Sports

The Elba Lancers cheer squad unveiled a new routine during half-time of the Elba/Byron-Bergen vs. Notre Dame game Saturday.

The routine features more acrobatics than I've seen from a high school cheer squad before.

Cheer Coach Kate Engle said her cousin Jackie Borrelli, now a cheer captain at Niagara University who cheered for Northeast Elite, conducted a two-day cheer camp for the Elba team and taught the girls the new routine.

Saturday was the first time they performed it in public.

Rachel Wannike is Elba's captain this year and she's featured in the flyer toss. Tabitha Fuller, a seventh-grader, is featured in a series flips during a pyramid (unfortunately, my camera slipped out of focus during this part of the routine). 

Engle said the squad is pretty young, with only one senior member and five juniors, three sophomores, seven freshman and a seventh-grader.

The girls will use the routine Oct. 13 at the Brockport Spiritfest and, of course, during sectionals competition later in October at RIT.

To purchase prints of these photos, click here.

Notre Dame ended its three-game losing streak to Elba/Byron-Bergen with a dominating 40 to 7 victory.

For the second consecutive week, Tim McCulley scored five touchdowns for the Fighting Irish, this time all through the air as Notre Dame controlled the game from start to finish.

The Irish opened the scoring as McCulley hooked up with Josh Johnson for a 13-yard TD strike in the first quarter to go up 6-0.

McCulley would later find Jason Hart on a one-yard toss to give the Irish a 13-0 lead. In total, McCulley would throw four touchdown passes in the first half, two more to Johnson on plays of two and 51 yards respectively.

The senior quarterback went 18-for-27 passing for 335 yards and also picked up another 61 on the ground.

The Lancers would get on the board just before the end of the half on a three-yard pass from Garrett Chapell to Chad Kowalik.

Charlie Herbert was on the receiving end of the fifth and final touchdown pass from McCulley late in the third quarter. Herbert racked up 134 yards on six grabs, while Johnson had 161 on seven catches.

The Fighting Irish defense was stout all game, holding Chapell to just 13-of-33 passing for 127 yards and intercepting him four times, once by Johnson.

“Our skilled guys had a good game today, although we did have a couple of lapses,” said Notre Dame Head Coach Rick Mancuso. “I’m really proud of the overall effort, of the great effort that got us to this point, but we have a lot to work on and we are going to get back at it on Monday.”

Brandon Naylor had a strong game for Elba/Byron-Bergen (2-2), carrying the ball 16 times for 100 yards. The Lancers will next travel to Oakfield-Alabama next Friday night.

Notre Dame (4-0) is the only remaining unbeaten team in the Genesee Region League, and they will take on Pembroke next Saturday.

Also Saturday, Batavia lost to Canandaigua Academy 49-12.

Photos by Howard Owens.

To purchase prints of photos, click here.

The Child Advocacy Center sponsored a 5K run/walk in Downtown Batavia this morning. The event was held in conjunction with a dozen other 5Ks sponsored by CACs in cities around the state.

We've not received race results yet, but we do know that Todd Masters won and all of the top four finishers are all members of the Kiwanis Club's 5K team.

Todd Masters

Head Coach Jeremy Mettler of Batavia’s varsity volleyball team knew last night’s match-up would be a tough game going in. 

Batavia jumped ahead of Gates Chili in the first two sets 25-17 and 25-19. Senior Ashlee Yasses led the night for the Blue Devils with seven aces, 14 assists and seven digs. Seniors Haley Case had eight kills and Maggie Saquella five kills. Sophmore Tessa Engel added eight kills to the squad.  

Batavia was down by eight in the third set and was not serving well. Coach Mettler said, "We dug ourselves in a hole and battled back to finish close but lost 22-25."

Gates Chili had some new life and took one set at a time. Gates Chili Head Coach Cindy Hay said, "it has happened to us a couple times this season and the girls never give up. We wanted to win that third set and come back like we have before in games and prove it can be done."

