my hometown sports

myFeaturing Local High School, College and Amateur Sports Coverage for Utica, Rome and The Mohawk ValleyFebruary/March 2011

www.myhometownsports.net

Saturday, March 26

Open HouseHerkimer County

Community CollegeRegister online at www.herkimer.edu/openhouse

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STACEY MANLEYADIRONDACK BANK

• My HOMetOwNspORts | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2011 myhometownsports.net

Editor/PublisherFred Miller

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Fred MillerMegan Miller

Dave Peroni Jeff Pexton

Feb/Mar2011

my Hometown Sports

Contributing Writers

Mike BilinskiGil Burgmaster

Richard Haubert

Brandon HoltJeff Pexton

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Copy EditorJan Miller

MHTS PhotosJeff Pexton

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Hometown

3 | Hometown HeroesThis issue we salute two local youth hockey teams who brought their “might” to the Mite Meltdown. The New Hartford “ Mites Meltdown” has become one of the key stops for local hockey teams during late January. This year was no exception as a great lineup of teams took to the ice to treat fans to a tourney to remember. Teams from New Hartford, Morrisville, Rome, Syracuse and Whitesboro took part in the annual youth hockey festival. When the ice chips settled, New Hart-ford and Whitestown took home the hardware.

4 | ADIRONDACK BANK sALUtes tHe LAtest 12tH MANThe theme remains youth hockey as we honor the latest Adirondack Bank 12th Man. This time around, we are proud to salute Stacey Manley, a true hockey fan and strong supporter of Whitestown youth hockey. Stacey not only loves the game, but lives the game as well. Jeff Pexton recently sat down with Stacey to get to know our latest 12th Man.

6 | HOOps HAppeNINGsMHTS had a ball, yes a basketball, following local high school hoops teams on their journey through the boys and girls basketball season. This issue we focus on the end of the regular season and Section III Playoffs. The Mohawk Valley was represented well as several teams finished strong. Read all about the latest hard-wood happenings in this issue.

12 | HOCKey HIGHLIGHtsMHTS followed the exploits of local high school hockey teams as they skated their way into the Section III playoffs and beyond. The RFA Black Knights made a deep run into the post season and provided fans plenty to cheer and talk about down the stretch. MHTS was there and we wrap up the local hockey season in this issue.

22 | yOUtH spORts ROUNDUpWhile area high school athletes took center stage during the playoffs we made sure to keep in touch with the stars of the future. We stopped in Rome to visit the John Corr tourney, Whitestown for the Bob Mercurio Extreme Freeze tournament and to Whitestown again to visit the Central New York Bobcats girls “ Bring a Friend” event.

25 | wHItesBORO VOLLeyBALLThe Whitesboro girls volleyball team had a great regular season and MHTS caught up with the Lady Warriors as the Section III playoffs got underway. Read about the spikes and kills with this playoff recap.

27 | Us ARMy “A” FOR eFFORt stUDeNt AtHLete MHTS and the US Army salute David Evans from Sauquoit as our March “A” FOR EFFORT ATHLETE.” David is headed to West Point to become a cadet and play football for Army. Congratulations and good luck!

16 | HAVe LeNs wILL tRAVeLJeff Pexton had the lens focused on the Section III Playoffs as we were out and about following the playoff runs of high school hockey and boys and girls hoops teams. Take a look as we look back on all the great memories.

My Hometown Sports is pub-lished monthly. My Hometown Sports is distributed locally with a circulation of 7,500. Compli-mentary copies are distributed at local schools, sports facilities, and numerous retail establish-ments and restaurants. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use in whole or part of the content herein without prior written con-sent is prohibited.

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myhometownsports.net My HOMetOwNspORts | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2011 • x

Celebrating The Success Of Local Athletes

WHITESTOWN WOLFPACK & NEW HARTFORDThis time around we

take time to recog-nize two local youth

hockey teams who skated to tournament clinching wins in January. The New Hart-ford “ Mites Meltdown” has become one of the key stops for local hockey teams dur-ing late January. This year was no exception as a great lineup of teams took to the ice to treat fans to a tourney to remember.

Teams from New Hart-ford, Morrisville, Rome, Syr-acuse and Whitesboro took part in the annual youth hockey festival.

The Mite division of USA Hockey (the governing body of just about every organiza-tion) is the first level of com-petitive hockey involving players 8 years of age and younger and is played on the full length of ice surface.

In the “A” Division, the Whitestown Wolfpack mixed it up with their familiar foes, the Rome Grizzlies, for the Mite Meltdown title.

These two teams tied 3-3 on Friday and in speaking to the coaches from both clubs, in six previous meetings this season, the results were split right down the middle, set-ting up a high octane final.

The Wolfpack overcame a 1-0 first period deficit and went on to knock off the Grizzlies 4-3 to claim the “A” Division trophy.

Congratulations to the New Hartford Youth Hockey Association, especially Joe and Lisa Babicz and the long list of volunteers, on putting together such a well run hockey tournament, which was enjoyed by everyone who participated.

To nominate a Rite Aid/MHTS Hometown Hero drop a line to: [email protected]

Send us a short nominat-ing e-mail and a photo and that’s all we need.

head coach-Jim Kurdziolek: Players: Frank centro,Troy chamberlain, brennan Kurdziolek, David LaMore, anthony LoGalbo, andrew Manley, cameron Manley, alexander Mastro, John Pawloski, Jonathan Schoen,Noah Scranton.

3 Smith, austin,7 Darby, Jack,8 Gall, William, 9 cleveland, Owen,15 Shafer, rJ,17 Walker, Danny,18 Kurdziolek, Luke,20 Smith, Miranda,24 carr, ashley,27 rivera, Dan,30 Dziegiel, evan,32 berkhoudt, ellie,45 Greico, Nick,50 Syrotynski, John,63 Schiavi, Gavin,66 Simmons, connor,81 Kantor, Jason,91 Kantor, chris,head coach bill Gall,asst. coach Kevin Darby,asst. coach Marcus Smith,asst. coach randy Smith,asst. coach Scott Kurdziolek


Stacey Manley

By Jeff Pexton

To hockey players and en-thusiasts, a fresh sheet of ice is a source of excitement and a true symbol of possibility. When the “Zamboni” exits the ice, the solid blues and reds that make up the lines and circles on the ice explode to the surface and regardless of any adversity that either team in the game had in the period of play before, new op-portunity is ahead.

The Whitestown Youth Hockey Association has en-dured some difficulty in re-cent years and it has taken a strong group effort by a very solid band of people to make a new sheet of ice for the kids that wear the blue and white of the “Wolfpack”. One of those people is Stacey Manley, the WYHA Board Treasurer, who in her first term has helped to steer the organization from a stagger-ing deficit to a surplus in its coffers. For the efforts she has made to turn the WYHA Association’s financial situ-

ation around so swiftly, we honor Stacey Manley with the Adirondack Bank 12th Man Award.

When Jim Kurdziolek was voted in as President of the Whitestown Youth Hockey Association in the fall of 2010, the league had lost some members to other organizations and the feel-ing within the membership was uneasy as regards faith in the league’s Board of Di-rectors. “When we first start-ed out we were challenged with improving a number of things, communication and accountability were two of the biggest things for sure,” Kurdziolek said, adding, “I have to say that Stacey’s willingness to communi-cate with people, her tough-ness and even her ability to just say “no” sometimes has helped this league get back to where we should be, she’s a rock.”

This past season the Wolf-pack sent 11 teams out onto their fresh sheet of ice, from the 4 year old Learn to Skate

players, all the way up to the 18 year Midgets.

The cost to make sure the 160 or so players that make up the WYHA is into 6 figure numbers and it has taken a special person to ride herd over spending and help to lead the league back to sol-vency. That person is Stacey Manley.

To say that Mrs. Man-ley is “hockey people” would be an understatement. She was born and raised in Lake Placid, N.Y. and was a two year old resident of the Vil-lage when the U.S. won the gold medal in the famed 1980 “Miracle on Ice” that saw the United States win a gold medal in Olympic hockey. “My brother was a player on the Lake Placid High School Team, so I basically grew up in that rink and have loved this game ever since,” Man-ley told MHTS. Later, Sta-cey met her future husband, Todd Manley, a Whitesboro alum and member of the North Country Community College Hockey Team, while


Jim Kurdziolek, the league president

the two were students at NCCC in Saranac Lake, NY. The rest is history as Sta-cey and Todd married and returned to husband Todd’s hometown of Whitesboro, where they currently reside with their three children, Andrew age 8, Cameron age 7 and Madison age 4. Todd Manley helps coach the Wolfpack and is also the assistant women’s hockey coach at Hamilton College in his “spare time”.

“They’re the biggest rea-son I do this, along with ev-ery other kid in this organi-zation,” Stacey said. “I truly believe that when there is a problem, if you stand by and do nothing, you’re part of the problem, but if you roll up your sleeves and get to work, you actually become part of the solution.” According to Board Registrar David Lam-ore, who also assists Jim Kurdziolek with coaching the “A” Mite Travel Team, Stacey Manley is part of a group that means business when it comes to making the WYHA the very best it can be for its

members. “She’s been very good at putting her foot down when it comes to the budget. The Board gets requests for money all the time. If the funds aren’t there or the item hasn’t been budgeted for, then Stacey steps up and ex-plains why, but will also help to find another way to get that particular item so the kids don’t go without what they need,” Lamore said. Kurdziolek echoed Lamore’s sentiment by saying, “That’s what makes Stacey and this Board great. The positive energy that she promotes is contagious, people see us get-ting things done within our means and they are starting to come forward asking what they can do to help us make this league better.”

The hockey germ was certainly evident tonight at the Whitestown Community Center when the Mites play-ers played with and against their very own Mites par-ents and coaches. In the goal for the parents, none other than Stacey Manley. Sure, seeing Stacey making her way around the ice, the big bulky goalie gear was good for a laugh to everyone in at-tendance.

Under that gear was a lady who, after a hockey sea-son that started 6 months ago, was still enjoying that fresh ice surface she helped to create. Joining Stacey (who may just have a fu-ture between the pipes in the NHL for her beloved To-ronoto Maple Leafs) on the ice were husband Todd, their

3 kids, Kurdziolek, Lamore and multiple coaches, par-ents and tiny skaters, all having a ball.

As with the game of hock-ey itself, the organization behind the action is built by teamwork. The current “team behind the teams”, the league’s Board, had to start from scratch. “When we started last year we had nothing to go by, we had bills piled up (including an un-paid bill for $17,000 for ice time) and we really started with less than zero, that was the biggest challenge we faced,” Manley said. Through the hard work and dedication of Manley and co-board members Lisa Emery (Tournament Director), Gina Chiarello (Ice Scheduler) and newly elected Vice Pres-ident Kevin Scranton, just to name a few, the Wolfpack are poised for success on and off the ice. Kurdziolek added that it will be the league’s commitment to transpar-ency and accountability that will lead the league back to its proud roots, adding, “The people like Stacey, who are involved now, are always here, or they’re always on call, from making the conces-sion run smoothly, to making sure the teams have every-thing they need, to keeping the tournaments running smoothly. It just never ends during the season.”

One of the Tournaments that the WYHA and Tourna-ment Director Lisa Emery run each year is the “Etreme Freeze / Robert Mercurio Me-morial Mite Tournament.” This tournament features the youngest of the com-petitive hockey teams and is named after Bob Mercurio, a past President and Coach in the WYHA who tragically died in 2009.

Given the always rising operating expenses for ice time, equipment, and insur-ance, the WYHA, like all youth sports organizations need extra fund raising ef-forts to keep membership costs as low as possible. The Wolfpack rely on fund rais-ing efforts like a golf tour-

nament in the summer, a league wide candle sale, pan-cake breakfasts and raffles to keep things going.

In her first year of a two year term as League Trea-surer, Stacey Manley has worked tirelessly to ensure that the maximum gain is de-rived from every dollar that the league receives. “The kids deserve it, they’re having so much fun here, it keeps me going,” Manley said, adding, “To be in a position of having a surplus at the end of our first season together is just amazing, makes us want to keep working harder.”

The tide seems to have turned in favor of the kids of the Whitestown Youth Hockey Association and the future looks as bright as the freshest sheet of ice one can imagine. If you would like more information on how to get your child involved in the action in Whitestown, visit http://sites.google.com/site/whitestownhockey/ . Or, if the urge hits you to lend a helping hand or get involved as an adult volunteer, there’s always room, so stop over to the Whitestown Commu-nity Center, which will again

feature ice throughout the summer as well as summer leagues and hockey camps. Who knows, you may find Stacey Manley, or one of the other league volunteers do-ing just about anything nec-essary to get ready for the next hockey season.

Thanks to the members of the WYHA that took the time to meet with My Home-town Sports in order to shed a little bit of light on our lat-est 12th Man Award Winner, Stacey Manley. Congratula-tions to everyone involved with the Whitestown Youth Hockey Association on the remarkable job in returning this great league to its roots!


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Proctor’s bri Kiesel played her last game as a raider, as she netted 23 points.

NORTHSTARS SHINE BRIGHT WITH ACLASS AA THREE-PEATCNS Beats Proctor 52-38-Bri Keiesel Nets 23 For RaidersBy FRED MILLER/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/7

The CNS Northstars used a couple of well timed, 13-4, runs to

put the stubborn Proctor Lady Raiders in the rear tail lights and earn their third straight Section III cham-pionship with a 52-38 win. Breanna Stewart scored 16 points on her way to being named Tourney MVP and won the latest matchup up in the “battle of DI” prospects. Stewart, just a junior, has al-ready committed to play for one of the nation’s premier programs, the UCONN Hus-kies.

