Leading off today: Senior Brooke Huleatt did all the Mount Academy scoring, including the tying goal with 45 seconds left in regulation and the winner in overtime, to secure a 3-2 victory over Blind Brook in the first round of the NYSPHSAA girls Class B soccer tournament on Tuesday.
The Harvard-bound sensation's overtime tally was her 100th of the season. Her prolific production is fourth all-time for a single season according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. Kassi Ginther of Summit Christian Academy in Missouri set the mark of 130 in 2017.
"She's probably the fastest player I've ever seen and is super technical," Blind Brook coach Brian Sullivan told LoHud.com. "I think my girls did a fantastic job of limiting her. We managed the rest of their team and came within 45 seconds of moving on."
Blind Brook took a 2-1 lead on Lola Gonzalez's goal midway through the second half, and an apparent Mount Academy goal with 3:22 to play was waved off.
However, Huleatt gathered in a rebound with under a minute to play and found the upper right corner of the net. She then scored the winner with 5:56 left in OT, beating two defenders up the right side and connecting into the far corner.
Mount Academy (19-0) returns to Wallkill on Saturday to face Cold Spring Harbor with a spot in the state semifinals on the line.
Champions overwhelmingly opting to take at-large sports in state tournament brackets
The first season of the first year on the new tournament format introduced by the NYSPHSAA has seen nearly all of the eligible sectional soccer champions opt to take the at-large berth in their classification.
It generally means longer road trips on Saturday to take on Section 4 opponents but offers the opportunity to advance to the state semifinals after one victory instead of two.
The one exception that we see is in the girls Class AAA bracket, where Northport defeated Commack for the Section 11 championship and will stay on Long Island to play a state quarterfinal vs. Section 8 champ Oceanside. Commack will make a 520-mile round trip to Waverly and face Section 4 champion Ithaca.
In the other girls classes with at-large berths:
• Class AA: Section 9 champ Warwick will travel to Waverly and face Horseheads. leaving runner-up Washingtonville to face Albertus Magnus on Wednesday for the right to play West Genesee in Saturday's state semifinal.
• Class A: New Hartford travels to Union-Endicott for a quarterfinal vs. Maine-Endwell, leaving runner-up Jamesville-DeWitt to stay close to home for a Wednesday first-rounder against Malone in Syracuse.
• Class B: Canton passed up a trip to Syracuse and then potentially Syracuse again or Potsdam in order to travel to Union-Endicott and play Chenango Forks. That's a 420-mile round trip, while Section 10 runner-up Salmon River's potential two wins to reach the semis wound amount to a combined 287 miles of travel.
• Class C: Section 1 winner Tuckahoe opted for a quarterfinal vs. Section 4's Groton at Chenango Valley, leaving North Salem with potentially two shorter trips.
The scenario plays out identically for all five boys champions from sections holding the at-large berths. Guilderland (AAA, Section 2), Cornwall (AA, Section 9), New Hartford (A, Section 3), Ogdensburg Free Academy (B, Section 10), and Colton-Pierrpont (D, Section 10) all chose one road win against a Section 4 opponent as the preferred potential pathway to the state semifinals.
Easily the most intriguing of that bunch is New Hartford's situation. The trip to Union-Endicott is a manageable 100 miles in each direction, but the opponent is Maine-Endwell -- ranked No. 1 in the class by the New York State Sportswriters Association.
By virtue of New Hartford's decision, Section 3 runner-up Central Valley Academy plays Malone on Wednesday for the right to take on Glens Falls over the weekend for a semifinal berth. Both of those games would be on Section 3 fields, and the two opponents are ranked ninth and 11th, respectively.
Stepinac will start basketball season at No. 1 nationally
MaxPreps has ranked Archbishop Stepinac as the nation's
top boys basketball team in its preseason preview. The heavily-trafficked national website limits its rankings to schools that compete for a state championship sanctioned by a NFHS-recognized governing body. Post-grad or non-scholastic programs are not considered.
Stepinac returns a loaded roster of 11 lettermen, including senior Jasiah Jervis and twin 7-footers Adonis and Darius Ratliff, who helped the Crusaders to a 26-4 record a year ago.
Stepinac is 44-2 against in-state competition over the past two seasons.
