Leading off today: Mother Nature did something that no field hockey team has been able to do his season: stop Williamsville North.

   The Spartans, winners of 21 straight field hockey matches this fall, had their New York State Public High School Athletic Association semifinal against Ward Melville suspended by heavy snow last night at Cicero-North Syracuse High. The white stuff made it impossible to keep the field markings visible and created safety issues.

   They will resume action at 2 p.m. today, followed by Saratoga vs. Lakeland in the other Class A semifinal that had to be postponed. The winners will stay an extra night and play for the championship Sunday at 10 a.m.

   In 2003, a storm forced postponement of five semifinals.

   The highlight of the four games that did get played yesterday was the 62nd consecutive victory by Garden City, which posted a 2-0 triumph over Maine-Endwell in Class B. The Trojans will play Rye today in search of their third straight championship. Maine-Endwell had won the championship in 2004 and reached the semis against Garden City the last two seasons.

   Football semfinals: The machine-like Walton football team continued to waltz through Class D, defeating Bolivar-Richburg in Rochester, 42-0. Richard Fletcher rushed 22 times for 152 yards and three touchdowns, with Logan Wood adding 133 yards and a TD on 17 carries. Both are now over 1,000 yards for the season.

   The Warriors head next to the Carrier Dome to play Ticonderoga, a 35-8 winner over Haldane. Fill-in QB Matt Streeter (6-for-6, 108 yards), passed for two touchdowns and ran for another to lead Ticonderoga, with Steven Lenhart chipping in with 90 yards on 15 carries.

   In Class A action, Lansingburgh and Aquinas advanced to a Friday afternoon date at the Dome.

   Lansingburgh senior Kenny Youngs rushed for 223 yards and five touchdowns in a 49-20 triumph against Ossining, which drove to a TD on its opening possession but could not keep up with the Knights after that. Lansingburgh scored on five of its first six possessions and built a 42-6 lead in the second half.

   Aquinas did it with defense, blanking Carthage in Rochester, 17-0. The Little Irish held the Comets (11-1) to 92 yards of total offense, forced two turnovers and kept Carthage pinned in its own half of the field for almost the entire second half.

   Aquinas limited 2,000-yard rusher Robert Grimm to 42 yards on 15 carries.

   In the Long Island playoffs, East Islip will make its first bowl appearance following a 22-13 victory against West Islip. The Redmen will meet Lawrence for the Long Island Class II championship at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at Hofstra.

   Girls soccer: How's this for a streak? When Rockville Centre South Side defeated Burnt Hills, 2-0, in the girls Class A semifinals yesterday, it was the Cyclones' 27th consecutive victory in post-season soccer.

   That's right, 27 straight lose-and-leave challenges have been answered. They'll go for No. 28, along with a fourth straight NYPSHSAA championship, today against Pittsford Mendon.

   South Side fired off the first 25 shots of the game against Burnt Hills. Sophomore midfielder Crystal Dunn scored on a rebound 4:12 into the game, and Mary Kate Krol added insurance midway through the first half.

   In Class B, Briarcliff Manor knocked off defending champion Livonia, 1-0, to set up a final against Marcellus. Liana Cornacchio's short, cross-crease shot in the

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50th minute bounced in off a defender for the final margin.

   Marcellus, a state champ in 2004 and 2005, might be the last team in a while to have a real shot at Bears. They're 22-0, they've scored more than 100 goals and they're young. There are freshmen and sophomores up and down the roster.

   Another defending champ from Section 5 also fell as Chazy took out Arkport in Class D, 3-0. Victoria Reynolds' 41st goal of the season, 1:09 into the game, was all Chazy needed to avenge its loss in the 2006 final.

   Driven to distraction: It feels as though it was centuries ago rather than decades, but I played on my high school's inaugural volleyball team. I learned very quickly back in 1980 that taking your eye off the ball for even a moment could mean disaster.

   In 2007, taking a figurative eye off the ball isn't a good idea either. The Kyle Ray controversy is proving to be a distraction to a number of teams this fall, up to and including participants in the state volleyball tournament today in Glens Falls.

   Ray, as you know by now, is a boy who is being allowed to compete on the girls team at Horseheads because the school does not have a boys program. It's been crystal clear to most everyone since September that Horseheads officials did all of the proper paperwork to assure that Ray would be eligible under the state's mixed compettion rule.

   Yet, that didn't stop Pine Bush coach Lori Kachelmeyer from filing a protest before an early-round playoff match against Horseheads. Whether she realized it or not, Kachelmeyer was sending a message to her players before a five-set loss: We can't beat Horseheads if Ray plays.

   Penfield, a participant in today's Class AA round-robin, also took its eye off the ball in preparing for Horseheads. The Patriots appear to have broken a state rule if I'm reading the Democrat and Chronicle's preview article correctly:

   "[Coach Matt] Glover has had his team practice against some boys this week.

   "Guys block the ball a little more straight down, so we've practiced how to cover that and try to take (Ray) out of the game," Glover said.

   Oops. A state association administrator confirmed to me yesterday that the preparation method likely violated a rule in the NYSPHSAA handbook that prohibits practicing against members of the opposite sex.

   The irony, of course, is obvious. Nevertheless, a rule is a rule and it's going to be a problem if Penfield leaves Glens Falls with a trophy.

   Extra points: Another year, another classification mess in the CHSAA. St. Joseph By The Sea was allowed to drop from Class A to Class B in the CHSAA intersectional tournament last weekend and routed Salesian in boys soccer, 5-0. That sort of juggling, which is especially maddening in sports in which Federation tournaments (basketball, for instance) are conducted, always has been and always will be plain silly. Lock a team into a particular class before the season and keep them there. It really is that simple, fellas. . . . Greenwood Lake school district voters will decide next month whether to transfer their secondary-school students from Tuxedo to Warwick Valley next year. The issue affects about 350 high school students.

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