Our very own, soon to be, Division I player, Bri Kiesel, headed to Pitt, did all she could to shine bright on the big stage in the highly an-ticipated nightcap on Ladies Day at the Aud. The Class AA contest pitted the state’s 6th ranked Northstars against the 17th ranked Raiders.

CNS, the tourney’s #1 seed, entered the game with an 18-2 recored and on a nine game winning streak. The Stars last tasted defeat at the hands of Academy of Holy Cross, 44-41, back on

January 16th. Since then it has been all systems go for coach Eric Smith’s, well bal-

anced, crew.Proctor had been red hot,

winning 15 straight, falling last to Shaker, way back on December 28th. Since that, 61-45, setback, Coach Vinny Perrotta and company had pushed all the right but-tons on the way to the Utica school’s first ever Section III championship game.

To earn a date with CNS, Proctor beat Baldwins-vile, 59-42 and Fayette-ville-Manlius, 55-39. CNS cruised into the Aud having defeated CBA, 75-26, and Nottingham,58-26.

The stage was set for a showdown and both teams did their best to oblige the packed house.

It was choppy and, dare we say, sloppy in the opening eight, as both teams seemed to be caught up in the glare of the bright lights. Only 10 points found their way on to the Aud scoreboard, 8 of those scored by CNS.

Breanna Stewart scored four of her 16 in the early going and got help from teammates, Sarah Bowles and Brittany Paul to get the Northstars off on the right foot. Stewart can change a game just standing still.

At 6’3”, with the wingspan of a Condor, the UCONN bound guard/forward/center, altered way too many Proc-tor shots for the Raiders to have a realistic shot at their first Section III crown. Stew-art ripped off 12 rebounds and blocked 9 shots.

On the night, Bowles ended up with 6 and Paul contributed 9. For Proctor senior Sarina Olds, two free

throws were the only points the Raiders could muster in a turnover filled first. After one CNS led 8-2.

Before this one was done, CNS coughed up the rock 15 times and Proctor donated the ball to the other side 13 times. Not pretty.

Speaking of runs, Proctor went on a doozy, outscoring the Stars 18-7 to prove their mettle. CNS led 13-2 before Bri Kiesel had seen enough and went to score 10 of her 23, in the second quarter, as the Raiders pulled to within six, 21-16, at the half, on a Sarina Olds buzzer beater.

Senior Barrie Brooks got Proctor close, scoring in the paint just 90 seconds in to the third, to make it a two point game, 21-19. A free throw, just seconds later, by Bri Kiesel, got the Raiders as close as they would ever come, at 21-20. The Raiders never took the lead in this back and forth affair.

The next and most im-portant run on points came as the Northstars decided to put the clamps on things. Be-fore the third quarter came to a close, CNS was up by a dozen, 38-26, and in control.

Abbey Timpano pushed the lead out to five, with a field goal, with 5:10 left in the third. Timpano ended up with 8 points on the night.

Kierra Arthur scored her only bucket of the game, with 1:10 left, to try and keep her team in the game and make the last eight minutes mat-ter.

Knowing she may be play-ing her last game, in red and black, Bri Kiesel went on a

tear, scoring 9 of her 23, as the Raiders tried to remain relevant.

The lead was pushed out to 15 when Abbey Timpano hit from in close, as CNS led, 41-26, with 7:14 to go. Proctor got the lead down to double digits, 43-33, just once more, when Kierra Arthur hit from the line.

CNS outscored Proctor, 9-5 down the stretch, to pull away for the win and the Section III title banner.

Six players saw their ca-reers come to and end for Proctor. They include: Bri Kiesel, Barrie Brooks, Imani Patterson, Jasmine Small-wood, Cara Mootz, and Dan-ielle Felton.

The Raiders close out the campaign with a record of 18-3, while the NorthStars head to regional play at 19-2.

Proctor’s Imani Pierce #23 drives to the hoop.


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LAKERS LEGACY GROWS - BEAT JUGGLERS FOR THIRD TITLE IN FOUR YEARSCazenovia 51 Notre Dame 42By FRED MILLER/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/7

Notre Dame’s Jordan Morgan # 24 defends as #1 Taylor Malmsheimer heads to the hoop.

The Cazenovia Lakers (20-1) girls baskteball team is focused like

a laser beam and ready to keep on keeping on, following their impressive rally past a red hot Notre Dame Lady Jugglers (18-4) team to win their third Section III title in the last four years, before a big and vocal crowd at the Utica Aud on Ladies Day.

Cazenovia, ranked 15th in the latest New York State Class B Poll, seemed to take offense to the fact that their opponent, Notre Dame, was ranked ahead of them at 11th. Both teams trotted out a bevy of stars that were ea-ger to display their talents on the big stage.

For Utica Notre Dame, the fifth seed, fans got to watch freshmen sensation Emily Durr, who brought her 20 point plus scoring average to the floor and Haley Sehring, who had a great, late season run for coach Mike Plonisch, averaging almost 14 per game.

The Lakers countered with the dynamic duo of Rae-anne Clabeaux (15.6 ppg) and Ellen Burr, as good of a post player as we’ve seen in a long time, chipping in (13 ppg).

Cazenovia entered Sun-day’s finals having lost only to Jordan-Elbridge, 50-40, on the last weekend of the regu-lar season.

That loss seemed to get the Lakers back on track, as they cruised to the finals with wins over Skaneateles, 50-10, and then got revenge on JE, for beating them, with a 40-30 semifinal win.

Notre Dame who had not tasted defeat in six games, their loss came at the hands of TVL East and Section III Class A Champion Whites-boro back on February 11th.

The blue and gold looked good in the post season, hav-

ing dispatched Ilion, 88-60, and then Westhill, 54-45.

All signs pointed to a good game and fans were not dis-appointed.

Both teams had a case of the big game jitters as they tried to figure out what type of game would unfold be-fore them. Back and forth we went in the first, trading buckets until the first eight minutes ended with the jug-glers up one, 9-8.

Emily Durr banged home a three ball with 3:14 left in the stanza to tie things up at 4-4. The silky smooth shoot-er ended the season pouring in 16 points to lead Notre Dame.

Ellen Burr made her pres-ence felt in a big way, pour-ing in six first quarter points and proving what a force she would be in the paint, early on. Burr led the Lakers with 22 big points, 10 in the first half.

Her partner in crime, Raeanne Clabeaux, saved her best for last, scoring 15 of her 17 in the second half.

A 9-0 by the Jugglers, out of the gate, in the second pe-riod had the Lakers reeling and looking for answers. The tough man-to-man defense that the Jugglers threw at the Lakers had a lot to do with the puzzled looks on the faces of Caz shooters.

After two free throws by senior Kate Durr made it 22-13 Notre Dame with 31.1 seconds to go until the break, fans started to feel the mo-mentum was permanently on their side of the floor.

Durr ended her Notre Dame career scoring 3 points, but was hampered by foul trouble and had to sit out long stretches of play. More importantly, without Kate’s leadership on the court and her rebounding prowess, the Jugglers suffered even more.

Notre Dame fans barely

got a chance to stop applauding their 9-0 run when Ellen Burr made a game changing three point play to cut the lead to a manageable six points, 22-16.

Still up six, the Jugglers hit the floor ready to go for the final 16 minutes, only to end up spending the second half trying to figure out how to shoot over the top of the two-three zone that coach Steve Miles threw at them down the stretch.

Not only was it hard to shoot over, but the Lakers cut the Jugglers off at the pass as they tried to work the ball inside.

A lighting quick 9-2 run by the Lakers had them right back in it, tied at 25, following two free-throws by

Raeanne Clabeaux. Notre Dame could only rustle up six points in the decisive third and trailed 35-29 head-ing into the fourth.

The second half was the key to success for the Lakers, as they scored 35 of their 51 points after the break.

Jordan Morgan, just a sophomore, tried to rally the troops scoring 8 of her 10 points down the stretch. Tierney Buckley came up big hitting from the floor with 6:15 left to cut the Lakers lead to just four, 39-35.

Kaitlyn Owens nailed a three ball with just over four minutes to go to keep the

Jugglers close at 41-38. The senior did it again, this time for two with 1:50 left to cut the lead to five 45-40.

That’s as close as the Jug-glers would get as a Cla-beaux put back made it 49-40 and Caz cruised home to the title clinching win.

Up next for the Lakers is a Regional matchup on Satur-day at 1:00PM in Liverpool against Section V Champion Oneonta.

Notre Dame saw their season come to an end, but should be looking forward to next year as just two seniors, Kate Durr and Kaitlyn Ow-ens, graduate.


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WARRIORS ROLL PAST SPARTANS FOR FIRST EVER GIRL’S BASKETBALL CROWNAllie Cady Leads Lady Warriors With 17By JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/6

Allie Cady scored 17 points and the Whitesboro Lady Warriors cruised

to a 66-32 victory over arch rival New Hartford in to-day’s Section 3, Class “A” Basketball Championship game at the Utica Aud. The win gave sports powerhouse Whitesboro its first ever Section 3 girl’s basketball title. Cady, a senior, picked up the slack for the War-riors normally dominant in-side game this afternoon.

It was obvious from the opening tip that Spartans head coach Mike Callan’s girls were going to try to knock Whitesboro’s low post

players around. In the first quarter alone, the Warriors went to the foul line 10 times and played directly into the Spartans hands, Whitesboro missed all 10 foul shots.

One bi-product of the physical style was big foul trouble for New Hartford, as center Erin Kuhn picked up a foul a minute for the first three minutes of the ball game.

While those figures should have probably spelled disas-ter for Whitesboro, the ex-act opposite was true, as the Lady Warriors defense was so stifling at the other end of the floor, New Hartford was only able to manage four first quarter points.

Cady and company held a 14-4 advantage after the first quarter of play. In fact, if not for a long three pointer late in the first from Spar-tans senior Kara Sellars, New Hartford would have gone to the first break with only one point, a free throw by sophomore Kelly Bishop.

Allie Cady, meanwhile, led the Warriors with 4 points in the second quar-ter, silencing the big New Hartford contingent at the Aud.

Whitesboro beat New Hartford in its two regular season meetings, a 24 point win back in December and a 20 point win to close out the regular season on February 17th.

This time was no differ-ent. Whitesboro jumped out to an early lead in the first

and never looked back, de-nying New Hartford (14-7) any inside shots in the first half.

The second quarter was no kinder to New Hartford, as Whitesboro’s Jen Deuel, Elena Ciccarelli and Allie Cady each knocked down 4 points and Allie Webb scored 5 in the second quar-ter to increase the Warriors lead to 36-9, headed into the intermission.

Things got so tough for New Hartford in the second quarter that the Spartans went without a field goal, with all 5 of their second quarter points coming from the charity stripe.

Whitesboro entered to-day’s championship riding a 20 game undefeated streak and ranked #8 in the most recent NY State Class “A” poll.

The Warriors were also the number 1 seed in the Section 3 tournament. New Hartford, the tournament’s number 3 seed, upset the 2nd seeded Cortland Pur-ple Tigers, behind Ashley Chanatry’s 26 points, to reach today’s final.

The second half was a continuance of the Warriors domination, as Whitesboro outscored the Spartans, 30-22, to take home its first girl’s basketball sectional title by a score of 66-32.

Ashley Chanatry, who was named to the All-Tour-nament Team, along with Whitesboro’s Jen Deuel, finished with a team high 14 points for New Hartford. Whitesboro’s Allie Cady was named the tournament most valuable player.

Chanatry, just a junior,

New hartford:ashley chanatry-14Kara Sellars-8Kelly bishop-3Katie Steats-2Theano alvanos-2erin Kuhn-2

Whitesboro:allie cady-17Jennifer Duel-12Francesca catroupe-9Kaylie camerota-8allie Webb-8elena ciccarelli-4Liz evans-2Jordan Noga-2Shaye cavanaugh-2emily Smith-1Kaya angelhow-1

Scoring Summary

Whitesboro’s allie cady (33) works inside against New hartford’s erin Kuhn (13).

scored all of her 14 points in the second half and was a true bright spot for the Spar-tans, who never found any tempo on offense against the hard-nosed Warrior de-fense.

New Hartford lost its second straight Section III final. The Spartans were defeated by Cortland last season.

Whitesboro improves to (21-0) and will move on to meet the winner of Averill Park (Section 2) and Mas-sena (Section 10) next Sat-urday in regional play at Liverpool High School.

The winner of that game earns a spot in the NY State Final 4, the following week-end, at Hudson Valley CC in Troy. Presently, Averill Park is not ranked and Massena is ranked #24 of 25 in the Class “A” State poll.

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EMERALD KNIGHTS MOUNT BIG COMEBACK TAKE SECTION IIICLASS D TITLEEmerald Knights Advance to Regional Round NextBy JEFF PExtoNPhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/6

Katie Weeks scored a total of 15 points for her Ham-ilton Emerald

Knights in Sunday’s Section III, Class D girl’s basketball final against Sackets Har-bor. Three of those 15 points came with 9.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter and will never, ever be forgotten by Katie, or any one of the cou-ple thousand people sitting in the stands of the Utica Aud.

Why? Well, with her team trailing by 3 points, Weeks, a senior point guard, was fouled in the act of shooting a three pointer, with time winding down in the game and her team trailing Sack-et’s Harbor 41-38.

With under 10 seconds remaining in Hamilton’s season and possibly Katie Weeks high school basket-ball career, #11 stepped to the charity stripe and calmly drained three identical free throws, hitting nothing but net, to tie the game at 41-41 and force overtime play for the Class D title.

