Leading off today: Senior receiver Andrew Murphy has earned a share of the state player of the year award after helping Glens Falls to a NYSPHSAA championship this fall.
Murphy was selected co-player of the year in Class B alongside Chenango Forks running back L.J. Watson, the New York State Sportswriters Association announced this morning. The Class C selection is running back Dahmir Pross of Rochester's Bishop Kearney, and the Class D honoree is Maple Grove running back Brad Benson.
Murphy caught 41 passes for 881 yards and 12 touchdowns as a senior. He made seven catches for 181 yards and two touchdowns in Glens Falls' 49-14 win over Pleasantville in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association semifinals. His 50-yard TD return of an attempted onside kick sealed a 47-39 win over Chenango Forks in the state final in Syracuse.
Forks' Watson ran for two TDs and 189 yards in that championship game, also making nine stops on defense. He rushed for 2,213 yards for the season, bringing his career total to 4,833.
Kearney's Pross rushed for 2,328 yards, scored 38 touchdowns and intercepted five passes in leading the Kings to the state semifinals.
Maple Grove's Benson finished with 1,694 rushing yards and 30 touchdowns as the Red Dragons won their first 12 games before falling to Cambridge 22-21 in overtime in the state final Thanksgiving weekend.
The NYSSWA announced its all-state teams in Classes B, C and D today. The selections in Classes AA and A will be revealed next Wednesday.
A few links related to the all-state football team announcement:
• 2016 Class B all-state team
• 2016 Class C all-state team
• 2016 Class D all-state team
• Recent NYSSWA players of the year
• All-state teams, 1999-2016
• Final 2015 B-C-D state rankings
A basketball shutout: A look at the roster was the first indication the Doane Stuart girls basketball team was going to be in for a difficult time Tuesday. Both team captains were unavailable due to ankle injuries, three other players haven't returned yet from an overseas trip and four players in the scorebook were on the modified roster last winter.
The final score: Heatly 69, Doane Stuart 0.
"When you are rooting for the other team to score," Heatly coach Brian Ford told The Daily Gazette, "that tells you how screwy a night it was."
Said Thunder Chickens coach Phil Carducci: "I've never been shut out before. I don't know what to say."
Heatly built leads of 22-0 after a quarter and 36-0 at the half. Kyra Oeffler scored 34 points for the Hornets, including the 1,000th point for her career, but Carducci said Heatly (7-2) did nothing to run up the score against his 1-5 team.
"They backed off (from pressing), played half-court (defense), played zone," he said. "We had our shots. They weren't good enough to go in."
Carducci said a JuCo team he coached in the 1970s once lost a game 74-10. Lopsided high school scores happen even if the winning coach is doing everything, as Ford did, to keep the score down.
"It happens," Carducci said of the shutout.
"No, it doesn't happen," he quickly added.
Boys basketball: Senior Kameren Jackson scored 16 points as No. 5 Westhill rolled past No. 14 Chittenango 63-43 in a matchup of state-ranked Class B teams in Section 3.
"Honestly, they're playing chess and the rest of us are playing checkers," Chittenango coach John Clancy told Syracuse.com.
Chittenango got 27 points from junior Zach Falkenburg.
• Sophomore guard Mike Limoncelli scored 22 of his 30 points in the third quarter to help Horseheads defeat Union-
