Sports

There has been a lot of "bad" information floating around regarding the city school districts desire to develop North St. Extension. Tonight the Board of Education is having a meeting a 7:00 in the HS Auditorium to present the facts to the community. The plan clearly points out that our district is in dire need for more athletic fields. This project will be funded by grants!

A city councilman has been fueling the fire and rallied several people to attend tonight and speak against it. He has gone as far as to take out paid ads on the radio and the Batavian to rally support against this... We are asking for your support to come tonight and speak in favor of the proposed project if you indeed feel that the project is good for our school.

All it would take is to step up to the microphone and state that you are in favor of it. Unfortunately these events bring out all the nay-sayers and not the ones that support it - that's why we need your help! I hope to see you tonight!

Things looked good for Notre Dame at the end of the first half this afternoon, but in the end Holley took control of the game and went on to win 14-7.

It was the first loss of the year for the Irish and continued Holley's dramatic turn around from an 0-8 in 2008.

It was a tale of two halves, according to Notre Dame Head Coach Rick Mancuso, who said his team failed to execute in the third and fourth quarters.

"We had a good mix of run and a good mix of of pass (in the first half)," said Mancuso. "I thought we played with passion. We played with emotion. I thought we came out early in the second half and we started off with a penalty right in the first series and that was just kind of the way that we played. We lost our focus and we lost our discipline and we didn’t play a good second half."

In that first half, Notre Dame did a good job of stuffing Holley's powerful running game. When Holley went up the middle, the Irish line was there to push back the pile. On sweeps, the pursuit was aggressive, lead by Gianni Zambito, to keep Holley's backs from turning the corner. A couple of sweeps turned into lost yardage for the Hawks.

After the game, Hawks Head Coach Chad DeRock bristled at the idea that the Irish were sticking it to his guys during the first half.

"We played our game -- bend, don’t break," DeRock said. "We gave up only seven points to one of the best offenses around here. We bend, we don’t break. They’re going to have big plays. You’ve got to accept that when you’ve got Bochicchio at QB and Pratt and Richter and Zambito out there. Those are big play guys. We just didn’t want to get beat with the big, big play. We got burned on one. Other than that, we did what we had to do."

That one big play was a 35-yard TD pass early in the second quarter to a wide open Zambito from Nick Bochicchio.

The successful drive was sparked by a Cam McDonald fumble recovery late in the first quarter. The turnover stopped a long drive by the Hawks that had them on a seeming precipice of a first score of the game.

Instead, Notre Dame was able to end the half with a 7-0 lead against a Holley team that scored at least 30 points in three of its four previous wins.

ND opened the half with the ball, an illegal motion penalty the Irish in the hole and a few downs later ND was punting it away. It wasn't long after before Mike Perincano was crossing the goal line on a 30-yard rush to pull the Hawks within a point of the Irish (Holley failed to score on a two-point conversion try, so the score stood at 7-6).

On its next possession, the Irish moved the ball down field and were within striking distance of another score when Bochicchio was picked off by Guy Hills. That's the last time the Irish really threatened to put points on the board.

Two possessions later, Chad Barhydt, who took over at QB for Hills, who was injured in the fourth quarter, carried the ball in on a two-yard TD run, and with the two-point conversion, Holley sealed its 14-7 victory.

"My hats off to Holley," Mancuso said. "They played terrific. They were up to the challenge and they’re a great team. They’ve got a lot of really great kids. They work hard and their coaching staff does a great job with them. I wish we cold have done them justice and played them a little bit better."

Coach DeRock said his team, even at 5-0 and assured of at least a share of the Genesee Region title, is still taking the season one week at a time.

"Everybody says this was the GR championship, but it’s not," DeRock said. "It’s another game on our schedule. We have another game next week and another game after that.

"Attica’s a great team," he added. "Brad Clark had 295 yards rushing last night. I scouted the game. He’s a great running back, so we’re not taking them lightly by any means."

Pernicano finished the game with 52 yards on six carries. Sean Baylor had 12 carries for 68 yards. Barhydt posted 42 rushing yards.

For the Irish, now 4-1, Mike Pratt rushed for 65 yards on 20 carries. Zambito contributed 90 total yards on four receptions.

Attica was able to convert two Oakfield-Alabama turnovers in the second half into big plays to literally run away with the game in Oakfield last night, capturing a 34-21 win.

