Friday, Feb. 22, 2018: Penfield defeats McQuaid in Sec. 5 semifinals

   Leading off today: Penfield answered a first-period goal with three of its own in the second and went on to a 7-4 victory over McQuaid in the Section 5 Division I hockey semifinals Thursday.

   McQuaid entered the game ranked fifth and Penfield 12th according to the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   Jack Schlifke and Andrew Ebersol scored 23 seconds apart and then Matt Rockhill tacked on the third goal of the middle stanza.

   Ebersol and Schlifke each answered with third-period goals after McQuaid tallies, and Marco Viola tacked on two more goals to wrap up the victory and advance the Patriots to the final against second-ranked Victor on Monday. Victor eliminated Webster Schroeder 2-0 as Chayse Ierlan turned aside 30 shots.

   Technically upsets, but ... : A pair of No. 10 seeds won their Section 6 girls basketball quarterfinals over second-seeded foes.

   Medina knocked off I-Prep/Grover Cleveland 63-37 in Class B-1. Gowanda eliminated Eden 61-48 in Class B-2.

   "The Niagara-Orleans League was strong this year and we just kept getting better," said Medina coach Larry Lash. "We won four out of our last five. We got it going a little bit now and things are coming together. We're starting to figure each other. Players are buying in and have more confidence with each other. There's better passing. Just a season's worth of learning is coming together."

   Medina's next opponent will be 11th-seeded Dunkirk, which downed third-seeded City Honors 67-63 as Amari Carter scored 26 points to help offset Kyra Wood's 33 for City Honors.

   A name from the past: Back in November 2011, Isaiah Whitehead was an emerging high school star at Abraham Lincoln in the PSAL. That was also when ESPN went public with molestation accusations two men made against then-Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine -- accusations that never led to charges but cost Fine his career.

   Coming so soon after the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State, people were all too happy to pile on regarding the allegations against Fine, and one of those speaking out was Whitehead's mother.

   "They're definitely off his list," Ericka Rambert said of SU at the time. "Isaiah's not going there. That's out of the question. Once you have something like that in the program, you don't

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want to be a part of it. You don't know who else is involved. You don't know who else knew about it. It's a lot to deal with."

   Whitehead eventually put SU on his list but wound up committing to and playing at Seton Hall before turning pro. But he apparently didn't miss out on the opportunity to associate with people of questionable character.

   Friday's report by Yahoo! Sports on the widening college basketball scandal listed Whitehead, at the time a freshman at Seton Hall, as having received as much as $37,657 in impermissible payments.

   Extra points: The Victor school district is search- sing for a replacement for long-time AD Ron Whitcomb, who will retire at the end of the school year. Whitcomb arrived at Victor in 1991 and has been pivotal in building an athletic powerhouse. During his tenure, Victor teams have won 174 sectional crowns and 13 state titles.

   It's safe to assume that the opening is going to attract a ton of interest and could set off a chain reaction of AD changes across the area.