Friday, Oct 5, 2017: Saratoga, Mamaroneck score big soccer wins

   Leading off today: Junior Aidan Rice's second goal of the game wasn't as interesting as his first, but it was nevertheless enough to give Saratoga a 2-1 boys soccer victory over Shenendehowa in a clash of state-ranked squads Thursday.

   Shenendehowa began the days fifth and Saratoga 16th in Class AA in the New York State Sportswriters Association rankings.

   Rice's winner came with 6:32 to play after he worked his way through three defenders. Midway through the second half, he scored his eighth goal of the season by ripping a shot that hit the inside of the left post and then the right post before falling over the goal line.

   "I feel like as a team, we wanted it more in the second half," Rice told The Times Union after the Blue Streaks improved to 11-1-1. "Being down 1-0, we had all the more reason to pick it up and bring it back."

   Shen was literally hobbled by injuries that sent two starting defenders to the bench in the second half, but Plainsmen coach Jonathan Bain downplayed that factor.

   "In all honesty, (the injuries) didn't have that much to do with it. They outplayed us in the second half. They just did," he said. "Every tackle, every head ball, every second ball: those are all effort things. They outworked us."

   More boys soccer: Mamaroneck completed its second consecutive sweep of the regular-season series vs. New Rochelle with a 1-0 victory on Cole DiCicco's goal midway through the second half.

   Tigers goalie Max Vicinelli made eight saves for the shutout.

   New Rochelle is ranked 12th and Mamaroneck 22nd in Class AA. The teams also met in the 2016 Section 1 quarterfinals, where New Rochelle advanced on penalty kicks.

   "We play them two times a year in the league, so they know all our set plays, like they were calling out our set plays even before we called them," Mamaroneck midfielder Reed Sakakeneny told The Journal News. "We kind of have to play a different game against them and that makes it hard."

    • Junior goalkeeper Conner Golley set the school record for career shutouts with his 34th in Allegany-Limestone's 1-0, non-league triumph at Olean. The Gators, ranked sixth in Class C, improved to 13-0.

   Girls soccer: Kendra Oldroyd's third goal of the game was also the 100th of her career as Elmira downed Binghamton, 5-1.

   Football Week 6: This will be the best two days of the season for confrontations between ranked teams, with seven head-to-heads in just Class AA alone:

• No. 1 Troy vs. No. 15 Shaker
• No. 2 Lancaster vs. No. 29 Jamestown
• No. 7 Oceanside vs. No. 22 Freeport
• No. 8 Cicero-North Syracuse vs. No. 14 Baldwinsville
• No. 11 Newburgh vs. No. 28 Monroe-Woodbury
• No. 16 Cardinal Hayes vs. No. 19 St. Anthony's
• No. 17 Aquinas vs. No. 27 McQuaid

   And that list doesn't even include No. 6 Canisius' trip to Ohio on Friday to take on Massillon Washington (5-1).

   The top two teams in Class B are also facing ranked foes: No. 1 Glens Falls vs. No. 5 Schuylerville and No. 2 Chenango Forks vs. No. 24 Norwich. Class A has a huge Section 1 matchup between No. 2 Yorktown and No. 6 Our Lady of Lourdes    Here are links to schedules for Week 5 football action:

    • Complete state schedule.
    • Ranked-teams schedule.
    • Spectrum Cable telecasts and streaming schedule.

   More football: Syracuse University hosts Clemson at the Carrier Dome a week from tonight -- on Friday the 13th no less.

   Friday games are now commonplace in college football, but this one gnaws at me more than most because it takes place on the final Friday of the high school regular season for most Upstate New York teams. Playoff berths and sectional seedings will be on the line.

   I wrote about the situation in my weekly column for the Press & Sun-Bulletin.

   Not a smart idea: Blind Brook school officials are investigating a racially insensitive social media incident involving its boys soccer team, The Journal News reported this week.

   The posting involved a reference to a U.S. nuclear bomb program -- The Manhattan Project -- regarding an upcoming game against Keio Academy, an all-Japanese private school.

   It appears someone associated with the Blind Brook boys soccer team, ranked fourth in the state in Class B this week, created a Facebook event for the Sept. 28 game, which ended in a 1-1 tie, and titled the event "The Varsity Soccer Manhattan Project."

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

   "The Manhattan Project" was the code name used by the United States for its design and development of atomic nuclear weapons, culminating with the detonation of the devices over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which resulted in the death of more than 260,000 people in 1945.

   "I'm aware of a post that was posted by a singular member of that team," Blind Brook Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Ross told the paper. "As it concerns these types of matters, it's important for you to know that the vast majority of student matters in public schools are confidential and, in turn, they are handled internally without disclosure to the public."

   First-year Blind Brook coach Marcos Monteagudo said he had no knowledge of the Facebook group or the event posting. Keio AD Greg Russo said the school had no comment on the matter.

   Blind Brook and Keio are scheduled to meet again on Oct. 16.

   Taking a stand: A veteran cross country coach in Connecticut who's up for a national honor says he resigned last month as a matter in principle after school officials told him he had to add a runner to the team despite concerns about the student's history and attitude.

   "I told the athletic director I really didn't want him on the team given his history," Mike Cohen told the Hartford Courant. "The AD suggested I ask the kid what's changed. So I approached it with him. Basically the answer I got was, 'Nothing has changed, I've paid my participation fee, I can run.'

   "There was nothing about, 'I want to help the team, I want to become a better runner.' It was only about, 'I want to run.' I said, 'Well, I don't think that's good enough. And so I'm not going to let you come out for the team.'"

   Cohen, a finalist for the National High School Athletic Coaches Association coach of the year award this year and a retired science teacher at Simsbury High, has coached indoor and outdoor track as well as cross country for 30 years. His teams won four state championships in cross country.

   The unidentified runner competed for past of last season before leaving the team. Cohen said he did not have a good attitude.

   "I can also tell you I've not had a second thought about what I did," Cohen said. "I have not at any time said, 'Gee, I wonder if I made the right decision.' As much as I miss coaching and miss the team -- and I realize I'm letting kids down who are on the team and working hard -- I have not had the least bit of question about whether or not I did the right thing. It went against my core values. And the reason why I coach.

   "It's got to involve learning life lessons. And those life lessons have to be about teamwork and commitment and discipline. And understanding that you have to get along with people. Respect for one another. You don't have to love everybody on the team but you have to show them respect."