Tag: Layla Penn

  • CRLS boys’ soccer beats Lexington on penalty kicks

    CRLS boys’ soccer beats Lexington on penalty kicks

    By Layla Penn
    With the score tied at 1 after 90 minutes and two 10-minute overtimes, the Cambridge Rindge and Latin boys’ soccer team was exhausted, but knew it had a job to finish.
    Most soccer players see penalty kicks as a nightmare, but the Falcons saw opportunity against Lexington. Co-captain Rhys Brown, Angel Nunez, Jamilsom Parker and Xavi Mir, all seniors, each drove home their penalty kicks, and sophomore goalkeeper Winslow Livley saved the second one from Lexington. That put CRLS ahead 4-2. The team watched as Livley faced his fourth shot, bounded to the top right corner of the net and pushed the ball into open air.

    There was a sharp moment of silence before the team ran to embrace Livley, confirming their win, followed by Cambridge students rushing onto the field to celebrate with the team.

    “It was incredible, there’s not really much to describe it with,” Livley said. “This was my first state (playoff) game, so I got into the flow, played just like I would in a regular game, and did a little bit extra in the end to save it all.”

    That kept Cambridge undefeated at home this season, and into its first Sweet Sixteen appearance in nearly two decades.

    All the scoring was in the first half, with a quick goal from the Minutemen followed by a Cambridge header from senior captain Giacomo Cotta-Ramusino Zambotti, set up by Xavi Mir off a corner kick.

    The 9th-seeded Falcons threatened multiple times in the second half through Rhys Brown, his brother Michael, and sophomore Mathis Asnake. On the defensive end, Livley and senior defender Angel Nunez made several plays to keep the Falcons in the game until the penalty kicks. Livley made a big save with two minutes left in the second overtime to keep CRLS alive.

    For the senior captains this was a new kind of special. “We’ve always been the team that’s been out in the first round, giving high-fives at the end, crying,” said Michael Brown, a co-captain along with his brother. “It was a great feeling to be out here with my brothers being seniors, big senior class. I just love being with them, and I love dancing with them.”

    Head coach Niko Emack (disclosure: Emack is a member of Cambridge Day’s board), said that goal keeper coach Noah Lawless, 23, has been a huge asset to the team, and credited him for Livley’s success. Lawless praised Livley, saying “I’m incredibly proud of Winslow. It’s not really something you can teach. It’s just straight instinct, and he just saved us today.”

    Emack also named Nunez, a Dual County League All-Star, the man of the match. “Angel was instrumental to our win,” Emack said. He noted that in addition to scoring his penalty kick, Nunez marked Lexington’s striker the whole game.

    In the quarterfinals CRLS will play 8th-seeded Weymouth, which beat Plymouth North 3-0.

    This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

    This article was originally published on  November 5, 2025.

  • “Electric” play has CRLS boys’ soccer poised for the playoffs

    By Layla Penn
    The crunch of leaves on the ground mixes with the smack of soccer balls as Cambridge Rindge and Latin School players run shooting drills. Their breath hangs in the cold air, and they are still practicing in mid-fall,  signs that playoff season has arrived.

    The Falcons clinched a playoff spot with a 10-3-3 record, a leap from last year’s 5-9-4 finish. They are ranked ninth in the state in Division I, the largest high schools.

    The players credit the team’s success is a testament to their chemistry and growth, built through connections on and off the field. “This year, the team has never been more connected,” said senior captain Giacomo Zambotti, 17.

    To build up stamina for their upcoming season, they put a heavy emphasis on team bonding. “It really just started at preseason,” said senior Andre Baraglia, 17. “We would go jogging with the team, building connections with the players.”

    The team had four freshmen, a record – in years past it usually had one or two. With young players on a competitive team, the varsity veterans make an effort to make the players feel comfortable. “I don’t feel out of place,” said freshman Leo Davis,14. “The team takes really good care of all the freshmen.”

    Davis said senior captain Rhys Brown, 17, has been a role model both on and off the field.

    Head coach and former CRLS player Niko Emack, 29, leads a staff of five assistant coaches, four of whom are Cambridge Rindge and Latin alumni. For Emack, the team’s impact goes beyond the field. (Disclosure: Emack is on the board of Cambridge Day.)

    He said its success has brought pride and unity not only to the players but to the city. While Cambridge is considered a wealthy community, he said, many players come from families that struggle financially and often go overlooked.

    “The diversity that we bring to the field, the different playing styles and backgrounds, racially, socioeconomically, religiously, we see right here on the field,” Emack said. “It’s a statement about who we are as a city school.”

    The talent gaps on the team are so minimal that each of the nearly two dozen players has been getting minutes on the field, Emack said.

