Heat gets to Huskies in Florida championships
The Everett Huskies and the Santa Ana Monarchs from California were playing on neutral ground at
After running the table and earning a trip to Orlando to play for the Pop Warner national championship, the Huskies lost their first game, 24-6, to Santa Ana last Sunday, battling an 85-degree temperature for which they simply weren't ready.
"There's not much we could have done about it anyway, unless we practiced in a sauna before we went down there," Cafarella said. " [The Everett players] got tired in warm-ups. Really. Their uniforms, they must have weighed like 10 pounds."
His son, Matt Cafarella , scored the only touchdown for the Huskies, punching one in from the 3-yard line, although Everett had plenty of scoring chances.
"We pushed them all over the field," Frank Cafarella said.
But every time the Huskies found themselves in Santa Ana territory, they either turned the ball over or the offense stalled out.
"In the fourth quarter, we were spent," he said. "The tank was empty. It was horrible. We had to use all our timeouts just to keep them hydrated."
The New England champion Huskies routed the Southwest champion Arlington Thunder from Texas, 35-0, in their consolation game Wednesday, getting touchdowns from Matt Cafarella , Jonathan DiBiaso, Nick Caldarone, Brian Halfelder, and Denny Griffin .
Of course, the midweek weather was a little more forgiving than the scorching weekend.
"It was 70, 71 degrees," Cafarella said. "Perfect."
The Huskies are scheduled to return to New England today . Even with the loss, there was no way the kids would let the disappointment overshadow the fact they were at Disney. "It's a lot easier when you lose a game when you get to go to Magic Kingdom," Cafarella said. "The coaches are bummed, but you get over it."
Cafarella , usually all over film after one game in preparation for the next, didn't rush into his next move after a 14-1 season.
"The next step is Animal Kingdom, MGM, you know, relax and enjoy it," he said Wednesday. "Some of the kids have basketball. Then it's baseball, and that's it. We'll get together next year and give it another run."
Melrose's Turner turns
on scoring for UMass
University of Massachusetts at Boston ice hockey standout Casey Turner of Melrose earned Eastern College Athletic Conference player of the week honors after racking up five goals and seven assists . She scored a school-record four goals in an 8-1 win over Castleton State College on Dec. 2, and tied the school record for points the next day with six in a one-goal, five-assist performance in a 9-3 victory over St. Michael's College of Vermont .
Here and there
Masconomet athletics is looking to fill three positions for the spring sports season. The Chieftains are looking for a varsity baseball coach and a varsity softball coach as well as a boys' junior varsity lacrosse coach. Deadline to submit resumes, cover letters, and letters of recommendation is next Sunday.
After serving as player-coach last season, Vic Dacilla will drop the "player" part and focus on managing the North Shore Spirit that won a franchise-high 58 games last season. The Can-Am League baseball team lost first base coach Jim Tgettis , who will not return for the 2007 season.
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. 