5”2’ Freshman Jess Giannoccaro tallied eight kills, six aces,12 digs and one block while Lizzy Thrasher recorded nine kills and six blocks to help them turn the game around in the fourth set. Batavia lost that momentum and the set 15-25, which tied the night 2-2 for a fifth and deciding set.

Batavia came ahead early 5-1 and played aggressively serving like they did in the first two sets. Gates Chili came back to tie then went ahead 13-11 when both teams switched sides. Batavia got close to being down by four, but ended 17-25 in the last set. Gates Chili moved ahead to 7-2 on the year and Batavia’s record is 7-5.

Senior Night will finish Batavia’s next and last home regular season game on Oct. 17 vs. Brighton.

Le Roy extended its winning streak over Warsaw to 35 straight games with a win on Homecoming, 41-21.

The king of the night however, was junior Ryan McQuillen, who scored on three special teams plays.

The Knights got off to a slow start; as Warsaw struck first on a 30-yard scamper on 4th-and-17 from Colin Royce to take a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Le Roy immediately responded as McQuillen fielded the ensuing kickoff and took it 72 yards for the game-tying touchdown.

The Oatkan Knight defense locked down the Warsaw offense for much of the rest of the game, forcing eight consecutive punts by the Tigers.

Meanwhile, Le Roy found the end zone on four more plays of 35 yards or more.

Junior Quarterback Mike McMullen hit Jon Pierce on a 72-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter to take a lead they would never surrender.

Two minutes later Peter Privitera would cap off a seven-play, 35-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown plunge.

McQuillen would strike again, this time taking a 35-yard punt to the end zone to give Le Roy a 27-7 lead.

McMullen would hit another long touchdown pass, this time a 78-yard bomb to Steve Cappotelli to end the half, up 33-7.

After the two teams would trade punts to start the second half, McQuillen once again took control, returning his second punt of the night for a score, this time from 57 yards out, giving Le Roy a 41-7 lead.

Warsaw would add two touchdowns to end the game, making the final score 41-21.

McQuillen finished the game with 227 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns on the night.

McMullen finished 5-of-13 passing for 166 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Meanwhile, Privitera once again led the rushing attack, finishing with 59 yards on 14 attempts and a touchdown.

Kody Lamkin had two sacks on defense for Le Roy (4-0), who will play at Avon next Friday.

Royce led the way for the Tigers (0-4), with 65 rushing yards and two touchdowns. 

Also on Friday night:

Alexander did the main thing any team needs to to do beat Attica: Stop Matt Perry. The senior running back 12 yards on 10 carries. Perry didn't play the 4th quarter. Alexander won 30-15. Dylan Scharlau had 27 rushes for 156 yards and two touchdowns and a two-point conversion. Tyler Laird had seven carries for 75 yards. QB Nelson Burke, 4-7 passing for 52 yards and a TD. He had one interception. He also carried the ball four times for 15 yards, including two two-point conversion runs. Zach Laird had three receptions for 40 yards and a TD. One reception was a 25-yard TD catch on a 4th and 8 in the 4th quarter. Sam Browne had an 80-yard punt return in the third quarter to give Alexander the lead for good. Scharlau had nine tackles and Johnny George seven and an interception.

Oakfield-Alabama beat Pembroke 35-37. Allen Chatt was 12-16 for 115 yards and a touchdown. Chris Nanni rushed for 67 yards on 12 carries and returned a punt for a TD. O-A is now 2-2. The Hornets scored three times on turnovers. For Pembroke, Dakota Swimline rushed for 192 yards and a TD on 24 carries.

For the first time in a reported 20 years, powder puff football has returned to Alexander High School.

The Freshmen (red) took on the Juniors (pink) in the first game. Freshmen came out ahead 22 to 6.

The second game featured the Seniors (white) and the Sophmores (purple). The Sophmores took the game 14 to 0.

