Leading off today: A story this week that struck me as "interesting but not earth-shattering" at the time ended up taking on more significance when I saw reports Thursday night on the number of Week 2 football games in the Hudson Valley region that were suspended due to bad weather.
Here's the background:
On Wednesday, The Journal News took note of the fact that the Jewish observances of Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 5) and Yom Kippur (Sept. 14) fell very early this year. Many sports are affected each year, but none more so than football, where the normal Friday/Saturday gridiron routine for most of the state is altered as many -- but not all -- school districts observe the holiday by scheduling days off from school and/or curtailing extracurricular activities.
At the heart of the newspaper's story was the point that Section 1 ended up with some Thursday or Sunday matchups between teams whose preparations over the past week varied greatly, a situation that could probably be avoided with more attention to school policies. Irvington opened last week vs. Nanuet, which practiced during Rosh Hashanah and this week will play Our Lady of Lourdes on Sunday having not praticed in nearly 72 hours.
“I had to squeeze six hours of practice into two,” Scarsdale coach Andy Verboys said in reference to preparations before the opening game. "To me, it’s just not governed correctly.”
Now, fast-forward to last night and the thunderstorms that swept through much of downstate. MSG Varsity counted seven games -- all with margins of two TDs or less -- that had to be suspended somewhere between the second quarter and very early in the fourth quarter.
Three will be resume Friday or Saturday, making for minimal inconvenience. However, four others will be finished Sunday or Monday, which -- however mildly -- will disrupt preparations for Week 3 games. Twelve other games that were called off before kickoff also fall into that awkward Sunday/Monday window.
Is there any blame to be assigned here? Not really. Yes, sections could do a better job of pairing teams whose districts handle the Jewish holidays in similar fashion, but weather is a variable out of anyone's control. Scheduling inequties would be of greater concern if this was happening in the last two weeks of the regular season or during sectionals.
More football: Other sections also experienced postponements or had games suspended by the weather. In at least one instance on Long Island, a game was declared official at halftime as Joe Capobianco fired four touchdown passes to stake Lawrence to a 51-6 lead over Manhasset.
More long Island openers: Two Mount Sinai backs ran for 200 yards in a 41-14 win over East Hampton/Bridgehampton. Mike Cortese rushed for 237 yards and two touchdowns, and Zach Wolfe ran for 255 for two touchdowns.
Bay Shore downed Smithtown East 42-21 as QB Ryan Mazzie went 15-of-19 for 344 yards and four touchdowns in just two quarters of action.
Carey crusined past Rockville Centre South Side 41-0 as Ray Catapano went 11-for-14 with 174 yards and four touchdowns. Carey led 34-0 after one quarter.
Mixed competition: It was pretty apparent that Cananseraga wasn't going to be able to finish its varsity girls soccer season this fall. The year started with just 11 varsity players, and the Class D school was down to eight healthy bodies in a matter of days.