    “The players know that they can’t get complacent,” he said. “Everyone has to stay sharp, and give effort and because of that I think it’s created a healthier team dynamic.”

    Goalkeeper coach Noah Wallace, 23, said the players’ passion was on full display during senior night, where Zambotti tied the game against Newton North in the final five minutes after the Falcons trailed for most of the match. “Electric all around,” Wallace said.

    The team will find out its first playoff opponent at 1 p.m. Saturday, when the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association releases the bracket.

    Emack doesn’t care who they play or what the outcome is.

    “If we lose, if we tie, if things don’t go our way, and we work hard – I think we’ve built a strong team that we can live with those results if we know we give 110%,” Emack said.

    This post was updated Nov. 1, 2025, to correct that Falcons boys’ soccer has a 10-3-3 record.

    This article was originally published on October 31, 2025.

  • Basketball for the small provides fun for all

    Basketball for the small provides fun for all

    By Layla Penn
    On a dreary Sunday afternoon, children in Kyrie Irving jerseys and Lakers uniforms ran through basketball drills in the Baldwin School gymnasium.

    The hoops were lowered, making it easier for the kids to make shots. Coaches stood underneath the nets rebounding balls back to the children, smiling regardless of whether they went in.

    Despite the occasional outbursts from kids trying to entertain their peers, the children put on their game faces when the Cambridge Basketball Lab coaches reentered the focus to a game of sharks and minnows, in which the kids try to dribble past the coaches without getting tagged.

    “I love coaching the younger kids – they make me feel young again,” said Douglas Pinto, 37, first-year coach for the Cambridge Basketball Lab.

    Kids participate in a drill at a Cambridge Basketball Lab practice in October 2025.The Cambridge Basketball Lab, a mentorship and skill development program, expanded to the elementary school level for six weeks this fall. Previously, the program offered practices year-round only for middle and high school students four nights a week.

    In the new elementary school program, children in grades 2 through 5 can participate in basketball workouts. The coed practices take place on Sunday afternoons in two sessions – one for second and third graders, the other for fourth and fifth graders.

    “The way they talk, the way they dance, they’re so funny, and it’s just fun to hang around these kids,” Pinto said.

    A desire to make a difference

    The Cambridge Basketball Lab was founded in 2023 by Matt Meyersohn, 44, a mentor and coach for the group, and a former volunteer basketball coach at Cambridge Rindge and Latin for the last 22 years.

    Meyersohn had been diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2022 and went on medical leave. “For the first time in my adult life, I wasn’t working,” Meyersohn said.

    During his recovery, Meyersohn said, he thought of ways he wanted to make an impact on the world and community. Kids would ask him if he would come and shoot balls with them, but he realized that gyms often weren’t available. So he went to the Cambridge school committee to ask how they could create opportunities for kids to practice basketball at no cost.

    The Cambridge Basketball Lab was born, with funding and partnerships with organizations such as the Red Sox Foundation and the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. The Cambridge recreation department helps cover staffing costs, to pay the coach mentors, and Cambridge Public Schools donates gym space.

    Creating opportunities

    The partners include Harvard University’s women’s basketball program, which has had five players become coach-mentors over the last two years. The team also invited 30 girls from the program to use the Harvard women’s basketball facilities for a private practice with the team.

    After the success of the middle and high school program, Pinto said, Meyersohn pitched the idea to him to expand the practices to more age groups. He said there were not many opportunities for younger kids to play basketball, and parents were asking around for suggestions on where their kids could go.

    This fall, elementary school students participate in basketball practices for six weeks. Although the Cambridge Basketball Lab practices are free of charge year round for middle and high school students, the six-week elementary program costs $30 for Cambridge residents and $60 for non-residents. The fee helps cover the cost of having more coaches at the elementary level.

    “My son looks forward to coming every week.” Kanoe Williams.

    The new elementary school program has been exciting for parents like Kanoe Williams, 42, who sits in the auditorium and watches her son, Rex, play.

    “It has been so uplifting,” Williams said. “It’s really nice to come to a place that’s inclusive, that’s focused on helping all the kids gain skills and not coming into any conflictual competition with each other.”

    Beyond Meyersohn and Pinto, the program has volunteer coach-mentors like Baileigh Sinaman-Daniel and C.J. Leonard, who are student-athletes at Lesley University, and Deondre Starling, who went to CRLS and was coached by Meyersohn. Starling now runs his own nonprofit, Scholars before Athletes, which mentors kids to focus on academics while developing athletic skills.

    Williams said that she has so much respect for the volunteer coaches, and that Meyersohn is her son’s favorite coach.

    “My son looks forward to coming every week,” Williams said.

    This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.