In the extra period, all-state forward Jordan Peter-son scored 5 of the 3rd seeded Emerald Knights 7 points to secure Hamilton’s 48-45 vic-tory over 4th seeded Sackets Harbor. Peterson led all scor-ers with 24 points on the af-ternoon.

Even though it was a fairy tale ending for the Knights, it sure wasn’t all milk and honey. The first quarter saw Sackets Harbor guard Ash-ley Butcher score 8 of her 9 total points, 6 of which were from outside the three point arc, to help build a 13-9 lead over Hamilton, after one pe-riod of play.

Jordan Peterson was Jor-dan Peterson and knocked down 6 points in the first

quarter to keep the Emerald Knights in the mix.

The second quarter was a seesaw battle of mis-fires be-tween the two clubs, as both baskets seemed to have a lid on them. Amber Butcher, number two in the Butch-er Sisters one-two Patriots Punch, scored 5 of Sackets Harbor’s 9 second quarter points, sending the underdog to the intermission with a 22-18 lead.

Katie Weeks scored 6 of her team’s 9 point second quar-ter points, keeping her team within striking distance.

Sackets Harbor continued its total team effort in the third quarter, as Taylor Rous-seau nailed two three point-ers in the third to help her Patriots increase their lead to 7 points, 35-28, headed to the fourth quarter.

Live by the three, die by the three, as Sackets Harbor drilled 7 long distance shots to stay close to the Knights. Of their 45 points, the Pats netted 21 from behind the line.

Just :22 seconds into the 4th, Olivia Kolb’s put back of

an Ashley Butcher miss made it 37-28 Patri-ots.

It was at that point when this game took over a slight-ly “Twilight Zone-ish” flavor. The Emerald Knights had trailed from the opening tip, yet somehow the kids in white came to life and rat-tled off an 8-3 run, over the next 6 minutes, to close the gap to 40-36, with 39.4 sec-onds to play in the game.

Suddenly, only the basket the Knights were defending had the lid on it. After Am-ber Butcher knocked down the front end of a 1 and 1, with just 28.2 remaining in regulation, to make it 41-36, Jordan Peterson scored on a runner to make it 41-38, with 16.3 seconds left.

Ashley Butcher was in-tentionally fouled on the in-bound, but she was unable to knock down either one of her freebies, sending young Miss Weeks up the court

with the basketball.Weeks was fouled as she

heaved a three ball and to the line #11 went, with 9.8 seconds to go and the Aud stunned into absolute si-lence.

Three perfectly-perfect-smooth-as-silk-sharp-as-a-tack-cool-as-a-cucumber free throws by Katie Weeks later, we were tied at 41-41, the first tie the game had seen since 0-0.

Give Jordan Peterson an inch on the basketball court and sure enough, she’s going to take all 94 feet. A fifth pe-riod of play was all Peterson needed, taking over inside and leading her team to a 48-45 victory and the Emerald Knights second consecutive Section 3 Class D Champi-onship.

Hamilton, which improved to (18-3) on the season, will now travel to Oneonta to take on Section 4 champion

South Kortright in a region-al playoff game. The winner of that contest will advance to the NY State Final 4.

Sackets Harbor finished their season at (13-8) and was led by Amber Butcher with 18 points this after-noon.

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Scoring Summary

Perfect form? you bet. hamilton’s Jordan Peterson (13) lines up an overtime jumper.


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MARUDERS MARCH ON WITH 62-45 WIN IN SECTION III CLASS D CHAMPIONSHIPMills Earns Record 11th Section III Class D CrownBy JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/6

NYM - NYM - NYM !!!! That was the chant that could be heard beam-

ing from the hundreds of New York Mills fans pouring out of the Utica Aud this eve-ning after their beloved Ma-rauders defeated the Lyme Indians, 62-45, to capture their 3rd straight Section III, Class “D” boy’s basket-ball championship.

Mills junior center Matt Welch, who stands at a lofty 6’9”, dropped 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Champs tonight, while team-mate Fred Russ chipped in 11 points and accounted for 7 rebounds for the Mills, which will advance to State Regional action against Sec-tion IV champion Hancock (Binghamton area), at a date and time to be announced.

The winner of that game punches a ticket to the NY State Final 4, March 19-21 in Glens Falls. The Marauders reached that level last sea-son, before being defeated in the semi-final game against eventual State Champion Maple Grove.

The Marauders, who im-proved to (21-0) on the this magical season, appeared from the opening tip to have a huge size advantage over the Indians.

That being said, Mills had to be mighty taken back by the overall team speed and flat out gutsy play by the kids from the north country.

Matt Welch’s field goal,

w i t h just 4 seconds remain-ing in the first quarter, capped a 9-0 Mills run that sent the State’s #1 ranked team to the first break with a 15-9 lead.

Prior to the big run for New York Mills, the big story of the opening period was the resilience of Lyme’s players and their willingness to go right at Mills big men Russ, Welch and Jeff Albright.

In fact, 5’8” Dakota Booth tied the game midway through the first and the huge Mills crowd was all but silenced.

The Marauders started the second quarter with a 7-0 run, increasing their lead to 22-9 with 6:15 to go before half time, when Fred Russ dished off a slick pass be-hind Indians defender Cory Walker, right to Welch, who laid it in for the bucket.

The Marauders built their biggest lead of the half, 14 points, in the second quarter

and Welch scored 6 of his 24 points in the second frame to lead the Marauders to a 30-20 half time lead over the pesky Indians.

The third quarter saw Mills build a 15 point lead, with 2:15 to go in the 3rd, when JT Ross was fouled, made both free throws and hit a runner on his next trip down the floor to give the Marauders a 41-26 lead.

Ross finished with 14 points on the evening. The Marauders found themselves in unfamiliar territory late in the third quarter as Fred Russ spent some time on the bench with 3 personals.

The never say die Lyme Indians took full advantage of the big fella’s absence and went on a 5-0 run to close the gap to 43-31 after three quarters.

With just about everyone, except perhaps the bus driv-er from Lyme, in foul trouble

in the fourth quarter, the Indians still managed to dis-rupt and completely annoy the much bigger Marauders for the final 8 minutes.

The game was not really put away for New York Mills until Matt Welch canned a long three pointer from the corner with 1:44 remaining to give Mills a 14 point ad-vantage.

A cool, calm and collected JT Ross made 4 consecutive free throws down the stretch to ice the Marauders 11th overall Section III boy’s bas-ketball championship.

The Marauders, ranked #1 in the state in the lat-est polls, and winners of 44 of their last 45 games, had to come up big in a frantic fourth quarter, when the Indians, led by the coaches kid Troy Wilson, heated up, as Lyme kept wacking away at a double-digit defi-cit, but could never get over the hump or through rugged Mills front line.

Lyme finished their season at (15-5) and were knocked out of Sectional play for the third time in as many seasons by New York Mills. Troy Wilson led Lyme with 15 points tonight, while Cory Walker added 10 in the losing effort.

New York Mills contin-ues their quest for their first state championship since 1982, after falling just short last season.

Tonight’s win gave the tra-diton rich basketball school its third straight Class D Section III title and 11th overall, a record for fans to be proud of.

Marauders junior center Matt Welch (52) locks on the target.


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KNIGHTS FEEL FREE TO TOE THE LINE-BEAT PROCTOR TO WIN CLASS AA CROWNRaiders Fall In ot thriller Season Ends one Step ShortBy FRED MILLER/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/6

Tevin chisholm #4 drives to the hole as #41 T’andre richardson and #22 Maurice richardson defend.

The best things in life are free! There is no such thing as a free lunch. Feel

free to help yourself. Get my drift? After all of the drama that unfolded at the Aud in Utica on Saturday night during Henninger’s thrill-ing 73-69 overtime win over Proctor, it all got back to the basics.

After all the dives for loose balls, after all the clutch shots flicked into the night, by Proctor’s Jayson Jackson and Henninger’s Terrell Nel-son, this battle, for the ages between two rivals, who al-ways seem to find a way to play a game of high stakes poker on the hardwood, came down to a simple thing. Free throws.

They don’t call them free for nothing! Henninger’s Black Knights drilled theirs home and Proctor struggled mightily to take advantage of their free throw opportu-nities.

Funny how this all worked out. At one end of the court, foul problems made coach Erik Saroney work overtime, no pun intended, to try and figure out how to get enough players on the court to finish the game, as three key con-tributors, Marquies Young, Kavon DeLee and Markell Stith all fouled out before the Section III banner was unfurled.

On the night, Proctor, who lost by a mere four points in overtime, shot just about fifty percent from the line, 17-of 33, while Henninger was a red hot, 26 of 33, from the so called “charity stripe” to seal the deal and add an-other compelling chapter to this amazing hoops rivalry. How about 10 of 12 from the line in overtime?

How big were the free throws down the stretch? How about the fact that 17 of

Henninger’s 29 points in the fourth quarter and the extra session came form the line?

Tevin Chisholm, who loved it when the Raiders fouled him, scored 12 of his 18 points from the free throw line. Chisholm was a perfect four for four in the first half and made eight straight with the game on the line.

It’s also funny how life can offer individuals a chance to become instant heroes as they are placed in situations they are not accustomed to.

This as the case tonight for big broad shouldered, #35, Terrell Nelson, who was the center of attention be-cause the core of the Black Knights scoring leaders were riding pine because of foul trouble.

Nelson made the most of his sudden leadership role scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half and overtime to end up being named Class AA Tournament MVP. Nel-son even banged home a big three when his team needed one most.

Speaking of being needed most. How about the night Proctor senior guard Jay-son Jackson had. Talk about clutch. Talk about a player asking to carry the team on his slender shoulders. Jack-son put on one of the most inspirational clutch shoot-ing performances, down the stretch, that I have ever seen.

When Proctor needed points to kill a Knights run or put his team on top, Jay-son was the man. Three of the three’s came with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.

Not only were they three’s, Jackson was so far away from the basket when he dispensed his daggers that fans could not help explod-ing with emotion each time he flicked his right wrist.

Jayson Jackson went out in style, posting a team high 19 points for Proctor. Walk-ery Mills contributed 10, Maurice Mills 13 and De-Quan Jefferson 10, as Proc-tor fought back all night long only to see the parade of free throws end with Henninger nailing four straight to break a 69-69 tie with 27.4 seconds left in the extra four minute period.

It was painful for the Raid-ers to watch, but watch they did as their season ended without an elusive Section III title.

Jackson and his fellow seniors, Walkery Mills, De-Quann Jefferson, Wendall Wright, T’Andre Richardson, and Keenan Brown wanted this one bad.

The emotion was shown each time Jackson drilled a key three as he thumped his heart with his fist after each picture perfect follow through.

It was the sixth post sea-son meeting in eight years for Proctor and Henninger, their fourth in the champi-onship game.

This one started out in the usual fashion, as both teams and coaching staffs tried to set the tempo and tone. Proc-tor, using the energy of the amped up Raider Nation, jumped out on top 8-4, just three minutes in, as Jackson hit from the key.

Henninger got into the swing of things taking a 15-14 lead on a Kavon Delee free throw with 1:30 left in the first. Delee stayed hot, fin-ishing the first with a three point play, as the Knights led 18-16.

Henninger felt the mojo and kept up the pressure, building a solid 35-27 lead on Norm’s crew at the half. The eight point lead was the biggest of the night for ei-ther squad and came on the

strength of an 8-1 run.Walkery Mills scored five

of his 10 points in the sec-ond to help the Raiders stay close to the upstart Black Knights. This crew from the Cuse only starts one senior, Markell Stith.

As you would expect from a team with so much heart, Proctor rallied and rallied strong to tie it up after three, 44-44. It was more of Jayson Jackson’s high wire act, as he launched a long one, a three ball, to tie it at the buzzer.

Also credit the well known Raider defense for holding Henninger to just 9 third quarter points and help them grab momentum back.

Maurice Mills played the role of a microwave, heating up the night with five quick points of his own to keep the rally alive.

Here’s where Proctor’s fifty percent from the free throw line would come back to haunt the Raiders.

After a knock-down, drag-out, fourth quarter, Walkery Mills had a chance to give his team a late one point lead with 15.9 seconds to go, as he was fouled by Terrell Nelson.

Proctor led 60-59 when Jayson Jackson thumped his chest after a three with :59 seconds left in regula-tion.

Mills made one and missed one to tie things up

at 61-61. Henninger had one more chance, but could not score as we headed to the deciding four minute extra session.

Terrell Nelson, the game’s hero, had a chance at the buzzer, but missed from three and Markell Stith tried a put back that fell short, as the horn sounded to beckon overtime.

DeQuan Jefferson gave Proctor a 64-61 lead with a long range three in OT, with three minutes left, but the lead did not hold up.

Speaking of the lead, Jay-son Jackson made it 67-64 with a bomb that followed Jefferson’s, just before the final parade to the free throw line started.

We were tied at 69-69 when the Raiders scoring ended for the evening, as their rally fell short.

Free throw shooting was key for Henninger in the ex-tra session, as the Knights hit 10 of 12 in overtime. Ex-cept for a rebound basket by the big guy, Terrell Nelson, all of Henninger’s points in overtime came from the foul line.

We already know how that turned out. The Raid-ers season ends all too suddenly with a record of 18-3, while the 18-3 Black Knights take home a Sec-tion III title and move on to regional play next week.