In the championship game the Sophmores eked out a win against the Freshmen 6 to 0.

Homecoming parade starts at 6 p.m. Friday, with Alexander Varsity football team hosting Attica at 7 p.m.

Pictured above: Kaylee MacIntyre, Alexa Merle, Marissa Scharlau.

Pictured above: Hanna Barnaby kicking off.

More after the jump (click on the headline):

Pictured above: Olivia George, Alex Holderer, and Francesca.

Pictured above: Olivia George and Alex Holderer.

Pictured above: The Junior team.

Pictured above: The Freshmen team.

Pictured above: Karli Phillips, Stephanie McBride.

Pictured above: Sophmore team.

Pictured above: Seniors!

Pictured above: Ryan Dunbar as the Trojan (acting as Freshmen mascot) being chased by Ricky Amico (as the Sophmore mascot)

Pictured above: Senior Coach Zach Laird.

Pictured above: Lydia Spiotta.

For more pictures of the game and festivities please visit:  Francletography Powder Puff Game

The Batavia girls swimming team put together a 94-63 win over Wilson at the GCC pool Thursday and the girls were clearly excited about the victory after the meet.

As the second smallest Class B team in the Monroe League, team wins are hard to come by for Batavia, but the program continues to develop promising young swimmers said Co-head Coach Sarah Geitner.

"We have a lot of very young swimmers, but everybody has fantastic attitude and wants to learn," Geitner said.

Because the school doesn't have its own pool, it can't field a modified team so it's a little tougher to build a varsity program, Geitner said.

"At the start of the season, we weren't sure if there would even be enough girls for a team and now that we're up to 14 girls, we're really excited," Geitner said.

Two girls joined the team this week.

At the top of the young roster are freshman Natalie Amico, junior Emily DiBacco, seventh-grader Elle Fulton and sophomore Brooke Leddon, the team's lone diver.

For the 14 girls on the team, team spirit was in strong supply at Thursday's match. Not only did the swimmers cheer their teammates, they cheered the Wilson swimmers as well.

Geitner said she would like to get more of the girls involved in the YMCA swimming programs to take an interest in joining the Batavia High School team.

"In order to grow a better program, we want to encourage more Y swimmers to come in and take the test," Geitner said.

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This week the Alexander Tri-Town Trojans hosted the Oakfield-Elba Titans in Attica. The rain was persistent throughout the day, causing more than the average amount of turnovers. The beginners started the morning off. (Scores are not kept at this level.)

The mini division saw two teams marching up and down the field, and two defenses making great goal-line stands.

Only one team made it into the end-zone today. Gage Brewmister from Oakfield-Elba scored. The extra point attempt was stopped, leaving the game at 6-0 Oakfield-Elba.

The JV division saw a lot of offense, on the ground and in the air. Only one team capitalized on the yardage though.

Scoring for Oakfield-Elba:

Ty Mott (Extra point by Ty Mott)

Mason Randall (Extra point by Ty Kropelin)

Gabe MacDonald (No extra point)

Bryce Yockel (No extra point)

There was not a varsity division game this week.

Next week Oakfield-Elba hosts Albion in Oakfield and Alexander has a bye.

More pictures from this week may be found here: Francletography - NOFA

Batavia High School hosted its annual Athletic Hall of Fame dinner Saturday night at Terry Hills.

Pictured above are: Brett Wormley, Julie Redband Varland, Mike Rogers, Wayne Fuller, Lance Cayea, Todd Cayea, Katie Barnard (John Barnard's daughter, representing him at the dinner) and Jim Barnard.

Local broadcasting and announcing legend Wayne Fuller with his guests, Jim Owen, Dan and Debbie Fischer (owners of WBTA), Fuller, Martha Bailey and Anita Strollo (both with WBTA).

Tim McCulley accounted for five touchdowns as Notre Dame routed Alexander 41 to 12.

Both teams entered the contest with 2-0 records, and went toe-to-toe for the first quarter, until the Fighting Irish opened things up.

