Leading off today: Fairport won the
43rd Eden Can-Am boys volleyball tournament on Saturday in West Seneca, besting 23 other squads and establishing the Red Raiders as a threat to reel in the big prizes in the postseason.
The tournament field included three state champions, seven sectional title winners and 13 sectional finalists from across the state last season.
"It has always been a program goal to come to Eden and get a victory," Fairport coach John O'Dell said after his squad defeated Lockport 25-14, 25-21 in the final.
Fairport defeated Frontier 25-16, 19-25, 15-13 in the semifinals. Lockport advanced by downing Clarence 25-20, 25-12.
The Fairport trio of Seth Terzo, Kade Carlson and Ryan Parker made the all-tournament team.
Cross country: We've seen slow starts in the past by Fayetteville-Manlius girls teams that ended up capping their season with one of the program's 11 Nike Cross Nationals championships, so there may be some reluctance to read too much into the results of the Chittenango Invitational.
Still, Shenendehowa came away with an impressive victory in Race 1, scoring 43 points to defeat F-M (60) and Monroe-Woodbury (71). Claire Walters placed first in 17:50.7, but Shen placed Hannah Belleville (third, 18:57.1) and Jada Dennis (fifth, 19:10.4) in the top five.
F-M stalwart Phoebe White, running without much of a base as she returns from an injury, was 20th and figures to post much stronger finishes as the season progresses.
And for what it's worth, Liverpool fared best in the girls meet merge after totaling 20 points in Race 2 on the strength of Madison Neuner (18:26.6) and Jenna Schulz (18:36.8) swept the top two spots.
• The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake boys put on a show at the Guilderland Invitational as seniors Tyler Berg (14:32.29), Evan Brennan (14:32.45) and Aidan Gillooley (14:58.88) captured the top three places in the 2.86-mile race.
The Spartans, who outscored Guilderland 20-39, won the past two NYSPHSAA Class B championships and the 2017 Federation title. They're returning six of their top seven runners from a season ago.
One losing streak over: Freshman quarterback Masson Bell rushed for 275 yards and three touchdowns and also tossed two TDs to Jacob Scruton, leading Phoenix past Oswego 32-28 in football action Saturday.
Both teams came in riding 18-game losing streaks. They are playing the 2018 season in Section 3's developmental league.
Trailing 26-22 late in the third quarter, Oswego put together an 11-play, 60-yard scoring drive capped by Dylan Czuprynski's 5-yard TD pass with 8:48 left in the fourth
