Leading off today: Ryan Eccles scored a pair of goals, including what proved to be the game-winner as
Syracuse edged Suffern 4-2 for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association boys Division I hockey championship Sunday in Buffalo.
Stephen Matro and Phillip Zollo, who had a hat trick a day earlier in the semifinals, also scored as the multi-district team earned its first state championship.
"We knew we had the team this year," coach Neal Purcell said. "They sure put the work in."
Zollo, a player on Westhill's state soccer championship team in the fall, scored a wraparound goal with 1:08 left in the second for a 2-1 lead. Eccles took the puck the length of the ice in the third for a 3-1 lead.
Skaneateles captured the Division II championship with a 6-1 win over Queensbury for its first state trophy since 2015 and fourth overall.
"At the beginning of the year, coach (Mitch Major) said we're not good enough, and all year he kept saying it," the Lakers' Ryan Gick said. "With 30 seconds left I looked up and said, 'Coach are we good enough?' and he said no, and threw me out there for the last 15 seconds.
"I was actually playing defense which I never play. When the puck came to me I took a slap shot in panic, and I looked over at coach and yelled, 'Are we good enough?' 'Yes, yes we are.'"
Gick's goal two minutes into the second period was the beginning of another stellar performance for the winger and linemates Luke Lynn and Cole Heintz. Heintz and Lynn scored later in the second to put Skaneateles ahead 3-0. Lynn, Garrett Krieger and Jack Henry each tacked on another goal in the third period.
NYSPHSAA bowling: The Lansingburgh boys and Dunkirk girls came away with state Division II championships to conclude the three-day tournament in Syracuse.
Lansingburgh roared out of the blocks with games of 1,106 and 1,043 to start the day and finished 307 pins ahead of Tonawanda. Dunkirk trailed Newark's girls by 136 pins through three games but knocked down 2,985 pins in the second block to edge the Reds by 140 pins.
Lansingburgh had three of the top five boys finishers including champion Codi Genthner, whose 1,391 series started with games of 258 and 246. Jon Kurdziel of Tonawanda was second at 1,334, which included the day's high game (279).
Dunkirk was paced by second-place finisher Rachel Glowniak's 1,231 total. Newark's Natalie Kent was the runaway winner with a 1,349 pinfall. Jolene McConnell of Maine-Endwell had he high game with a 254.
CK boys win CHSAA final: Christ the King held Archbishop Stepinac to 0-for-17 shooting while outscoring the Crusaders 16-4 in the fourth quarter and pulled off a 61-56 victory in the CHSAA boys Class AA basketball championship game.
Ryan Myers led the Royals with 19 points.
It was the culmination of a laborious march into the Federation tournament in two weeks for Christ the King, which played nearly the entire season without 6-foot-11 sophomore Moussa Cisse, started off with five losses in nine games, and saw guard Quaran McPherson suffer a late-season knee injury.
The Royals hit rock bottom Jan. 18 with a 87-58 loss to St. Raymond.
"We got smoked that day against St. Raymond and I said that I just don't know what I'm going to do," coach Joe Arbitello said. "I don't know how we are going to win another game, I was just so low after that loss and I've never been that low coaching."
A day later, Christ the King went to the HoopHall Classic in Massachusetts and pulled off a 57-54 win against St. Louis Vachom, which just improved to 26-4 by claiming the Missouri state Class C title.
From that moment on all became possible and getting Cisse back for the playoffs was the bonus that made Christ the King especially dangerous.
