Sports

 I see that the Batavia girls volleyball team just improved to 7-7 with a 25-16, 25-11, 22-25, 25-20 win over Brighton Wednesday.

The Blue Devils have had a very strong program for a long time, graduating some great players over the last 5-6 years.

But with just a .500 record, is Jeremy Mettler's squad going to be overlooked in the playoffs? It could happen.

The team plays very good competition in the Monroe County League and has players like Sarah Reynolds and Rachel Hale leading the team this year. Reynolds had 11 kills and Hale added eight in Friday's victory.

When a Class BB team has to battle powerhouses like Pittsford Sutherland and Victor in the regular season, they are going to be ready for the playoffs. 

The Blue Devils sit behind just Sutherland (12-2) and Victor (12-1) in Monroe County League Division III, so the regular season has probably been better than a 7-7 record shows.

When the playoffs start in two weeks, Batavia will be prepared. I've seen Mettler take teams to the sectional finals in the past, before Monroe County volleyball moved to the fall, and Batavia could be a sleeper in Class BB.

Newark, School of the Arts, Wayne and Aquinas all over 10-or-more wins and have quality programs at the top of the sectional bracket, and Batavia could end up seeded fifth by the time the regular season ends. 

I like Batavia's chances to make a run.

Just a reminder, high school football previews will be posted as I finish them tomorrow.

I will also be doing special playoff previews for Notre Dame and Alexander, which kick off their playoff runs on Saturday. 

Holley beat Kendall 1-0 at home Tuesday night to move into 1st place for the first time this year.  It is the first time Holley has been in 1st place alone in quite a while (i would guess 3 or 4 years).  Holley currently sits 10-2-2 with 1 game left (@ Alexander Thursday) while Pembroke sits 10-3-1 with 1 game left (@ Attica Thursday).  With a tie or win by Holley or a loss or tie by Pembroke Holley will be division champs.  Pembroke needs a win and a Holley loss to win the division.  This is the first time since 2004 that the division title has gone down to the last day of the season.

Goal was scored by Emily Troup on a rebound.  Congrats to Coach Mann and the Holley Hawks

Tim Sullivan was an unlikely Division I basketball player when he graduated from Notre Dame High School back in 1978.

He lacked the size and didn't put up numbers in high school that would make big schools look at an undersized player from Genesee County.

But he did just that, walking on to the Canisius basketball team and playing at that high level. He also played for the Syracuse Shooting Stars and spent a few weeks on the roster of the Buffalo Rapids of the ABA, just a few years back.

I have gotten to know Sullivan over the years as he has helped many area youngsters with the game of basketball and we had a chance to catch up Tuesday afternoon.

It turns out, things are going quite well for the shooting expert.

He recently won a 3-point shooting competition  - at the still Hooping 3-on-3 3-point shooting contest - against some pretty hefty competition, namely former NBA stars Glen Rice, Hersey Hawkins and Dale Ellis. He won the contest two years ago and was second last year.

Sullivan is continuing to work as an instructor at camps all across the country.

He puts on about 250 clinics per year and works for ADIDAS Phenom camp in San Diego, California.

Sullivan does one-on-one work with individual D-1 prospects and helps with instruction at many colleges, including Syracuse University, Indiana University and the University of Kentucky.

Sullivan said he has studied the science of shooting and has figured out how anybody can be a 3-point shooting star. Check out this video I found on YouTube, where he does not miss an attempt in almost 3 minutes.

You can also check out his Web site for more information.

 Attica senior linebacker Kevin Gallinger is the second player from his squad to earn a Player of the Week in Class B.

Running back Andy Ruddock won the Offensive Player of the Week in Week 3 and Gallinger earned the honor on the defensive side of the ball this week.

The 5-foot-11, 190-pounder had  eight solo tackles and six assists in Attica's 50-15 win over Holley Friday night.

Attica is 4-2 and will be playing Pembroke (5-1) this Saturday.

Scout.com has named Thomas Eager the Batavia Muckdogs pitcher of the year.

Unfortunately, you must be a paying subscriber to read the entire article.

Eager, from Merced, Calif., went 6-3 with a 1.76 ERA for the Muckdogs (Stats). He started 9 games and threw 56 innings, striking out 40 batters.

 After some consideration, I've decided to bring the current situation in Elba to the sports tab of The Batavian. 

I was one that figured that football merger with Elba and Byron-Bergen was going to improve the situation, but at this point I don't see people in Elba giving this a fair chance.

This thread on Section 5 Talksback really brings up a lot of concerns, true or not.

