Monday, Nov. 11, 2013: Catching up on weekend developments

   Leading off today: I was able to touch upon a few football highlight from the weekend in a blog posted late last night but did not have an opportunity to pull together notes from other sports championships because my "real" job got in the way.

   Still, I wanted to pull together a nugget or two from cross country, soccer, etc.:

   Cross country: There are lots of reasons to love the TullyRunners.com website, and Bill Meylan's annual pre-meet predictions for the NYSPHSAA Championships is one of them. This year, he picked six of the eight team champions; ironically, one of his misses helps explain why Meylan has so much credibility.

   In girls Class D, Meylan picked against the namesake school of his site because that's what his math told him to do. He could have just as easily re-arranged a runner or two in his projections and given the nod to Tully in a close finish. Instead, he leaned toward Maple Grove winning in a sixth-runner tiebreaker to acknowledge respect for the three-time defending champions.

   Naturally, Tully ran exceedingly well and earned a 45-76 win at Queensbury.

   All in all, it was a great meet for Section 3 schools beyond just Tully. Fayetteville-Manlius' boys and girls each triumphed in Class A, and the Holland Patent boys won in C. Individually, F-M junior Bryce Millar (boys A) posted a first-place finish.

   Soccer: Only seven of the 11 sections will be represented in the boys soccer semifinals in Middletown next weekend, courtesy of five-game sweeps by teams from Sections 2 and 5 in the quarterfinals. In addition, Section 8 advanced its four representatives. Right there, that's 70 percent of the field.

   The quarterfinals continued a rough stretch for the No. 1 teams in the NYSSWA state rankings. Monroe-Woodbury striker Bruce Jeter's breakaway goal 3:11 into the second overtime led the Crusaders to a 1-0 win over Arlington, which carried a 35-game winning streak into the Class AA contest.

   In girls soccer, No. 1 Northport was ousted by Massapequa 3-2 in the Class AA quarterfinals. The Chiefs came from behind twice, with Hope Breslin knocking in a loose ball with 12:29 to go to win it.

   Keeping score: Between soccer, volleyball and field hockey, Section 5 has advanced 16 teams to final fours,

TOURNEY BRACKETS NYSPHSAA football Long Island football NYSPHSAA boys soccer NYSPHSAA girls soccer NYSPHSAA field hockey Past state tournaments

including nine of a possible 10 in soccer at the expense of Section 6 teams.

   Section 2 has 14 squads still alive, which doesn't take into account four cross country teams that made the top three over the weekend at the state meet. Section 8 is next with eight teams still playing in those sports next weekend.

   Following up: Shoreham-Wading River halfback Tyler Anderson broke the school single-game rushing record with 426 yards on 29 attempts and scored four touchdowns on the ground and one on a pass play to beat Center Moriches, 56-29 in a Suffolk Division IV football quarterfinal Friday.

   Anderson had previously rushed for 367 yards on Oct. 11 against Hampton Bays.

   S-WR rolled up 703 yards of offense as quarterback Danny Hughes passed for 160 yards and ran for 117.

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   Coaching news: Josh Becker, previously an assistant, has been named ice hockey coach at Fayetteville-Manlius. He replaces Sean Brown, whose contract was not renewed after the Hornets were barred from the 2013 Section 3 playoffs for playing too many regular-season games.

   The Hornets will field a combined team with East Syracuse Minoa and Bishop Grimes.

   Extra points: New York swept the Track & Field News high school athlete of the year awards for last season. Averill Park weightman Rudy Winkler, now at Cornell, won boys honors on the strength of his work in the hammer throw. Mary Cain, the Bronxville student who ran independently on the national and world circuit, was a unanimous selection of the 21 voters.