Wallkill Valley falls in Rally in the Valley championship

Alex Opilla scored a team-high 22 points and added four rebounds, three assists and a steal and Gavin Solano collected 15 points, five assists, two rebounds and a steal but the Wallkill Valley High boys basketball team came up just short in the championship game of the Rally in the Valley Tournament, dropping a 56-53 decision to Warwick Valley of New York on Tuesday, Dec. 30 in Hamburg.

Wallkill Valley, which had its four-game winning streak snapped, trailed 50-47 before Opilla made one free throw with 5:12 remaining in the fourth quarter and Solano scored on a driving layup with 4:45 left to knot the score at 50-50.

Solano then canned a three-pointer from the top of the key with 3:01 left in the fourth to provide the Rangers with a 53-52 lead. After a made free throw by Warwick tied the game at 53-53, both teams missed attempts at taking the lead before Warwick made a basket with 45 seconds left.

The Rangers had an inbound pass stolen with 14 seconds remaining and the Warwick squad made one free throw to push its lead to three points. The Rangers’ final three-point attempt fell short at the buzzer.

Wallkill Valley (4-3) opened tournament play with a 65-47 victory over Newton on Dec. 27 led by Opilla’s 20-point, 11-rebound, four-assist, four steal effort. Solano added 15 points, five rebounds, five steals and two assists and Nolan Murray added 10 points.

The Rangers then defeated Pope John, 57-43, in the semifinal round of the tournament with Solano (17 points, three steals, two rebounds), Joe Sugar (15 points, seven rebounds, three assists, one block, one steal) and Opilla (11 points, seven assists, six rebounds, one block, one steal) fueled the win.

Opilla, a junior guard, is averaging 17.1 points and 5.0 rebounds this season for the Rangers, who were scheduled to play host to Pequannock on Friday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m. before playing at Passaic Charter on Monday, Jan. 12 at 6 p.m.

Ice Hockey

Michael Delaney (two points, three rebounds), Nathan Shindelman (two goals, two assists), Shea Jackson (two goals) and Bradyn Husarenko (one goal) led the High Point-Wallkill Valley co-op team to its first victory of the season - a 7-1 victory over Morris Catholic - on Dec. 18 at Mennen Arena in Morristown.

Ranger Harper made 13 saves for High Point/Wallkill Valley (1-6-1).

Jackson leads the team in scoring with eight goals with Delaney right behind with three goals and three assists.

High Point-Wallkill Valley was slated to meet Morris Catholic again on Saturday, Jan. 10 at Skylands Ice World in Stockholm at 8 p.m.