Sports

Notre Dame jumped out to a 27-6 lead in the first quarter at home Wednesday night. That meant that the Fighting Irish simply had to fend off the Elba boys basketball team to get a 77-43 win.

Kevin Francis is still scoring like crazy as he lead all scorers with 27 points to help ND improve to 14-3.

Tommy Rapone had 10 points and six rebounds with Gianni Zambito, Greg Barr and Nick Bochicchio getting seven points apiece.

Matt Thompson and Nick Wetherwax had six points each.

Elba was led by Sonny Giuliano's 13 points, with Phil Ostroski scoring12 points and Dan Ramsey pitching in 11.

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Byron-Bergen hasn't done a lot of winning this year, but improved to 4-13 with a 55-52 victory over visiting Holley

David Garnish was the star for the Bees, getting his first carrier double-double with 14 points and 10 boards. Tyler Sass had a team-high 15 points with Trevor Laurie pitching in seven points.

Brian Mitchell had 18 points and Chad Barhydt added 17 for the Hawks (4-17).

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Wheatland-Chili's Rick Agosto scored 20 points with 10 boards in a 61-54 win over Lyndonville.

Andy Lund had 18 points with seven boards and Garhett Varin pitched in seven points.

Erik Van Wycke had 12 points and eight rebounds for Lyndonville (1-16).

Wheatland-Chili is now 4-13.

 The Oakfield-Alabama and Batavia boys basketball teams both moved up in the newest New York State Public High School Athletic Association state rankings.

Batavia took a major drop a few weeks back after its second loss of the season to Pittsford Sutherland, but moved up a little last week and moved up two spots in Class A this week, from No. 23 to No. 21.

The Blue Devils are 14-2.

Oakfield-Alabama (14-2) has lingered around the same area in Class C and moved up this week, going from No. 13 to No. 11.

Notre Dame did not change position in Class D. The Fighting Irish (13-3) are the ninth ranked team in the state.

 The Buffalo News today reported a story in which reporter Maki Becker gives us some more detail on the New York State Public High School Athletic Association cuts as he interviewed executive director Nina Van Erk.

There wasn't a whole lot of information than what we have previously reported, but there are a couple of interesting items in the piece.

Van Erk says that it is expected that the cuts will save schools in the state up to $10 million, with nearly $6 million of that going to officiating fees.

The other thing that comes from this story is that the cuts are expected to be for two years.

The changes, which were approved by a slim majority late last month, would begin in the next school year and would remain in effect for two years, Van Erk told the paper.

This opens up some more questions.

Did Van Erk and the rest of the NYSPHSAA directors make these cuts for two years because it is a quick fix to help schools and families get through these difficult economic times?

Was it announced that the cuts are for two years because that is the original plan or because of all the backlash the NYSPHSAA has received from coaches and athletic directors?

And what happens after two years? Will these policies just continue or will they be reviewed again at that time, with the number of games being returned to the schedule?

Buffalo Public Schools athletic director David Thomas summed up what a lot of people are thinking when they hear this with his quote late in the story.

“I don’t think we should be worried about funding school budgets on the backs of the kids playing sports,” said Thomas told the paper.

Cutting the number of games might help school districts in the more remote areas of Western New York that require longer traveling distances, Thomas said, “but it doesn’t save it up here [in Buffalo], where we are trying to keep the kids off the streets and busy with school and athletics.”

The current schedule allows Buffalo athletes the opportunity to play in suburban areas and “to travel to some nice tournaments,” Thomas said. “Now we have to pull back on that.”

Thomas also questioned whether the cuts were really temporary. “When they take things away,” he said, “they don’t often come back.”

The Notre Dame hockey team skated to a 3-3 tie with Brockport Tuesday night in a Monroe County League match.

Dylan Versage scored two of the Notre Dame goals while Thomas Dehr was busy in net, stopping 43 shots.

Dave Roberts scored twice for Brockport (10-9-4).

Notre Dame is  7-8-2.

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The Kendall boys basketball team was hanging with powerhouse C.G. Finney in the first half, but Finney had a huge scoring stretch in the third and fourth quarters to get a 65-44 victory.

Jamell Johnson scored 20 of his game-high 26 points after the break for the Falcons (19-0). Kendall was outscored 18-10 in the third quarter and 24-15 in the fourth.

Finney did a good job of holding Kendall star Josh Laureano in check as scorer as he managed just 13 points, but he did have a strong game with 15 rebounds and six assists.

