Friday, Oct. 11, 2019: Bethlehem girls roar back to rout Niskayuna

   Leading off today: Bethlehem surrendered the first goal and then responded in force to defeat Niskayuna 5-1 in a girls soccer game Thursday between state-ranked games.

   Katie Sellers equalized with a goal that deflected in off a defender, sophomore Ruth Hotaling put Bethlehem ahead to stay with 18:19 remaining, eighth-grader Claire Hutton connected for her 21st and 22nd goals of the season less than a minute apart and eighth-grader Casey Holstein recorded her first varsity goal with 15:34 left.

   "I feel like the whole team has a fire in us, a resilience to come back being a goal down," Bethlehem junior midfielder Joanna Van Royen said.

   The Eagles,who have four eighth-graders seeing significant playing time, are 11-1-0 and ranked second in the state in Class AA. Niskayuna (11-2-0) is ranked 12th.

   More girls soccer: Gabby Marchello scored the 79th goal of her career, breaking the all-time Lake George girls record during a 7-0 victory over Hadley-Luzerne.

   The old record was 78 by Sarah Kohls in 2018.

   Cross country: Milesplit points out that only six girls have ever broken 14 minutes at the classic Van Cortlandt Park course, but Saturday's 47th Manhattan Invitational field includes four girls who can do that on the same day.

   North Rockland's Katelyn Tuohy is the obvious favorite following a course record in the Great American Race last weekend in North Carolina. Brooke Rauber of Tully is coming off is coming off big wins the past two weekends, Fayetteville-Manlius star Claire Walters had one of her best regular-season performances last fall at Manhattan and Jenna Schulz of Liverpool also has the credentials.

   Tuohy didn't run at Manhattan last fall but covered the 2.5-mile course in a record 13:21.8 as a sophomore. Walters ran 13:57.1 at Manhattan in 2018.

    • There are perhaps half a dozen girls in the country capable of foiling Tuohy's bid for a three-peat at Nike Cross Nationals and now one of them appears to be done for the season.

   Denton Guyer (Texas) junior Brynn Brown suffered a foot injury during an off-day training run Sunday. There's no firm estimate yet on a return date.

   Ready to exit: Syracuse Corcoran cross country coach John Holm is ready to retire following the current season, his 46th on the job.

   He retired from coaching indoor and outdoor track in 2012 after 38 seasons.

   "I just turned 70 this year," Hohm said. "I've got a wonderful group of kids. I thought this would be a nice way for me to transition out of coaching. I feel it's time for other people.

   "I had a good run," he said.

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   Holm's teams have earned five NYSPHSAA and 10 Section 3 cross country championships.

   As noted by Syracuse.com, there should have been a sixth state championship at the 1981 meet in Malone, when heavy snow caused the Cougars' Steve Loretz and Penfield's Grant Whitney ran off the course and be disqualified. McQuaid was awarded the Class A championship and Corcoran finished tied for second.

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   After talking it over with coach Bob Bradley, the McQuaid runners opted to send the trophy to Corcoran, and Holm still has it.

   "That was a tremen- dous gesture," Hohm said.

   Catching up on stuff: I didn't blog yesterday, but there were some notable accomplishments on the field earlier in the week that I want to acknowledge:

    • Playing down one or even two players every game the season has been a challenge for the shorthanded Warrensburg field hockey team, but they improved to 4-6 for the season with a 2-0 win over Greenwich.

   Bella DeAmelia made five saves to pick up her second shutout of the season.

   "We've had meaningful practices," coach Teresa Colvin said. "The biggest thing is getting our girls mentally prepared for this."

    • Clarence's girls golf team won its 100th straight dual match with a victory over Williamsville South at the Brookfield Country Club. The streak goes back to 2010, the squad's first varsity season.

   Football forfeits: Gowanda has forfeited its scheduled Friday football game against Southwestern. Gowanda cited multiple injuries that will keep it from fielding the required number of 16 players.

    • Malone is forfeiting its football game against St. Lawrence, also due to injuries.

   Malone (0-6) is scheduled to play at Watertown next Friday and would face Potsdam (4-1) in the Section 10 Class C championship two weeks later.

   Extra points: West Seneca West has selected former Nichols and East Aurora star Stan Wier as its boys basketball coach. The school board approved the appointment Tuesday.

   He replaces Desmond Randall, who led the team to back-to-back Section 6 Class A-1 championships and stepped down over the summer to become the coach at Villa Maria College.

   Wier was an assistant at Medaille college last season.

   Coming soon: I'm still pulling together notes and thoughts from yesterday's NYSPHSAA Executive Committee meeting and will make that the majority of my next blog Friday or Saturday.