Leading off today: Dig hard enough and you can usually find a weekend football game that qualifies as "epic." The past weekend's results didn't require a deep dive to locate a contest that will be remembered for a long time.
In a rare showdown between a pair of teams ranked No. 1 by the New York State Sportswriters Association, Maine-Endwell pulled off a successful 2-point conversion in overtime to score a 42-41 victory vs. Waverly on Saturday. Landon Rollo swept into the corner of the end zone for the decisive points.
Maine-Endwell entered the weekend rated No. 1 in Class B. Waverly held the same spot in Class C ahead of the teams' first head-to-head skirmish in five years.
Maine-Endwell forged a 34-34 tie with 1:28 to play as Jaden Branch ran for a 17-yard touchdown and then carried the ball in for the 2-point conversion. Waverly then opened OT with a Fletcher Good 20-yard scoring run and a successful kick for a 41-34 advantage.
M-E then responded with Branch's 5-yard TD run and Rollo's successful 2-point conversion.
More football
• Senior linebacker Nassir Edwards scored on a fumble recovery and a pick-six, the latter on a 70-yard return, to highlight
Elmont's 18-7 victory over Lynbrook.
• One week after Adam Nunes set the state record with 593 rushing yards in a game, he ripped off a 42-yard scoring run in the third quarter but it wasn't enough to stop Pioneer, ranked seventh, from a 26-14 win over No. 18 South Park in Class B action.
Weekend New York football scores
Ithaca star dazzles at McQuaid Invitational
The McQuaid Invitational never fails to bring out the stars of the cross country world, and
Ithaca sophomore Tsadia Bercuvitz added her name to the list of impressive champions on Saturday in Rochester's Genesee Valley Park.
Bercuvitz, who placed third in Class A in the 2023 NYSPHSAA Class A championship race, posted a scorching time en route to victory in the Bob Bradley Premier Race for Girls. Her 16:36.1 for three miles was 42.9 seconds ahead of Shenendehowa junior Leyla Bhusri.
Bercuvitz's effort was a course record for the modern layout and translates into a 153 speed rating according to TullyRunners.com. That's eye-popping for a race just a month into the season.
On the boys side, Ithaca senior Riley Hubisz also showed some late-season form by winning the Bob Bradley Premier Race for Boys in 14:42.9 as five others in the deep field went sub-15 minutes.
Milesplit interview with Tsadia Bercuvitz
Passings
Islip softball coach Dennis McSweeney died on Sept. 18 from a blood infection, Newsday reported. He was 55. Sweeney began coaching at his alma mater in 1992 and took over the varsity program in 2008. He also served as a football assistant at Babylon.
"He's one of the most honest and loyal people I've ever been around," said Joe Patrovich, who coached Islip football and made McSweeney his first captain in 1986, later adding him as an assistant coach. "Whatever I needed, I knew I could count on him. Even though he was a huge softball guy, he was at every football practice and every event we had."
Attorney general gets involved in Oklahoma
The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association suspended its student-athlete transfer rule after state Attorney General Gentner Drummond weighed in.
In a ruling last week, Drummond said the OSSAA Rule 24 was in violation of a state law and was harming student-athletes. "As the Legislature and other organizations empower students and families by loosening restrictions, the OSSAA strangely takes the opposite approach," Drummond wrote in a letter to the OSSAA.
Rule 24 limits students from changing school districts to follow a trainer and/or coach for athletic purposes. The circumstances cited in the rule include following a coach who worked at one school to another OSSAA program.
"It ignores the unpredictability of life. It expresses uncompromising indifference to changes in circumstances from job changes to financial struggles to deaths in the family to divorce. All of the above happen outside the student athlete's control," Drummond observed.