Chad Bentley was the leading scorer for the Eagles (10-7) with 16 points. Colt Tooley added eight points.

Alexander's Kyle Woodruff and Oakfield-Alabama's Tim Smith shared the Players of the Week honors this week for Genesee Region League Division I.

Woodruff averaged 15.5 points, seven rebounds and two blocks as the Trojans beat Holley 65-62 and lost to Pembroke 75-37.  Woodruff reached the 30-point plateau in the win over the Hawks.

Smith had solid games in both of Oakfield-Alabama's victories last week. He had 14 points and four steals in a 65-43 win over Byron-Bergen and followed with a seven point, three steal effort in a 68-23 win over Holley. Smith totaled 21 points, 14 rebounds, eight assists and seven steals in the victories.

Notre Dame's Kevin Francis had a huge scoring week to earn the honors for Division II.

The senior guard had 20 points, five rebounds, six assists and seven steals in a win over Lyndonville and followed with a 27-point, six rebound, six assist, nine steal performance in a victory over Kendall.

Notre Dame also had the Player of the Week on the girls side in Division II. 

Sophomore Liz Geandreau averaged a double-double in wins over Pavilion, Lyndonville and Kendall. She averaged 11 points and 10 boards in the victories.

Alexander's Anna Dominick wins the award for Division I as she scored a combined 27 points with seven assists and eight steals in wins over Pembroke and Holley.

 There are not any major changes in this week's New York State Sports Writers Association wrestling rankings.

Batavia is our highest ranked team in the small school division and remains at No. 17, even with a win at the Ken-Ton Tournament this weekend.

Attica dropped from No. 23 to No. 24 and Holley went down from No. 32 to No. 33.

Sectionals are being held this Friday and Saturday at Bath Haverling, Warsaw, Byron-Bergen, Wayne and Fairport.

Another game and another double-double for Noah Seward.

The Oakfield-Alabama senior scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds as the Hornets downed host Attica 59-34 Monday. The O-A defense never allowed the Blue Devils to score more than nine points in a quarter.

Tim Smith had a well-rounded day with 11 points, five assists and four steals with Chris Bucceri adding eight points.

Tate Westermeier led Attica with 13 points.

Oakfield-Alabama is now 15-2.

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Dan Ramsey led Elba with 14 points as the Lancers thumped visiting Lyndonville 54-29.

Ramsey scored 10 of those points in the second quarter while the Lancers were on an 18-5 run. Sonny Giuliano had 10 points with Phil Ostroski and Cody Torpey finishing with six apiece for Elba (10-7).

Erik VanWycke had 10 points to lead the Tigers.

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Ken Babcock scored 19 points to lead the way for Pembroke in a 62-39 win over Holley.

The difference was the second quarter as the Dragons expanded an 8-7 lead into a 28-12 advantage at halftime.

Andrew Wright scored 15 points and Steve Moser added 11 as Pembroke improves to 11-6.

Brian Mitchell had 11 points to lead the Hawks (4-14).

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Livonia outscored Le Roy 15-10 in the fourth quarter to escape with a 50-44 win.

Ryan Metz led the Bulldogs (13-5) with 21 points and nine boards.

Mike Humphrey had a big game for Le Roy with 19 points, four rebounds and three assists with his younger brother Quentin adding eight points and three dimes.

Eric Stella also had eight points for the Oatkan Knights (9-9).

The Batavia Little League will be conducting signups for the 2009 season on Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28 at the City Centre Mall.

Friday's signups go from 6-8 p.m. while Saturday's will be from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. 

Here is all the info on the signups. 

 Basketball is a great spectator sport, especially at the high school level.

In Genesee County we have the classic small-school basketball atmosphere as most teams are Class C or D, with Batavia and Attica being the larger schools.

Kids and parents will get to the game and generally share positive cheers. And local students take pride in their cheering sections, which at times mimic college sections. Oakfield-Alabama has the "O-A Crazies", Notre Dame has the "Leprechaun Lair", Elba has the "Sherwood Shakers" and last year Attica had a great cheering section called the "Wolf Pack". These sections, along with those from the other area schools generally share positive cheers.

But there are always the times when a teacher or athletic director will have to tell them to watch what they are saying. Sometimes kids will get on the officials, the other team's cheering section or single out a player on the floor. But you rarely see something that crosses a line.

The most negative of cheers or taunts coming from the crowd generally comes from the rare parent that holds a grudge or wants to draw attention to him/her self.

But there is always that potential and Section 9 is dealing with fan problems this season. Kevin Gleason of Varsity 845 writes about some of the problems.