I've been hearing about players taking cheap shots at other players since I was a kid watching football for the first time. But some of the accusations made in this thread are pretty serious.

A poster going by the handle of "The Truth" writes this very serious accusation in that thread:

YES. This is exactly what happened. Zambito scored twice and had a very nice game against his former team. On his first touchdown an elba player got flagged for a blatant late hit on him. All throughout the game it was pretty obvious they were gunning for him not only during play (which is fine) but after the whistle had blown (which is not). The announcers on the radio even brought up the point of elba going after Zambito in an unsportsmanlike way.

But I cant even place most of the blame on the players for this, the true reason is utterly disgusting. The ND chain gang on the elba bb sideline overheard elba's head coach offering $5 to whoever hurt Zambito and took him out of the game. I think that right there says enough about the class act elba has leading its program. DISGUSTING.

Remember that posters are anonymous, but if you get into reading that thread, your stomach is going to churn a little bit as everybody involved (players, coaches, parents, school administrators) have to hate that these kind of topics are not going away.

I was at the game on Saturday and I admit that the situation was pretty ugly on the field. When Gianni Zambito - a former Elba student - scored his first touchdown, there was a late hit and personal foul call issued.

I know that there were several occasions when near-fights were broken up on the field, and a lot of it brings back the ugliness of the Joe Zambito firing of three years ago.

At the start of the season, it looked as if the merger was great for both schools and all of the kids, but the negativity isn't going away. In fact, it isn't even slowing.

I like Elba/B-B coach Streb and I'm not going to believe some of the ugly rumors being floated out there until I hear something like that myself. In fact, I feel for the coach as he walked into an impossible situation that isn't getting any easier for him.

High school athletics is all about the kids, and somehow Elba/Byron-Bergen football has to get back to being about the kids on the field, playing a great game.

Final week of GR Soccer for the year and here are the standings:

Division i:

1) Pembroke - 10-3-1 (@ Attica)

2) Holley - 9-2-2 (Kendall, @Alexander)

3) Alexander - 8-4-2 (Holley)

4) Byron-Bergen - 8-4-1 (Attica, Kendall)

5) Kendall - 5-7-1 (@Holley, @ Bergen)

6) Attica - 1-9-3 (@BB, Pembroke)

Pembroke and Holley are the only two teams with a chance to win the division outright, but Bergen can still become co-champs.  Alexander was eliminated from title contention with the loss to Bergen Friday.  I am a big nerd when it comes to standings and such so I will try to make this really simple so anyone can understand it.  Pembroke and Holley are easy.

Pembroke wins the league if they win their final game and Holley must lose either of their final 2 games.  Holley holds the tiebreaker over Pembroke because they beat them and tied them.

Holley wins the league if they regardless of what Pembroke does if they manage a win and a tie in their last two games because they hold the tiebreaker over Pembroke.  If Pembroke loses their final game Holley would need only one tie in their final 2 to win the league.  If Pembroke ties their final game Holley would need to either win one of their final two games are tie both.

Bergen can become co-champs if they win their last two games, Pembroke loses their last game and Holley loses both of their last 2 games.  This would leave Pembroke 10-4-1, Bergen 10-4-1, and Holley 9-4-2.  Pembroke and Bergen would be co-champs because they split the season 1 win a piece and they have identical division records.

If Holley, Pembroke, and Bergen all finished tied (Pembroke loses their final game, Bergen wins both of their final games, and Holley ties on game and loses another) it would leave them all with 21 points.  In this senario Holley would win the title because they hold the tie breaker over Bergen (2 wins) and Pembroke (1 win and 1 tie).

Division II:

1) Wheatland-Chili 10-2-1 (Lyndonville)

2) Elba 7-3-3 (@ ND)

3) Lyndonville - 4-7-3 (@Oak, @ WC)

4) Oakfield-Alabama - 1-10-1 (Lyndonville, ND)

5) Batavia Notre Dame - 0-12 (Elba, @ OA)

The order of finish is all set here.  With a win Wheatland will win the overall league title.

I will post a sectional preview for the league once the seedings come out at the end of the week.  Wheatland and Holley both have solid chances to go deep in the playoffs in my opinion.  Pembroke has a very difficult bracket (Wheatlands is no piece of cake either).  Kendall and Alexander are in a very thin bracket but both will have to step up their games to make any noise in sectionals.

The Notre Dame Boys Cross Country Team came away with the crown on Saturday at the Pembroke Invitational.  ND knocked off Pembroke, the number one ranked Section V small school, by eleven points for the victory.  ND has been ranked third in the polls behind the Dragons and Oakfield. 

