Leading off today: Miami Northwestern, ranked No. 2 nationally by USA Today forced five turnovers and a safety Saturday night to defeat No. 1 Southlake (Texas) Carroll, 29-21, before a crowd of 31,896 in Dallas and an ESPNU cable television audience.

   Northwestern senior quarterback Jacory Harris threw four touchdown passes, three of them to senior Tommy Streeter. Harris, who has committed to the University of Miami, was 21-for-28 for 280 yards. He hit Streeter on scoring passes of 19, 26 and 75 yards -- the latter making the score 27-21 midway through the third quarter.

   Northwestern's ended Carroll's 49-game winning streak, which began at the start of the 2004 season. Northwestern's own win streak stands at 18.

   He did what, part 1? Sophomore QB Jonny McGhee, who was supposed to be holding on an extra-point attempt, called his own number and ran in a two-point conversion in the third overtime as No. 4 New Rochelle edged No. 7 John Jay Cross River in three OTs, 23-22, Saturday in a matchup of Section 1 football titans.

   The game went to overtime when John Jay's J.K. Filauro kicked a 30-yard field goal on an untimed down after New Rochelle was hit with a penalty as time expired.

   He did what, part 2?: Mired in a 21-21 tie with 5:51 left, John Faller did the unthinkable. Rather than punt, he went for it on fourth and short from his own 10 in a bid to push Sweet Home past Lockport Starpoint on Saturday. Predictably, the short run got stuffed, which should have been a death sentence for the state's 13th-ranked Class A squad.

   Instead, Sweet Home limited Starpoint to a failed field goal attempt and then drove down the field to win on a 28-yard throw from Casey Kacz to Brandon Hudson with 3:10 to go.

   Other highlights from the third Saturday of the season:

• Visiting Rye Neck routed Tuckahoe, the state's top-ranked Class D team and defending state champ, 35-0. Dan Datino ran 21 times for 125 yards and a touchdown. Frank Pisco scored on runs of 10 and 34 yards in the victory.
• No. 6 Weedsport nearly rendered next week's Class D game against No. 2 Onondaga meaningless but rallied from 19 points down in the third quarter to beat Syracuse Bishop Grimes, 52-33. Senior QB Bryce Leitten scored five consecutive touchdowns in the second half. Leitten rushed 19 times for 228 yards to offset Grimes QB Brad Trimm's 17-for-25, 286-yard and five TD-pass performance.
• Steve Murphy recovered two fumbles and Rickey Stevens intercepted two passes to help No. 22 Gates Chili edge No. 11 Rush-Henrietta, 14-7, in Class AA football in Section 5.

    Harrier highlights: TullyRunners.com reports that the Chittenango Invitational took a weird twist when the Fayetteville-Manlius girls ran a strong race -- sweeping the first four spots -- only to be disqualified for a start-line infraction at Jamesville Beach Park.

   According to TullyRunners, Fayetteville-Manlius was DQ'ed for an en masse stride-out 20 seconds before the start of the race. Had their performances counted, Kathryn Buchan (17:47), Hannah Luber (18:02), Jocelyn Richards (18:06) and Courtney Chapman (18:12) would have topped the medals stand. As an aside, be very afraid of F-M for the remainder of the decade. Richards is the only senior and Buchan the only junior among the team's top six runners, and there's considerable underclassmen depth beyond that.

   Section 2 has a worthy successor to Brian Rhodes-

Devey in the form of Guilderland's Roland Graves, who covered 2.7 miles in 14:02 on Saturday to win the Guilderland Invitational. Graves shaved 40 seconds off his time of a year ago in a meet that ex-teammate Rhodes-Devey (now at Texas) had won three straight times.

    Debate club: It's never too soon to start the debate, and it's off at running on Long Island courtesy of an article in Newsday late last week.

   Who wins a football matchup between St. Anthony's and William Floyd? Making his farewell appearance at the paper after an 11-year run, Jason Molinet asked.

   Floyd coach Paul Longo, naturally, sides with his guys. "I think I've gotten our program strong enough that we'd be competitive," Longo told the paper. "I think it would be a great game."

   For the record, Longo says he'd love to have the ability to play St.Anthony's in a non-leaguer and participate in the NYSPHSAA playoffs. Neither is an option right now. Floyd is locked into a rigid league schedule and set a Suffolk County public-school mark yesterday by beating Patchogue-Medford, 23-0, for its 23rd straight triumph as Brock Jackolski rushed nine times for 125 yards and three touchdowns.

   For what it's worth, Molinet says St. Anthony's, also riding a 23-game winning streak these days, has too much depth -- 100 freshmen players, 70 JVs and 87 on the varsity -- again this year and would handle Floyd. As he noted, lineman Chris Auletta (Penn State) was replaced by Alex Fletcher (Stanford), who was replaced by John-Kevin Dolce (Virginia), who is now succeeded by Rutgers-bound defensive tackle Scott Vallone. That, friends, is depth.

   Huge honor for Doherty: Long-time Pearl River girls track and cross country coach Dan Doherty, who's done considerable work assisting the NYSSWA with rankings and stats over the years, will be one of the recipients of the prestigious Frank McGuire Foundation Award.

   The foundation honors distinguished tri-state high school coaches in all sports who exemplify integrity, achievement and a continual quest for excellence from themselves and their student athletes. A maximum of five coaches are recognized each year.

   Doherty is a two-time national cross country coach of the year and has directed eight state championship teams in the sport. When you add up cross counhtry, indoor track and outdoor track, he has pulled down 66 sectional and 67 league championships.

   This year's other award recipients are Tom Pugh, football coach at Holy Cross in Flushing; Chuck Gramnby, boys basketball coach at Campus Magnet; and Nancy Williams, softball and field hockey coach at Shore Regional in New Jersey.

   Houskeeping: Catching up on a few items that I should have noted in recent entries . . .

   Auburn senior lineman Nick Lepak has coommitted to play football at Syracuse next year. He was first-team all-state on the defensive line as a junior but figures to play on the other side of the ball for the Orange.

   When Syracuse Corcoran defeated Auburn, 3-0, in boys soccer on Sept.6, it broke a 47-game losing streak dating to the 2004 season.

   Extra points: It's about a month too early to get worked up about the data, but the CalPreps computerized football rankings are starting to take shape now that most upstate teams have three games under their belt.

HOME | BLOG | RANKINGS | BRACKETS | REFERENCE | KERR CUP | ABOUT US

©2007-19 Abbott Trento Online Media. All rights reserved. Contact us via e-mail.