McCulley started the scoring by capping a 17-play, 88-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run. Alexander would quickly respond though, scoring on a 75-yard drive, finished by a Dylan Scharlau one-yard run.

However two plays later, the Notre Dame senior quarterback ripped off a 63-yard touchdown run and the Irish never looked back. McCulley would hook up with Josh Johnson on a 30-yard touchdown pass to head into halftime with a 20-6 lead.

Notre Dame received the ball to start the third quarter and proceeded to march 67 yards on 11 plays, capped by a 24-yard touchdown toss from McCulley to Luca Zambito.

McCulley would later intercept a Nelson Burke pass, and capitalize with one more touchdown pass to Charlie Herbert to put the game on ice.

One bright spot for Alexander was the play of Scharlau, who ran for 166 yards and two touchdowns, while the Irish defense held Burke to just 2-of-10 passing for 12 yards and two interceptions.

Notre Dame got one final touchdown after Johnson returned a Trojan onside kick 54 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

McCulley finished the game 10-of-21 passing for 171 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, while also rushing for 108 yards and two scores.

Senior Andrew Mullen had a solid game for the Irish, rushing for 124 yards on 21 carries, while Zambito added four catches for 50 yards and a touchdown.

The Fighting Irish improve to 3-0 and will travel to Elba/Byron-Bergen next week. The Lancers have beaten Notre Dame the last two seasons, keeping them from an undefeated record.

Alexander (2-1) will host Attica next Friday night. 

More stats: Scharlau had seven tackles and one sack. Zach Laird had seven tackles. Jonathan George had eight tackles. Kelsey Patten also recorded a sack for Alexander. For Notre Dame, McCulley rushed for 107 yards on 19 carries. Luca Zambio had four catches for 54 yards and a TD. Charlie Hebert had two receptions for 60 yards and a TD. Josh Johnson gained 35 yards on two receptions and scored. Joe Zickl led the defense with 13 tackels. Dakota Weidman notched the team's only sack.

In other football action today, Elba/Byron Bergen moved to 2-1 with a 41-6 over Holley on in the first game on Holley's brand-new football field. Garrett Chapell, who was 3-6 for 67 yards, threw for two TD and ran for one. Brandon Naylor carried the ball in twice. Austin Yockel snatched his third interception on the season. The Lancers had 315 yards total offense to Holley's 50. Mike Shanley had 11 carries for 107 yards. Andy Underhill had 14 tackles and half a sack. Naylor, 10 tackles, Hunter Taylor 11 and 11 for Steel Truax.

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Photos by Howard Owens.

To purchase prints of photos, click here.

While rain seemed to encourage a few of the ARC 5K walkers to shorten the course today, it didn't slow down Michael Richenberg (second picture), who won the race in Elba for the fifth straight year.

A slow drizzle turned into a bit of a downpour about a minute into the race, but hundreds of runners still completed the course.

Race results are not yet available.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the full race results.

Le Roy looked like a team with barely a weakness during the first half of Friday's 41-14 victory over Letchworth.

The Indians were held to minus two yards of total offense during the half and ran only 19 plays without notching a single first down.

The Oatkan Knights (3-0) had six possession in the half and scored five offensive TDs with a total offense of 248 yards.

The one glitch was a Mike McMullen interception when the Knights seemed to be marching toward another inevitable touchdown. It was McMullen's first interception of the season.

"I thought we played well," Head Coach Brian Moran said. "I though we did a lot of things well tonight. I thought our first team played extremely well. They got off the ball well. We just did a lot good things."

McMullen tossed three touchdown passes and had a total of 118 yards through the air on the night. He was 10-16 passing. Ryan McQuillen caught all three of the TD passes.

Peter Privitera gained 145 yards on 18 carries, scoring twice.

"Peter ran very well today," Moran said. "As you know, he came off the ankle surgery and tonight he showed the Peter of old. He started to get that speed back, and acceleration."

