Leading off today: With 118 career goals to her credit, Queensbury soccer player Brittany LaPlant tends to be ahead of the pack when it comes to sports.
In that context, then, it's no surprise that she gave Rutgers University coaches a verbal commitment to play there even though she's barely halfway through her sophomore season of high school -- a decision that's unusual to the point of being nearly unprecedented for New York soccer players.
“I love the coaching staff,” she told The Post-Star. “I love how family oriented the team is. They play the same position style as Cap U (Capital United, her club team). And the team is on the climb.”
LaPlant met Rutgers coach Glenn Crooks while playing in the Olympic Development Program. She visited the campus during the summer and again in the fall and was asked to commit; the commitment is non-binding until she is able to sign a letter of intent early in her senior year.
LaPlant has scored 44 goals this year to help Queensbury to an 11-0 start and move within 51 tallies of the Section 2 record.
More soccer: Class A Wallkill routed Class AA Washingtonville in a Section 9 game between state-ranked boys soccer teams Saturday.
Sophomore Corey Scheibling tallied twice in the game for Wallkill, which built a 4-0 lead in the first half.
Washingtonville is expected to be without goalkeeper Thomas Ogrodnik for at last two more weeks due to a knee injury suffered last week.
Kelli Shepardson and Maria Morotti each scored twice on Thursday as Little Falls beat West Canada Valley 6-0 in a girls game that marked the Mounties’ ninth shutout in a 12-0 start. Goalkeeper Cheyenne Rivenburg made 12 saves in the win.
What did you expect? Throw together two teams with a tradition of excellence in cross country, add in the fact one is the area's best Class A team and the other is No. 1 in Class B, and what do you get.
A tie between Section 6 rivals, naturally.
Clarence, ranked 10th in the state in Class A this week, and East Aurora, No. 1 in Class B, finished with 42 points apiece Saturday in the third annual Knox Invitational at Knox Farms. Breaking the deadlock required going down to the No. 6 finisher for each, and East Aurora's Liz O’Brien was 21 seconds faster than her Clarence counterpart.
Marissa Saenger of Clarence won in 18:33.71 over five kilometers, followed by EA's Marta McLaughlin in 18:58.78.
Double duty: The Eden girls volleyball team won the Frontier Invitational over the weekend without coach Stephen Pierce, who was attending his father-in-law’s funeral out of state.
Robert Pierce, the coach's brother and Eden boys
