Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019: Pittsford wins Sec. 5 hockey final in double overtime

   Leading off today: Eighth-grade forward Brian Judge scored with 1:00 to play in the second overtime to give Pittsford a 3-2 victory over Fairport for the Section 5 boys Class A hockey championship Tuesday.

   The Panthers advance to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division I quarterfinals on Saturday and will go on the road against Syracuse.

   Fairport's Travis Knicley and Mitchell Zanon scored midway through the third period for a 2-1 lead, but Pittsford tied when Hayden Feck scored his second goal of the game with 3:31 to go in regulation.

   Pittsford was outshot 45-23 but junior goaltender Alex Tidd made 43 saves.

    • Webster Thomas broke a streak of three losses in Division II finals by beating Spencerport 5-2. Zach Wolfe scored the game's opening goal and provided insurance with a short-handed goal in the final 2:00 of the third period.

   Ski meet, Day 2: Hunter Montgomery of Queensbury and Logan Frederickson of Ellicottville complete sweeps of the alpine events in the two-day NYSPHSAA Skiing Championships at Gore Mountain.

   Montgomery's two run time of 2:18.98 gave him the giant slalom championship a day after he won the boys slalom. Frederickson was clocked in 2:20.41 in the giant slalom for her second victory in two days.

   "I felt good training all last week and working with my coach, Steve Lathrop," Montgomery said. "I had a race the weekend before and I raced pretty well against a lot of the same guys, so I felt like I could pull the victory out."

   Section 5 teams swept the 7.5-kilometer nordic relays. The Honeoye Falls-Lima trio of Ian McGuire, Cameron McDaniel and Teddy Warfle won the boys race in 18:41.7. The Brighton team of Zofia Stefankovic, Grace Mattern and Emelia Jordan won the girls race in 22:39.6.

   Big effort not enough: Keith Slack scored 29 of his game-high 47 points in the second half, but it wasn't enough to stop McQuaid from edging Gates Chili 82-75 in the Section 5 boys Class AA basketball semifinals.

   Trailing 66-64 with 3:44 left, McQuaid used six points from junior guard Kobe Long (25 points, seven rebounds) during a 13-4 run to advance to the final against University Prep. Jermaine Taggart scored 26 points for the Knights.

   Hot at the right time: The Fonda-Fultonville girls basketball team is on a memorable run in the Section 2 Class B tournament. Having already beaten No. 20 seed Corinth, No. 4 Voorheesville and No. 5 Schalmont, the Braves knocked off top-seeded Tamarac 52-41 in the semifinals.

   Abby Lombardoni connected for seven of her team's 10 3-pointers to finish with 28 points.

   "We're mellow," coach Phil Boshart said. "We've gone into this thing as, 'We're the No. 13 seed and no one expects anything from us.'"

   More girls basketball: Kaziah Ross made two free throws with :37.3 left to tie the score before senior Kendra McPeek hit a layup at the buzzer to give Binghamton a 37-35 win over Ithaca in the Section 4 Class AA semifinals, setting up a championship game against Elmira.

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   Ross, McPeek and Lexi Gruss combined for 33 of the Patriots' 37 points.

    • We will have a new No. 1 team in the state Class B rankings next week following No. 23 Masters School's 64-49 victory over top-ranked Horace Mann in their NYSAIS championship game.

   Soccer rules changes: Several of the changes approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations' Soccer Rules Committee at its Jan. 28-30 meeting had to do with dropped-ball restarts, something that a casual observer of the sport might see twice a season.

   Thankfully, the committee also acted to address something that happens in almost every game that isn't tied in the closing minutes.

   Rule 3-4-3 was adjusted to state that the clock should be stopped when the team in the lead makes substitutions during the last five minutes of the second half. The change will prevent coaches from wasting time as they try to hold on to the lead down the stretch.

   Principled forfeit: You used to see this sort of story play out much more frequently in the days when there were only a handful of girls in each state participating in high school wrestling.

   A male wrestler in Colorado passed on a chance to continue on in the consolation bracket of the state championships because it would require wrestling a girl.

   Brendan Johnston chose to forfeit his match against Angel Rios, whom he'd already forfeited to four other times previously during his senior season.

   Johnston said he didn't want to "treat a young lady like that on the mat," and that he wasn't comfortable with the physical contact involved in wrestling a girl.

   "Wrestling is something we do, it's not who we are," Johnston said. "And there are more important things to me than my wrestling. And I'm willing to have those priorities."