Wednesday, July 23, 2014: The New York high school year in review

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   Schalmont led 14-0 at halftime, holding M-E to two first downs and 61 yards of offense, but the Spartans clawed their way into a 14-14 tie midway through the fourth quarter before Schalmont's Trevon Perez-Tucker returned a punt 58 yards for a touchdown with 1:20 remaining to give the Sabres the lead again.

   After the ensuing kickoff, three Gallagher completions and a Woolfork run put the Spartans at the Schalmont 18. On third-and-1 with :32 to go, Gallagher found Woolfork out on the flat for a first down to the 6. On third down, Gallagher completed the 5-yard TD pass to Sinicki to close within 21-20.

   Two weeks earlier, Maine-Endwell escaped the quarterfinals with a 35-34 win vs. Cazenovia. QB Gallagher and receiver Adam Gallagher collaborated on a touchdown with 4:45 left, but Cazenovia drove 65 yards in nine plays, scoring on Andrew Vogl's 18-yard carry on a fourth-and-8 play with 1:12 to go.

   Following a timeout, the Lakers attempted a 2-point conversion but officials ruled QB Kevin Hopsicker's option carry up the middle fell short of the end zone, triggering a furious reaction from the Cazenovia side of the field.

   "The ball was over the line before my knees hit," Hopsicker told The Post-Standard. "The ball came down and I lost it (but) I was over the line."

   Maine-Endwell was hardly alone when it came to dramatic finishes to championship games.

   In Nassau County alone, two Section 8 title games in one day ended with field goals as time expired: Dan Reiskin connected from 27 yards for Lawrence in a 28-27 win over Plainedge in Conference III, and Zach Kolodny made a 32-yarder to lift Farmingdale over Massapequa 29-26 for the Conference I championship.

   Not to be outdone, Section 11 had its own fabulous finish as senior Ryan Hubbard returned a punt 84 yards for a TD with :06 left to vault Riverhead past East Islip 20-14 for the Suffolk II championship. Hubbard scored earlier on a 3-yard rush and then a 22-yard interception return just nine seconds later.

   For every playoff nail-biter there seemingly was a scoring slugfest to match.

   In the regular season, Islip posted a 59-58 win in triple overtime as a Sayville 2-point attempt for the win missed the mark, and Perry snuck past Cuba-Rushford 62-60 in a game featuring 88 first-half points.

   And in the Section 1 quarterfinals, Justin Davidov threw a 42-yard touchdown to Shea Holebrook with 1.1 seconds to play to carry Ossining to a 62-59 triumph against John Jay Cross River. The winning TD came just 34 seconds after John Jay had scored on Danny Skluth's 22-yard run to take the lead.

   Individually, the statistical performance of the year came in a loss. Tioga mauled Unatego 80-53 in the Section 4 Class D crown, but not before Unatego sophomore Josh Feyerabend went 29-for-40 for seven TDs and a state-record 581 yards. He broke the New York yardage record held by Paulus, who threw for 543 in 2003.

   Tioga ran for 622 yards despite sending its top two backs to the bench with a 59-12 lead at the half thanks to a 43-point second quarter.

   For season-long excellence, there was the unprecedented work of Marlboro quarterback Ryan Cary, who rolled up more than 2,100 yards through the air as well as 2,000 on the ground. For career achievement, Lawrence senior QB Joe Capobianco, a two-time NYSSWA player of the year in Class A, finished with 100 touchdown passes.

   Speaking of dominating numbers, St. Anthony's reached the CHSFL large-school championship game for the 15th straight season and capped an 11-1 season with its 11th title in that span. The Friars are 202-26 since the start of the 1993 season.

Girl talk

   The 2013 season tripled the number of females players to have scored touchdowns in the history of New York varsity football.

   Jensine Folu-Montes scored on a 3-yard carry in the fourth quarter as Webster Schroeder blew out Rochester Wilson 49-8. Later in the season, Sandy Creek's Grace Wallace reached the end zone on a 2-yard run in the second quarter as the Comets routed Oriskany 60-0.

   Phoenix quarterback Mariah Provost scored against Homer in the 2010 season.

   On the baseball diamond, freshman Eliza DeMers won her first varsity start on the mound, allowing two runs over five innings for Harley-Allendale Columbia.

   From the department of strange but true, the Rhinebeck boys tennis team won its division championship this spring despite having more females than males in the lineup. Rhinebeck does not offer girls tennis in the fall.

Behavior takes center stage

   On Feb. 27, Panas advanced to the Section 1 boys Class A basketball final by defeating Tappan Zee 39-38, but not before a school administrator ejected the losing team's 200-member-strong student section because of their way-too-anatomically-specific chant late in the game. It was a firm, decisive and no-nonsense way to handle an embarrassing episode -- see also: Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake cracking down on its football fans during an October game -- and will give at least a few future students reason to reconsider if they feel inclined to act in a childish manner.

   Elsewhere in Section 1 that night, Mount Vernon was squeezing out a 43-40 win over Mahopac in a tense, physical Class AA semifinal. Just days later, the Mahopac school district suspended three students for racist and otherwise crude tweets aimed at Mount Vernon basketball players and their fans during and after the game.

   The incident made national headlines and triggered harsh words between administrators, residents and politicians in the respective communities. Mount Vernon Superintendent Judith Johnson went so far as to write to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Education Commissioner John King saying player involvement merited a one-year ban for the Mahopac team.

   In the fallout, Mahopac coach Kevin Downes, an African-American, found it impossible to reconcile the student behavior with his desire to finish building a perennial championship program. He resigned, later agreeing to fill the vacancy at Yorktown.

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