Oakfield

 The first edition of the New York State Sportswriters rankings are out today and some of our teams are getting some pretty impressive rankings. 

The two Genesee Region League squads with state rankings are really up there. Oakfield-Alabama and its 5-0 record has earned the fourth-seed in Class C. The latest win for the Hornets was an impressive 76-43 win over a very good Pembroke team.

Notre Dame handled Prattsburgh 60-53 on Saturday night and are also ranked fourth, in Class D. The Fighting Irish are 4-0.

Batavia is coming off a loss to Pittsford Sutherland on Wednesday, 69-57, and are ranked 19th in Class A. Sutherland is 13th. Batavia has a 4-1 record.

 With Pembroke and Oakfield-Alabama as the talks of Division I in the Genesee Region League at the start of the season, Wednesday's early season contest was obviously a key one.

The Hornets have established themselves as the team to beat after thumping the Dragons 76-43 to improve to 5-0.

They keys to the win were as simple as playing an up-tempo style of defense designed to keep Pembroke's Andrew Wright from getting good looks and limiting Andy Gabbey's 3-point attempts.

Mission accomplished.

Wright was held to just 12 points and Gabbey did not connect on a basket in the contest.

After Ken Babcock and Wright had consecutive baskets early in the game, O-A's Brad Riner hit his second 3-pointer to tie the score at 8.

Babcock and Noah Seward exchanged buckets, then Seward added a couple more before Tim Smith scored seven points to give the Hornets a 23-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Riner hit another 3-pointer and then A.J. Kehlenbeck dropped in a basket to make it 30-20 midway through the second quarter.

Pembroke got within six, but Seward had consecutive baskets and Smith hit another 3-pointer to give O-A the 37-24 lead at intermission.

The Hornets quickly made the game a 50-26 blowout in the third quarter with Chris Bucceri, Smith and Riner having big periods.

Smith had 14 points and Seward added 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Hornets, who are 3-0 in the league and 5-0 overall. Riner had 13 points and Chris Bucceri pitched in eight points and seven dimes.

Babcock had 11 points and Steve Moser added 10 points for the Dragons (4-3).

 Yes, the season is very early. But the current Genesee Region League standings are out and the top teams are getting their due.

Oakfield-Alabama already has a big lead in Division I, with a 4-0 record. Pembroke and Attica follow with a 3-2 record.

Notre Dame is 2-0 and lead Division II. Elba is in second at 2-2.

There is a ton of basketball left to be played, but the Hornets and Fighting Irish have impressive leads early on.

I was just checking out the first edition of the Democrat & Chronicle polls for winter sports, and I'm very confused by the small school boys basketball one.

This is the poll in question.

Small schools
Rank/team
1. Bishop Kearney
2. Finney
3. Letichworht
4. Wellsviell
5. Oakfield-Alabama
6. Penn Yan
7. Dansville
8. Gananda
9. Dundee
10. Livonia
(tie) Marion

(not typos, this is directly from the D&C Web site)

I think the D&C does a great job with high school sports coverage, but I'm one of the first people to always question the lack of small school athletes that make the All-Greater Rochester teams. There is proof that they focus on the larger schools with these rankings.

First off, Letchworth is 4-1 and has a very good basketball team. I have the utmost respect for coach Tim McMullen. But how do they get a No. 3 ranking?

The Indians have a loss and are one of four Livingston Conference teams to make the top 10. Livingston is a decent basketball league, but the Genesee Region League is probably much stronger this season.

The only GR squad to make the list is Oakfield-Alabama at No. 5. The Hornets are stacked this season and are off to a 4-0 start. Surely the Hornets deserve to be ranked higher than Letchworth.

And I don't see how Notre Dame can be totally left off this top 10 list.

The Fighting Irish have only played two games, but have won both in blowout fashion and are a very talented and deep team. Notre Dame is also one of the best teams in the history of Section 5, so I don't see how they can be left off.

The other glaring exception is Batavia, which is ranked sixth in the small school wrestling poll. If Batavia is considered a small school, then they should be right near the top of this list. As good as the top teams on that list are, if they have to play the Blue Devils, they are probably going to lose. Batavia plays schools like Pittsford Sutherland, Pittsford Mendon and Victor, and just won a tournament with two defending state champions.

D&C does a lot of things well, but these rankings basically forget that Genesee County is on the map.

Stacy Hein hit four critical foul shots in the last two minutes and scored eight points to lead the Batavia girls basketball team to a 42-38 win over host Victor Friday, recovering from its first loss of the season earlier this week.

Brittany Wormley led the squad with 13 points and Brittany Mazurkiewicz followed with 11 points and seven assists.

