Senators had a pair of double winners as Dave Anspach won the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke, while Doug Richardson captured the 200 and 400 freestyles.

The McMahon girls basketball team remained perfect this season as the Senators overpowered Darien 41-18 to go 6-0 while extending its two-year win streak to 16 in a row. Margaret Weldon scored a game-high 15 points to spark the winning effort.

There was a new season-high scoring mark in the Norwalk YMCA Calvin Murphy Biddy Basketball League as 12 year-old Paul Atkins poured in 46 points for first-place Edwards Company in its 8458 win over Nash Engineering.