Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016: Sandy Creek's Benedict sets single-game rushing mark

   Leading off today: There was plenty of Friday night action on the football field that will have people talking throughout the rest of Week 6 and right up to Week 7, but a couple of games in particular are lighting up social media this morning.

   So we'll highlight those two for now, throw in another note or two from the world of scholastic sports and come back to the rest -- including seven ranked Class AA football squads biting the dust -- a bit later on Saturday.

   Record-setting rusher: The past two Fridays in New York football brought us a pair of 491-yard rushing performances. This time, though, we have an all-time monster performance to acknowledge.

   Junior tailback Joe Benedict rushed for a state-record 584 yards as Sandy Creek outlasted Watertown's Immaculate Heart Central 53-34. Benedict's 38 carries included eight touchdown runs.

   "That's a kid that put himself in position to just be an animal on the field and he's head and shoulders above everybody else on the field,” Sandy Creek coach Mike Stevens told The Daily Times. "He's a stud and that's because of the work that he does. ... For our team to get that blessing and hold that record, I couldn't be more proud of Joe, our line, our team and our school."

   Benedict's yardage total eclipsed the 30 carries for 569 yards by Dale Ross of Westhill vs. Marcellus in 2007. (See: All-time rushing list.) Weeks 4 and 5 of the current season saw 491-yard efforts by Alton Jones of Spencerport and Jordan Mull of Altmar-Parish-Williamstown.

   Benedict broke loose for an 81-yard touchdown run on Sandy Creek's first play from scrimmage. He tacked on scoring runs of 30, 72, and 57 yards to put the Comets up 27-0 midway through the second quarter. Benedict added a 38-yard TD run later in the second quarter and scored on carries covering 3, 81 and 16 yards in the second half.

   "I coached against Mike Hart and Latavius Murray. The differences were, they were in blowout games," Stevens told Syracuse.com. "This was a huge, division game. Everybody knows IHC can score every time they touch the ball and Joe was being Joe."

   The Comets didn't attempt a pass and finished with 646 rushing yards as an encore to a 543-yard team effort last Friday.

   "I read my blocks and when we score a big touchdown, everyone is excited and they put their heads down, then we just roll," said Benedict, who also recorded a sack on defense and kicked five extra points in accounting for all his team's points.

   IHC quarterback Nick Draught completed 19 of 39 passes for 306 yards and four touchdown passes in the loss.

   Fight halts MMA game: The Monsignor Martin Association game between St. Joseph's and Bishop Timon/St. Jude was suspended in the aftermath of a bench-clearing brawl between the teams that featured a cameo by Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly, the NYSSWA Class AA player of the year in 2011.

   Timon was leading 2-0 on its own Fitzpatrick Field with 6:30 left in the second quarter when the contest was suspended. The Buffalo News reported the game-ending melee was triggered when St. Joe's QB Casey Kelly was tackled near the sideline, followed by an outbreak of pushing and shoving.

   Video showed Chad Kelly, whose college team has the weekend off, charging onto the field and being restrained.

   Buffalo police were called to the scene. They reported there were no arrests and no injuries involved, the paper reported. Officers escorted the St. Joe's team to its buses after the game was declared suspended; there was no immediate word on if/when the game would be resumed.

   Timon coach Charlie Comerford told the paper there was no flag on the play and that blame could be assigned on a 50-50 basis.

   Casey Kelly "went out of bounds on a first-down run," Comerford said. "It's really tight on our sidelines, and there were some guys around. ... It got ugly."

   St. Joe's coach Derek Landry and AD Pete Schneider declined to comment, the paper said.

   An observation: I'm already seeing criticism of media outlets and some commentators on social media for making mention of Chad Kelly's role in what was an all-around bad situation last night.

   Sorry, but they need to put a sock in it. Chad Kelly has been on his way to being a living, breathing dumpster fire since at least the autumn of 2008, when the nephew of Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Jim Kelly was suspended

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

from the Red Lion High School football team in Pennsylvania for the final half of his freshman season. A year later, he was kicked out of the program for undisclosed reasons.

   He graduated from St. Joe's in 2012 and went on to Clemson, where he ran into problems on and off the field before being kicked of the team by Dabo Sweeney after spring practice in 2014. Kelly then spent a season at a junior college before joining Mississippi and -- in the eyes of some -- rehabilitating his image last fall during a successful season. (I won't even rehash his Buffalo bar incident that damn near cost him the Ole Miss scholarship before he even made it to campus.)

   He meets every definition of "public figure," had no business going onto the field during what could have been a very explosive incident and was the most notable name involved in any fashion in Friday's mess. That's going to earn him all sorts of unflattering attention -- he's already made it onto ESPN SportsCenter, Deadspin and many mainstream sports websites this weekend -- by the time re returns to campus Monday.

   "I have spoken to Chad and his family," Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze said on Twitter. "He understands that he should have handled this difficult situation with his brother differently. He has apologized, and we will continue to address this when he returns to campus."

   About all I'll say in his defense is that Kelly certainly managed to get people to stop talking about the online drubbing he took at the hands of former adult film actress Mia Khalifa.

   More football later: As noted earlier, we'll have the rest of the football roundup later.

   Girls tennis Cazenovia defeated three-time defending champion Oneida 4-3 in the Section 3 girls Class B tennis final, snapping a 46-match winning streak. The Lakers earned their second straight crown, having moved up after winning Class C in 2015.

   "I'm as proud as ever," coach Jennifer Hooley told The Oneida Dispatch. "It's a great team through and through, from top to bottom. From first singles to the supporting team."

   The Lakers finish the season 18-1, losing only to Oneida in the Chittenango tournament. Oneida hadn't lost since a regular-season match vs. New Hartford in 2014.