The Staples hockey team and coaches pose at the P.A.L ice rink at Longshore Club Park tonight where the Wreckers faced off against Norwalk in an exhibition match. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Daniel Gelman for WestportNow.com

Staples as the winning team in tonight’s Staples-Norwalk hockey exhibition match at Westport’s Longshore Club Park was presented the Chad & Tom Cup in honor of the late Chad Jacobs and Tom Liu—- exemplary dads, hockey players, and supporters of the Longshore rink. Members of the Jacobs and Liu families made the presentation. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Daniel Gelman for WestportNow.com

Staples senior Faith Garcia has won a full golf scholarship to Monmouth University in New Jersey and signed the letter of intent today at a ceremony at the school. She is the first Staples girls golf team member to win such a scholarship. She posed with parents Ariel and Nedela. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com

Scenes from today’s Staples-Greenwich game at home, including 2013 inductees into the Staples Wall of Fame sponsored by the Gridiron Club and P.A.L. Football. Douglas Healey for WestportNow.com and WestportNow.com photos

Wrecker Patrick Lesh looks for daylight today in a home Thanksgiving Day game against the Greenwich Cardinals. Greenwich defeated Staples 27-7. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Douglas Healey for WestportNow.com

The Staples girls volleyball quest for a state Class LL championship failed tonight as the Wreckers fell 3-1 to top-seeded Cheshire at Berlin.

Staples rallied to take the first game, but Cheshire dominated the final three (24-26, 25-17, 25-15, 25-17). It was the sixth straight title for the Rams.

Amelia Brackett (17 kills, eight digs) and Lauren Mushro (seven kills, 14 digs), pushed the set into a tiebreaker.

Tonight’s loss followed Thursday’s 3-1 victory over Greenwich. Staples fell to Greenwich in two previous meetings this season—once in the regular season and once in the FCIAC final

In another come-from-behind victory, the Staples High School varsity football team tonight rolled over Norwalk at home 48-13.

Norwalk was quick off the mark, leading 13-0 after the first quarter. But then the Wreckers got into gear and dominated the rest of the game to improve to 8-2 overall (8-1 FCIAC). Norwalk fell to 4-6.

Senior quarterback Jack Massie threw two touchdowns and added a third rushing score for the Wreckers,

Jack Greenwald had touchdown runs of four and eight yards and added an interception on defense.

Jonathan Blansfield: headed to Northwestern.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

Jonathan Blansfield, a standout member of the Westport Weston Family Y’s Water Rat Swim Team, today signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) with Northwestern University.

Blansfield is one of three graduating Staples High School students, all swimmers, who have accepted NLI invitations to Division I programs for the fall of 2014.

The others are Verity Abel, who will be attending Duke University, and Ian Rainey, who will be going to the University of Michigan. The NLI is a binding agreement between a prospective student-athlete and NLI member institution in which a student agrees to attend the institution full-time for one academic year and receive athletics financial aid.

“We are so proud of Jonathan and congratulate him for earning this scholarship,” said Ellen Johnston, head coach of the Family Y Water Rat Swim Team.

There was pure joy tonight as the Staples High School girls volleyball team defeated Greenwich 3-1 at Trumbull to advance to the Class LL final Saturday against No. 1 and undefeated Cheshire at 7 p.m. at Berlin High School. Amelia Brackett delivered the game-sealing kill to help the Wreckers (25-22, 14-25, 25-20, 25-21) prevail. Staples fell to Greenwich in two previous meetings this season—once in the regular season and once in the FCIAC final. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Daniel Gelman for WestportNow.com