KNIGHTS DAY TURNS NIGHTMARISH AS CATS CLAW TO 2-1 DI WINtwo Late West Genesee Goals Ruin Roman holidayBy FRED MILLER/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 2/27

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A more perfect script could not have been written by coach Greg Cuth-

bertson, as his RFA Black Knights had skated to a 1-0 lead and followed his lead and script to the precipise of the tradition rich hockey school’s first Section III crown since 1999. Two late West Genesee goals, the last scored by John Sabert, to give his team an unimaginable 2-1 lead with 2:08 left to go.

The goal left a stunned RFA cheering section feel-ing that Steven King, and not coach Cuthbertson, had written the script that was played out at the Aud in Uti-ca, in today’s Section III DI high school hockey final.

A storybook beginning turned into the Steven Kingesque ending as the fi-nal horn sounded to end to-day’s drama filled contest. For the first 35 minutes the RFA Black Knights had giv-en the defending Divison I State, and defending Section III champs, all they could handle and then some.

The 18-2 Wildcats skated into the Aud as “the” team to beat. West Genny had laid waste to 13 straight op-ponents and had won their last 10 games by a margin of 66-6. The script that long-time head coach Frank Co-labufo uses is based on di-sipline and great defensive play, the rest will work itself out.

The (18-2-2) Cats and their “tenacious D” had shut out eight of their last nine straight opponents. As you know, “offense sells tickets and defense wins champion-ships”. So that’s the script the Cats would try to use and act out at the Aud.

For the Black Knights also (18-2-2) their script, that had them unbeaten in their last

20 games, was built around their high scoring first line anchored by Max Bartell, TJ and Garrett Reilley. This trio had given opposing net-minders nightmares all sea-son long.

We expected more of the same today, but were com-pletely fooled as the Romans appeared to be the more disiplined, deliberate and destined to win team. It was netminder Anthony D’Urso who was outplaying sopho-more sensation, West Gene-see, goalie Jacob Pelton.

It was the Rome defensive core anchored by senior Kyle Williams and, young gun, Joey Rutkowski that had flipped the script on the Cats and acted like the unit that would bring home the hard-ware.

For 35 of the 40 minutes of regulation alloted to high school hockey players, it was all systems go for RFA.

Period one went exactly according to the, flipped, script as Anthony D’Urso stoned John Lauer from in close, with 12:30 left in the opening period. The refs let ‘em play as only one penalty was called in the first.

John Sabert, remember that name, picked up a pen-alty with 4:01 left in the first, as RFA had a shot to take an early lead with the extra skater.

Joey Rutkowski rocketed a one-timer from the point only to be turned away by Pelton. TJ Reilley beat ev-eryone up ice and almost found the range from point blank range with :59 ticks left on the Aud clock. Once again,the cubic inch eating, netminder made the save.

After one, no score, as both teams left the ice acting like they had to take their cous-ins to the Senior Ball. By the way, West Genesee outshot

RFA 11/10 in the first.With the tempo in their

favor, the Black Knights kept the heat on, the purring, kit-ten like Cats who looked te-native to this point.

The pressure finally paid off with 10:16 remaining in period two, as RFA’s Seth McCormick, a freshmen forward, found the range to make it 1-0, RFA. Kyle Willliams and Mike Pekar-ski picked up assists on the game’s first goal. The huge throng of RFA faithful went nuts, as their Knights con-tinued to shine.

Senior forward Josh Du-quette almost knotted things up with :55 seconds left in the second, as D’Urso stopped a shot taken from point blank range. The frustrated Cats trailed 1-0 after two and de-spite outshooting RFA by a big margin in the period still trailed 1-zip. Afer two shots on goal, West Genesee 22, RFA 12.

The first ten minutes of the third and final period brought us more of the same as both teams teased there fans and failed to score. De-spite only leading by a goal, RFA seemed to be in com-plete control of the game, their script and destiny.

Sometimes a date with destiny can change on a dime, or in this case on a weird bounce of a hockey puck.

With just under five min-utes to go, the puck took a strange carom off a Black Knight stick and found its way on to the waiting stick of senior forward Nick Hol-zhauer, one of the Cats big

rFa’s Seth Mccormick (14) back hands home the game’s first goal, past stunned West Genesee goalie Jacob Pelton (35).

guns, who broke free and headed for the RFA net on a breakaway.

Just as Holzhauer skated in and got ready to shoot, Kyle Williams did what good defensemen do, stop the shot. Problem is, Williams got whistled for a penalty at the 4:45 mark and West Genesee was suddenly on the power play.

The wheels started to fall off the wagon, as Nick Bo-nanza took a penalty with 3:15 left.

Tear up the script. The game changed for good as #3 Shawn Lynch scored from in close to make it 1-1 with just 3:08 left to go. Eric Kurz and Nick Holzhauer earned assists on the tide turning tally.

Just :60 seconds later, the Knights night was just about done when John Sa-bret let a onetimer go that whizzed past D’Urso and sent the West Genny fans into a feeding Frenzy, as the power play goal put the Cats up 2-1. Robbie Michel picked up a helper on the tourney winning goal.

RFA, now down for the frist time and hanging on for dear life, gave it everything they had. They pulled the goalie in the final minute to add an extra attacker and al-most sent this, riveting real life drama, into overtime.

With six skaters on the ice and just under :50 seconds left, in the season, senior for-ward Max Bartell skated up ice with every ounce of ener-gy he could muster and beat the Cats back. Bartell willed his way into position to di-

rect the puck to his linemate, and fellow senior, TJ Reilley to score what appeared to be the game tying goal with 42.5 seoconds left.

As TJ raised his stick, the offical raised his arms and waived off the goal that turned out not to be a goal.

After what seemed to be an eternity, the call was up-held and the Knights dreams were dashed as the final sec-onds sped off the clock and burned away, leading to the improbable come back for West Genesee.

I heard the explanation of the wave off and still don’t understand it, so why bother to try and explain it. The goal that got away will be talked about for years to come by RFA fans.

A great season ended all too suddenly for RFA at 18-3-2. West Genesee, now 19-2-2 moves on to Regional play next week, with back to back Section III crowns in tow.

rFaSeth Mccormick-1 goalMike Pekarski-1 assistKyle Williams- 1 assistanthony D’urso 28 saves

West GeneseeShawn Lynch-1 goalJohn Sabret-1 goalrobbie Michel-1 assisteric Kurz-2 assistsNick holzhauer 1 assitJake Pelton-16 saves

Scoring Summary


LAKERS STAY PERFECT-TOP CLINTON 6-0 FOR SECTION III DII TITLEWarriors Season Ends With 17-5 RecordBy JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 2/27


cazenovia’s Lucas catania (17) digs for a loose puck in front of clinton goalie cory harris (33) during second period action.

The Cazenovia Lak-ers run for ice hockey perfection continued today at

the Aud in Utica, as the boys in gold and blue defeated Clinton 6-0. The win was Cazenovia’s 22nd straight without a loss and earned the Lakers the Section III, Division II Championship.

The resurgent Clinton Warriors entered action at the Utica Aud today on a roll, having rolled a lucky sev-en, winning seven straight games including a playoff opening 5-3 win over Oswego on Wednesday night.

The Warriors rolled snake eyes when they entered the fray against the machine-like Lakers who go about their business like they know the outcome before the game happens.

A huge throng of Maroon and white clad Clinton fans headed home shaking their heads wondering what the number of the yellow and blue bus was that ran over around and through their team.

After falling to two-time champs New Hartford in last year’s final Caz agreed to a mission statement that stated this would be their year.

Well you know what? Mis-sion statement accomplished as the Lakers were just too much for the Warriors to handle.

Joe Nardella’s 10th tally of the season, a wrister from just inside the right faceoff circle, got the Lakers started this afternoon with 9:25 re-maining in the first period.

Nardella’s goal came af-ter eleven straight shots on Clinton goalie Cory Harris, as opposed to just one by the Warriors to that point.

To make matters worse for Clinton, Caz’s first goal came on the heels of a Clin-ton power play which yielded not a single shot on goal.

Lakers winger John Greacen made it 2-0 at the 10:49 mark of the opening period, when he took a pass from teammate Lucas Cata-nia and fired a laser beam over Harris’ glove shoulder for the score.

Trailing 2-0, it looked as if Clinton was going to climb back into it when War-riors sophomore Jack Zoller picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and raced in on the Cazenovia goal just :11 seconds after Graecen’s score.

Just before letting his shot go, Zoller was tripped from

behind by Sean Cannizarro, causing him to crash into the left goal post. Cannizzaro was called for tripping on the play, but Zoller’s season was finished, as he left the game with a severe ankle injury.

The Warriors were unable to capitalize on the power play and Cazenovia took a 2-0 lead into the first inter-mission. The Lakers also owned a 13-3 advantage in shots on goal.

The second period saw the Lakers, who entered the game with an amazing 102 goals on offense this season, strike again quickly.

Just 1:37 into the middle frame Lucas Catania beat Harris to make it 3-0 Lak-ers and all but silencing the huge contingent of Clinton faithful.

Just over three minutes later, Cazenovia’s Ben Gara lit the lamp again to make it 4-0. Gara, the DII Co-Player of the year attempted an old fashioned wrap around from behind the net and got some luck when his shot deflected off a Clinton defender and into the Warriors goal.

Already up 4-0, Cata-nia scored his second of the game at the 6:31 mark of the second period, off a pass from Jeff Stowell to increase the Laker lead to 5-0.

Connor Cannizaro also picked up an assist on Caz’s fifth goal. The Lakers would take the five goal lead into the second intermission.

Cory Harris accumulated 23 saves through two peri-ods, while Lakers netminder Mason Powell made 9 saves for Lakers, New York State’s

#1 ranked Division II hockey team entering today’s ac-tion.

The third period wasn’t any kinder to Clinton, as Brian Gara netted his sec-ond goal of the contest 3:10 into the final period to make it 6-0 Lakers.

Sam Lewis and Joe Nardella picked up the as-sists on Gara’s goal, which erased any doubt as to the outcome of this one.

Despite fighting right to the final whistle, Clinton wasn’t able to muster a goal

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cazenoviabrian Gara-2 goals 1 assistJon Greacan-2 goalsLucas catania- 1 goal-1 assistJoey Nardella-1 goal-1 assistSam Lewis- 1 assistconnor cannizzaro-2 assistsJeffery Stowell-1 assist

Scoring Summary

in the third period and the Lakers took home the Sec-tion 3 crown by a final score of 6-0.

Cory Harris finished the game with 35 saves, while Mason Powell stopped all 16 shots he faced this after-noon.

First year head coach John Hughes and his Clin-ton Warriors, who entered today’s action as the State’s 8th ranked team, finished a great season at (17-5).

Today’s win for Caz was the third straight for the Lakers over the Warriors having swept their two regu-lar season matchups and to-day’s title tilt.

Cazenovia improves to (22-0) and will begin State Regional play this coming week against an opponent from Section V.

clinton’s Jake bialek (16) puts a big hit on cazenovia’s ben Gara (21).


SOMETHING

FOR EVERYONE AT:

BLACK KNIGHTS RIP NORTHSTARS 9-3 ADVANCE TO SECTION III-D1 FINALtJ Reilley Monster Energy Drink Player of the GameBy FRED MILLER/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 2/23


rome’s Garrett reilley (10) readies to tip a shot from the point during second period action as a host of cNS defenders hone in.For the first time

in more than a decade, the Rome Free Academy

Black Knights will be play-ing for a Section III Hockey Championship. The Knights punched their ticket to the Section III Division I finale with a convincing 9-3 win over the Cicero North Syra-cuse Northstars tonight at a jam packed Kennedy Arena.

Up next is a Saturday af-ternoon at 3:00PM date with destiny.The Knights, who improved to (18-2-2) on the season, were led by senior co-captain T.J. Reilley, who notched 4 points on the eve-ning, with a hat trick and an assist.

RFA entered tonight’s semi-finals ranked 7th in the New York State Sports-

writers poll and ran their unbeaten streak to 20 games over the course of their last 20 starts, going (18-0-2) dur-ing that span.

When the fast and physi-cal 45 was over the ‘Stars were wondering if anyone got the license plate number of the semi that just ran them out of playoff contention.

The last time the Knights suffered a loss was back on 12/11/10, against Section IV’s Gates-Chile, by a score of 2-1.

After scoring a convinc-ing 5-2 quarterfinal victory over Solvay last Friday on their home ice, the Knights welcomed every Rome Citi-zen and former player back into JFK this evening, rais-ing the attendance level to maximum capacity.

The Romans didn’t disap-point the huge home crowd, as Max Bar-tell picked up where he left off last Friday and got the Knights out to a 1-0 lead at the 10:38 mark of the opening period.

B a r t e l l tipped home a shot from the

point by defenseman Kyle Willams for the game’s first score. Williams earned an as-sist on the Bartell redirect.

Rome made it a two goal advantage with just 19.1 sec-onds remaining in the first period when Mike Pekarski survived a scrum in front of the CNS net and shoved a shot past Northstars goalie Zach Hall to make it 2-0 home team, which is the way we’d go to the first intermis-sion.

Speaking of Mike’s, Mike Seifert dished out an assist on the tally.

Matt Fiume got the fourth seeded Northstars on the board in the early going of the second period, when CNS’ strategy of trying to drop a forward behind the RFA defense in the neutral

zone finally paid off.Brian Hamilton hit a

streaking Fiume with a pass just outside the Knights zone and Fiume took it all the way in and beat RFA goalie Anthony D’Urso as he was being dragged down by two RFA defenders.

Fiume’s goal came at the 2:52 mark of the second peri-od and breathed life into an otherwise stagnant offense to that point.

Any momentum the Northstars enjoyed was quickly dashed just a few minutes later however when Max Bartell struck again from in front of the CNS net to make it 3-1 at the 6:52 mark of the middle stanza.

