Friday, Dec. 20, 2013: West Seneca's Gehen reaches 100 career goals

   Leading off today: West Seneca forward Erin Gehen became the first player in the history of the Section 6 Girls Hockey Federation to score 100 career goals when she scored Thursday during an 8-1 loss to Amherst/Sweet Home.

   The goal was Gehen's eighth in six games this season. She scored 38 goals in her junior season and reached No. 100 in her 63rd contest in the league, which is in its fourth season.

   Mount Vernon falls: The holiday break began early for the Mount Vernon boys basketball team, which traveled to the Iolani Classic in Honolulu.

   The Knights, ninth in Class AA in the first NYSSWA rankings of the season, were hampered by fouls lost 56-51 on Thursday to 56-51 to nationally ranked White Station (Tenn.) in the quarterfinals.

   Mount Vernon led 31-28 at halftime, but seniors Akeem Krubally and Brandon Martin fouled out, and Devonte Banner and Judah Alexander ended the game playing with four fouls. White Station went 22-for-30 at the free-throw line while Mount Vernon was just 7-for-16.

   Banner scored 13 points for Mount Vernon, which dropped into the consolation bracket and will play host Iolani on Friday.

   Back-to-back 50s: Senior Dontay Caruthers scored a career-high 53 points for his second straight 50-point effort Tuesday as Rochester East defeated Edison 85-64. Caruthers, who scored 50 against Freddie Thomas/Marshall on Dec. 13, surpassed the 1,000-career-point mark early in the Edison game and finished with six rebounds and six assists.

   Major wrestling figure dies: Calling hours will be held Saturday and Sunday in Elmira for Mark Stephens, a giant figure in upstate wrestling circles.

   Stephens, 65, died Sunday at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester after suffering a brain aneurysm early last week.

   Stephens was a 145-pound state champion for Elmira Southside in 1966. After serving with the Marines in Vietnam, he returned to coach at the youth and high school levels in addition to more than three decades as a wrestling referee.

   Stephens and his brother Mike ran the Cement Factory club program at Southside. The team got its nickname from longtime Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin sports editor John Fox, who noted the wrestlers looked like they worked in a cement factory. Stephens later ran the Glider 3-Style Wrestling Club in the area and helped coach at the Empire State Games.

   Mark Stephens was a modified and volunteer assistant varsity coach at Horseheads since the late 1980s. He fell ill after coaching at a match against Corning on Dec. 10.

   "He was extremely loyal to those people he was closest to, had tremendous integrity and fairness in regards to the sport and his relationships to other people," Mike Stephens said. "His word was his bond. He had tremendous courage in the fact that he did a number of things that were the right

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thing to do, but it was the toughest path to follow."

   Recruiting progress: Canisius football player Augie Touris has given a verbal commitment to attend Texas-El Paso next fall, The Buffalo News reported.

   Touris, a first-team All-Catholic selection, is a 6-foot-4, 230-pound defensive end/tight end. He also received interest from Albany, Holy Cross and Duquesne.

   "A few other people told me that it's likely that there might be other offers," Touris told the paper. "The major part of why I committed is because this is the program that believed in me. This was the program that pulled the trigger and said, 'We want him, we believe in him.' That's loyalty and I have to pay that back."

   The UTEP head coach is Lockport native Sean Kugler, a Buffalo Bills offensive line coach from 2007-09.

   Another honor: Pittsford Sutherland outside hitter Luisa Schrimer was selected to the first team of the MaxPreps Medium Schools Volleyball All-American Team. Earlier this month, the Ohio State recruit repeated as the Gatorade New York player of the year.

   Panas outside hitter Brigitte Bursescu was selected to the third team.