Leading off today: Eastport-South Manor's David Velasquez scored less than a minute after Half Hollow Hills West had made it a one-goal game and held on for a 4-3 boys soccer Tuesday in Section 11.
Half Hollow Hills West is ranked 14th in the state in Class AA.
Velasquez decisive goal, on a feed from Nick Dittmer, was his second of the game and gave Eastport-South Manor a 4-2 advantage with 28:46 remaining. It came just 34 seconds after Leo Musacchia scored on a penalty kick for HHHW.
"We knew we had to put one in right away because they are always attacking," Dittmer told Newsday. "I took it down the wing and served it inside."
Early end to season: There's word out of Section 4 that Newfield and Seton Catholic have ended their football seasons.
Newfield was to have played Delhi this weekend in a non-playoff game.
Seton Catholic was participating in the new eight-man league alongside half a dozen Section 3 schools but fell below the 12-man minimum due to injuries. Seton Catholic was to have played Pulaski this weekend.
They did what? I wasn't there to listen to the discussion, but please tell me that low attendance was not a factor in the Wappingers Central School District board of education's decision Monday to not approve keeping an ambulance on standby during football games.
If it was in fact a factor, then several elected officials in the district are completely missing the point -- namely that football is a collision sport with potential risks a bit more serious than a spectator twisting an ankle while climbing down from the bleachers.
The board voted on two resolutions regarding ambulance coverage for all football and running events at Roy C. Ketcham and John Jay high schools, and one for just football. Both narrowly failed, and the board said it will analyze attendance and vote again in the future, The Poughkeepsie Journal reported.
"The only reason to provide (emergency medical service) at these events, whether it's a football game, a theater production, is for some threshold crowd size that we think is reasonable," board member Paul Galletta said. "Personally, I think it would be reasonable at the 1,000 crowd size."
Opinion: Unless the drama club is wielding real knives in its production of Julius Caesar, I think they could possibly do without an ambulance on standby regardless of whether 50 or 2,000 people are in attendance.
On the other hand, football players and their families deserve to know that medical help is immediately available if the scope of an injury is beyond something the athletic trainer can handle alone.
End of a tradition: The White Plains school board has decided to end its annual Turkey Bowl rivalry with Archbishop Stepinac, citing a potential hardship for athletes who play winter sports.
The Thanksgiving Day game began in 1971 and has served as an official and unofficial reunion for alumni from both schools.