Brothers Garrett and T.J. Reilley gathered assists on Bartell’s second goal and the Knights were once again in control.

Tim Philley increased that control level for RFA just 1:13 later when the se-nior beat Zach Hall to up the Knights lead to 4-1, just about raising the roof off the Kennedy Arena!

The Northstars did find some reason to believe near the end of the period when defenseman Nick Hall fired a shot from the point during a CNS powerplay, which de-flected off the stick of RFA’s Kyle Williams and through the pads of D’Urso to pull the visitors to within 4-2 with just 1:02 remaining in the second period. The brothers Hamilton, Brian and Ham-ilton assisted on the goal for CNS.

Not to be outdone, T.J. Reilley notched his second goal of the game with just

16.5 seconds remaining in the second fifteen, on a beau-tiful pass from his younger brother Garrett from behind the CNS goal to make it 5-2, an advantage the Knights would never relinquish.

The Knights got goals from TJ Reilley, Pekarski, Philley and Seth McCormick in the third period, while CNS got a goal from senior captain Brian Hamilton in the final frame en route to the Black Knights 9-3 victory.

Anthony D’Urso, Rome’s ever so solid netminder, stopped 22 of 25 shots he faced on the evening, four of which robbed CNS of near certain scores from point blank range in the second period. Zach Hall and Sean Black combined for 25 saves in the losing effort.

CNS finished their season at (14-8-1). Congratulations to Brian Hamilton, who end-ed the season with 65 points, first overall in Section III Di-vision 1 this season.

Monster energy Drink Player of the Game T.J. reilley.


KNIGHTS-NIGHTRFA CRUISES TO DI SEMI-FINAL BEAT SOLVAY 5-2Max Bartell Nets hat trick to Earn Monster Energy Drink Player of the Game honorsBy FRED MILLER/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 2/19


rFa’s Nick bonanza (21) lays a hit on Solvay’s ben carrock (25) during second period play.Max, Momentum

and Mojo. The three M’s that sort of sum up

the current state of affairs surrounding the Rome Free Academy Black Knights hockey team. Let’s start with Max. Max Bartell the senior co-captain earned a well deserved hat trick scoring three goals to lead his team to a dominating 5-2 win over a rattled bunch of Solvay Bearcats.

Max also earned the Mon-ster Energy Drink Player of the game award for his ef-forts, as MHTS visited Rome for the Section III tourney opener.

Momentum, the second M. RFA now has plenty of that, this team has a certain swagger that matches the talent that rounds out this well balanced roster and cer-tainly matches up with their #7 state ranking and #2 seed in the Section III Tourna-ment.

Momentum with a Capital M, as RFA heads into next week’s DI Semi-final having won 12 straight and now be-ing unbeaten in their last 19 games (17-0-2). That’s not

just hot, that’s white hot.Mojo, you have to have

“Mojo” on your side if you want to be champs. RFA has plenty of that as well and the Black Knights continue to “mo” down any team that dares to get in its way.

The final score, flashing on the board at Bill Fleet Rink at JFK Arena in Rome, read 5-2, but it seemed more like 10-2 as the Knights domi-nated at both ends of the ice.

Solvay, who saw its season come to an end had traveled east, thinking they had a re-alistic shot at knocking off the Knights.

Why not? Coach John Campbell’s Bears were 6-2-1 in their last nine and had skated up and down with RFA before falling 5-4 in a game played on February 7th. The Cats led 4-3 in the third before the Romans ral-lied for the win. So much for momentum.

With fans waiting in an-ticipation, the Knights let them know early and often that it would be business as usual as they jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on the soon to be hibernating Bearcats.

You could tell Bartell would ring the bell on this night as, big, #19 skated in untouched and sent a sizzler at Solvay goalie Ryan Bonk. Bonk made one of his 30 saves on the night, refusing to let Bartell beat him just :45 seconds in.

Problem is, Bartell and his high flying line were on a mission and with just 2:20 off the clock Bartell took a great feed from Nick Bonanza and beat the netminder, from in close, to make it 1-0 just like that.

It became two zip Ro-mans just a short time later, as senior forward Nick Tar-dugno gobbled up an errant

pass, that went astray, at center ice. Tardugno dashed for the cash and de-ked right then shot left to give RFA a 2-0 lead with 10:47 left in the opening period.

The shocked Bearcats were a bundle of nerves as the jammed packed JFK

Arena started to rock. A string of RFA penal-

ties was the only thing that slowed the Roman’s down, but the Knight’s special teams was up to the task killing a 5 on 4 then 5 on 3, Solvay advantage, to keep the Cats at bay.

RFA started the second period shorthanded again, but it didn’t seem that way as senior TJ Reilley leapt from the RFA bench and on to the ice only to find the puck waiting for him to ma-neuver on to his stick blade and then break free toward a busy Ryan Bonk.

Reilley snuck it past Bonk to score an unassisted goal and make it 3-0 RFA with 13:25 yet to go in the second.

This third goal was just too much for the visitors to overcome. After two domi-nating periods of play the Romans had out shot the visitors 29-9.

The third period helped Max Bartell wrap up Mon-ster Energy Drink Player of the game honors as he scored an unassisted goal just 1:55 into the third and then wrapped up the Roman Orgy scoring with just under ten minutes to go to put the game away at 5-0.

Solvay’s David Graf scored twice, late, to give his team a reason to smile on the ride into the off season as the game closed out with RFA winning 5-2. The sec-ond Graf goal came with just 1.6 seconds left in the game. RFA out shot Solvay 35-13 on the night of the Knights.

Back to the mojo. Parents, fans and supporters of the program feel it is their time to get some back and for their Knights to win the tradition rich programs, first Section III crown since 1991. Heck, the Knights are just one win

away from the Section III finals, a spot they haven’t landed in since 2000.

All the ingredients are there. Great goal tending from Junior Anthony D’Urso, who was only tested 13 times by the bewildered Bears. Two late goals were surrendered by D’Urso but the outcome was well in hand, as RFA led 5-0. D’Urso’s 2.25 goals against average is above av-erage.

The netminders defensive core often makes him look like a lonely man on a desert-ed island as they keep teams bottled up, or stand them up, at the blue line. Junior Ryan Reilley is one of the team’s top defensemen and is joined by Kyle and Tyler Williams and freshmen, All-Star, Joey Rutkowski and sophomore Nick Bonanza to form a for-midable defensive core.

Some fans say that of-fense sell tickets and defense wins championships. Hard to say who would be right if you argue about this year’s Knights. How many teams can trot out a line like Bar-tell, Reilley and Reilley?

The brothers Reilley, TJ has 24 goals, 18 assists and 42 points, while Garret has 22 goals, 25 assists and 47 points. Linemate Max Bar-tell has 26 goals, 17 assists and 43 points. RFA has out-scored its opponents 112-44 this season, so pick your poi-son, get beat by the prolific offense or succumb to the air tight defense.

The next team to try and solve the puzzle and try and mess with the mojo will be the CNS Northstars who

eliminated Hamilton on Fri-day night 4-2. The matchup with the #2 seed RFA and #3 seed CNS will take place on Tuesday night.

RFA and CNS got togeth-er earlier this season and the Knights skated to a 5-2, there’s that mojo again, win over the Stars in a league matchup.

rFa senior captain Max bartell, Monster energy Drink Player of the Game.

SolvayDavid Graf-2 goalsDan Scanlon-1 assistcasey Mchale-1 assist

rFaMax bartell-3 goalsTJ reilley-1 goal-1 assistNick Tardugno-1 goalNick bonanza-2 assistsMike Seifert-1 assistGarrett reilley-1 assist

Scoring Summary

rome’s Max bartell (19) reacts to his second goal of the game, giving his club a 4 goal advantage over Solvay.


SECTION III CELEBRATION MHTS SALUTES TEAMS WHO TOOK

PART IN THE POST-SEASON! WAY TO GO AND JOB WELL DONE!


25 capardo DriveWhitesboro, New york [email protected]

Jeff Pexton


hIGh SchOOL hOOPS

MILLS BROTHERS HELP RAIDERS SING A HAPPY TUNE - PROCTOR 49 CBA 40Maurice Mills Monster Energy Drink Player of the GameBy JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/2

Proctor junior Maurice Mills (33) leans in for a second quarter shot.

Show of hands. How many people out there get the ref-erence to the Mills

Brothers? Ok, I figured we should start with a musi-cal reference when talking about the Proctor Raiders thrilling, 49-40, win over a determined bunch of Broth-ers from Christian Brothers Academy.

Tuesday night’s melo-dra-ma, played out at the War-rior Dome in Whitesboro, was, afterall, choreographed like a modern day opera, and happily for the Raider Nation, the “fat lady” got to sing when one of the Mills Brothers, Maurice, gave the Raiders a six point, two pos-session lead, with just under two minutes to play.

The brothers Mills, and the rest of the Raiders band of brothers, refused to be de-nied another date with des-tiny in the Section III Class AA Championship game, to be played on Saturday at the Utica Auditorium.

As an opera script would have it, the fickle finger of fate decided to poke the collective eyes of the CNS Northstars, who supris-ingly lost to Henninger in Tuesday’s other semi-final. Wasn’t the aria that was to be sung at the Aud, one about “the rematch”, you know, the one that featured Proctor and CNS dueling it out once again for a shot at a Section III “banner shot”.

Didn’t we all long for a chance to see if the, refuse to loose, Raiders could fi-nally solve the puzzle that was the CNS Northstars? Who can forget last year’s title game at the same Aud the Raiders will be playing at on Saturday?

Who can forget the fact that at (18-2) the Raiders, winners of 17 of their last 18, would not get a chance at redemption against the team that has handed them

their only two L’s on the schedule?

Back to the Mills broth-ers. Senior Walkery, who definately does not want to put the balls away without a Section III crown, scored 16 big ones and junior, Maurice was a force all night long scoring 13 points of his own, grabbing six boards and blocking two shots. Twenty nine points from the dy-namic duo helped the Raid-ers stave off a formidable opponent in CBA.

As you know, much has been written and much has been said about the fact that Norm Stamboli’s team is just that, a team. A congre-gation of unselfish players who give up their own glory for the good of the collective group.

It took all the teamwork this unit could muster to put away the Brothers.

T’Andre Richardson got into the act, scoring five straight points in the third to give the Raiders their first lead of the night, during a long uphill climb past CBA. A Richardson three put Proc-tor up, 27-24, with 7:52 left in the third. A Richardson put back tied things up at, 24-24.

Seizing momentum and taking advantage of CBA’s, lumberjack sized center, Greg Thompson’s foul trou-ble, he picked up his third with 1:37 left in the third, the Raiders and their rau-cous fans began to believe in a date with destiny.

Thompson, who also plays tight end on the football field, and is headed to Tu-lane in the fall, was missed sorely by his mates and Proctor took advantage by owning the glass down the stretch. Wendell Wright and the Mills brothers started to hold the visitors to one and done and more importantly scored off putbacks on the offense side.

Despite the foul trouble CBA refused to fold and both teams headed to the final eight minutes tied at, 34-34.

While the Raiders offense was playing catch up all night long, the defense was doing what it always does, keep the team in the game. Talk about defense. Proctor held CBA to 10 points in the third and a measly six in the fourth and deciding quarter. A subtle switch to a 2-3 zone defense by the Raiders had a lot to do with the CBA poor offensive showing down the stretch.

A Walkey Mills three point play, the old fashioned way, gave Proctor a, 39-37, lead with five minutes left to go.

Shakir Evans, who scored 14 to lead the Brothers, hit a free throw to pull CBA to within two, 40-38, with four

minutes left.Walkery Mills was there

again pushing the lead to four, 44-40, with 2:30 re-maining. Greg Thompson bulled his way to the bucket to give his team a chance at, 42-40.

The problem for coach Buddy Wlekinski and com-pany is that, that was it. More points they could not muster as Proctor outscored CBA 7-0 to close out the hard fought win.

Our Monster Energy Drink Player of the game, Maurice Mills, hit the big-gest bucket of the night with 1:47 left, to stretch the lead to six, 46-40.

The rest, as they say, is history. The final was, 49-40, and it sets up the Saturday showdown with the Hen-ninger Black Knights (17-3). Proctor has already beaten the Black Knights twice this season. Is the third time the charm? The Raider Nation hopes so!

Early on it looked like the Brothers would be a tough out. Rob Cuomo, a lefty sharpshooter, scored all ten of his points in the first half to help his team race out to a 7-2 lead.

Wendell Wright bulled his way through the lane for a hoop, as Proctor rallied to

close out the first down, 13-10.

Another Cuomo three ball put CBA up four, 20-16, until Chris Simmons put one back to tie it at, 20-20. Shakir Evans sent CBA to the locker room up just two, 24-22.

The loss ends CBA’s sea-son with a mark of (16-4). CBA entered the tourney as the number four seed and beat Auburn in the open-ing round of the Section III Tournament.

Proctor, the number one seed, has now defeated FM and CBA to get a shot at the crown on Saturday.

Proctor senior Walkery Mills (20) flies to an easy lay in off the opening tip.

Maurice Mills-Monster energy Drink Player of the game.


hIGh SchOOL hOOPS

LADY RAIDERS STING HORNETS ADVANCE TO CLASS AA FINALSBri Kiesel Monster Energy Drink Player of the GameBy FRED MILLER/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/2

Proctor’s bri Kiesel (3) and barrie brooks (30), share a “senior moment” at midcourt as the victory was in sight.

