Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014: 25 New York seniors bound for BCS programs

   Leading off today: A couple of late decisions brought New York up to 25 seniors who finalized plans to play for BCS college football programs.

   A total of 21 players from the Class of 2014 signed letters of intent on Wednesday and others who likely would have been considered for scholarship money elsewhere agreed to show up on campus as preferred walk-ons this fall.

   Clarkstown South's Eric Margolis was the last in the group to make his intentions known. The 6-foot-4 safety (who projects as an outside linebacker at the next level) committed to Rutgers, giving the Scarlet Knights a trio of New York recruits.

   "This is an unbelievable feeling," Margolis told MSG Varsity on Tuesday. "They only started recruiting me like two weeks ago, I went on a visit, and then (defensive coordinator Joe) Rossi called me tonight and offered me. I accepted right away. How can you not?"

   The trend of the year seems to be players passing up the opportunity for scholarship money to accept offers as preferred walk-ons for special-teams work. McQuaid kicker Will Mahar is taking that path at Boston College, and Aquinas linebacker Charlie Rist will battle for long-snapper duties at Penn State (I incorrectly had him destined for Mississippi State last week).

   All-purpose player Tyler Hill could be in line to become the next long-snapper at Cincinnati, and Hayden Grover of Spencer-Van Etten is headed to another Ohio school -- Akron -- as a long-snapper.

    • We'll continue to update and maintain a list of the BCS commitments on the home page of our RoadToSyracuse.com website.

   Buzzer-beating bomb: Vanessa Parrotta's heave from nearly 55 feet at the buzzer counted, allowing Aquinas to pull out a 40-39 win against host Batavia in a girls basketball contest Tuesday.

   The dramatic shot came after Batavia missed the front end of a 1-and-1.

   Here's the video:

   More girls hoops: Webster Thomas' Chloe Miller finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds as the Titans handed Pittsford Sutherland, ranked No. 2 in Class A, its first loss of the season, 51-45. Candaisy Crawford scored 24 points.

   Boys basketball: Sophomores Howard Washington and Stafford Trueheart each scored 17 points for Canisius in a 65-51 win over visiting Aquinas.

   Aquinas is ranked 11th in Class AA and Canisius is third in Class A.

   Trueheart, a 6-5 forward, added 14 rebounds, five assists and eight blocked shots/

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   Season sweep: Junior Anthony Thurston (one goal three assists) scored the winning goal 54 seconds into overtime to lift Irondequoit to a 4-3 win over Aquinas for a sweep of their regular-season hockey series.

   Irondequoit is ranked first and Aquinas fourth statewide in Division II.

   Elliott Clemmons scored 35 seconds into the game and Jake Gottorff added a goal 27 seconds later for Aquinas. Irondequoit's Matt Comanzo had scored on the power play with 3:44 left in the second period to tie the game at 3-3.

   Following up: There have been only five players in Batavia Notre Dame boys basketball history to have scored 1,000 points. And now three of them are named McCulley.

   Tim McCulley reached the milestone Monday during a 52-32 victory against Alexander. McCulley joined his uncle, Tom McCulley and his father Mike McCulley, who is currently just one point ahead of his son, in the 1,000-point club.

   "It's a great feeling to have a father and son both play for you and go over 1,000 points," coach Mike Rapone told TheBatavian.com. "There's something in the McCulley genes that they can all shoot. I'm sure Mike is as proud as any father could be right now."

   Tim McCulley finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

   Streak snapped: Cheektowaga broke a 16-year losing streak on the lanes against Maryvale on Monday when the Warriors' girls bowlers scored a 6-1 win. For coach Dan Kaplan, it ended a 37-match personal losing streak to Maryvale that began when he was coach at Williamsville South.

   "Over the years we've invented ways to lose matches against Maryvale," Kaplan told The Buffalo News.

   Juniors Shelby Kirst (627) and Megan Dulniak (608) paced the victory.