Sunday, April 30, 2017: Manhasset edges Garden City in lacrosse rivalry

   Leading off today: Senior midfielder Steven Schneider scored four goals to lead host Manhasset to a 10-8 victory over Garden City in a boys lacrosse showdown Saturday between highly regarded Section 8 Class B teams and traditional rivals in a series dating to 1935.

   "After we lost to them both times last year, I watched video of those games every few days," Schneider told Newsday. "I wanted to see what we could've done better."

   Garden City was ranked second and Manhasset third in the NYSSWA state Class B ratings this week.

   Schneider scored twice in the first quarter to help stake Manhasset to a 5-2 lead. The Trojans closed to within 8-6 on goals 49 seconds apart in the third quarter by Luke Keating (four goals) and J.P. Basile. But defenseman Edward Arnold scored in transition on an assist from Kevin Mack (one goal, two assists) with 1:46 left in the third.

   More L.I. action: Dan Riley (four goals. one assist) and Kyle Zawadzki (three goals, three assists) paced Class A No. 14 Smithtown West over No. 22 Connetquot 12-4.

   Conor Calderone won 17 of 19 faceoffs as the Bulls improved to 8-2.

   "If they don't have the ball, they can't score," Zawadzki said. "We score, get the faceoff and score again. It gets the other team's morale down. It's a snowball effect."

   More boys lacrosse: Victor, top-ranked in Class B, earned a 9-8 win over Fayetteville-Manlius as Zack Estabrooks scored three times. F-M is rated 17th in Class A.

    • Spencer Bell scored four goals and Reese Burek three for Class A No. 12 Fairport in an 11-2 win over No. 18 Orchard Park. Burek also had four assists.

   Girls lacrosse: Kyla Sears' goal :34 into overtime lifted host Skaneateles to a 14-13, come-from-behind victory over Fayetteville-Manlius.

   Sears, who also scored the game-tying goal in the last minute of regulation, finished with seven goals and an assist. Riley Brogan added four goals for Skaneateles, ranked sixth in Class D.

   Fayetteville-Manlius, ranked eighth in Class B, had raced to an 8-3 lead before the midway point of the first half. The lead was still 12-9 at the half.

   Track and field: Sachem East's Lauren Harris won the high school girls division of the 5,000-meter racewalk in 24:17.06 at the Penn Relays.

   Brewster senior Amelia Cuomo, a lacrosse player in previous spring sports seasons, was second in 25:39.69.

   "I've come from just racewalking weekends every Saturday to actually training for the racewalk in practice, so I'm able to do these kind of distances," Cuomo told The Journal News.

   'Irrelevant' but not insignificant: A search of previous blogs will confirm for you that I'm not a Chad Kelly fan. The former New York Class AA player of the football has a documented history of immature behavior beyond the age at which his actions could easily be excused.

   Having said that, I'm pleased for the Ole Miss quarterback. Being selected by the Denver Broncos with the final pick of the NFL draft on Saturday despite the fact that recent surgery will keep him from doing any meaningful throwing before training camp in July gives Kelly a chance to adapt to the pro game in the short term without the burden of expectations.

   "At the end of the day, I got put in the right situation with great players around me," Kelly told The Buffalo News.

   It's no small matter that the man calling the personnel shots for the Broncos is none other than John Elway, one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. If Elway is willing to look past Kelly's considerable baggage, then the newest Bronco's future in the NFL has to be taken seriously. The team began the draft with only two other quarterbacks -- Trevor Siemian and 2016 first-round selection Paxton Lynch.

   The NFL draft's last selection traditionally is tagged as "Mr. Irrelevant," a confounding compliment of sorts for an

underdog.

   Strangely enough for a state whose football products seldom get taken in the draft, New York has now had two of the past 12 Mr. Irrelevants. Maine's Kevin McMahan, a wide receiver out of Aquinas, was taken by the Oakland Raiders with the final pick of the 2006 draft.

   No ordinary handyman: David Ghiloni is a handful to deal with on the pitchers mound. Two handfuls, actually.

   As The Times Herald-Record explained, the Warwick hurler's ambidextrous ability is not just some gimmick. His fastball registers in the mid-80s both right- and left-handed, making him doubly tough on high school hitters.

   "The thing that I love the most is everyone's faces as soon as I start to switch my glove over," the senior said. "It's hilarious. You can hear the umpire talking about it. It's funny every single time."

   As noted in the story, Ghiloni's talent is both rare and legal. Though switch-hitting batters can change their side of the plate as often as they desire, he has to pick an arm and stick with it throughout an at-bat. And, no, he doesn't get to throw twice as often as his peers under the newly mandated pitch-count rules.

   Ghiloni is 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA this season.

   His ambidextrous ability started showing when Ghiloni was just 2 years old.

   "My parents told me I would pick up a ball with my left hand and throw with my left hand and then I would pick up a ball and throw with my right hand," he said. "I didn't know what hand to throw the ball with."

   Ghiloni throws the same four pitches with both hands: a two-seam fastball, four-seam fastball, curveball and circle changeup.

   The paper reported only two switch pitchers have reached the big leagues in the modern era. Pat Venditte, a former Yankees prospect, is a reliever in the Philadelphia Phillies system and Greg Harris threw two pitches left-handed in 1995.