Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013: Liverpool wins at Queensbury on tiebreaker

   Leading off today: The course for the annual NYSPHSAA cross country championships traditionally goes through a shakeout cruise during the regular season in the form of a sizeable invitational. It offers organizers a chance to run through their preparations checklist for the No. 9 state meet and gives top teams a chance to scout the course.

   On Saturday, the Queensbury Invitational produced an excruciatingly close result in the boys large-school race as Liverpool edged Saratoga Springs on the tiebreaker after the teams tied at 71. Liverpool junior Dylan McCarthy's 33rd-place showing as his team's sixth man easily outdistanced the 85th-place finish by his Saratoga counterpart to decide team honors.

   Pearl River senior Brian Cook took individual honors in 15:17.95, edging T.J. Hornberger (15:19.30) of Lake Shore. Saratoga sophomore Aidan Tooker placed third. Junior Connor Buck and soph Ben Petrella led the way for Liverpool, placing ninth and 10th, respectively.

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   Saratoga placed six runners in the top 40 to defeat Corning 115-161 for the girls large-school title.

   College decision: Fayetteville-Manlius forward John Schurman has given a verbal commitment to play basketball at Binghamton University next year.

   Schurman averaged 20.5 points and nearly eight rebounds per game and made 61 3-pointers as a junior in leading the Hornets to a 17-3 record. He was selected seventh-team all-state in Class AA.

   Lost weekend: Eight Yonkers high school football teams played this weekend -- and all eight lost to Section 1 opponents.

   Early College, Palisade Prep, Gorton, Yonkers, Lincoln, Riverside, Yonkers Montessori and Saunders fell by a combined score of 281-35.

   Soccer notes: The rough-and-tumble world of Long Island boys soccer, where there's typically little separating the top three to five times in any class, took a toll on one of the New York State Sportswriters Association's top-ranked teams right out of the gate this week.

   Class A No. 1 Jericho suffered a 2-1 loss to Hewlett in Nassau County action just a day after the first rankings were released. Chris Bravo served up a corner kick that Myles Ofri headed in with just 2:30 left in regulation to

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break a tie.

   The Bulldogs handed the two-time defending NYSPHSAA champions their first loss since a 1-0 setback vs. Rockville Centre South Side on Oct. 17, 2012.

   The Queensbury girls team now sits at 7-0 with a 44-1 scoring margin this fall. Sophomore Brittany LaPlant, who scored nine goals in a game this month, has tallied 27 times this season and has gone over 100 career goals already.

   Following up: It's looking distinctly possible that administrators may not have had their T's crossed and I's dotted last week when they pressed for the resignation of two field hockey coaches.

   Assistant coach Beverly Beladino resigned last week and first-year head coach Kelli van de Veerdonk reaffirmed to The Journal News she will fight to retain her own job at Putnam Valley. Neither was on the sideline for a mid-week loss.

   The incident at the heart of the matter is a brief, seemingly harmless video van de Veerdonk shot at practice. Initial reports had the school district citing Federal privacy laws in saying the coach lacked parental permission to record video of players. But the statute they refer to is more likely one that allows parents to opt out of allowing schools to take and publicize images of students -- which is a huge difference.

   According to the paper, whether posting of a video was the sole cause of AD Marty Nemecek’s reported resign-or-be-fired ultimatum is unclear. “There are more issues besides just the video,” district trustee Guy Cohen said.