Sports

 Elba/Byron-Bergen (1-4) at Notre Dame (3-2)

1:30 p.m. Saturday

The Fighting Irish are currently the No. 4 seed in Class D and will be looking to get things in order to start a sectional run next week. A loss would mean Notre Dame would lose a home game in the first round as they would probably move down to No. 5.

Notre Dame is doing it all on the offensive side of the ball.

Nick Bochicchio has over 500 yards passing and is getting better every week and he has a great target in Kevin Francis at wide receiver.

Bochicchio has the luxury of having a good running game to go with the passing attack.

Kevin Schildwaster had his best week of the season in last week's win over Holley and now has 358 rushing yards with five touchdowns. Mike Pratt has 348 yards and five TDs.

You never know what you are going to get from the Fighting Irish on offense.

The Lancers have had some serious struggles this season as the Byron-Bergen kids are still learning how to play the game.

But there have been some signs of potential.

Zach Green has become a star in the Elba/Byron-Bergen backfield and he gets plenty of help from Brandon Spurling.

The Lancers like to throw the ball around a little bit with quarterback Eric Kowalik and have the potential to do big things with Cody Torpey, who will line up at receiver, running back and quarterback.

Elba/Byron-Bergen is on the outside looking in when it comes to sectionals at this point. The Lancers are the No. 9 seed in Class C and a win on Saturday would be a big help if they want to get that eighth seed and the fun first round matchup against either Le Roy, Oakfield-Alabama or Pembroke. 

 Barker (1-4) at Alexander (2-3)

1 p.m. Saturday

The Trojans have won two straight games and are looking to even up heading into the sectional playoffs.

Alexander is seeded No. 4 right now in Class DD and might have a shot to move up to No. 3 if Avon loses to Letchworth Friday night.

The Class D and DD playoffs start a week before the higher classes and if the season ended today, Alexander would host York in the opening round. If they can move up to No. 3, the Trojans would host Barker. Lyons or Canisteo-Greenwood next week.

Jay Schafer had the big game running the ball in last week's win over Elba/Byron-Bergen and is starting to put together a pretty solid year. He has 64 rushing attempts for 447 yards and four touchdowns.

Mike Woodrow has 180 yards and two TDs and Ryan Piechoki has 150 yards and two scores.

Those three are going to be the key against a physical Barker defense.

Zach Burke has had some struggles in the passing game (17-of-50 for 245 yards with 1 TD and 5 INT), but could look in the direction of Lucas Czechowski or Jordan Leitten this week.

Czechowski has shown a knack for hitting the big kicks this season.

Piechoki leads the defense will 41 tackles and will have to keep his eyes on Greg Brown, who has 418 yards and four touchdowns on 103 carries this season.

 Batavia (3-2) at East Rochester/Gananda (4-1)

7 p.m. Friday

Batavia has won three straight games and would love to make it four.

But the Blue Devils will have their hands full with ER/Gananda, which is ranked No. 5 in the state in Class B and is currently No. 4 in Section 5 Class B sectional seeding points.

The only reason the Bombers have a loss is because of the mess that happened in Bath during the opening week of the season. ER/Gananda wound up forfeiting the game even though they were ahead when the lights went out.

Check out this thread on Section 5 Talksback about the issue.

The Bombers are led by quarterback Neil Dotterer, who is his school's all-time passing leader with over 4,400 yards. He is third on the all-time Section 5 passing list.

Batavia has several good athletes, but will need them to step up in the secondary as they will probably see several three and four wide receiver sets.

The Blue Devils need to get a pass rush from either the defensive linemen or blitzers.

As far as offense, Batavia will keep running the ball and hopefully keep doing it well.

Rob Williams earned Class B Offensive Player of the Week last week after rushing for 267 yards and returning to kickoffs for touchdowns in a win over Penn Yan.

He now has 70 carries for 878 yards and 14 touchdowns on the season.

His partner in the backfield is Anthony D'Aurizio, who is having himself a big season as well. He has 634 yards and seven touchdowns on 60 carries.

If the running game is slowed then quarterback Joe Canzoneri will have to do some passing.

D'Aurizio is the leading tackler with 52, with Troy Ireland getting 45 so far. Adam Hausfelder has 39 and Todd Logsdon has pitched in 30.

Batavia is eighth in sectional standings right now and will probably need to get a win this week or at home next week against Geneva to guarantee a spot in the sectional playoffs.

 Cal-Mum (5-0) at Le Roy (5-0)

7:30 p.m. Friday

Section 5's biggest rivals take the field with a lot on the line.

The two undefeated teams are fighting for the Livingston Conference Division II title and both are looking to hold on to their top seeds (Le Roy in Class C and Cal-Mum in Class DD).