They came, they saw, they conquered. The Proctor Raid-ers (18-2) girls

basketball team felt right at home at Whitesboro’s War-rior Dome as they ran past, leapt over and out muscled the Fayetteville-Manilus Hornets winning, 59-33, to set up a Sunday showdown against the state’s #7 ranked, Class AA, CNS Northstars who rolled over CBA, 72-26, in last night’s other semi-final.

With their ticket punched to the finals, at the Utica Au-ditorium, this Sunday after-noon at 5:30PM Coach Vinny Perrotta and his staff can turn their sights toward the stars. The literal and figura-tive stars.

Two stars will definitely shine bright, on the big stage, as CNS (18-2) and UCONN bound Breanna Stewart head east on the Thruway to take on the Proctor Raid-ers and their Division I star, Pittsburgh bound, Bri Kiesel in a winner takes all grudge match.

Proctor can approach Sunday’s title tilt with more than just a dash of confi-dence as they have now won 15 straight games and are

ranked 23rd in the state as they prepare to take on the two-time defending Section III Champs. Sunday’s ap-pearance in the finals with be Proctor’s first ever.

Will it be the inside prow-ess of Stewart, or the mad dash for the cash of our Mon-ster Energy Drink Player of the game Bri Kiesel, who shines brightest in the battle of the on to next level stars. Kiesel was more than im-pressive, against FM, pour-ing in 24 points, coming up with 10 steals and dishing out four assists.

Stewart scored 18 as her Northstars cruised past CBA, on the way to their 10th straight win, and Kiesel raced to 24 points as her Raiders also cruised past FM in their Tuesday test. Something has to give. Join us on Sunday to see who says Uncle, first.

Don’t get me wrong, Proc-tor is not a one man band. Kiesel gets plenty of help from a deep and talented ros-ters. Just ask head coach Vin-ny Perrotta. Vinny was happy to talk about just that on our broadcast post game show. In a five minute interview the Proctor head coach used the word team about five times.

On Tuesday, Sarina Olds chipped in 9 points, Cara Mootz had 9, all from behind the three point line. Kierra Arthur scored 5 and Barrie Brooks 4.

For the Hornets, Ali Plis-ka, who can play on my team anytime, led the way with 15. Lauren Getman pumped in 9 and Kiley Shoemaker scored 8, as the game FM squad fought hard all four quarters.

As impressive as the Raid-ers looked on the offensive end of the court, it was their intimidating pressure packed defensive effort that led Proc-tor to the easy win. The Raid-ers come at you in waves, off the bench, and their constant insertion of fresh legs wears

teams down.P r o c t o r

sent a loud statement in the direction of coach Scott DeForest and his green clad Hornets in regard to just how good their defense could and would be on this night.

FM could only muster up 5 points in the first 8 minutes, as Proctor raced out to a 15-5 lead after one quarter.

Bri Kiesel broke the ice to put Proctor up 2-0 and FM took its one and only lead 3-2 as junior Charlotte Beers canned a free throw.

Barrie Brooks got out fast on a break, thanks to the Radiers defensive prowess, to open it up, as Proctor led 11-3. Cara Mootz drilled a long three ball, as the Raid-ers went up big to stay 15-3.

Bri Kiesel, put the pedal down as she scored six quick points, as the lead continued to build, as the Raiders got easy clean looks at the hoop and FM struggled to get one open look.

Before you could blink, the lead ballooned to 17, when Bri scored with 3 minutes to go until the half. Speak-ing of the half, the Raid-ers sat down for a rest with an impressive 32-18 lead.

The second half was a showcase for the future Pitt Panther, as Bri Kie-sel made sure the hard work was done early, coming up with steal af-ter steal and breakaway buckets, as the always smiling, Raider scored 12 of her teams 23 points after the break.

It was a twenty point lead that stared the Hornets in the face, 48-28, with seven minutes to go in the fourth.

For the remainder of the quarter, the Raiders kept the pace and pres-sure up and cruised home with the impres-sive 55-39 win.

So on to round two of the heavyweight match-up between Proctor and CNS on Sunday. Back on December 12th, be-fore the Raiders got their groove on, CNS

beat them 61-45 at Proctor. Oh, by the way, Breanna Stewart scored 29 for CNS and Bri Kiesel scored 25 for

Proctor.Sunday’s Class AA Sec-

tion III showdown should be fun. See you there.

Monster energy Drink Player of the game-bri Kiesel.

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WARRIOR NATION CELEBRATION - NOW PLAYOFF ANTICIPATIONRyan Watson Monster Energy Drink Player of the GameBy FRED MILLER/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 3/2

New hartford forward Derek German (32) heads for the hole as Whitesboro’s Mike Sullivan (25) rises to meet the challenge.

The Warrior Dome was the “A-list” place to be on Thursday night,

as two longtime hoops rivals had the rafters rocking and knees knocking, as the New Hartford Spartans rallied from 18 down with less than three minutes left in the third quarter, to put a scare in the air that didn’t end un-til the coaches kid, Brendan Heitz, hit two free throws with 8.1 seconds left to help nail down a frenetic, 62-58, win over the Spartans.

The affects of the impend-ing full-moon, rafter shak-ing, music blaring on the “uber impressive” public address system, fans with skin coated in school colors, all gave this “play out the string” regular season-ender a surreal aura that had me wondering what in Sam Hill was going on.

All kidding aside, the joint was literally jumping, and the bleachers were bounc-ing, as fans from the two cross-town rivals reveled in the energy created on this chaotic occasion.

The stakes were high for coach John Randall and his, TVL East Divison winning, Spartans for a couple of rea-sons. One, beating Whites-boro twice in one season has to get you a free lunch at Cavallo’s, I would think.

Two, win #14, in the al-ways rugged Tri-Valley League, would have given the Spartans an extra jolt of confidence and a perfect record in league play. Three, a win would have let the air out of the blue balloons that festooned the joint on Senior Night.

It was not to be, as the Warrior Nation got to honor their own, in style, on their special night. Nine, that’s right nine, upperclassmen played their last regular sea-

son home game tonight. Sev-en of them were called upon to make big plays in the four quarter melodrama that un-folded before us.

Senior point-guard, Bren-dan Heitz, the coaches kid, made dad real proud when he sealed the deal from the free throw line, to give his Warriors a, two possession, four point lead as the clock had found its way down to 8.1 seconds left in the frantic fourth.

Oh, by the way, the two points from the line were the only points Heitz scored in the game. Talk about clutch!

Heitz cleanly drilled the first and then got “detwine” intervention as his second offering clanked off the rigid rim, shot straight up into the electricity filled air, hanging for what seemed an eternity, and then falling through to place the figurative dagger into the hearts of the slump shouldered Spartans.

It turned out to be a big win for the Warriors, as the

defending TVL East C h a m p s will head to the Sec-tion III t o u r n e y with a high seed and a bucket full of con-f i d e n c e , that will be needed to set up a

deep post-season run.A lot happened before the

final, fateful, 8.1, seconds came about. If you are a New Hartford fan you might want to turn away until we get to the 3:50 mark of the third. See you in a bit.

New Hartford grabbed the only lead it would enjoy, just four seconds in, as Rob-ert Broccoli, New Hartford’s leading scorer with 17 points, scored off the tip to make it 2-0, visitors.

Broccoli was the man, down the stretch, scoring 13 of his 17 in the frantic fourth, as New Hartford made a long climb back from 18 down.

Bradee Hotslag and Ryan Watson showed that they came to play, hitting from the field to give the Warriors a 7-4 lead that made its way to 9-4, as Mike Sullivan scored with 1:30 left in the first.

Sully did a lot of the dirty work, needed to assure this team would win, scoring 6 points grabbing a dozen boards and dishing out six big assists. Not a bad night Mike, way to go.

Watson was the heart and soul on Senior Night bulling his way to 17 big ones and hauling down 9 rebounds.

Whitesboro held a slim two point lead, 9-7, after one quarter. Vinny Servadio hit, for two of his 9 points, to tie it at 9 all. That’s when those wheels, we often hear of in sports, began to fall off the visitor’s wagon.

Dylan Gorski, who has a funky delivery, delivered a long three ball, one of his four on the night, to make it 12-9 Whitesboro. The long ball gave Gorski 3 of this 14 points and seemed to ignite the home team. How hot was Gorski? He drained three trey’s in less than two min-utes.

Before you could say,

“Turn that music down” Mike Bunal scored, on a back door cut to the hole, to give the Warriors a double-digit lead 23-13.

Bradee Hostslag, who was on fire from behind the arc, hit one of his four, to make it 31-19. The senior ended up with 14 points on the night. The half ended with the home team up 14.

It was more of the same in the third and the Spar-tans staggered around like punch drunk prize fighters. New Hartford almost went down for the count, trailing 47-29, after Bradee Hotslag launched another successful three ball.

Spartans coach John Ran-dall had seen and heard enough and called a timeout. What ever he said during the break seemed to have been heard loud and clear.

With just 1:30 left in the third the Spartans put on a spirited rally that saw them trail by just two, 60-58, as Derek German laid one in off the glass. Calvin Floyd scored 7 of his 10 points in the third to keep the Spartans in range. Without Floyd’s hero-ics, the rally might not have come about.

In the frantic fourth, just two Spartans scored, Rob-ert Broccoli and Derek Ger-man. Both seemed to feed off each other and pumped in 20 points to almost pull out the

comeback win.Broccoli poured in 13

down the stretch while Ger-man added 7 of his 16 when it counted.

As close as New Hartford came down the stretch, the big lead was just too much to overcome. When the horn sounded and the Spartans lost by four, their 9 game win streak was over and the need to start another one had ar-rived. New Hartford ends the regular season at 14-4 overall and 13-1 in league play.

The win improves Whites-boro’s record to 15-3 and 12-2 in the Tri-Valley League.

Both team’s await their playoff destinations and both look positioned to do some damage when the Section III tourney tips off.

Warriors guard brendan heitz (4) reels in a long pass with one hand and looks to dish it off during first quarter action.

Monster energy Drink Player of the Game - Whitesboro’s ryan Watson.


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LADY WARRIORS COMPLETE PERFECT REGULAR SEASONtop Rival Spartans 47-27 | Francesca Catroupe-Monster Energy Drink Player of the GameBy JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 2/18

Whitesboro’s Kayleigh camerota (24) drives for the basket as New hartford’s Kara Sellars (42) looks to get a piece of the ball.

New hartford’s Theano alvanos (12) looks to get the ball down low early in the second half.

The Whitesboro Lady Warriors capped a perfect regular sea-son (18-0) tonight

with a 47-27 victory over arch rival New Hartford at Whitesboro High School. Senior Francesca Cotrupe earned Monster Energy Drink Player of the Game honors with a game high 16 points to lead the Warriors, ranked #10 in the latest New York State Sportswriters As-sociation Class “A” Poll.

The early going in this one was indicative of your par for the course Warriors / Spartans matchup, with New Hartford jumping out to a 7-3 lead in the first four minutes, keyed by a long three pointer by Theano Al-vanos.

The Warriors found their groove late in the first peri-od, however, and finished the first quarter with a 6-0 run to take a 13-7 lead into the first break. Whitesboro ju-nior Kayleigh Camerota had the hot hand for Whitesboro in the first quarter, scoring 4 of her 12 points in the open-ing period.

The second quarter opened with consecutive buckets by Alvanos and Katie Steates to pull New Hartford to within 13-11 in the first 1:04 of the stanza, giving the Spartans a reason to believe.

Unfortunately for fans of the red, white and blue, that’s as close as New Hart-ford would get to Whitesboro the rest of the game. Whites-boro went on a 10-0 run over the next six minutes to open up a 23-11 lead with less than a minute to go before the intermission.

Warriors Sophomore Jen Deuel’s driving layup, that drew a foul at the 3:54 mark of the second period, was the highlight of the quarter, as #10 sliced her way past 3 Spartans defenders in

the paint on her way to the deuce. Deuel knocked down the freebie to further ignite the home crowd.

If not for a foul shot by Ka-tie Steates at the end of the second quarter, New Hart-ford would have been shut out in the last 6 minutes of the frame. Whitesboro en-joyed a 23-12 halftime lead over the Spartans and per-fection in the regular season was in sight.

At this late date in the season, Whitesboro, a shoe in for the #1 seed in the up-coming Section III Tourna-

ment, came into tonight’s contest as one of only six class “A” teams which remain unbeaten in New York State.

To say that the Warriors season thus far has been dominant would be an understate-ment. In fact, the only team to come within

10 points in the final score department this season is Class “AA” Baldwinsville, which fell to Whitesboro by 6 points back on December 27, 2010.

The Warriors have beaten traditional TVL rivals, Onei-da by 50, VVS by 36 and Notre Dame by 18 en route to their flawless regular sea-son.

Something tells me that if you asked Warriors head coach Patrick Reader at the beginning of the season if his team would run the table to this extent, the humble coach may have said, we could, but surely not “would”.

The second half of to-night’s game saw the hun-gry Warriors outscore their Spartan counterparts 14-5,

Monster energy Drink Player of the Game - Francesca cotrupe.

increasing their lead to 36-17 after three periods. The highlight of the third quar-ter was again by the hand of Jen Deuel, who nailed a long range 3 pointer with 1:24 to go.

Whitesboro went on to win the fourth quarter as well, 11-10 to gain the 47-27 victory.

Alongside Cotrupe’s 16 points for the winners, Kay-leigh Camerota knocked down 12 points of her own and Jen Deuel finished with 8. New Hartford was paced

by 8 points from senior Ash-ley Chanatry and 4 points from Erin Kuhn.

Both the Spartans and the Warriors will await Sun-day’s seeding meeting which will determine where each team will be in the post sea-son and when.

