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Weekly Column: What Kind of History?
Posted by pblackwell | 09/07/08
With a single bold move – some would say brilliant, others reckless – John McCain assured that the 2008 election will insure some kind of historical breakthrough.
Nearly a quarter-century after Geraldine Ferraro, McCain tapped Sarah Palin as his running mate. It sure got people buzzing, which was the point after the breathtaking spectacle of 84,000 in Denver roaring for Barack Obama...
Wildcats break out late, outscore Auburn
Phil Blackwell 09/07/08
So it just might work out for Joe Corley, Jim Marks and the rest of the West Genesee football team as the next chapter begins.
Dragged into a high-scoring shootout last Friday night in its season opener at Auburn, the Wildcats, perhaps drawing upon its 2007 state Class AA championship experience, showed all the poise down the stretch and produced a 56-35 victory over the Maroons.
A large, boisterous crowd at Holland Stadium bore witness to a rare sight – the last two state champions confronting each other during the regular season...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: West Genesee, football, Marks, Corley, debut
EDITION: Camillus Advocate
Bears win at Solvay in Class B return
Phil Blackwell 09/07/08
More than two decades ago, Jack Hayes received a good portion of his gridiron education (plus a healthy dose of academics) at Solvay High School, learning as the quarterback under the legendary Bearcats head coach Al Merola.
All these years later, with Merola watching on the other sideline, Hayes applied the lessons he learned – with a little help from his Chittenango players.
Down by double digits in the second quarter of last Friday night’s season opener at Earl Hadley Stadium, the Bears shook off that home charge and made one of its own, not stopping until it had beat the Bearcats 28-12...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: Chittenango, football, Solvay, Hayes, return, win
EDITION: Chittenango-Bridgeport Times
Lakers roll past Sherburne-Earlville
Phil Blackwell 09/07/08
In a new class and new league, and getting used to a new starting lineup, the Cazenovia football team had every excuse lined up long before it opened the 2008 season at Sherburne-Earlville last Saturday night.
But the Lakers needed no explanation or alibi. Instead, it went out and did what it has tended to do – namely, win, and win big.
Cazenovia’s 33-6 conquest of the Marauders marked the start of the Lakers’ residency in Class C, this after claiming the last two Section III Class B championships.
During the off-season, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association did another reconfiguration of the enrollment standard for each class...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: Cazenovia, football, Class C, opening win
EDITION: Cazenovia Republican
Red Devils roll on road past Phoenix
Phil Blackwell 09/07/08
Coming off a second-place Class B West finish in 2007 and the departure of more than 20 seniors, the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill football team would welcome any indication that this 2008 season, even with a large new cast, could be just as successful.
The Red Devils found an answer on the road last Friday afternoon when it ventured to Phoenix and used solid play on both sides of the ball to beat the Firebirds 21-7.
In this non-league encounter played in 90-degree heat (fitting, given that the Red Devils were playing the Firebirds), both sides would sweat plenty and get banged up, and they played on even terms for much of the first half.
VVS got on the board first, as running back Matt Richmond capped off a drive with a five-yard touchdown run in the opening period...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: VVS. football, win, Phoenix
EDITION: Oneida Press
F-M girls soccer get huge win over CNS
Phil Blackwell 09/07/08
By the time it got done last week, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls soccer team was going to have a clear idea just where it stood in the Section III Class AA hierarchy.
Going head-to-head with defending AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse on Friday night, the Hornets found itself to be right in the mix with the royalty, coming from behind to record a big 2-1 victory over the Northstars.
CNS not only were the reigning champs, it brought back much of the talent from 2007, a subtle reminder to the Hornets that reaching this summit would mean going through familiar territory not previously conquered.
Sure enough, the Northstars jumped out in front 1-0 in the first half when Rachel Bowles nabbed an unassisted goal.
But that would be the only time F-M would get beat...
