Leading off today: Offense, defense and special teams carried Iroquois to an upset of 14th-ranked and previously unbeaten Starpoint in the Section 6 Class A football quarterfinals Saturday.
Morgan Mariacher blocked a kick that resulted in a 78-yard return for a score by Jordan Huber, Parker Valbo returned an interception 43 yards for a touchdown and Brandon Yax rolled to 156 yards on 38 rushing attempts to lead the way to a 21-0 victory.
Next up for Iroquois (5-3) is sixth-ranked Buffalo South Park.
"It's the biggest challenge these guys will ever have to face," coach Keith Marshall told The Buffalo News. "We will have to play an absolutely perfect game."
South Park advanced with a 45-20 win vs. Williamsville South. Tyree Brown threw for 181 yards and two scores, rushed for 76 yards, and made three interceptions on defense.
Athena pulls out a win: Tavon Granison's 5-yard TD run with :39.6 left capped a 61-yard drive that lifted No. 17 Greece Athena over Irondequoit 35-28 in the Section 5 Class A quarterfinals.
The Trojans trailed 28-27 with 2:33 to go before Granison marched them down the field. The sequence included an 18-yard completion to Kenny Speed on a 4th-and-11 play.
"We have players on our team that can score from any spot on the field," he told the Democrat and Chronicle. "We might bend a little bit, we might get tackled in the backfield or throw an incompletion. But our coach always preaches, bend but don't break. So in the last drive we had to go play by play. It worked out in our favor."
After the Trojans ran in the conversion, Irondequoit reached the Athena 6 before running out of time.
Coming on strong: Though Tottenville is ranked sixth, No. 11 Grand Street Campus might be playing the best football of all the PSAL's Class AA programs right now. The Wolves climbed to 8-0 with a 40-14 thumping of No. 18 Erasmus Hall.
Sharif Harris-Legree went 16 of 23 for 233 yards and three touchdowns. He hit Rutgers recruit Ahmed Bah on a 48-yard scoring play 31 seconds into the fourth quarter. He added a 57-yard catch-and-run TD to Taysir Mack and a 22-yarder to Rahmel Ashby to cap the day.
Milestone win: Hoosic Valley began playing football in 2006. On Saturday, the Indians arrived as a program.
Making its first Section 2 playoff appearance, Hoosic Valley (6-2) rolled up 515 yards rushing to earn a 42-19 Class C win against 11th-ranked Fonda-Fultonville.
"This is amazing, especially being a senior and this being the first time we've had a playoff game. Words can't describe this," linebacker/fullback Jeff Carrozza told The Times Union after carrying 14 times for 100 yards and a TD.
Tom Madigan led the attack with 170 yards and two touchdowns.
Melee ends Section 3 game: Syracuse Nottingham is taking the blame for the brawl that caused its Section 3 Class AA playoff game to be terminated in the third quarter. Four Bulldogs were among five players ejected following the incident that took place with Utica Proctor holding a 38-0 lead.
"I'm very disappointed; we don't coach that up," Nottingham coach Nick Patterson told The Observer-Dispatch. "It (stinks) when you have one or two bad apples who spoil the whole barrel.
Nottingham AD Richard Spicer made the decision to end