Nick Iannuzzi was so mad he considered going into the stands after the hecklers. The Minisink Valley guard had grown accustomed to hearing it from fans. But these rips from Monroe-Woodbury students dug deeply. Too deeply.

"FUMBLE!'' they shouted every time Iannuzzi touched the basketball. As Minisink Valley's quarterback in 2007, he had a costly fumble weeks earlier in the team's loss to Monroe-Woodbury for the Section 9 Class AA title. Iannuzzi grew more frustrated and the chants grew louder as he continued to struggle. "FUMBLE!'' He was eventually benched after drawing a technical foul for arguing with an official.

"Yeah,'' Iannuzzi says of going into the crowd, "that crossed my mind. My parents were sitting right in front of them, and that (ticked) me off more.''

I don't think many would say that there is a problem with negative cheering in this area, but the potential is always there. 

 Former Batavia Muckdog Ryan Howard cashed in big this weekend.

The 29-year old slugger that is one of the biggest names to ever have suited up for Batavia's New York-Pennsylvania League franchise inked a 3-year, $54 million contract extension on Sunday with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The two sides were far apart on contract negotiations so the move came as a surprise to many, and it looked like HOward was heading towards a second straight salary arbitration hearing on Friday of this week. 

But the Phillies bought out the final three years of Howard's salary arbitration eligibility and gave him the big contract.

"I'm happy to have this done and to know that I'll be in Philadelphia for at least another three years," Howard said in a statement. "Both sides are happy, and now I'm just focused on getting the season started and having fun."

Howard - the 2006 National League MVP - will make $15 million this season and his salary will jump to $19 million in 2010 and 2011.

The first baseman was a Muckdog in 2001 and hit six home runs in 48 games played.

 It looks like the Batavia wrestling team is ready for the post season.

The Blue Devils traveled to Section 6 territory on Saturday and captured first place in the Ken-Ton Tournament.

Batavia scored 148.5 points to top host Kenmore West, which scored 125.5 points. Pembroke took third with 86 points in the 12 team field with 86 points.

Dylan Goodsell of Batavia won the Aggregate Pin Award as he rolled to the title at 215 pounds. He pinned Alex Fumerella of Kenmore West in the finals at the 5:34 mark.

Ryan Darch and Troy Ireland also won titles for the Blue Devils.

Darch won a decision in the 160 pound finals and Ireland pinned Kenmore's Joe Amoia in 3:23 in the 171 pound finals.

Adam Hill (119 pounds), Colby Sanner (125) and Graham Jensen (189) had titles for Pembroke.

Brittany Wormley scored seven of her nine points in the first quarter as the Batavia girls basketball team jumped out to a 14-5 lead and went  on to beat Eastridge 63-41.

Brittany Mazurkiewicz scored 18 points with five steals to lead the Blue Devils (13-4) while Jaycee Shirk added 15 points and 10 boards.

Michelle Jordan added seven points.

Emily Piacentini and Kaela Trifiro had eight points each for Eastridge (7-8).

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Nichole Hart and Liz Geandreau were both in double figures as Notre Dame downed host Kendall 48-38.

Hart had 13 points and Geandreau added 11 for the Fighting Irish (13-3). Jill Marshall scored 10 points and Hannah Scott-McGrail added eight points.

Samantha D'Agostino had 12 points for the Eagles (5-11).

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Hillary Bates had a well-rounded game for Oakfield-Alabama as they thumped host Holley 44-16.

Bates scored 10 points and had six rebounds, four steals and four assists.

Brynne Perfitt was the leading scorer with 11 points and Christina Palillo added eight boards and five points for the Hornets (9-8).

Julie Brooks scored seven points for the Hawks (5-12).

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Byron-Bergen outscored Attica 14-4 in the third quarter and 13-2 in the fourth in picking up the 35-18 win.

Amanda Brown scored 10 of her 12 points in the third quarter and was assisted by Shannon Dilcher and Kayleigh Puma's seven points.

Nobody scored more than four points for Attica.

Byron-Bergen is 9-8.

When Chelsea Turcer noticed that nobody was bothering to guard her and her, she figured that it was time to put the nail in the coffin.

Alexander had already overcome a nearly double-figure deficit in the third quarter to take the lead and she wanted to put the game away.

She did just that as she chucked up and made a 3-pointer to wrap up the Trojans 53-48 win over Pembroke in a great Genesee Region League game Friday.

 A lot of things happened before Turcer drained the trey that most will remember from this game.