CATEGORY: Soccer (Football)
TAGS: F-M, soccer, CNS, key win
EDITION: Fayettville Eagle Bulletin
Girls soccer Bears have 3-1 start
Phil Blackwell 09/07/08
Bent on moving up the Class A ladder again, the Chittenango girls soccer team got off to the right start in 2008, winning its first three games.
Even though seven seniors departed from the Bears’ 2007 squad, a lot of talent returns, including junior Brittney Tirabassi and sophomore Jenna Barber, who wasted little time showing what they were capable of doing.
Back on Labor Day weekend, the Bears played in the Watertown IHC Tournament and won both times in high-scoring affairs.
Chittenango began on Aug. 29 with a big first half against the host team from IHC, then held on at the end to beat the Cavaliers 3-2.
Barber tore though the IHC defense in the first half as the Bears built a 3-1 edge, scoring twice as Tirabassi got the other goal...
CATEGORY: Soccer (Football)
TAGS: Chittenango, girls soccer, fast start, Cortland
EDITION: Chittenango-Bridgeport Times
Liverpool swimmers get past West Genesee
Phil Blackwell 09/07/08
As the 2008 season got underway, the Liverpool girls swim team was riding a 22-meet win streak, something that West Genesee figured to challenge when the two powers met in last Thursday’s opener in Camillus.
Sure enough, the Wildcats were tough – but Carly Jones and her teammates proved tougher, putting together a 94-86 victory that was in doubt until the last race.
With the meet on the line, Liverpool’s 400 freestyle relay team of Kelley Yaworsky, Renee Stromski, Antoinette Esce and Kelly Ross combined to post a time of 4:11.43 that beat WG’s best foursome and sealed the victory.
Prior to that, Yaworsky had already won twice, going through the 200 freestyle in 2:11.52 and ripping through the 100 freestyle in 1:00.17, too...
CATEGORY: Watersports
TAGS: Liverpool, swimming, West Genesee
EDITION: Liverpool Review
Soccer Mustangs open, beat Westhill in OT
Phil Blackwell 09/03/08
If ever an opening game provided the kind of pressure and drama usually reserved for late-season action, the Marcellus boys soccer team did so when it ventured to Westhill last Tuesday night to start the 2008 season.
So it was quite fitting that the Mustangs and Warriors went to overtime – and with a successful penalty kick by Chris Borncamp 3:02 into that extra period, Marcellus prevailed by a score of 2-1.
As the defending Section III Class B champions, the Mustangs and head coach Jennifer Griffin face a tall task, replacing nine starters from the team that went 18-4-1 a season ago while claiming its second sectional banner in three years...
CATEGORY: Soccer (Football)
TAGS: Marcellus, Westhill, soccer, overtime
EDITION: Marcellus Observer
F-M topples J-D in girls soccer tourney final
Phil Blackwell 09/03/08
Even though the Fayetteville-Manlius girls soccer team beat Jamesville-DeWitt in the championship round of last Saturday’s J-D “King of the Hill” Tournament, both sides had to leave the venue feeling good.
The Hornets, 11-6-2 a season ago, have seven starters back, and head coach Kory McMahon’s forces showed lots of exciting offensive ability during the course of the Labor Day weekend.
As for the Red Rams, it didn’t let the Hornets get away easily, and managed to introduce a pair of wildly talented freshmen to the fold.
F-M kicked off the festivities on Friday afternoon by putting up four first-half goals on Watertown and rolling past the Cyclones 6-0...
CATEGORY: Soccer (Football)
TAGS: F-M, J-D, girls soccer, tournament
EDITION: Fayettville Eagle Bulletin
Bees' soccer teams open with wins
Phil Blackwell 09/03/08
JUST A STEP: Baldwinsville senior Jessica Bond (1) tries to battle her way past a Westhill defender in last Saturday’s championship game of the B’ville Kickoff Classic.
