Monday, Nov. 3, 2014: St. Joe's goalie scores winner in MMA title game

   The St. Joe's senior made 12 saves, stopped a penalty kick and scored a goal as the Marauders earned their second straight Monsignor Martin Association boys soccer championship by beating Canisius 4-3 on penalty kicks.

   St. Joe's (19-0-1) kept its unbeaten season alive thanks to Boerema's 15th shutout. After 100 minutes of regulation and overtime, the game went to penalty kicks.

   Hunter Walsh, Donald Minderler and Marcus D'Aguiar connected for the Marauders on penalty kicks, matched by Canisius goals from Bradley Pohlman, Griffin Stone and Will Bolton. Senior Henry Frome of St. Joe's put his shot past Canisius keeper Charles Kolber, then Boerema dove to the right to stop Michael Bobak's attempt.

   Boerema then took his place at the penalty spot and connected for the clinching goal, sending St. Joe's into the CHSAA State Championships on Saturday on Long Island.

   "I knew I was taking the kick," Boerema told The Buffalo News. "I knew if I had to close it out I was going to do it."

   Dry spells: On a day when the Chicago Cubs, the poster-child team for prolonged futility, made the news by formally hiring Joe Maddon as manager, let us salute a couple of soccer teams that broke long dry spells.

   Senior forward Connor Saeli scored on a penalty kick with 11:40 left in the second overtime as Orchard Park beat Niagara-Wheatfield 1-0 to win the Section 6 Class AA boys championship. The sectional title was the Quakers' first since 1980.

   Saeli was awarded the penalty kick when he was taken down by the Niagara-Wheatfield goalie.

   One night earlier, Mount Morris secured its first trophy since 1940 by beating top-seeded Andover 1-0 in the Section 5 Class D2 championship game. Kyle Regal scored the game-winner with 18:13 left in regulation.

   Tough ending: The Minerva-Newcomb girls soccer season ended with star striker Makenzie Winslow on the bench for a 3-0 loss to Chazy on Saturday. Winslow was injured, ending her season with 59 goals and her career with 126.

   Lawsuit detailed: Parents of the late Section 6 football player Damon Janes are seeking punitive damages in a lawsuit filed against the school districts he played for and a host of other parties, The Buffalo News reported Sunday.

   Janes, a Westfield/Brocton junior, fell unconscious after being tackled during a Sept. 13, 2013, game at Portville. He died from his brain injury three days later at age 16.

   In legal papers prepared by Jamestown attorney Dale C. Robbins, parents Dean Janes of Brocton and Penny L. Gilbert of Portland allege that the Westfield and Brocton

school districts ignored safeguards and failed to protect their son and other players. The lawsuit alleges Damon suffered one or more concussions earlier in the game but was expected to remain on the field until he suffered a final blow to the head in the third quarter.

   According to the suit, coaches were not trained to identify or deal with concussed players, nor were the players instructed to take themselves out of play for their protection. In addition, the lawsuit says the districts had no personnel on the sideline trained to deal with a serious injury.

   Superintendents of the Westfield and Brocton school districts did not immediately return the paper's messages seeking comment about the lawsuit. Portville Superintendent Thomas J. Simon, named in a second complaint in State Supreme Court in Cattaraugus County over the assignment of medical personnel at the game, declined to comment.

   One aspect in particular of the family's lawsuit that's sure to garner attention is the assertion that a team as small as the Westfield/Brocton squad could not compete safely against larger and more skilled Class D competition. Westfield/Brocton lost its opener in 2013 to eventual NYSPHSAA champion 44-7, then was trailing Portville 32-6 when that game was stopped due to Janes' injury.

   The lawsuit claims the New York Public High School Athletic Association failed to "classify high school football teams to accurately reflect team size and individual size of players ... to provide safely matched football competitions."

   Robert Zayas, executive director of the NYSPHSAA, told the paper he knew of "no state in the country" that creates classes of scholastic competition based on the size of the players or the number of players on a team. New York, like other states, relies upon school enrollment data.