Tom Kelso carried the ball seven times for 42 yards and one TD. Nick Egeling ran for 45 yards on six carries. Kelso also caught three passes for 42 yards.

Jake Henry had six tackles and a sack. Chandler Winling, five tackles, and with four tackles each were Brandon Van Grol, McQuillen and Egeling. Anthony Paladino had two tackles and a sack.

Letchworth came into the game with a 1-1 record, with a 30-26 win over Warsaw and a 33-0 loss to Cal-Mum.

The Indians' only real offense came late in the game with two scoring drives against mainly second-team players. The Indians were also running more stunts and option plays, opening up the offense a bit.

Moran said this week the focus during team practice will be the play of the second team.

"You've got to pay a little more attention in practice and understand what we're trying to do and play a little better," Moran said. "Our expectation is that everybody improves on our team."

Next up for Le Roy, Warsaw, which is off to an 0-3 start on the season. Game time is 7:30 at Le Roy.

For our coverage of the Batavia game, click here.

Also, last night, Pembroke (1-2) lost to Attica (3-0), 41-7. Attica's Matt Perry gained 288 yards on 17 carries, scoring six times. Perry is now the school career leader in TDs with 50 and total yards at 2,866.

Oakfield-Alabama (1-2) beat Finney (0-3) 61-0. Alan Chapp was 12-14 for 252 yards and two touchdowns, adding 72 yards on the ground. Chase Manzella gained 63 yards and scored three times. Chris Nanni added 31 yards on the ground and two TDs.

Today, two undefeated teams, Alexander and Notre Dame, clash at Notre Dame. Game time, 1:30. Elba/Byron-Bergen is at Holley.

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For the first 74 minutes of play Thursday in Pavilion, two teams on the pitch with 3-0 records kept the score knotted at 0-0 and it was starting to seem like a tie was a predictable outcome.

Then Geneseo's Elliott Cannon scooted a ball past senior goalie Collin Sheflin. Another goal two minutes later by Mo Carlon, with only four minutes on the clock, seemed to seal the fate of the Golden Gophers.

"Genesee has been building a great program for years," said Pavilion Head Coach Matt Roth. "They seem to graduate players with another junior right behind who is good. We're working on doing the same thing here, but it takes time. We worked hard tonight. The better team, probably, ended up winning, but they didn't out work us."

Coming into the game, Pavilion had given up only one goal in its first three games. That was in a 2-1 win over Mount Morris. Pavilion has beat Pembroke 6-0 and Avon 3-0.

"Jake Defisher, Heyden Ewell and Stephen Pike work hard on defense," Roth said. "We've only given up three goals and two of them were tonight, so when you have that kind of defense, you're going to be in most games."

Riley Vallance has been working hard, too, Roth said. He's played every position this season and on defense against Pavilion he played a big role in keeping the game close.

Dakota Kegler, a midfielder, has also been working hard this season, he said.

Pavilion is now 3-1-1 on the season and Roth is expecting a good run for the team come time for sectional play.

"Our goal is to build, to be playing our best soccer in October," Roth said. "Right now, we're not where we want to be, but if we get there in mid-October when sectionals come, we're going to be a dangerous team in sectional play."

Pavilion's next game is at home, tomorrow, 1 p.m., against York.

Pavilion's goalie grabbing a shot in the first period.

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Boys and girls in grades 9-12 looking to advance their hoop dreams are invited to a basketball mini-camp starting Oct. 7 at Batavia High School.

The camp is hosted by Batavia Boys Varsity Basketball Coach Buddy Brasky and sponsored by the Batavia Boys Basketball Booster Club.

The camp will focus on improving offensive skills and it will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. every Monday and Thursday in October.

The cost is $125 and Brasky said the camp is designed for experienced and serious players only.

For more information, contact Brasky at (585) 356=4050 or e-mail him at mbrasky@bataviacsd.org