Friday, Sept. 20, 2019: Arlington snaps M-W's 26-game unbeaten streak

   Leading off today: Defending NYSPHSAA boys Class AA soccer champion Monroe-Woodbury's 26-game unbeaten streak ended with a 3-2 overtime loss to Arlington on Thursday.

   Frankie Colantuono capped his hat trick and an Arlington rally from two goals down in the second half by netting the winner in the second overtime.

   Colantuono's first goal came less than a minute after the intermission following a handball call in the box. He tied the contest by trilling home a loose ball after the Crusaders' goalkeeper was caught at the edge of the box trying to control the ball.

   Spencerport advances: You can always count on Spencerport and Our Lady of Mercy throwing everything they have at each other whenever they meet in girls soccer. Their latest showdown saw the Rangers outscore Mercy 3-0 in penalty kicks to advance to the final of Spencerport's tournament.

   Senior goalie Catherine Wall made 10 saves in regulation and overtime in the rematch of the 2018 Section 5 Class A final before blanking the Monarchs in the shootout.

   Lily Brongo staked Spencerport to a 1-0 lead 15 minutes in and Mercy tied with under 2:00 to go in regulation.

   Football: Tyler Stowell scored touchdowns on a run, a pass reception and a kickoff return, booted a field goal and converted three extra-point attempts as Little Falls downed Adirondack 43-26. Stowell finished with 103 yards rushing on just three carriers.

   Akron routed three-time defending Section 6 Class C champion Cleveland Hill 47-0. Quarterback Adam Mietz ran for four touchdowns and threw for a pair. Sophomore defensive end Gavin Susfolk recorded five sacks.

   Wrestling figure dies: Tom Riccio, a renowned wrestling official and a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, died Sept. 9 in Murrells Inlet, S.C., after a 15-month battle with ALS, his family said. He was 77.

   Riccio was involved in the sport in some capacity for 60 years. As an official in Suffolk County for 24 years, he was routinely called upon to work the most important matches of the season. He worked five New York State tournaments and was the co-founder of the Suffolk County Wrestling Officials Association.

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   "He had a real feel for the sport," said former Babylon coach Rudy Carastro. "He was very fair, knew when to make a call, and when not to. He had very good judgment."

   You bet it's a bad idea: A handful of casinos in New York recently got the OK to open their sports books and accept wagers on college and professional sports. I'm confident you'll never see betting permitted on high school sports

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

here, but a story I stumbled across a few days ago points out that offshore operations take action on football games between national powerhouses.

   Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei beat Baltimore St. Frances Academy 34-18 last weekend in a matchup of schools with more than 30 players holding FBS scholarship offers. An outfit called Official Bookmaker had set Mater Dei as a four-point favorite. USA Today reported that another betting site offered a line last week when Cardinal Hayes traveled to New Jersey to play St. Joseph's Regional.

   A story last year pointed out that schol- astic athletes, coaches or officials could be vulnerable to payments to shave points or throw games. High school competition lacks the level of sophistication that the American sports books have to largely assure pro or college contests are on the up-and-up.

   "Our past contains instances of wagering on high school games illegally," Bob Gardner, the executive director of the National Federation of High School Associations (NFHS), said then in a statement. "If that now becomes legal, does the pressure on our coaches and student-athletes grow? Maintaining the integrity of all sports is critical to the system at every level. If we think the high schools are immune to this, we are not seeing clearly. We ask that states do not include wagering on high school athletic contests in any sport as part of any legislation going forward."

   More reading: With eight-man football now part of Section 6, the Olean Times-Herald took a look back to the days of six-man football in Western New York.