Spirits were high for Oakfield when the team emerged from the locker room on homecoming night with a 14-7 lead, but on its first possession of the third quarter, a fumble gave Attica the ball well into Hornets' territory and a few plays later, Brandon Rollings squirted into the end zone on a 14-yard run. It was Rollings' second TD of the night.

Attica Head Coach Jeff Cusmano said turn overs and the Blue Devils' ability to convert those turnovers into big plays was the key to the game.

"We got the running game going," Cusmano said. "They were clogging up the middle and we got to the outside a bit. We were just digging down and grinding it out."

The game remained tied until the third quarter when another fumble by Oakfield, now 1-4, was followed by a 56-yard dash by Brad Clark. It was Clark's first of three TDs of the night.

"The first half we came out like I expected them to, and just like Notre Dame last week, we came out firing on all cylinders," Coach Brian Palone.  "We’ve just got to find a way to finish games. Right now we’re not playing four quarters of football."

Oakfield pulled even again on an 84-yard run by Jason Stanley. It was Stanley's second long TD run of the night. He also scored in the first quarter, going 64 yards for the TD.

But it was all Attica (4-1) from that point on in the game. Clark scored twice on runs of 62 and 81 yards to seal the victory.

Cusmano said Clark, who had 296 yards on 27 carries, was the star of the game, but also praised the offensive line.

"They just did a tremendous job," Cusmano said. "They dug down and just ground it out. I would have to say it all starts up front and Brad will be the first guy to tell you that without the blocking up front, he wouldn’t have had what he had."

It was some of those big plays that helped Clark run up so many yards that were the undoing for Oakfield, Palone said.

"We can’t allow big plays," said the Oakfield Coach. "Attica was able to get some big plays on us and put together some big drives on us and it was tough for us to battle back."

The turnovers, of course, were crucial mistakes.

"It came down to what we preached for the past couple of weeks – we’ve got to protect the ball and we weren’t able to do that, and defensively, we can’t allow big plays," Palone said. "Attica was able to get some big plays on us and put together some big drives on us and it was tough for us to battle back."

Next week, Alexander goes against undefeated Holley. Cusmano thinks his team will be ready.

"We’re making progress every week and you know the kids are growing," Cusmano said. "They’re going to make mistakes; you know, you roll out a bunch of young kids and they’re going to make mistakes. We’re getting better every week and cutting down on our mistakes. We'll go into the Holley game next week and see what happens."

Besides Clark, for Attica, Brandon Rollings had six carries for 37 yards. Brandon Banks led the defense with nine tackles. Alex Arnone had seven tackles and two fumble recoveries.

For OA, Jason Stanley rushed for 199 yards and scored 3 touchdowns. Matt Osmancickli rushed for 36 yards and Matt Smith carried the ball a total of 35 yards.

What's the recipe for "The Big Game"? Well, start with two undefeated teams in the fifth week of the season. Make sure one of them has a storied history and is hosting the game on homecoming weekend. The other team should be up an upstart, a new program that for the first time is emerging as a powerful, tough-to-beat squad.

That's a Big Game.

And's the situation tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. when Notre Dame hosts the Holley Hawks Notre Dame. The teams clash as division rivals with matching records of 4-0.

“They’ve (Holley) got a great group of kids and we’re probably the underdog here" said Notre Dame's head coach, Rick Mancuso. "We’re fighting an uphill battle, but we’re looking forward to the challenge."

If you put any stock in such things, MaxPreps ranks the Fighting Irish 121st in the state, and Holley at 155th.

The Irish have scored 101 points on the season, Holley, 114. ND's has allowed 35 points, with Holley being a bit stingier, giving up only 23.

The Hawks have a reputation for being a strong, hard-hitting team, and Coach Mancuso acknowledges the Hawks are a tough, well-coached team, but that doesn't make them much different from Attica and Oakfield. Both of those squads have fallen once each this season to the Irish.

"We’ve been against some tough, strong, hard-hitting teams and Holley’s no different than them," Mancuso said,  "other than Holley’s maybe a little bit bigger and they have a little bit better skill level in their back field."

Mancuso said the Hawks probably have the best four backs in the league.

"That gives them an advantage," he said.

"We've got to come out and we've really got to work at it," Mancuso said. "We can't get down they have a big play. We can't get too high and we can't get too low. It's a big challenge."

He said his players are excited about the big game.

It sounds like a recipe for a can't-miss match up.

