Ellington — Valley Regional/Old Lyme, a Class M state semifinalist a year ago, opened its football season with a 33-7 nonleague victory over Ellington on Saturday.

The Warriors jumped out to a 20-0 halftime lead and cruised as Mike Cullina threw for a pair of touchdown passes and Josh Donahue ran for two more.

"It's been three years since (Ellington) lost a home game, so that was nice,'' said Valley/OL coach Tim King. "We made a lot of mistakes though, and had a lot of penalties.''

Jacob Kruszewski rushed for 28 yards on eight carries with one touchdown, Donahue had 24 carries on four carries, Cullina was 14 of 22 for 242 yards and Jason O'Brien caught three passes for 87 yards for Valley.

Ernest Jean-Pierre and Jae'len Arnum caught touchdown passes and Jean-Pierre kicked two extra points.

Girls' cross country

East Lyme placed three runners in the top 15 en route to a second-place finish in the girls' varsity one race at the 39th Haddad Windham Invitational. The Vikings finished with 89 points, 24 behind  Hall, which had the individual winner in Jenna Zydanowicz, who won in 19 minutes, 25 seconds over the three-mile course. Rasa Kirvelevicius led East Lyme by placing eighth in 21:08 while freshman Brianna Am Ende was 12th in her high school debut (21:14) and Claire Mason was 15th (21:29). Also scoring for the Vikings were Gillian Goodwin (28th, 22:22) and Samantha Lyster (29th, 22:23.)

Eve Buckridge finished 14th (21:20) for Norwich Free Academy, which did not field enough runners to compete for the team title, while Jade Dessaint was 42nd (22:46) for Ledyard and Abigail Rasmussen was 61st (24:07) for Montville.

In the girls' varsity two race, Stonington placed 10th overall with 235 points (E.O. Smith won with 80) and had a pair of top 20 finishers in Lily Anderson (10th, 20:58) and Liz Gray (18th, 21:36).

Boys' cross country

• Sam Whittaker finished fourth overall in 16:42 to help East Lyme finish seventh at the 39th Haddad Windham Invite. Trey Cormier (16:24) was the individual winner and led Hall to the team title with 23 points. The Vikings had 179 and has Christopher Abbey (36th, 17:45), Noah Barnhart (42nd, 17:57) and Ryan McCauley (48th, 18:04) all crack the top 50. NFA was 15th with 422 points as Christian Dubreuil finished 66th (18:30) while Ledyard was 19th (585) led by Jacob Money (48th, 18:04) and Montville was 27th (695) led by Jayden Colon (85th, 18:51).

In the boys' varsity two race, Samuel Lenes (27th, 18:37), Joseph Carano (42nd, 19:06) and Eric Zane (47th, 19:14) all made the top 50 as Waterford placed 10th with 250 points, while Michael Carroll was 34th (18:57) as Wheeler finished 18th (488), Mark Costanzo was 86th (19:47) as Stonington was 19th (517) and Rashawn Wright was 97th (20:13) at New London was 20th (554).

Boys' soccer

• Jacob Ambrosetti scored four goals as Woodstock Academy defeated St. Bernard 8-0 in the season opener. Martin Arvidson made 15 saves in goal for the Saints while Quincy Francios came off the bench and had four.

• Ethan Rose scored two of his three goals in the first 21 minutes as Montville opened the season with a 6-3 win over Griswold. Rose also had an assist for the Indians while Tyler Velazquez added two goals and three assists, Julia Valdes had one goal and Jacob Rose had a pair of assists.

• Wheeler lost its opener, falling to Killingly 1-0. Stephan Wetherell scored on a penalty kick in the 28th minute. Bowen Baker made five saves for Wheeler.

• Austin Hilger scored a pair of goals as Old Saybrook cruised to a 6-0 win over Norwich Free Academy in the season opener for both schools. Goalie Ryan Godino made six saves for the Wildcats, who were outshot 20-9.

• Drew Archer scored a pair of goals as Lyman Memorial defeated Waterford 3-0 in the season opener for both. Goalie AlexanderFayan made five saves for the Lancers.

Girls' soccer

• Fitch advanced to the championship match of the inaugural Josh Piver Cup with 1-0 victory over Westerly. Maddie Catlett, assisted by Maddie Lynch, scored the goal for the Falcons in their season opener. They will play Chariho (R.I.), a 2-1 winner over Stonington, for the title next Saturday.

• In Stonington's loss to Chariho, the Bears fell behind 2-0 early and couldn't catch up, scoring their lone goal with 10:04 left in the first half when Emma Sabbadini, assisted by Grace Narducci, found the back of the net. Hannah Lamb (three saves in the first half) and Tori Lopresto (two in the second) split the goalie duties for Stonington (0-2).

• Rebecca Strouch's goal with 12:39 remaining lifted host Weston to a 1-0 nonconference win overMontville, spoiling the head coaching debut of Matt Beaupre. Lauren Ross made six saves in goal for the Indians.

Volleyball

• Norwich Tech won its second match in as many days with a 3-0 nonconference win over Wheeler. Game scores were 27-25, 25-23, 25-18. Courtney Majewski had 17 service points, five aces and 11 digs for the Warriors (2-0) while Riley Riewerts added nine kills, six service points and three aces. Sarah Spacklin had four aces, nine kills and four digs for the Lions, who were opening their season, while Jessica Neddeau added four aces and six digs.

• Killingly defeated Ledyard 25-7, 25-21 and 25-15 in a nonconference match. Miranda Chesnut and Cynthia Petersons had five kills apiece for the Colonels (1-1) while Whitney Brandt added three aces.