Without a sectional title for six years, the Baldwinsville girls soccer team is bent on changing that fact – as evidenced by the way it dominated its own Kickoff Classic last weekend at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
From a 13-5-3 team that fell to Liverpool in last year’s Section III Class AA semifinal, the Bees graduated just five seniors, including Katelyn Charbonneau and Emma Albert.
However, the returning talent is vast, including Jen Fabian, Alexis Coughlin, Quincey Spagnoletti, Meghan Haney, Katie Gildemeyer, Jackie Firenze and Ali Nagle.
And the Bees got an extra boost when, in the off-season, it snagged Nicole Close, the one-time Cicero-North Syracuse standout who transferred...
CATEGORY: Soccer (Football)
TAGS: Baldwinsville, soccer, openers, wins
EDITION: Baldwinsville Messenger
Football Northstars move on with new cast
Phil Blackwell 09/02/08
Cicero-North Syracuse football head coach Steve Ellis admits that, at least once each day, thoughts of the last minute of the 2007 Section III Class AA championship game will drift into his mind.
How could it not?
Ahead 21-20, poised to win its first-ever sectional title, Ellis and the Northstars watched that dream get snatched away. West Genesee quarterback Tim Moran drove his team down the field, setting up Luke Cometti’s field goal with one second left that gave the Wildcats a 23-21 win – and propelled WG to an eventual state championship.
“It still hurts,” said Ellis. “But I don’t dwell on it. It doesn’t bother me, and it doesn’t bother the team, either...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: CNS, football, memories, moving forward
EDITION: Cicero-North Syracuse Star-News
Football Warriors hit road for ’08 odyssey
Phil Blackwell 09/02/08
At least in 2008, and perhaps longer than that, the Liverpool football team will find itself boarding a bus every weekend – even when they’re supposed to be at “home”.
An unsafe artificial turf at Warrior Stadium, combined with rejections of plans to replace it with something new, has forced many Liverpool sports teams to look elsewhere.
In the case of the football Warriors, it means going north, to Central Square, for games against Corcoran (Sept. 12) and Utica Proctor (Oct. 3). And it also means trips to Solvay’s Earl Hadley Stadium, familiarly known as “The Pit”, for its Sept. 19 game with CBA and its Oct. 18 regular-season finale against Fayetteville-Manlius...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: Liverpool, football, road games
EDITION: Liverpool Review
Football Bees bent on ending two-year slump
Phil Blackwell 09/02/08
What has gone on in the last two seasons with the Baldwinsville football team is something head coach Carl Sanfilippo can hardly recognize.
“We weren’t us the last couple of years,” he said.
Instead of winning records and routine Section III Class AA playoff apperances, the Bees have, instead, languished at the bottom, only able to go 2-5 in the regular season in 2007, tied for fifth with Central Square in the Class AA-2 division.
To reclaim its past glory, B’ville has, in 2008, put together a 46-man varsity roster brimming with young talent everywhere – but also faces an urgent need to make the offense a bit more balanced...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: Baldwinsville, football, struggles, Burks
EDITION: Baldwinsville Messenger
Hornets fill in needs, look to keep winning
Phil Blackwell 09/01/08
Around the Fayetteville-Manlius football program, the question is no longer centered around whether the Hornets can become a contender – that part is an established fact.
Five times in the last seven years under the direction of head coach Paul Muench, F-M has made it to the Section III Class AA playoff semifinal round, going to the title game three times in that span.
Still, the Hornets haven’t won a sectional title since 2001, taking a narrow 16-13 loss to Cicero-North Syracuse in last year’s semifinals. So when it takes the field Sunday against Binghamton in the Kickoff Classic at the Carrier Dome, F-M has a clear mindset of what it wants to do.
“We believe that, in any year, anyone can win a championship,” said Muench. “And we’re not going to settle for lower goals...
CATEGORY: Football (American)
TAGS: F-M, football, Muench, Earley, Taylor
EDITION: Fayettville Eagle Bulletin
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