The Oatkan Knights are ranked fifth in the state in C and the Red Raiders are ranked third in D.

Le Roy had some issues in last week's 49-37 win over Avon as Max Barrett had a big game running and throwing the football. Chris Voos has the ability to chuck the ball around for the Red Raiders.

Cal-Mum can throw, but will run the football as always.

Jeremy Wilson gained 161 yards in C-M's 35-0 win over Canisteo-Greenwood last week. Fullback John Marozzi will also put up some solid numbers.

The Red Raiders defense held C-G to just 47 rushing yards last week, which is something that will be very different this week.

Le Roy can and will run the football with Andrew Alexander leading the way. He had nearly 200 yards on the ground last week and now has 771 yards and seven touchdowns.

Travis Fenstermaker ran the ball 18 times for 66 yards last week, but does most of his damage with his arm.

He completed just 6-of-10 passes for 53 yards. Four of those completions went to Mike Humphrey, who made it into the end zone three times.

Every time Humphrey has the ball in his hands, good things happen. He has 21 receptions for 395 yards and a whopping nine touchdowns as a receiver.

He also does a great job of returning kicks and intercepting the ball as a DB.

The Oatkan Knights have won 40 straight games at Hartwood Park, dating back to 1998. That amazing steak will be tested against the Red Raiders and against Hornell next week.

 Holley (0-5) at Attica (3-2)

7 p.m. Friday

The Blue Devils are looking to bounce back after a tough loss against Oakfield-Alabama last week.

Attica is currently the No. 7 seed in Class B and will probably need to win its final two games to secure a playoff berth.

Holley has really struggled this season and Attica should be able to roll in this one, but will have Pembroke in the final week of the season.

Expect a heavy dose of Andy Ruddock in this game, at least the first half.

Ruddock has rushed for 724 yards on eight touchdowns on 73 attempts this season and will probably gain over 100 yards in the first half of this game.

He is a featured back and the Hawks struggle against the run. Notre Dame had two runners get over 100 yards each last week in a 34-14 win and Pembroke had 300 yards running the previous week.

Nate Berry has 120 yards and Luke Pariso has 124 this season, so those two runners could also get plenty of work.

Brandon Rollins and Shawn Dupuis are a solid passing duo as Rollins has completed 34-of-57 attempts for 460 yards and eight touchdowns and five interceptions. Dupuis has a great chance of making the GR all-star team as a receiver as he has hauled in 16 passes for 348 yards and four touchdowns.

Attica's defense is also solid, led by Pariso's 45 tackles. Kevin Gallinger (35), Kyler Dabolt (31) and Dave Jennings (30) are all over 30 tackles on the season.

The Alexander Girl's soccer team was all but eliminated from the Division 1 title race after tieing Kendall 2-2 Wednesday at home.  Pembroke knocked off Bergen 3-0 and Holley knocked off Attica 1-0 moving Attica into 2nd place and Alexander into 3rd.

Alexander jumped out to an early 2 goal lead thanks to a header by Anna Dominick off a corner from Autumn Atkinson in the 11th minute and a header by Tessa Bigelow on a cross from Amber Finan in the 13th minute.  Kendall came right back as Kayla Browe shot a ball in off the crossbar and in just a minute later to make it 2-1.  With 12 minutes left in the half it was 2-2 as Kendall fired another shot high and in the far corner.

In the 2nd half Kendall was dominant for the first 35 minutes outworking Alexander and controlling play.  Kendall rang 3 balls off the crossbar in the half and was very unlucky not to put one in the net.  Alexander came alive in the last 5 minutes of the game and had two chances to go up 3-2 but couldn't find the net.

The OT came and went without a goal.  Alexander had more possession in OT but couldn't put a ball in the net and the game finished 2-2.

Hannah Wilson had a strong game in goal making 11 saves and getting her hands on several crosses to kill Kendall attacks before they got a shot off.

 Just a quick note.

My high school football previews have been pushed back until Thursday this week because I'm working on something special.

So make sure you check back throughout the day as I will be posting them as I complete them.

 There is a very interesting race going on in Genesee Region League girls soccer.

There is a three-way race for the goal scoring title and a two-way race for the goal scoring title. It is mixed with players from Division I and II.

Wheatland-Chili's Lauren Drago has 20 goals and 12 assists, for 52 points to lead Division II. 

The Wildcats are currently 9-2 and lead Division II. Elba is second at 6-3-2.

W-C is the most potent scoring team in the division as Taylor Smith is third in the division with 13 goals and eight assists for 34 points.

Carrie Grande is fourth with eight goals and nine helpers, for 25 points.