Alexander was up 10-5 early on before Danielle Smith scored and hit a pair of foul shots to cut the lead to 10-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Alexander's Anni Lehtola opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer and had another bucket early on as the Trojans kept the lead around two points.

But the tide changed in the final minute of the half.

Jackie DuBois scored two consecutive baskets to give Pembroke a 26-25 lead - their first of the night - with 37 seconds left in the half.

That burst of momentum took a little bit in the third quarter as the Trojans regained the lead on a free throw by Lehtola, but by the midpoint the lead had grown to nine points.

Kelsey Lewis hit a long jumper, Nicole Sharick dropped in a basket and then a 3-pointer to give Pembroke a 36-29 advantage.

Katie Hackett extended the lead with a basket and then added another score with about a second left in the third quarter to give Pembroke a 42-35 lead going into the final frame.

Alexander has had issues in the third quarter this season, but always seems to right things in the fourth.

Again, the Trojans stepped up to the challenge.

Nicki Laird and Rachael Pettys had baskets before Lehtola hit a 3-pointer to get within two points.

Sarah Herman tied the game with a basket and Alexander wound up taking a 48-46 lead when Pettys scored. Katie Kochmanski added another basket to make it a four point game.

The Dragons did score with 40 seconds left, but Turcer's 3-pointer with seconds left ended the game.

Lehtola had 15 points to lead the Trojans, with Pettys adding eight points, 15 rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots. Anna Dominick had 13 points with three boards and four steals as Alexander improves to 11-4.

Sharick led the Dragons (9-7) with 11 points, but Lewis chipped in nine points and Pettys had eight.

Andrew Hoy continued his hot play and Batavia picked up an easy win over visiting Eastridge Friday night in a Monroe County League clash.

Hoy hit four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 24 points with seven assists to lead the Blue Devils to a 69-41 win over Eastridge.

Batavia had the advantage in all four quarters in the win and improves to 14-2. 

Marcus Hoy scored five points and handed out 13 assists and Joe Schlossel added 11 points.

Mike Lee pulled down seven boards and Robert Hoy added eight points for Batavia, which hit 11-of-23 3-point attempts.

Colin Sprague was the only double-digit scorer for Eastridge, scoring 10 points.

The Section 5 Tournament  starting in about three weeks, now is a good time to see where our local boys basketball teams are ranked with just a few games remaining on their schedules.

Notre Dame (13-3) is the only local team currently seeded No. 1 in their bracket. They are well ahead of Alfred Almond (13-4) in seeding points and should deliver coach Mike Rapone yet another top seed to go with the school's 27th GR title, which was wrapped up last night.

Elba (9-7) is currently the third seed in the classification.

Batavia (13-2) is a second-seed in Class A2, behind Aquinas (14-2). A good showing against the larger schools in the Monroe County League Tournament would help the Blue Devils have a shot at that prestigious top seed.

Oakfield-Alabama is 14-2, but just a third seed in Class C1, which is loaded. Pembroke is a 10-seed at 10-6 and all of the top 10 teams have over 10 wins. Byron-Bergen (3-12) is currently the 15th-seed.

The Hornets are behind 15-0 Avon and East Rochester (14-2).

Attica (8-8) is a sixth seed in Class B1, which means that the team is going to have to get some wins down the stretch in order to get a first-round home game. The top seed will get a bye and Hornell (7-9) is the fifth seed.

Le Roy (9-7) overcame some early season issues and currently has the third seed in Class B2. They will probably stay there because Bishop Kearney (13-2) and Wellsville 15-3) are well ahead of the Oatkan Knights and nobody else in the division has more than seven wins.

There are three Genesee Region League teams in Class C2 and only one of them is going to host a home game.

Kendall (9-6) is currently a fourth seed while Alexander (6-9) is at No. 12 and Lyndonville is 1-16 and last in the classification.

 The Democrat & Chronicle released its newest polls today and several of our local teams are listed.

The Batavia boys basketball team is ranked ninth in the large school poll while Oakfield-Alabama is ranked No. 10 in the small school version.

The Elba girls basketball team received a spot at No. 9 in the small school poll with Notre Dame also getting votes, but not making the list. Jasper-Troupsburg is one spot ahead of the Lancers, even though Elba is currently the No. 1 ranked team in Class DD with J-T coming in second.

Attica is tied with Letchworth at No. 4 in the small school wrestling poll, with Batavia coming in at six and Holley coming in at eight.

Batavia's hockey team did not crack the top 10, but did receive votes in this week's poll.