Who knows what may happen if these teams meet for a third time in the same season! Whitesboro is certain to receive the number one seed, while New Hartford should receive a first round home game.


yOuTh hOcKey

JOHN CORR PEE WEE HOCKEY TOURNEY UNDERWAY IN ROMEMhtS Visits As Rome takes on SchenectadyBy JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 1/30

Schenectady’s aiden Wright (31) races into the neutral zone as rome’s Gary Millington (28) moves to intercept during second period action.

For over 21 years John Corr has giv-en tirelessly to the Rome Youth Hock-

ey Association, volunteering as everything from coach to Vice President. In recogni-tion of his contributions, the Rome Youth Hockey Association has put John’s name atop it’s annual Pee

Wee House Hockey Tourna-ment at JFK Arena.

The 2011 version of the Corr Tournament is big-ger and better than ever, drawing teams from not only Rome, but also Clin-ton, Schenectady, Lysander, New Hartford, Saratoga, Bethlehem and Center State (Morrisville).

The eight com-petitors were di-vided into two divisions of four when play began on Friday, with each team play-ing the other three teams in their division once in pool play. The winners of each division will meet in the championship

on Sunday.This afternoon My Home-

town Sports made its, right of winter, visit to the Corr tournament and caught a great Red Pool game be-tween the Rome Grizzlies and Schenectady in front of a big crowd for both teams.

Grizzlies winger Hunter

Mazur got the young Ro-mans on the board first, when he took a pass from linemate Cody Giannini and beat Schenectady goal-ie Spencer Parks to make it 1-0 Grizzlies at the 6:36 mark of the opening period.

Less than one minute lat-er Rome’s Gary Millington lit the lamp again to make it 2-0 Grizzlies with Cody Giannini picking up his sec-ond assist of the contest.

Rome went to the first in-termission with a two goal lead and was looking good headed to the first inter-mission.

The hungry bears made it 3-0 just 2:08 into the sec-ond period when Cody Gi-annini weaved his way thru traffic from the neutral zone to the Schenectady goal crease, deeked Parks and tucked the puck under his pads and giving the big home crowd something to cheer (loudly) about.

Schenectady’s Zach Per-etti, a fleet footed forward, wasn’t quite ready to attend the Grizzlies victory party however.

The laser fast skater wearing #29 responded in style with two goals less than two minutes apart (both while Schenectady was on the powerplay) and this Red Pool game quickly became red hot.

Aiden Wright tied things up for Schenectady just two minutes later at the 7:39 mark of the second period,

beating Rome goalie Ethan Siderine with a long wrist shot from just inside the top of the face off circle to knot things up at 3-3.

Momentum totally swung in favor of the kids from the electric city when Matt Kennedy dowsed the Grizzlies celebration with his first goal of the game at the 6:47 mark of the mid-dle period to make it 4-3 Schenectady, which is the way we’d go to the second intermission.

Each goaltender made 5 saves in the first two peri-ods of play.

The third period got about as wild and whacky as an NHL game can get, let alone a bunch of 11 year olds! The Grizzlies couldn’t seem to stay out of the pen-alty box and Schenectady and its raucous fan section were ready and willing to reap the benefits.

Patrick Herrah scored a power play goal just 12 sec-onds into the final period to give Schenectady a 5-3 lead, which they wouldn’t relinquish, going on to win this one by a score of 5-4.

Rome’s Cody Giannini scored late for the Grizzlies (his 4th point of the game) to get them within one goal in the losing effort.

Congratulations to both teams and your coaches on a very entertaining display this afternoon and good luck with your quest for the tournament championship.


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yOuTh hOcKey

STAMPEDE AND SPARTANS TAKE WYHA MERCURIO MITE TOURNAMENT TITLESMhtS Coverage of Local youth SportsBy JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 2/14

center State Stampede “a” Mites - 2011 bob Mercurio extreme Freeze Tourna-ment champions: #2, curtis hale, #3 Max Michael, #4 Jonathon Locke, #6 an-drew rodriguez, # 10 Walter clauss, #12 Nicole Turner, #13 Gannon houghton, #14 brad holcomb, #17Jon Speer, #27 Keegan bailey, #77 braydon DiSalvo.

The Whitestown Youth Hockey As-sociation held its second annual

“Bob Mercurio Extreme Freeze” Mite youth hockey tournament this weekend at the Whitestown Community Center and the Center State Stampede (Morrisville) and the New Hartford Spartans took home championships in the “A” and “B” divisions re-spectively.

For the second consecu-tive year, this tournament was held in memory of the late Bob Mercurio, a former President and Coach with the WYHA, who passed away back in 2009.

Bob’s wife Pat, daughter Maggie and son Jack were on hand this afternoon to present an award to Whites-town “A” Mite player Andrew Manley, whose play this weekend most exemplified Bob’s dedication and love for the game of hockey.

Bob has been greatly missed by the entire Whites-town community, as he was a tireless volunteer in many sports, always putting the needs of the kids of Whites-town ahead of his own.

For me, this tourna-ment stirred many personal memories as well. Bob was a friend and teammate of mine in the early 1980’s at New Hartford and being able to reconnect with him in Whit-estown for a few short years was just great.

The 2011 Mercurio Ex-treme Freeze Tournament consisted of two divisions of Mites (youth hockey’s young-est competitors).

The “B” division featured two teams from Camillus, a team from New Hartford, one from Lysander, one from Syracuse (Midstate) and one from host Whitestown.

The “A” division included a team each from Whitestown,

1000 Islands, Center State and New Hartford. Play be-gan on Thursday evening and ran non-stop thru 5:00 p.m. this evening.

In the “A” division finale, the Wolfpack of Whitestown faced off against the Stam-pede of Center State.

So far this season, these two teams have met several times, but the best the Stam-pede have been able to do so far is tie Whitestown.

Today was the day for the galloping horses however as they rumbled into the Com-

munity Center and defeated the host Wolves in the finals by a score of 3-2 to take home the championship trophy.

Stampede center Brad Holcomb received MVP hon-ors in the final game for his team, while Whitestown’s Andrew Manley was the MVP for Whitestown.

Stampede goalie Jona-than Locke was named the tournament’s most outstand-ing netminder.

The “B” Division final pit-ted New Hartford’s Spartans against Camillus and New Hartford came away with a victory in this one by a score of 4-2, behind two goals from Luke Kurdziolek and some nifty goaltending by Spar-tans goalie Evan Dziegel. Anthony Felix scored both goals for Camillus in the fi-nal.

Congratulations to the more than 140 Mite hock-ey players, volunteers and coaches who made this event a memorable one.

Hats off to the the folks in the Whitestown Youth Hock-ey Association, especially

New hartford b Mites-2011 bob Mercurio extreme Freeze Tournament cham-pions: 3 Smith, austin,7 Darby, Jack,8 Gall, William, 9 cleveland, Owen,15 Shafer, rJ,17 Walker, Danny,18 Kurdziolek, Luke,20 Smith, Miranda,24 carr, ashley,27 rivera, Dan,30 Dziegiel, evan,32 berkhoudt, ellie,45 Greico, Nick,50 Syrotynski, John,63 Schiavi, Gavin,66 Simmons, connor,81 Kantor, Jason,91 Kantor, chris,head coach bill Gall,asst. coach Kevin Darby,asst. coach Marcus Smith,asst. coach randy Smith,asst. coach Scott Kurdziolek

Tournament Director Lisa Emery, on such a well orga-nized and fun tournament.

I know Bob Mercurio is up there somewhere with his

patented Buffalo Sabres hat on, smiling ear to ear, watch-ing something he worked so hard to develop keep going as strong as ever.

Whitestown Wolfpack center Sam Schoen (21) races up ice on a breakaway during Saturday morning action.


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BOBCATS BRING FRIENDS-GET TWO HOME WINSMhtS Visits Bring A Friend Day In New hartfordBy JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 2/14

The CNY Bobcats 10u and 12u all girls youth hockey organization held

a very special event at the Rec Center in New Hartford today. It was “Bring a Friend Day “ to the rink today as the 10u Cats hosted the Elmira Jackals and the 12u Bobcats played host to the Bingham-ton Blizzard.

The idea behind today’s event was to expose the area’s young lady hockey players to the Bobcats in an effort to grow the program and have more girls play with and against other girls instead of mixing it up with the boys.

With Upstate New York boasting some of the best youth, high school and col-lege hockey anywhere in the U.S., its no wonder the girls game is taking hold, follow-ing suit with the rest of the nation.

Women’s hockey made an exciting debut at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, inspir-ing North American girls to lace up hockey skates in rapidly growing numbers. Every Winter Olympics have brought women’s hockey to a worldwide audience, includ-ing those young ladies right here in Central New York.

Most parts of the hockey-playing world have lagged

well behind Canada and the United States in develop-ing the women’s game, but the improvements in recent years by China and Russia are ice solid proof that the game may be finally evolv-ing into a truly international sport.

Meanwhile, the number of North American girls and women playing hockey is soaring, while funding for the sport improves, tourna-ments and clubs (like the CNY Bobcats) become estab-lished.

The Olympic spotlight def-initely spurred the growth of ladies game. In the 12 years following the 98’ Na-gano Games, USA Hockey has seen a 70 percent in-crease in the number of girls and women registered with Hockey USA, and an 80 per-cent increase in all-female teams.

Today at the Rec Center, the rink was adorned with signs and banners showing off the the Bobcats royal blue and kelly green colors.

The 10u team took the ice against the Jackals of Elmi-

10u bobcat team photo

12u bobcat team photo

ra and didn’t disappoint the home crowd and the many newcomers in attendance.

The 10u Cats poured it on the Jackals for three periods, out shooting the visitors 37-5 and came away with a 4-2 victory, to the delight of the many parents, siblings and new friends in attendance.

The 12u Bobcats then took the ice against the a hearty bunch of skaters from Binghamton, nicknamed the Blizzard, who braved some pretty nasty weather condi-tions to get to New Hartford today.

The Blizzard were miss-ing a few players who didn’t make the trip because of the weather and their depleted numbers certainly didn’t help against this very strong Bobcats 12u team, which is eyeing a State Tournament berth this season.

After showing a very strong game effort for the first few minutes of the first period, the Blizzard pretty much ran out of gas and the Bobcats went on to win this one by a score of 10-1, cap-ping an exciting day of girls hockey.

The Bobcats will also host a “Come Try Hockey Day” at

a date to be determined in March. The CNY Bobcats organization is in its second year of existence and is open to players of all skill levels.

The ultimate goal of the organization is to establish teams at every age level be-tween 10u and 19u. By the looks of the organization’s dedication to the kids and the smiles abound in and around the rink, they’re well on their way.

For information on get-ting involved with this fine organization, contact CNY Bobcats Hockey Association president Chris Militello via e-mail at [email protected]

bobcats 12u player addy barr (2) gets tripped up in the neutral zone during 3rd period action.


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HOMER STOPS WHITESBORO’S BID FOR SECTION III CROWNGirls Volleyball Action-Class A Semi-FinalBy JEFF PExtoN/PhotoS JEFF PExtoN - 2/17

The Whitesboro Warriors hopes for a Section III, Class “A” Girl’s Volleyball

championship were dashed on the floor of Jamesville-DeWitt High School this eve-ning, as the #1 seed Homer Trojans (19-1) defeated the #4 Warriors 3 games to 1. Whitesboro cruised to first and second round tourna-ment wins over the #13 seed Camden by a score of 3-0 and the #5 seed New Hartford also 3-0, to reach tonight’s semi-final match.

Homer received a bye in the first round and then de-feated rival Cortland, the #8 seed, by a score of 3 games to 1 to get to the Final Four.

The Trojans came out in game one tonight and

showed the big crowd exact-ly why they are seeded first, taking it to the Warriors by a score of 25-14. Trojans junior middle hitter Katie Sinclair was simply an unstoppable force up front tonight, a force that Warriors had no answer for.

Sinclair and teammate Alysha Camp combined for 7 strong kills in game one, which left Whitesboro on their heels and quickly down one game in the best of five match.

The Warriors got it togeth-er in game two, behind an ace apiece from Amanda Chr-uscicki and Carly Lonczak, together with two quality kills by junior Morgan Eber-ley. Eberley led the Warriors with 138 kills this season,

averaging 3.94 per game.

W a r -riors Ally K o l u p a , A s h l e y Levitano and Bran-di Blaszak m a d e some key digs in

game two, which temporar-ily solved Homer’s attack and took the second game by a score of 25-21. Whitesboro never trailed in game two and built 4 and 5 point leads before evening up the match at 1-1.

Homer’s Katie Sinclair didn’t go quietly though, smashing 4 thunderous kills into the Warriors backcourt.

Both teams showed a hint of fatigue in the early going of game number 3, but key aces by Trojans servers Ka-tie Camp and Alysha Camp, as well as a laser beam ace by Katelyn Buchanan helped Homer overcome a 13-10 deficit and throw in two more smash kills by Ka-tie Sinclair and the Trojans took the grueling third game

by a score of 25-21.If fatigue was the name of

the game in the third game, exhaustion filled the bill in the fourth.

Again, the Trojans owned the net, but the fourth game saw Homer toss in some crafty misdirected shots, which kept the tiring War-riors off balance. The Trojans rode a 13-2 scoring run en route to a 25-17 game four victory to earn the match win, 3 games to 1.

Katie Sinclair finished the

night with a game high 12 kills, while Katie Camp had 18 digs and Taryn Heath had 26 assists for Homer.

Morgan Eberley led the Warriors with 7 kills on the evening.