Freshman Quin O'Connor (17:17) placed third in the race, just a couple of seconds behind second place finisher Colin Bartholomew of Pembroke.  The Irish placed their top 5 runners in the top 15 of the race to secure the victory over the Dragons.  Kevin Pawlak finished 6th for the Irish in 17:51, with Matt Jackson 9th in 18:12, Nate Flumerfeldt 12th (18:26) and Eric Shormann 14th in 18:38.

The Genesee/Livingston Cross Country League finishes up their regular season this Tuesday.  The Irish are in a position to win the Division III title with wins over Pavilion and Alexander at Pembroke.  HFL looks to have Division I all wrapped up and Oakfield in full control of the Divison II title.

Ryan Piechocki had a huge game for Alexander as the Trojans move up to No. 3 in the Section 5 Class DD playoff bracket, beating Barker 23-12.

This happened because Avon lost to Letchworth Friday night.

"We avoid Cal-Mum until the finals, if we can make it there" Alexander coach Dave Radley said. "That's a big step. Clyde-Savannah is a good team and if we beat Canisteo-Greenwood next week, we see Clyde instead of Cal-Mum. That's  nice for us."

Piechocki had three short touchdown runs, caused 12 tackles and forced a fumble for the Trojans, all while playing with a broken hand. He had seven yards and three scores on three carries.

Lucas Czechowski added a 38-yard field goal for Alexander and Chris Lambert blocked a punt to set up one of Piechocki's TDs.

Greg Brown scored twice for the Raiders (2-4). 

Alexander lost for the 2nd time this week by a 1-0 score, this time to Byron-Bergen.  The loss dropped Alexander to 4th place in the league and 6th place in Class C Secional standings.

Alexander didn't get much going offensively in the game getting only one shot on goal during the game.  Goalkeeper Hannah Wilson made 12 saves in goal including a couple acrobatic saves in the 1st half to keep the game close.

Bergen scored their goal on a great dribbling play up the middle by #13 midway through the 2nd half.

Alexander closes out the season against Holley at home next Thursday.  Holley beat Pembroke 1-0 on Friday meaning if Holley can win @ Kendall and @ Alexander next week they will claim the Division 1 title.

Thank you to Ed Henry from Le Roy football.com for the great coverage of the story. Check out his Web site for more information on Le Roy football than you could ever imagine.

The 2008 version of the LeRoy-Cal-Mum gridiron clash played out as advertised, a nail-biting thriller at LeRoy’s Hartwood Park.

The Oatkan Knights and Red Raiders entered the contest with 5-0 records and vaunted state rankings (LeRoy #4 in Class C and the Cal-Mum #3 in Class D). The hard-hitting affair was not settled until the closing moments of the game, a game the Knights fought back valiantly to win 27-20 after trailing 14-0 midway through the first quarter.

The Raiders took possession first with a drive start at their own 36. Speedy Jeremy Wilson set the tone for the visitors on the first play from scrimmage with a beautiful 41-yard dash off the left side to put the ball at the LeRoy 23. Cal-Mum then proceeded to pound through the LeRoy D-line with RB Dave Fox picking up good yardage. The Raiders’ third talented back, Jon Marozzi, raced up the middle from 6 yards out to put the Raiders up 6-0 at the 8:37 mark. The Raider offensive line plowed the way for a Fox 2-point conversion run to push the tally to 8-0 Raiders.

The ensuing Raider kickoff was an absolute bullet into the LeRoy end zone. The Knights first play from scrimmage resulted in a fumble, recovered by Cal-Mum’s Ben Anastasi. The Raider crowd cheered wildly with their sudden good fortune. The cheers grew even louder when 4 plays later, Marozzi found the end zone from one yard out to cap the 16-yard drive. The LeRoy defense stuffed the Marozzi PAT run to make it 14-0 Raiders at the 6:35 mark of the 1st quarter. LeRoy, looking to answer the early Raider onslaught, took to the ground with Andrew Alexander and Jon Casper picking up big yardage against the Raider defense.

The dynamic pass-catch tandem of QB Travis Fenstermaker to WR Mike Humphrey picked up increasingly better field position, leading to a Casper 2-yard TD burst with 34 seconds left in the opening quarter. Fenstermaker’s kick was true to split the Raider lead in half to 14-7. The Knights’ defense held strong on Cal-Mum’s next possession as LB John Scheuing and company forced a 3-and-out by the Raiders with some timely gang tackling. The 11-yard punt by the Raiders gave the Knights’ a nice drive start at their own 47.

