Here is the top 10 for the Inside High School Sports show for the week of October 8, presented by Holbrook Heating & Air Conditioning…
1. Now that we’re in October, the games get more important. And no game in Class A football would mean more than Friday’s showdown between Fayetteville-Manlius and Whitesboro. The Hornets go in 5-0 after J.T. Conley topped 300 rushing yards in a 48-26 win over Corcoran and the Warriors are 4-1 after beating rival New Hartford 38-13. As those teams duel, up in Class AA the most important game had Utica Proctor put its 3-1 record on the line at Baldwinsville, with the Raiders coming off a 32-20 win at Liverpool and the Bees trying to recover from back-to-back defeats against CBA and Cicero-North Syracuse, who sit on top of the standings. C-NS would renew its rivalry with Liverpool having lost two of its last three regular-season meetings with the Warriors.
2. The theme of big football games continues in Class B with 4-0 Homer going up against 5-0 Indian River. The Warriors had to survive a tense 22-20 game with Central Valley Academy last week to stay unbeaten. Camden is the other undefeated Class B side and hosts Camden on Saturday night. Then there’s Class C, with three unbeaten teams in the C-2 division and two of them go up against one another when General Brown, who’s blown out everyone so far, faces Adirondack in Boonville. Meanwhile, in the C-1 division, Marcellus, with a 3-1 record, might be the only team capable of catching 4-0, state no. 3-ranked Cazenovia, and the Mustangs would host the Lakers on Friday night in a clash of two of the area’s best defensive teams.
3. When Dolgeville blasted Little Falls 50-6 last week, it went to 4-0 and proved, again, that the road to Class D football glory goes through the Blue Devils. Sandy Creek, who stayed unbeaten by edging Cato-Meridian 24-22, has its own game at Little Falls this week as Dolgeville plays Cato. In a first-place clash in eight-man football, Frankfort-Schuyler outlasted West Canada 46-34 and was the only unbeaten team left, with the Maroon Knights facing another tough test this Friday against 3-1 New York Mills. And it’s Fulton going to the front of the Independent Division at 4-0 after Central Square took a tough loss to Penfield. But the Red Raiders travel to face the Redhawks for a Saturday noon kickoff, likely the biggest regular-season team for both sides.
4. And this is the week where Section III post-season competition began. In boys golf, three undefeated teams won their respective tournaments, with Baldwinsville completing a perfect run through the SCAC Metro division with a team score of 382 beating runner-up Cicero-North Syracuse Blue by 16 shots and going 1-2 among individuals, Aiden Motala’s 70 edging Nate MacGregor’s 71. Jamesville-DeWitt was just as dominant in the Empire division, scoring 390 to top second-place Oswego by 28 shots, though Auburn’s Carter Mizro shot a 74 for the individual championship. Finally, in the OHSL fall tournament at Rogues Roost CBA relied on its depth to edge Skaneateles 405-409 for the team title with Homer’s Mitch Riter shooting a 71 for the individual championship.
5. In the Section III girls tennis team tournaments, the big semifinal in Class A pitted unbeaten top seed Baldwinsville against CBA, who had the no. 5 seed but also had an unbeaten mark. B’ville won it, 5-2, and would face Fayetteville-Manlius in the finals later in the week at Utica Parkway Courts, where in Class B Jamesville-DeWitt knocked off top seed Whitesboro, advancing to face Oneida, who upset no. 2 seed New Hartford. Skaneateles held the top seed in Class C, and after easy wins in the first two rounds it would face a sectional final against Marcellus, who beat Cazenovia 4-3 in the semifinals. Then championship teams would head for state tournaments while top singles and doubles players would battle for state honors over the course of October.
6. So the dominant teams in Class A girls soccer remain that way, unbeaten New Hartford and unbeaten East Syracuse Minoa still 1-2 in the state Class A rankings. But in Class AA, after many different teams made September runs Fayetteville-Manlius used a six-game win streak to climb into first place in the SCAC Metro division while going to no. 14 in the state rankings. Section III has three teams in the state Class C top eight, with Watertown IHC, Mount Markham and Beaver River all there and Cooperstown and Sauquoit Valley within the top 15. Then there’s Class D, with Bishop Ludden no. 3 in the state, Cincinnatus at no. 5 after it beat Class B Cazenovia and Poland at no. 6. In Class B, Skaneateles went from unranked all the way back into the top 10 after a strong week of play.
7. Maybe Liverpool has emerged as the top Section III Class AA boys soccer contender. The Warriors’ big week that included wins over Fayetteville-Manlius and Baldwinsville propelled it to no. 12 in the state rankings as, in Class A, CBA remains undefeated but still at no. 13 in the state, two spots behind East Syracuse Minoa, who entered the week having won 11 in a row. Marcellus inched up to no. 4 in the state in Class B after shutouts of Westhill and Skaneateles, while in Class C Cooperstown, a tough defending sectional champion, sits at no. 5 in the state and Tully was no. 13 before a surprising loss to Faith Heritage. Watertown IHC has climbed to no. 3 in the state in Class D, with Poland and Lyme at no. 10 and 11, each side having lost just once so far.
8. Tuesday brought the regular-season girls cross country meets between Cicero-North Syracuse and Fayetteville-Manlius, but F-M swept to victory, getting even for the Northstars having beaten the Hornets in the Baldwinsville Invitational. But C-NS was resting after last weekend’s McQuaid Invitational in Rochester where Kate Putman set a course record in the top race and her team was second in the elite division to Bethlehem, and Liverpool won the girls AAA division. C-NS and other top local teams will gather again at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx this weekend for the Manhattan Invitational, a possible preview of some of the state championships, especially in the featured Eastern States Classic.
9. When top girls volleyball teams gathered last Saturday at the Baldwinsville Fall Fling Tournament, the host Bees, in the top Gold division, could not reach the finals, while Liverpool defeated Westhill for the Silver division title and Skaneateles emerged as the Bronze division champion. When they returned to league action, though, B’ville again got the best of Liverpool to take total control in the SCAC Metro division as, in the small-school ranks, Living Word Academy got a big win over LaFayette late last week among the top Class D sides. When the two unbeaten boys volleyball teams met late last week, Cicero-North Syracuse beat Jamesville-DeWitt, and the Northstars put up a fight against state champion Rochester McQuaid before it lost in four sets.
10. In field hockey, Holland Patent continued to solidify its status as Class B favorite by beating Baldwinsville 1-0, avenging an earlier defeat to the Bees. Clinton emerged as the Class C favorite when it shut out Canastota 2-0 and, later this week, Fayetteville-Manlius would challenge unbeaten Cicero-North Syracuse. In college announcement news, two big names both announced they were going to Hobart College in Geneva – first Jack Byrnes, the four-sport Cazenovia athlete who will concentrate on baseball while he played both football and golf this fall, and Alex Moesch, the Chittenango basketball star who led the Bears to its first Section III title since 1977 last March and, like Byrnes, golfed this fall and advanced to this spring’s state qualifier.