Whitesboro ends a tre-mendous season with a (15-5) record, while Homer (20-1) advances to the Class “A” championship game on Saturday against 7th seed-ed Fulton, which defeated Oneida in the first semi-final game this evening.

Warriors senior outside hitter Morgan eberley (12) nails a game two kill shot past homer’s Taryn heath (14).

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A PERFECT SEASON FOR THE NEW HARTFORD JV LADY SPARTANS SUBMIttED By MIKE KENNEDy

The New Hartford JV Lady Spar-tans opened the season with a

56-26 victory over arch-rival Whitesboro and never looked back en route to a perfect 16-0 season. The team that was built around strong defense and an up tempo style rolled with 2 wins over each of the fol-lowing Tri-Valley league teams: Whitesboro,Notre Dame, Holland Patent, Camden, Clinton, VVS, and 3 wins over Oneida and 1 over Fulton (non-league). A balanced team effort was led by Amy Ev-ans scoring (11.63)ppg, and Elizabeth Cavic (7.13)ppg and (13.20) rebounds per game followed by Clarisa Kelly at (5.5 ) rebounds per game. Point guard Sara Al-vanos dished out (2.25 ) as-sists per game and (5.5)ppg

along with guards Nikki Talerico (5.87)ppg and Alexis Jackson (4.67)ppg along with providing intense defensive pressure. Dana Delgenio (8th grade) chipped in with (6.06)ppg and (5) rebounds per game. Hard work and dedi-cation by under-classmen Steph-anie Smith, Erin Donovan,Monica Kelly, Julia Er-macor, Fran Zumpano and Danielle Witch-ley (soph) played a valuable role in the seasons suc-cess. The team was managed by Allison Bishop.

LOURDES CAPTURES SECOND STRAIGHT CYO TITLESUBMIttED By PEtER PAGLIARo

A full house was on hand at the Park-way Recreation Center on a late

February Friday evening for the Catholic Youth Organi-zation’s (CYO) championship game. The game matched up the tournament’s num-ber 3 seeded Our Lady of Lourdes against the number four seeded St. Paul’s 2. Both teams came into the tourna-ment strong with Our Lady of Lourdes riding a seven game winning streak and having knocked off the tournament’s number two seed in St. John’s Utica. Meanwhile, St. Paul’s 2, was riding an impressive streak of their own shocking Our Lady of Rosary, the only remaining undefeated team left in the regular season. St. Paul’s then marched on to the playoffs where they beat St. John’s of New Hartford before meeting 11-1 Rosary again. In astonishing fashion, the St. Paul’s team proved they were for real holding off

a late fourth quarter come-back and handing Rosary only its second loss of the season and earning a spot in the title game against Our Lady of Lourdes.

In the championship game Lourdes got off to a quick start in the first half by pounding the ball inside to its big men coupled with timely shoot-ing from its guards helped Lourdes jump out to a quick twelve point lead at half time. The third quarter was again controlled by Lourdes only to see its lead quickly slip in the fourth quarter to a resilient and unshaken St. Paul’s. St. Paul’s dominated the quarter by out-rebounding and out-shooting the Lourdes team and scoring on turnovers. St. Paul’s went on a 16-0 run to tie the game at 44-44 with thirty five seconds remaining in the game. After a timeout, Lourdes was able to grab the rebound on a missed layup to jump out to a 46-44 lead leaving valuable time on the

clock for St. Paul’s to make one last run. St. Paul’s took the ball down the court driv-ing to the lane only to come up short and have the ball go out of bounds. With nine ticks left in the clock Lourdes was able to hold onto the ball and make one last free throw to jump to a 47-44 lead. As the buzzer sounded the Lourdes team found themselves CYO Junior High League Cham-pions for a second year in a row. Both teams should be commended for their sports-manship and good play – a game and season to remem-ber for both teams.

Members of the team include David Zangrone, mike tennision, Steve macrina, tyshaun Thomas, tadarius newkirk, robert green, Ibn kalif, Jnaro Williams, drew petrillo, Pop. The team is coached by Pete Pagliaro and special assistant alex briggs.

back row- Fran Zumpano, Dana Delgenio,Danielle Witchley, elizabeth cavic, clarisa Kelly, amy evans, Sarah alvanos, coach Mike Kennedy Middle row- Nikki Talerico,Monica Kelly, alexis Jackson, erin Donovan Front row- Julia ermacor, Mgr. allison bishop, Stephanie Smith


Rome Station: 336-0360New Hartford: 768-1224

FOR EFFORT ATHLETEDAVID EVANS

For the month of March we salute Sauquoit’s David Evans. Evans,

a standout football and basketball player for the Sauquoit Valley Indians, will move on to play foot-ball collegiately for the US Army. Evans an outstand-ing student athlete who excelled on the football field and basketball court for Sauquoit will now take his skills to West Point.

Congratulations to Da-vid and we wish him the best as he serves his coun-try with pride and repre-sents the best qualities a student athlete can strive for. David Evans is indeed a US ARMY “A FOR EF-FORT” student athlete.

David Evans from Sau-

My Hometown Sports and your local US Army recruiters are proud to salute the

New hartford recruiters SGT Kent Donley and SSG Dustin brumfield with David evans after signing his letter of Intent to play football at West Point Military academy.

quoit High School, signed his letter of intent to at-tend the United States Military Academy at West Point. David has always dreamed of serving his country due to his ath-letic and academic prow-ess he will not only play football for the West Point but will live his dream. David hopes to serve as a Airborne Ranger Platoon Leader when commis-

sioned.David is a local Football

star from Sauquoit HS. He plays defensive tackle and was inducted into the 2011 National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar Ath-lete.

David has been stop-ping by the New Hartford recruiting station for a few months speaking to the recruiters about opportu-nities as an Army officer

David will be playing football at West Point.

By attending the letter of intent signing at Sau-quoit HS recruiters were provided low threat ex-posure to the community and to his high school. The event was televised by WKTV.


COLLEGE NEWS

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Utica College News

MEN’S HOCKEY LEADS NATION IN ATTENDANCE FOR 5TH STRAIGHT YEAR

The nationally ranked No. 13 Utica College men’s hockey team led Division II and III in regular sea-son home attendance for the fifth straight year. In 15 games at the Utica Memo-rial Auditorium this season the Pioneers averaged 3,233 fans per game, which is the highest average attendance since records starting being kept by the NCAA in 1996. They were also ranked 25th in the entire country at all levels of NCAA hockey (Di-vision I, II, III).

“The support from our fan base in the Mohawk Valley was tremendous all year long,” said tenth year Head Coach Gary Heenan. “The AUD is one of the best facilities in the country and we’re proud to have the best fans in the country.”

A total of 48,501 fans

walked through the turn-stiles this season, includ-ing a school-record crowd of 3,966 fans during the final contest of the season in which Utica tied Elmira, 3-3.

The Pioneers were av-eraging 1,250 fans back in 2002-03, which ranked them fifth in Division II and III

The Pioneer nation came out in record numbers this season, including a near sell out as the Pioneers wrapped up their regular season against Elmira

men’shockey. The atten-dance figures have steadily risen, and in 2003-04 they averaged 1,511 fans (fourth), and 2005-06 they averaged 1,777 fans (second). In 2006-07 they averaged 2,107 fans per game, which led Divi-sion II and III men’s hockey. They have not relinquished that top spot since.

In the last four seasons combined Utica has aver-aged 2,924 fans per game at the Utica Memorial Audito-rium. In the past ten years the Pioneers have had 73 victories at the AUD and win 65 percent of the time when playing on their home ice. In fact, this past sea-son Utica set a new school-record by posting a 12-2-1 record at home.

UC had a program-best 17-8-1 overall record and they recently finished its

season with a 5-2 loss in the semi-finals of the ECAC Men’s West Conference Tournament against Neu-mann University.

BERRY NAMED FINALIST FOR JOSTENS TROPHY

Senior forward Jessica Berry (Rome, NY/ Rome Free Academy) of the Utica College women’s basketball team was named one of the 11 female finalist for the prestigious Jostens Trophy by members of the Rotary Club of Salem, Virginia on March 1st.

The Jostens Trophy is a national award created to honor the most outstanding men’s and women’s Division III basketball players of the year. The award takes into account three vital parts: basketball ability, academic

prowess and community service.

Berry became the 11th player in the history of NCAA Division III women’s basketball to score over 2,000 points and grab over 1,000 rebounds in a career this past season. She won her second straight Empire 8 Conference Player of the Year award and was also named to the all-conference first team for the fourth straight year. Berry led the conference and ranks ninth nationally with an average of 21.6 points per game. She also led the conference and ranks 39th nationally with 10.5 rebounds per game. She was ranked 17th na-tionally this year with 15 double-doubles.

Berry was also the confer-ence’s player of the week six times this year, the ECAC Upstate Player of the Week three times and she was also named to the D3hoops.com team of the week once.

The trophy models the Rotary International motto of “Service above Self” by recognizing those who tru-ly fit the ideal of the well-rounded Division III stu-dent-athlete.

The awards presentation is scheduled for Thursday, March 17th at the Salem Civic Center in conjunction with the Division III men’s Final Four being hosted in Salem on March 18-19. This year’s class marks the 14th year the award has been presented.

Three members of Her-kimer County Community College’s men’s and wom-en’s swimming and diving team have been named to the 2011 All-Region Team.

First Team All-Region

HCCC News

Swimmers named to All-Region Team

Greg Griffin, Dallas, TX, criminal justice major, (50 yard freestyle and 200 yard backstroke);

Emily Washburn, Forest-port, NY, liberal arts and sciences: science major, (100 yard butterfly)

Second Team All RegionGreg Griffin (100 yard

butterfly) Michael Reilly, Norwich, NY, liberal arts and sciences: physical edu-cation major, (100 yard breaststroke);

Emily Washburn (200 yard backstroke)


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COLLEGE NEWS

Saturday, March 26

Open HouseHerkimer County

Community College

Check-In 9:00 am - 9:30 amWelcome 9:30 am - 10:00 amMeet the Faculty/Tour Campus

10:00 am - 12:00 pmStudent Q&A Session

12:00 pm - 1:00 pmParent Q&A Session

12:00 pm - 1:00 pmOn-Campus Housing Tours

11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Win a $500 SCHOLARSHIP*

and other great prizes.

herkimer.edu/openhouse 315.866.0300 x-8278 888.GO.4.HCCCRSVP

* Prize winner must enroll full-time at HCCC and monetary prizes will be applied to the student’s account to be used toward tuition, fees and books. Must be present at Open House to win.

COMMU N ITY • EXCELLENCE • I NTEGRITY • OPPORTU N ITY

An equal opportunity institution

SUNYIT News

SUNYIT senior David Golembiowski (Barneveld, NY/Holland Patent) has been selected as the North Eastern Athletic Confer-ence Men’s Basketball Player of the Year for the third straight season, while also joining fellow class-mate Calvin Logins (Lyons, NY/Keuka College) on the All-Conference Team.

The award caps off an incredible four-year run as a Wildcat for Golembio-wski, who began his career by winning three Rookie of the Year awards and went on to become the program’s all-time leader in career points, rebounds, blocks and 3-pointers made. He

Golembiowski Wins Third Straight NEAC Player of the Year Award, Joins Logins on the All-Conference Team

will also be making his third straight appearance on the NEAC All-Con-ference First Team after leading the conference in both points and rebounds, while leading the Wildcats in points, rebounds, blocks and 3-pointers made. Ad-ditionally, the 6-foot-7 for-ward is currently seventh in the nation in points per game (24.5), while being 13th in double-doubles (14), 14th in rebounds per game (11.4) and 28th in blocks per game (2.4).

Golembiowski’s remark-able season was noticed throughout the year, as he won six Player of the Week awards this season, including three NEAC Stu-dent-Athlete of the Week awards, one ECAC Player of the Week award and two selections to the D3Hoops.com Team of the Week.

Logins was selected to the All-Conference Second Team after also putting to-gether a tremendous sea-son. The 5-foot-11 forward finished third in the NEAC in scoring while being fifth in steals and seventh in rebounding. His per-game averages of 18 points, sev-en rebounds and two steals were all second-best on the team, and he was one of three Wildcats to shoot at least 50 percent from the field on the year. Logins also earned one NEAC Stu-dent-Athlete of the Week award this season, finish-ing that particular week with four-game averages of 24 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists while shooting 61 percent from the field.

Women’s lacrosse player on Tewaaraton Award watch list

HamiltonCollege NewsH

Hamilton College’s Sarah Bray ‘11 (Rock-ville, Md./Connelly School of the Holy Child) is one of two players from Divi-sion III women’s lacrosse programs on the 2011

Tewaaraton Award watch list for the NCAA female lacrosse player of the year.

Bray is the top returner for nationally ranked No. 2 Hamilton, which advanced to the Division III cham-pionship game in 2010, and finished the year with an overall record of 21-1. She led the team with 76 points, 70 ground balls and 40 caused turnovers, and set a program record with 47 assists. The Conti-nentals open this season in Kissimmee, Fla., against No. 5 Gettysburg College on Wednesday, March 16.

The watch list is made

up of the top lacrosse play-ers across all three divi-sions of collegiate lacrosse. All watch list nominees are carefully screened and identified by one se-lection committee for the male athletes and another committee for the female athletes comprised of col-lege coaches. The watch list will be whittled down three more times until the top 10 male and female Tewaaraton Award final-ists are named in May.

The Tewaaraton Award was formally established in 2000 by The University Club of Washington, D.C., and is the pre-eminent la-

crosse award. The award is given annually to the NCAA male and female la-crosse players of the year.


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