Leading off today: It would be easy to criticize the folks at Canastota for events surrounding Saturday's 14-2 boys soccer victory ... so, let's get started.
At 9-5-1, Canastota isn't a world-beater, but the Raiders have won six of their last seven games to build momentum heading toward the Section 3 tournament. The nadir of their 3-4-1 start was a 10-0 loss to Clinton, which was paced by three players with two goals apiece. (Editor's note: That fact is relevant; it's called foreshadowing, so keep reading.)
With the exception of a 9-0 loss to Cooperstown in the second game, Mount Markham was generally competitive during a 2-6-0 start to the season. The proverbial wheels have fallen off since, and the squad has surrendered nine or more goals in each of its past five games while slipping to 2-13-0.
A look at the roster on Syracuse.com shows the season opened with seven freshmen on the 17-player roster. The recent falloff is largely a consequence of injuries and/or attrition down the stretch, and the Mustangs are struggling. Coach Kevin Abrams said his lineup was missing six players Saturday.
In the first four games of the recent spiral, they were outscored by a 41-2 margin. Interestingly, not one opposing player scored more than three goals in any of those blowouts.
That changed Saturday in the 14-2 loss against Canastota, which was playing its final regular-season home game.
Ryan Sanderson entered the game with 20 goals on the season, including a combined 11 in the previous three matches. On Saturday, the senior matched that -- and then some. Sanderson scored 12 goals to eclipse what the New York State Public High School Athletic Association lists as its single-game record for boys soccer. (More about that shortly.)
What makes the performance particularly mind-boggling is that Sanderson, a sixth-year varsity soccer player and a quarter-miler on the track team, did all of his scoring in the first half.
"I think it's kind of crazy because before I had my career-high goals (at) 18, and that was my freshman year," Sanderson told Syracuse.com. "And then I was happy with breaking it by going to 20 (before ). But then me scoring 12 goals in a game and let alone 23 in a week, that's just as insane to me."
Said coach Gordy Gurson: "He's a great soccer player, but he's even a better person. He's always trying to pass the ball. And me and the (assistant) coach yesterday had to tell him, 'Hey, stop trying to pass the ball. Enjoy and get yours.'"
According to the story, Gurson was told in the first half that the state record was 11 goals, and he told Sanderson he had until halftime to take his shot.
"He really deserves this," Gurson added.
Arguably true.
But here's my question: Did Mount Markham deserve this?
Don't bother answering. It's what's called a rhetorical question.
I'll be happy to give equal time here if someone from Mount Markham wishes to respond.
The rest of the story
It gives me a degree of cynical satisfaction to report that -- contrary to what's been reported -- Ryan Sanderson did not set the state record for goals in a boys soccer game. At best, he tied the mark.
The NYSPHSAA record book credits Scott Smith of Holley as the record-holder for his 11-goal day on Sept. 24, 1973. The Canastota people were relying upon that on Saturday.
In fact, Smith didn't set the record that day. He only tied it, and the story behind that is wild.
On literally the same day that Smith and his Holley teammates were routing Alexander 18-0, Henninger was beating up on Syracuse CBA 19-2 a hundred or so miles down the New York State Thruway. The star of that match was Paul Rachetta, who also scored 11 goals.
The story doesn't end there. A few weeks later, Henninger won the rematch with CBA 19-1 to extend its Central New York Cities League winning streak to 46 games, and Rachetta was responsible for 12 of the goals.
The NYSPHSAA record book is a work in progress (and infinitely more reliable than it was even as recently as 15 years ago), and achievements don't always get reported to the proper people. So, for all we know, someone may have scored 13 or 14 goals in a game somewhere along the way and Sanderson didn't even tie a record.
Yes, I'm rooting for that.
One more thought
Meeting in Buffalo over the summer, the NYSPHSAA Central Committee adopted the recommendation of its Sportsmanship Committee regarding lopsided score guidance. It's in the organization's handbook as a recommendation rather than a rule, but part of the idea is to provide coaches with clear expectations for managing runaway scores while maintaining the integrity of the game.
Individual sections are free to take it a step further and actually develop black-letter law on handling blowouts. Section 8 has had such a policy in place for several years.
For now, the Canastota-Mount Markham game is a one-off, so I wouldn't expect it to be impetus for Section 3 to act. Nevertheless, the minutes of the Central Committee meeting apparently didn't make it as far down the food chain as they should have.
Speaking of record books
With the way girls flag football has taken off, especially in the past two years, the time was right to start compiling and maintaining a record book for the sport.
It took me a bit longer than I had hoped, but version 1.0 of the New York State Sportswriters Association record book is available for perusal.
I haven't formatted it yet (artificial intelligence makes it easier to do that all at once after it's a bit more complete) to make nice and tabular and break it off into easily digestable pages, but there's a lot of information there, particularly for single-season marks.
Take a look and feel free to contact me at jmoriello@yahoo.com with game, season, or career accomplishments that might qualify for consideration.
Rivals working quite well together
Clevis Murray of The Buffalo News did a nice job a couple of days ago telling the story of the OC Rivals.
For the uninitiated, "OC" refers to Orleans County, and the "Rivals" are Orleans and Medina. The two schools battled each other for generation upon generation before reality hit and they realized that combining into a single varsity team for the 2026 season was the best path forward.
OC Rivals lost to West Seneca East 334 in Week 6 but is 5-1 this fall.
"We were on the brink of going eight-man football," Medina coach and AD Eric Valley explained. "We knew we were at a crossroads. We saw what our numbers were in the program and we were seeking alternatives."
His Albion counterparts had similar concerns. Leaders of the two districts began talking shortly after the 2025 season and forged an agreement to combine through the 20230 season.
They alternate hosting home games on the respective campuses, costs are split evenly, the each district kept its existing roster of coaches, which will help build the modified and JV feeder system.