AUDIO: Interview with Head Coach Rick Mancuso (mp3)

Up in Holley, an interesting story line is developing in the 2009 Genesee Region football season. A team that rarely won over the first few years of its young football program seems suddenly unbeatable.

The Alexander Trojans found out firsthand today just how invincible Holley seems to be at just past the halfway point in the season.

The Trojans were dominated on both sides of the ball for most of four quarters and dropped to 2-2 with a 32-10 loss.

The Hawks move to 4-0 and face a challenge next week to their seeming invincibility when they butt heads with the division’s only other undefeated team, the Fighting Irish, at Notre Dame.

Alexander Head Coach Dave Radley expressed some dissatisfaction with his team after the game saying his players didn’t come ready to play and seemed to take Holley for granted.

On the other side of the field, Chad DeRock said his team is bearing the fruit of three or four years of extra effort.

“Our focus this season was on making history,” DeRock said. “I don’t know what the past record was – two and 60 or something – but that doesn’t matter. I’m happy for my seniors who’ve put in the time. I promised them, if you put in the time, you’ll see results. They put in the time. My juniors put in the time. My sophomores and freshmen have put in the time. My seniors are the most dedicated group of I’ve ever worked with. I’m proud of them. They deserve it.”

Holley opened the game by methodically marching the ball down the field only to lose it on the two-yard line to a fumble.

The Trojans, however, were unable to capitalize on a potential shift of momentum, coughing up the ball on the 20-yard line a few plays later.

It didn’t take long, then, for Sean Baylor to put six on the board for the Hawks with a six-yard run.

Alexander made one last stab at making a game of it early in the second quarter when Lucas Czechowski booted an impressive 35-yard field goal to make the score 6-3, but except for a little spark late in the fourth quarter, the game was all Holley’s.

By the half, the score was 20-3 after TD runs by Baylor and Guy Hills.

Turnovers were a key factor (four total by Alexander), including an interception for a 40-yard touchdown return in the fourth quarter by Holley's Mike Pernicano, which pushed the margin to 32-3 (Baylor had another touchdown run in the third quarter).

After another Pernicano interception, Holley started moving the ball toward the end zone again when the Alexander defense managed to force a fourth down. 

Holley decided to try a long field goal, but the pop-up kick came up well short of the goal line and #88 Steve Schaffer found himself in an open field just waiting for the ball to come down. He then darted to the far sideline and carried the ball 80 yards before being forced out to put his team in the red zone.

Alexander capitalized on the opportunity, finally pushing the ball across the goal line on a one-yard run by Jared Quinn.

And that’s how the game would end – 32-10, Holley.

Notre Dame Head Coach Rick Mancuso had a keen eye on the game through all four quarters. It will be interesting to find out later this week what he thinks about the upcoming clash of two teams seemingly putting it all together in 2009.

More photos after the jump.

Notre Dame moved to 4-0 tonight, but anybody who came into the Friday night showdown with Oakfield-Alabama thinking the Hornets (who entered the game with a disappointing 1-2 record) would be pushovers, they learned something about how a proud football program can rise to the challenge of a tough opponent.

The Hornets never trailed in the game until the end, with ND only pulling even twice, once at 7-7 midway through the second quarter and then at 17-17 in the final seconds of regulation time on a Matt Thompson field goal.

After getting the ball first in overtime, but failing to convert the opportunity into a score, OA saw the Fighting Irish preserve its undefeated season on a six-yard TD rush by Beau Ritcher.

The Hornets had every opportunity to even its record, but OA's defense was eventually worn down by a relentless Notre Dame running attack.

The Hornets scored first on a first-quarter drive keyed by a Jason Stanley 60-yard run, but ND pulled even midway through the second quarter when Mike Pratt capped a grinding Notre Dame drive with a three-yard TD rush.

As the first half drew to a close, there was a real sense that Notre Dame could lose the game. At a time when the Fighting Irish should have controlled the ball, at least well enough to preserve a tie going into half-time, ND went three-and-out with enough time on the clock for OA to push the ball into the red zone. With seconds left in the half, Jon Fisher put three points on the board allowing the Hornets to head into the locker room with a 10-7 lead.

In the third quarter, it really seemed as if OA was in charge of the game, taking the ball down on a scoring drive that was capped by a 15-yard TD pass from Tyler Tamblin to Brent Crawford.