Jaycee Shirk had six points and eight boards for the Blue Devils (5-1).

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 Anni Lehtola, the foreign exchange student from Finland, had another big game for Alexander, scoring 19 points to lead the Trojans to a 57-47 win over Pembroke.

Katie Kochmanski pitched in 11 points while Anna Dominick and Nicki Laird added eight points apiece.

Kelsey Lewis led the Dragons (2-2) with 14 points, seven rebounds and seven steals. Nicole Sharick scored a team-high 15 points.

Alexander is 3-1.

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Brynn Perfett was the leading scorer for Oakfield-Alabama with 11 points as the Hornets improved to 3-1 with a 46-28 win over Holley.

Dani Sage had seven points and 11 rebounds and Lindsay Chatt pitched in seven points.

Julie Brooks had 11 points for the Hawks (1-3).

Dylan Versage had a pair of goals, including the game winner 7 1/2 minutes into the third period for Notre Dame as the Fighting Irish beat Immaculate Heart, 3-2, in the consolation game of the Radier Classic.

Jason Harasimowicz dished out three assists and Ivan Madafferi added a goal with a helper for Notre Dame (2-1).

Thomas Dehr had 21 saves.

The other local hockey team did not come away with a victory Saturday.

The Batavia hockey team fell to 1-2 with a 3-2 loss to Hilton.

Corey Gurski scored the game-winning goal at the 9:32 mark of the third period as Hilton improves to 3-0-1. 

Dan Kellman and Andrew Harris had the assists on the winning goal, with Harris and Collin Sawdy each getting a goal.

Pat Finnell  and Josh Moir had a goal each for the Blue Devils.

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Freshman Keri Soppe dropped in 20 points with three boards to earn tournament MVP as West Irondequoit downed Pembroke 48-36 in the finals of the Alden Tournament.

The Eagles had a seven minute long, 13-point run in the third quarter to pull away as Cecilia Sigrist pitched in seven points and 10 rebounds.

Danielle Smith led the way for the Dragons (1-1) with 10 points while all-tournament team selection Nicole Sharick pitched in eight points, 14 rebounds and three steals.

Kelsey Lewis had eight points with Natasha Powell and Katie Hackett pulling down seven boards apiece.

Irondequoit is 2-0.

 The Daily News finally ran the Genesee Region League football all-stars today, and the only way to describe this piece is disappointing.

For the past few years there has been a cool graphic that was a football field with headshots of each player and then a story about the all-stars. This year, the paper went back to the boring team photo that looks bad because the players are wearing jeans with their jersey and the faces are so small you can barely see them.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why they would go back to this extremely unattractive photo when the cool graphic must still be in the system.

The writeups are fine with all the players statistics and plans for college next year if they are a senior. But, it is the same thing that is done for every other all-star squad.

If you are interested in seeing an all-star story with action photos from the season, check out the one that ran on The Batavian back on Oct. 21.

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The highlight of Friday's edition is the photo on page B-4 by Nick Serrata that goes along with the story by Alanna Stage covering the Elba Tournament at Genesee Community College.

Elba's Missy Call and Attica's Rachel Kohlhagen are fighting for a loose ball, which Call ends up knocking out of play, right in the direction of Serrata. He captured the moment perfectly. 

Serrata's basketball photography has been fantastic so far this season and is a nice compliment to Mark Gutman's work. The Daily has excellent sports photography.

You can check out Serrata's excellent photo by picking up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, you can subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

 The Oakfield-Alabama girls basketball team only lost two games last season. Unfortunately, the second came in the Section 5 Class CCC semifinals, where Honeoye had a 10-2 advantage in the fourth quarter to knock off the Hornets 39-29.

Three Genesee Region League all-stars graduated from that team, but three players that had significant playing time return and step into leadership roles as O-A looks to repeat as the Division I champions. The team had a 20-2 record last year.

Senior guard Hillary Bates is the top returning scorer at 4.5 points per game and will probably be the top scoring option. She will be a score-first point guard after earning GR honorable mention status last in 2007-2008.

The other senior on the team is Dani Sage, who scored four points per game last year and will play small forward.

Junior Lindsay Chatt also scored about four points per game and will start at guard as well. 

Sam Kidder was the leading scorer for the Hornets last season at 13.3 points per game and the three aforementioned players will be looking to take much of the scoring responsibility.

Junior guard Brynn Perfitt was called up at the end of the season and had success putting the ball in the basket, and could also be somebody that handles the scoring duties.

Jeff Schlagenhauf - last year's Coach of the Year - has a team that looks very different than a year ago. The Hornets didn't have a single player over 5-foot-9 last season, but have a bunch of size this year and could look to pound the ball into the paint.