Drago is currently one goal behind Pembroke's Nicole Sharick for the goal scoring title. Sharick leads all GR scorers with 21 goals, but has nine assists and is at 51 total points, one behind Drago.

The Dragons are in first in Division I with a 9-2-1 record with  Alexander in second at 8-3-1.

Alexander's leading scorer is Rachel Pettys, who is eighth with seven goals, two assists and 16 points.

Byron-Bergen's Stacy Maskell and Holley's Emily Troup are tied for second in scoring with nine goals, three assists and 21 points apiece.

Elba's Chelsi Clark is just one goal behind Drago and Sharick with 19. She also has five assists for 43 points.

You can check out all of the scoring leaders for Division I here and Division II here. 

 I was just taking a look at the current standings for the Section 5 Tournaments and figured I would relay where are local teams are and what that means come playoff time.

The most exciting tournament locally will be in Class C, where local team currently hold the top 3 spots.

Le Roy sits at 5-0 and has the top seed at this point with two big games left on the schedule. A pair of victories over Class DD Caledonia-Mumford and Class B Hornell would wrap up that spot.

Oakfield-Alabama and Pembroke are both also undefeated and are No. 2 and 3, respectively. Those two teams will be playing each other on Friday night and the winner will have the upper-hand on the second seed, with a shot at No. 1 if Le Roy loses either of its final two games.

Pembroke will host Class B Attica in the final week of the season and O-A will host Class C Holley.

Elba/Byron-Bergen (1-4) and Holley (0-5) are the other two local teams in Class C and at this point it looks like the Hawks are eliminated and will be playing Pool Play games.

The Lancers are probably going to need a victory over Class D Notre Dame this weekend and/or a victory over Section 6's Bishop Walsh in Week 7 to get in. Elba/B-B is the 9th seed right now with the same record as No. 8 Dansville. No. 7 South Seneca (3-2) is too far ahead to be caught.

Attica and Batavia are both 3-2 and look to be fairly safe in Class B as far as making the tournament.

Wayland-Cohocton, Penn Yan and Waterloo are all 1-4 and would need a lot of things to go their way to get in.

But both local Blue Devil squads have a chance to move up as high as No. 5 as Palmyra-Macedon and Livonia share records with Attica and Batavia.

Batavia will play East Rochester/Gananda - the current No. 4 seed - and Geneva - the current No. 1 seed - to wrap up the regular season.

Attica will play Holley and then Pembroke.

Cal-Mum is 5-0 and has the top seed in Class DD, but Alexander moved closer to getting the No. 3 seed with last week's victory over Elba/Byron-Bergen. The Trojans are 2-3 and the fourth seed, with Avon at No. 3.

Alexander will need a win over Barker - which is 1-4 with the No. 6 seed in Class DD - and an Avon loss against Class C Letchworth to move up to the No. 3 seed.

The Class DD and D playoffs start a week sooner than the higher classes.

Notre Dame is 3-2 and currently has the No. 4 seed in Class D. As far as I can tell, the Fighting Irish could end up anywhere from No. 2 through No. 6 depending on the outcome of the games this weekend.

Pembroke and Alexander squared off in Pembroke Monday with sole possession of 1st place on the line and Pembroke came away with a well earned 1-0 victory in a hard fought game.  The 1st half saw only two real scoring chances, one by Pembroke which rang off the crossbar and one by Alexander that was blown offsides (quite possibly incorrectly) on a direct kick from midfield.  Pembroke had the better of the posession in the 1st half but neither team generated many good looks on the goal.

The 2nd half was a highly entertaining half which saw both teams create several scoring chances with none finding the net.  Alexander's 8th grade defender Abby Shilvock had Pembroke's top scorer Nicole Sharrick under wraps for the majority of the game as Sharrick only managed to put a couple dangerous crosses at the front of the net throughout the game.

In a 8 minute span in the middle of the 2nd half Alexander had 6 shots from inside the 18 but didn't strike any of them that well and none managed to find their way into the net.  Pembroke had a couple crosses that went through the 6 yard box on the ground but none of them were connected on the back post.

With both teams playing at such a high level it was going to take a mistake or fantastic shot for either team to put a goal in the back of the net.  With just over 3 minutes left in the game both happened on the same play.  An Alexander defender committed an unnecessary foul near the right sideline about 18 yards off the endline and the direct kick was fired in at the far post.  Goalkeeper Hannah Wilson couldn't get enough on her jump and the ball found the far side netting to give Pembroke a 1-0 lead.  Alexander pushed everything forward for the last 3 minutes but was unable to get a ball in the net.

