Monday, May 22, 2017: Frederick Douglass Academy wins PSAL title in OT

   Leading off today: Mamadou Meite scored in overtime following a disputed call, giving top-seeded Frederick Douglass Academy a 7-6 win over Tottenville for the PSAL boys lacrosse championship Sunday.

   Tottenville had turned the ball over moments earlier when junior goaltender Thomas Casuccio was whistled for bringing a live ball back into the crease after defender Eian Stern intercepted a pass. Stern flipped the ball to his keeper to start the clear, but it was ruled Casuccio had come out of his crease and then went back in.

   The call left Tottenville coach Demetrios Haronitis fuming.

   "He's a possible All-American, he's all-conference and all-division," Haronitis said of Casuccio. "He doesn't make mistakes like that."

   After the restart, Meite raced in from the left wing across to his right, beating Casuccio with a shot against the grain and inside the left post.

   Tottenville had trailed 6-4 entering the fourth quarter and rallied to tie on Joseph Tucker's third goal of the game and David Bokser's second, the latter with 5:19 remaining.

   FDA and Cold Spring Harbor, the top-ranked Class C squad, are the last two unbeaten boys teams in the state.

    • Catherine Chipura's fourth goal of the day, just 1:14 into overtime, carried Tottenville to a 7-6 win over Curtis for the PSAL girls crown at Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn.

   The Pirates, whose two league losses were to Curtis, had scored twice in the final 1:21 of regulation to pull ahead 6-5 before the Warriors' Diony Narvaez knotted the score with :02 to play.

   Tottenville held possession the entire extra session after Erin Schuler had won the faceoff.

   Baseball note: Wellsville sophomore Jack Migliore stole four bases Friday in a 14-0 win over University Prep to open the Section 5 Class B tournament. That gave Migliore 40 steals for the season and broke Scott Cicirello's school mark of 37 in 1991.

   Johnnies land Wilson: True to his word upon taking the job, St. John's University men's basketball coach Chris Mullin continues to target local talent for the rebuilding process.

   A year after Shamorie Ponds (Brooklyn Thomas Jefferson) and Bashir Ahmed (Bronx JFK via the junior-college route) picked St. John's program, 6-foot-7 Sid Wilson followed their path Saturday by committing to the Red Storm.

   Wilson, all-state for St. Raymond's in 2016, spent this past season averaging 17.2 points a game at Brewster Academy. He picked St. John's over UConn and Texas.

   The next recruiting cycle could be the one that makes or breaks Mullin's approach of defending the home turf. The big (in every sense of the word) target figures to be 7-footer Moses Brown, a second-team all-state pick last season for Archbishop Molloy.

   River tragedy: Evin Kleinganz, 20, a former star pitcher at Arlington High, died in a weekend mishap after a canoe in which he was traveling on the Hudson River capsized.

   Kleinganz was with two others when the canoe capsized in the area of Norrie Point on Friday evening the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office said. The others were picked up by another vessel.

   Kleinganz's body was recovered Saturday.

   In 2014, Kleinganz earned honorable mention honors on the Poughkeepsie Journal All-Star team.

   Coaching change: Although he will continue to teach, Mark Layer has retired from Clarence football after 30 years in the program, the last six as head coach.

   The Red Devils were 6-3 last season.

   "It was time for a change, it's time to do different things," Layer told The Buffalo News. "It was a great run for me at Clarence. I was a player there. I feel the program is in great shape."

   A replacement could be named in time for the June 12 school board meeting.

   Mask decisions: Newsday took a closer look recently at the use of protective masks by softball pitchers and infielders.

   The steel-rimmed masks resemble a football face mask. But instead of being attached to a helmet, the mask is held in place by straps that wrap around the top and sides of the head. There is padding around the forehead and chin to help absorb the impact if the player is struck by a ball bashed by increasingly potent aluminum bats.

   Though optional equipment, the facemasks have gone from virtually nonexistent just a few years ago to fairly common.

   Lloyd Smith, a professor at Washington State University's Sports Science Laboratory calculated that some of the hardest-hit balls reach the pitcher in 0.375 seconds, leaving almost no time to react.

   Youth softball leagues began mandating face masks for pitchers several years ago, and those players are now in the high school ranks and don't think twice about wearing them.

   "A few years ago you were a pariah if you wore one of those face masks, because it was so odd looking," said Islip coach Dennis McSweeney. "No one ever wants to be the only one wearing something. But now it's become the fabric of the game for so many players."

   The NYSPHSAA debated mandating face masks two years ago, assistant director Todd Nelson told the paper. The organization decided to not require them because the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, which sets safety standards for most athletic equipment, has not developed any guidelines for face masks that do not have helmets attached.

   Brackets progress: With the spring season winding down, we've started building out state tournament brackets.

   Boys and girls lacrosse brackets are available now, with baseball and softball to follow in the next day or two.

   Extra points: Long Beach junior Jacori Teemer, already a four-time NYSPHSAA wrestling champion at weights ranging from 99 pounds in eighth grade to 132 last season, has committed to Arizona State.