In the fourth quarter, Notre Dame's ground game began to take a toll on OA's defense. Pratt and Ricther eat up a lot of yards, and eventually Pratt plows into the end zone on a 10-yard run to put the score at 17-14.

After an exchange of downs in the fourth quarter, ND again moves the ball into striking range, and this time Thompson puts through his field goal to tie the game at 17-17.

OA got the ball first in OT, but only managed a first down before coming up short. The OA defense fought hard, putting ND in a third-and-long situation before Pratt bulled his way to a third down. With the ball inside the 10, Notre Dame fought for yardage and managed to get the ball to the one-yard line before a penalty forced the offense back five yards. On the next play, however, Ritcher burst through the line of scrimmage and into the end zone to keep the Irish undefeated.

There are more pictures after the jump below.

Oakfield-Alabama, already off to a slow start in 2009, will have its hands full tonight when it meets undefeated Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish (3-0) has averaged 20 first-quarter points so far this season, while the Hornets are averaging only 3. Overall, Notre Dame's per-game scoring average is 26 points compared to 12.3 for the Hornets.

OA comes into the game with a 1-2 record.

"We're confident in where we're going and what we're doing right now," said OA head coach Brian Palone. "We're continuing to make progress each week. We lost a lot of experience from last year. We had only one returning player on defense. We really worked on defense this week, because the defense really struggled last week."

Alexander beat OA last week 42-17.

Notre Dame's head coach, Rick Mancuso, isn't taking the Hornets lightly, though.

"From our standpoint going into this game, Oakfield is always one of the perennial powerhouses in our league," Mancuso said. "Regardless of what their record is, like every team in our league, they work week in and week out to improve, and Oakfield is no different."

Mancuso praised the OA coaching staff and said he knows Palone will have his crew ready to play.

The Fighting Irish need to rebound, he said, from a sloppy effort last week.

"We made a lot of mental errors," Mancuso said. "Defensively, we did not play tight. We didn't play really disciplined. We need to be a more disciplined team going forward."

Norte Dame beat Barker last week 43-18. The 18 points represented the first scores against ND this season, after the team beat Pembroke 21-0 and Attica 14-0.

We'll have coverage posted by the morning. This weekend, The Batavian will also cover Alexander at Holley. Alexander comes into the game 2-1, but Holley is one of the surprises, if not THE surprise of the Genesee League so far this season. Holley is 3-0, opening a season undefeated for the first time in program history.

Organizers are calling the Genesee ARC Friends & Family 5K, that was held September 19th  in Elba a BIG success!  Perfect weather conditions resulted in a record number of people participating in the event which featured a 5K race, 5K walk and a 1 ½ mile fun walk.  A great family event.

The Post Race Party had plenty of kids’ activities including Magician, Adam Michael

and music by the Buffalo Road Show.

Many area farmers contributed to our “Taste of the Elba Area” produce display, giving everyone who attended  the chance to have some fresh grown fruits and vegetables to take home with them.

Special thanks to: Torrey Farms, G. Mortellaro & Sons, MY-T-ACRES, Fenton’s Farms, Schwab Farms, Halat Brothers, Domoy Farms, Harringtons, Porter Farms, Panek Pumpkin Patch, Swanson Farms, Lamb Farms

The top male and female winners were Michael Richenberg of Elba and Kimberly Mills of Basom.  Richenburg ran the 3.1 mile course in 18:24 and Mills came in :20 later at 18:44.  Complete race results are posted at www.pcrtiming.com.

The Batavia High School JV Cheerleaders added a lot of excitement to the finish line!

Funds raised in the Genesee ARC Friends & Family 5K helps support disability services provided by ARC and funds the Genesee ARC Mary Anne Graney Memorial Scholarship.  Two past scholarship winners, Misty Stratton of Elba and Nichole Longhini of Batavia attended the event. Mary Anne Graney was a parent, educator, advocate and friend of ARC and was committed to helping enrich the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families.  Pictured below are Graney family members.

In addition to the event’s many sponsors, runners and walkers, Genesee ARC wants to thank the Elba community, neighbors, Elba Town Board and Highway Officials, Genesee County Sheriff’s Department and Mercy EMS.  A big salute goes out to our crew of 45 volunteers who coordinated parking, registration, photo coverage, food, the kids’ zone, and ensured safety along the route.  The biggest thanks of all, goes out to the Graney family, the driving force behind the success of this event.