It was a very even game overall with both teams accounting for 3 corners, around 8 saves for each goalie, and around 12 shots on goal.  It was a fantastic game, congrats to Pembroke on the hard fought win.  They are alone atop the GR standings 1 game ahead of Alexander (and they also hold the tiebreaker) with 3 games remaining for each team.  Holley is a game and a half behind with 4 to play and Bergen is 2 behind with 5 games remaining.

Here are the standings with 2 weeks to go:

Division 1 (games this week in parenthesis)

1) Pembroke 8-2-1 (Alexander, Bergen, Holley)

2) Alexander 8-2-1 (@ Pembroke, Kendall, Bergen)

3) Holley 7-2-2 (Attica, @ Pembroke)

4) Byron-Bergen 6-3-1 (Lyndonville, @ Pembroke, @ Alexander)

5) Kendall 3-7 (Attica, @ Alexander, @ Attica)

6) Attica 1-6-3 (@ Kendall, @ Holley, Kendall)

Division 2

1) Wheatland-Chili 9-2 (@ND, Elba)

2) Elba 6-3-2 (Oakfield, @ WC)

3) Lyndonville 3-6-1 (@ Bergen, ND)

4) Oakfield-Alabama 1-9-1 (@ Elba)

5) Batavia Notre Dame 0-10 (Wheatland, @ Lyndonville)

Every game is a big one this week with losses causing the top teams to fall off the pace with no time to catch up.  Biggest games are probably Alexander @ Pembroke  (Pembroke won the first game 1-0), Elba @ Wheatland (Elba won 3-2 first time around), Bergen @ Alexander (they tied 2-2 the first time), Holley @ Pembroke (tied 0-0 the first time).  If any of the top 4 teams in division 1 sweep their games this week they should be in 1st alone on Friday.

 Five different Pembroke rushers helped the Dragons pound host Barker 48-6 Saturday afternoon.

Andrew Wright again had the big day, in fact he had a huge day.

Wright rushed the ball eight times for 113 yards and a touchdown, caught all five passes completed by David Kleckler for 115 yards and a score and returned a punt 58 yards for a TD. That gives him 286 all-purpose yards.

Mike Dibble had 11 carries for 58 yards and two touchdowns and Josh Phillips had nine rushes for 50 yards and a pair of TDs. Andy Gabbey carried the ball five times for 32 yards.

Kleckler had four rushes for 45 yards and completed 5-of-10 attempts for 115 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

Gabbey had 13 tackles and Dibble added 10.

Greg Brown had 20 carries for 75 yards to lead the Raiders (1-4), who plays at Alexander (2-3) next Saturday.

Pembroke improves to 5-0 and will be at 5-0 Oakfield-Alabama next Friday night in what will probably decide the Genesee Region League title. 

The Avon football team played visiting Le Roy tight, but the Oatkan Knights held on to a slim lead in the second  half and beat the Braves 49-37.

After the two squads were tied at the end of the first quarter, 8-8, Le Roy had a 21-14 advantage in the second.

Travis Fenstermaker tossed two touchdown passes to Mike Humphrey in the second quarter - and three in the first half - and Quentin Humphrey added another second quarter touchdown run to give Le Roy a 29-22 lead at intermission.

Avon trailed 36-29 and was driving early in the fourth quarter, but the Braves fumbled and Andrew Alexander picked it up and returned the ball 47 yards for a huge score.

Alexander added a 63-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter and Avon got a late score when Max Barrett threw a 35-yard TD pass to Pat Hayes.

Barrett was a big reason why the Braves (3-2) were in the game as he completed 9-of-17 pass attempts for 131 yards and also rushed for 137 yards with two touchdowns.

Le Roy improves to 5-0 and will be hosting rival Caledonia-Mumford next Friday night.

 The Holley football team was playing under rented lights Friday, and from what I've been told there were not enough to make the game watchable on that field.

There was no scoreboard rented for the game, so the Hawks hosted yet another game without anybody knowing how much time was gone in each quarter.

But those lights that were rented by Holley were turned off in a hurry as Notre Dame nearly doubled the offensive production the Hawks had and picked up an easy 34-14 victory.

The Fighting Irish led 14-0 after the first quarter, 21-6 at the half, 28-14 after three and then 34-14 at the end.

Notre Dame had 330 yards of offense while Holley could muster just 180.

Kevin SChildwaster led all rushers with 18 carries for 120 yards and three touchdowns with Mike Pratt pitching in 102 yards and two scores on 15 attempts.

Nick Bochicchio completed 7-of-8 pass attempts.

Kyle Steadman led Holley (0-5) with 40 rushing yards on seven carries with Sean Baylor leading all tacklers with 12.

Rick Lair had eight tackles to lead Notre Dame (3-2).