Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019: Williamsville East ends girls soccer season

   Leading off today: Williamsville East officials have thrown in the towel on the 2019 girls soccer season, which was brought to a halt last week by long-term suspensions to 13 of the 21 players on the roster.

   Team members and their parents were informed of the decision by school officials during a Monday meeting, The Buffalo News reported.

   "We regret the need to take this action but our investigation showed that a number of team members engaged in behavior that clearly violated the athletic contract," district Superintendent Scott Martzloff said in a news release.

   Williamsville athletes and their parents sign a code of conduct that extends to students' behavior outside of school during the season. Violations result in immediate suspension from practice and competition for five weeks.

   Given the length of the suspensions and the lack of enough junior varsity players prepared to move up, the school finishes with a 4-3-1 record (the losses were forfeits) and will not attempt to defend its Section 6 Class A-1 championship. They were ranked 12th in last week's New York State Sportswriters Class A ratings.

   Wild game, dramatic finish: Kashwar Biswas scored for Ellenville in the final seconds to give the Devils a 5-4 victory over Spackenkill in boys soccer.

   Spackenkill broke to a 2-0 lead in the first 12 minutes and both teams rallied from two-goal deficits.

   Jake Spero's penalty kick in the 75th minute pulled Spackenkill even in the 75th minute.

   More boys soccer: Brian Coughlan had two goals and one assist as Pearl River downed previously unbeaten Nanuet 4-1.

   John Hayes added one goal and two assists for the Pirates, who bounced back after their first loss of the season.

   Impressive season in progress: After reaching the 2018 Section 3 Class C final, Clinton's field hockey team is off to an 8-0-1 start with just one goal allowed.

   The Warriors's latest win was a 1-0 triumph over Canastota to extend its streak to 458 scoreless minutes for opponents. Goalie Sydney Bialek recorded her eighth shutout and sophomore Masha Lyubezhanin's first career goal accounted for the scoring before torrential rain prompted officials to end the game with 12:12 remaining.

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   Clinton has outscored opponents 29-1. The one goal allowed to Mount Markham came on that team's only shot of the game.

   Clinton has a showdown game coming Oct. 8 vs. Holland Patent (6-0-1). The squads played to a scoreless tie in their first meeting.

   As impressive as the field hockey team is, it's not the school's only girls squad off to a great start.

   The girls soccer team is 5-0-1 and began the week ranked fourth in the state in Class B. The cross country team is 6-0 in duals and is ranked No. 7 in the state in Class C. And the tennis team has gone 11-0 and captured a pair of Center State Conference tournament titles.

   Ready for Prime Time: The Niagara Falls basketball program will be the subject of a 30-minute documentary on ESPNU on Friday at 8 p.m.

RoadToSyracuse.com football site

   Co-produced by ESPN and Mars Reel, the documentary looks at this year's team, which will be built around prospects Willie Light- foot, Roddy Gayle and Jalen Bradberry. Paul Harris, the leader of the 2005 Federation champ- ionship team is also featured.

   Predictable but ridic- ulous: A high school football game in Mass- achusetts was called off Friday because the teams couldn't agree on the length of the game. And it may not be the last time it happens there this season.

   The game between Hanover South Shore Vocational Technical and West Bridgewater never got underway because of a recent rules change. Though the Massach- usetts Interscholastic Athletic Association re- cently adopted the National Federation rule calling for 12-minute quarters, some of the state's conferences have balked at changing from the traditional 10 minutes. Both schools belong to one such conference, but West Bridgewater's coaches wanted to use the longer quarters so it wouldn't jeopardize its ability to qualify for the postseason.

   Mayflower Conference schools voted twice this summer to request a waiver for 10-minute quarters but the MIAA denied the request.

   The MIAA is expected to rule Thursday on an appeal by South Shore Vo-Tech.

   "I'm unhappy and upset, but I don't fault either school," Mayflower Conference President Jason Pacheco said. "I fault the state for putting us in such a gray area."

   Quite a change: Every football season brings with it position changes. Junior running backs become senior quarterbacks and defensive backs turn into linebackers.

   Last week, though, the Post-Star wrote about a quarterback who moved to center.

   Colby Phillips was the QB for Fort Edward a season ago. With the school having combined its football program with Corinth this year, he made a decision in the best interest of the program.

   "The offense changed, and it wasn't a fit for me, so I just basically told them I had to do what was right for the team," Phillips explained. "I just told them wherever they needed me, I would play."

   At about 230 pounds, he's well-suited for action at the line of scrimmage in front over running back-turned-quarterback Brody Sullivan.