Sarah Scarborough is over 6-foot tall and Christina Palillo also has size, so O-A will be able to play a more physical style of play this season.

Schlagenhauf believes this year's squad has as much potential as last year's, but might take a little time to play together before reaching its full potential.

 Last year's Oakfield-Alabama basketball team was very good.

The Hornets went 20-3 last season, with the final loss coming to East Rochester in the sectional semifinals.

That team had a ton of talent, with James Davis and John Gerber graduating after the season. But, Davis missed a lot of time due to injury, and essentially four starters return to the squad to try to capture a GR title for a second straight year and finally win a sectional championship for the school.

The biggest name on the roster, not just because of his size, is Noah Seward. The big man averaged a double-double last season, scoring 11 points with 10 rebounds per game. He's had three years on varsity and is expected to be a premier player in the post this season.

Brad Riner may not have Seward's size, but he's just as tough. Both were stars on the very successful football team and Riner will run the point for the Hornets.

He is a defensive-minded player that will look to turn defense into offense, while distributing the ball like a true point guard is expected to. He has plenty of varsity experience and will also score when needed.

Guard Tim Smith won't admit it, but he's going to be expected to pitch in on the scoring end of things. While Davis and Gerber were the focus of the offense when they were on the floor, Smith managed to have some pretty solid games putting the ball in the hoop.

Expect him to be a big part of the offensive gameplan. A.J. Kehlenbeck is a big body with the ability to play solid defense and put the ball in the basket.

Oakfield-Alabama also has plenty of depth, with several players returning from last years team and newcomers that were on the 20-0 jayvee squad last season.

The only really big change you will see from the Hornets is at the top as Gary Kurkowski returns to coach the varsity squad because Merritt Holly stepped down. Kurkowski has been a part of the program for a very long time, coaching at every level.

His coaching style is very similar to Holly, so there won't be a big change. But many of the players respect his old school approach to the game.

The only way to top the Division I title and semifinal appearance of a year ago will be a championship, which is a long term goal for O-A. First the squad must get through a tough regular season and mesh as a unit - with a few players still banged up from football season.

 Oakfield-Alabama grad James Davis missed much of his senior season with an injury, but has gotten off to a nice start at D'Youville College.

The freshman started the first two games this season, scoring six points per game. He has averaged 31 minutes per contest while 2 1/2 rebounds and four assists per game.

D'Youville is 0-2 to start the season, but Davis is one of five freshman hoping to turn the program around.

A pair of local athletes suffered some pretty serious injuries during the Section 5 playoffs and I've got updates on both.

Attica's Andy Ruddock was knocked out of the Class B semifinals contest with Bath. He had some tests last week and tore his ACL. He will be in a cast for six weeks and hopefully can get back to playing football in the future.

(UPDATE: Ruddock actually went to the doctor today and received some great news. What was thought to be a torn ACL, is actually a stress fracture in his tibia. He will be in a brace for two weeks while doing rehab. The injury is significantly less severe and he will be just fine for baseball season)

Oakfield-Alabama's Tim Smith was knocked out of the Class C title game when trying to tackle Le Roy's Travis Fenstermaker. The hit looked very serious and Smith was in rough shape. He was diagnosed with a concussion and did not return to the game. Coach John Dowd confirmed that he is doing well and should be good to go for basketball season.

 In Monday's Daily News, The Sports Staff writes that Notre Dame's boys cross country team took third in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Championships at Sunken Meadow State Park.

ND finished just a point behind second-place Barker.

Kevin Palwak finished in 18:05 to lead the way for the Fighting Irish, taking 18th. Quin O'Connor was injured during the race and finished 24th.

"Quin has been our top runner and was expected to finish in the top 10," ND coach Eric Geitner told The Daily News.

Oakfield-Alabama's Kevin Grazioplene was the top finisher of all local runners, taking eighth in 17:35.

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Also in the edition was Batavia's Helen Zickl taking fifth in the Class B Section 5 Diving Championships over the weekend.

The 8th grader had a score of 304.95 points. The Section 5 Swimming Championships are later this week, with the finals on Friday, in Webster.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

It has been a few days now since the Le Roy football team knocked off Oakfield-Alabama, 27-17, in the Section 5 Class C championship game at PAETEC Park.

It was a hard-fought battle between two great, udefeated teams, that featured many great performances. Mike Humphrey won the MVP after catching 12 passes for 153 yards and a touchdown, but there are plenty of other solid days, including Jason Stanley of Oakfield-Alabama stepping in for an injured Tim Smith.

If you are interested, this is the link to the complete stat breakdown of the game.