LeRoy QB Fenstermaker masterfully drove the Knights to the game-tying score with a 9-yard run and a 37-yard pass to TE Brian Calmes who snagged the ball beautifully between two Raider defenders and raced to the Cal-Mum 6. FB Jon Casper found the end zone on a 2-yard TD run two plays later. Fenstermaker’s PAT kick knotted the game at 14. The Knights defense started to figure out the Raider running schemes a bit better and after surrendering a first down, forced another punt as LB Scheuing dropped Cal-Mum QB Chris Voos who faked a toss to his RB, looking to catch the LeRoy defense napping on an interior run. Big plays before the half usually go a long way in determining close contests such as this.

The Knights looked to score from 70 yards away with 5:02 left until intermission. A score before halftime and receiving the ball first in the 2nd half would go a along way in establishing some control in the game for the Knights. The Knights used a balanced passing and rushing attack to move the ball against the Cal-Mum defense. Fenstermaker lined up in the shotgun, looked to his left, and then fired the ball back to his right into the arms of Alexander for the go-ahead score with a minute left in the 1st half. The 25-yard TD gave the Knights the lead at 20-14 at the half after the PAT was unsuccessful.

LeRoy took the opening kickoff with the aforementioned mindset of scoring with their first possession of the 2nd half. Enter Andrew Alexander. Alexander found the holes provided by the LeRoy O-line and ran for big chunks of yards through the Raider defense. He came up huge with a 6-yard blast as the Knights gambled on a 4th-and-2 from their own 42 early in the 3rd quarter. Alexander, looking stronger with each carry, ripped through 4 white-clad Raider defenders to find the end zone with 4:38 left in the 3rd quarter. The Fenstermaker kick pushed the lead to 27-14 LeRoy. The Raiders, looking to make a comeback of their own, started moving the ball against the LeRoy defense through their usual tough ground game and a big toss to TE Brian Sinclair. The Raider drive was thwarted when Mike Humphrey picked off his 4th interception of the season in the end zone for a score denying touch-back.

A good defensive stand by the Raiders forced a LeRoy punt from their own end zone. Thirty-four yards separated the Raiders from a much needed score. The LeRoy defense was bending, but not breaking, and the clock was running. With 5:28 remaining in the game, the Raiders were met with a 4th-and-8 from the LeRoy 21. QB Voos rolled left and fired a perfect strike to a wide open Jeremy Wilson who hopped into the nearby end zone to make the score 27-20 with 5:04 left in the game. The Knights’ defense came up big on the PAT run attempt as Jordan Casper wrapped up Marozzi short of the end zone.

The Knights looked to kill the clock and preserve the winning margin. Fenstermaker and Mike Humphrey moved the ball through the Raider defense with heady efforts. Again, it was Alexander that came up huge with two key runs that notched much needed 1st downs for the Knights in the waning moments. The Knights were able to kneel down in victory formation and enjoy the win, which they dedicated to the late Hooks Robertson, a beloved LeRoy gridiron coach who passed away earlier this year. The Knights amassed 299 yards of total offense. On the ground, Alexander gained 114 yards on 20 carries and a TD, Fenstermaker had 42 yards on 9 rushes, and Jon Casper notched 35 yards on 10 attempts, including 2 TDs. Fenstermaker was 11 of 15 for 108 yards passing, including a TD strike to Alexander of 25 yards. Mike Humphrey had 7 receptions for 42 yards, while Quentin Humphrey and Brain Calmes each had a catch for 8 and 37 yards respectively. The Knights defense was lead by Scheuing with 8 tackles, followed by Fenstermaker, Alexander, and Joe Schwab with 6 apiece. Mike Humphrey recorded an interception. Cal-Mum had 207 yards of offense, 155 of it on the ground. Leading rusher for the Raiders was Jeremy Wilson with 72 yards on 13 carries, Jon Marozzi 13-32 and 2 TDs, Dave Fox 6-23, and Chris Voos 2-7. Voos was 3 of 7 passing for 52 yards, including a 21-yard TD pass to Wilson.

Andy Ruddock only needed 14 carries to rack up 123 yards with a touchdown to lead Attica to a 50-15 win over visiting Holley.

 Quarterback Brandon Rollins had a huge game, connecting on 11-of-13 passes for 205 yards and three scores. He tossed two of those touchdowns to Shawn Dupuis, who had 137 receiving yards on seven carries.

Nate Berry also had a big game and rushed for 105 yards with two scores.

Kevin Gallinger had 12 tackles to lead the Blue Devil (4-2) defense.

Holley falls to 0-6.