Tuesday, April 26, 2016: Hoyas' Ed Blatz, ex-Garden City star, dies

   Leading off today: Ed Blatz Jr., a former two-sport standout for Garden City and a junior on the Georgetown lacrosse team, died early Sunday, a university official announced.

   The cause of death was not specified. Blatz was 21.

   Blatz was an all-state honorable mention at wide receiver -- he was the school's all-time leader in receptions and touchdown catches -- for the Garden City football team in 2012 and helped the Trojans to a pair of NYSPHSAA Class B lacrosse championships. At Georgetown, the junior started 19 games and appeared in 25 overall during his career as a defender.

   "Eddie was a great young man who was well-respected and well-liked by his teammates and the Georgetown lacrosse family," Hoyas coach Kevin said in a statement. "He was a very bright student and a talented player and words cannot express the loss we are feeling right now."

   Said retired Garden City football coach Tom Flatley: "Eddie was an easygoing guy who never seemed too excited about big games. He was very laid-back in practice but had a great ability to turn it on in games. When the whistle blew, he was one of the better athletes in football and lacrosse we've had."

   Girls lacrosse: The two most accomplished girls lacrosse programs in NYSPHSAA tournament history got together for an intersectional showdown Monday in Central New York, and Garden City came away with a 9-6 win over West Genesee.

   Garden City, ranked No. 6 in the state Class B state rankings, has won 13 NYSPHSAA championships. West Genesee, second-ranked in Class A, owns seven state titles.

   Senior Katie Muldoon scored four of her five goals in the first half to stake the Trojans to an 8-3 lead. Garden City scored five times in a four-minute span and had another goal negated by an infraction.

   Muldoon and midfielder Kerry Defliese dominated inside the draw control circle in helping Garden City control 12 of 15 draws.

   "We had no answer," West Genesee coach Kevin Hennigan said.

   Garden City's upstate trek continues Tuesday at Skaneateles, ranked seventh in Class C, before a key clash with Manhasset, rated seventh in Class B, on Saturday.

   Interest heats up: Jordan Nwora wasn't lacking for college options before last week, and now the Park School senior has even more basketball offers to consider.

   VerbalCommits.com reports that Oklahoma State and Rutgers offered scholarships Monday, joining Southern Cal, DePaul and Iona as schools that have stepped up n just the past week. The 6-foot-8 Nwora already had at least seven offers before that -- including Auburn, Pitt and Seton Hall.

   Speculation has Nwora heading off to prep school in the fall and enrolling in college the following September.

   By the way, Rutgers made it a two-fer Monday by also extending an offer to Park 7-footer Chris Efretuel.

   Football appeals heard: The New York State Public High Schools Athletic Association heard the appeals of two Section 6 combined football programs Monday, The Buffalo News reported.

   Maple Grove/Chautauqua Lake and Buffalo Bennett (with students from Olmsted and Alternative High), the Section 6 Class C finalists from last season, were making their third appeal of a sectional decision to move them up in class for 2016 based on their overall success. (Here's what I blogged two months ago.)

   Section 6 Executive Director Timm Slade told the paper a decision on the latest appeal is expected this week or next. If the appeals are denied, Bennett would play in Class A and MG/SL in Class B next fall.

   Speaking of appeals: Beacon has won its appeal of an April 11 baseball game that ended in a 1-1 tie with Mahopac according to Hudson Valley Sports Report.

   Leading 1-0 in the top of the sixth inning, Beacon thought it had worked itself out of a jam by turning an inning-ending double play. But Indians coach Chris Miller argued Beacon's first baseman came off the bag, and the umps concurred -- and awarded the Mahopac runner who was on second base two bases to tie the game.

   Bulldogs coach Bob Atwell protested the assumption that the runner on second base would have scored.

   Beacon won the protest Monday. When the teams find a date to resume, Mahopac will be trailing 1-0 with runners on the corners and two outs in the sixth.

   Ironically, Mahopac added a run in the top of the eighth inning to go up 2-1 only to have it wiped out because the game was called on account of darkness before the inning could be completed.

   Money talk: The NYSPHSAA Executive Committee meets a week from Friday in Troy with a slew of business to handle, much of which I'll preview in a blog or two in the coming days.

   When the financials get discussed, folks from Binghamton will get a feel for what they're up against next year when they host the boys basketball finals fours for the first time after the event's lengthy run in Glens Falls.

   As of last week, the NYSPHSAA is still waiting for the arrival of bed tax money from Warren County. But when the books on the 2016 tournament are closed, the profit will come in at $129,937, which is down from $161,506 the previous year. Three Section 2 teams won championships in 2015, making for "home crowds" in six of 15 games. This winter, Troy reached the title game but Shenendehowa and Hudson lost semifinals, helping to account for at least some of the drop in total weekend attendance from 17,993 to 15,488.

   Binghamton wrestled away the three-year contract for hosting rights beginning next season by guaranteeing lower expenses and dangling a pot of discretionary money. While that should mean Binghamton can net the same $130K even with a total attendance of around just 14,000, the usual two factors -- weather and the number of local teams playing -- will determine the bottom line.

   For perspective, the hockey tournament moved from Utica to Buffalo's new HarborCenter this season -- again based on substantial financial inducements. Though attendance dropped from 4,044 for the two-day event to 2,792, the NYSPHSAA's profit grew from $14,291 to $18,045.