Leading off today: Canandaigua, ranked No. 2 in the state, will not be returning to the NYSPHSAA Division 2 hockey championship game next month.
Sophomore Jason Harasimowicz broke a tie with a power-play goal with 4:15 left as eighth-seeded Batavia Notre Dame (4-18) defeat top-seeded Canandaigua (21-2), 4-3, in the Section 5 Class B quarterfinals.
Freshman goalie Tom Dehr made 35 saves in the victory, and senior Chris Cavanaugh produced two goals and an assist.
More Saturday highlights: Boys & Girls senior Nadonnia Rodriques clobbered the state record in the indoor 400 meters going :52.83 at the Hall of Fame Classic at the Armory. The previous state record was :53.45(converted from 440 yards) by Andrea Thomas of Bronx Walton in 1985.
Buffalo Nichols defeated Shenendehowa, 67-54, in the final of the Lockport Kiwanis Tournament as Meghan Dougherty scored 20 points. Dougherty made six of Nichols' 11 three-pointers against Shen, ranked fourth in the state in Class AA.
Molloy soccer player dies in crash: An Archbishop Molloy student was killed and her club-soccer teammate seriously injured in a Florida traffic accident Friday, The Daily News reported.
Kaitlyn Grogan, 18, of Bayside, and Brittany Gruber, 17, of West Islip, were struck by a car as they tried to run across busy Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa about 10 p.m. Friday. Grogan was pronounced dead at the scene.
A senior at Archbishop Molloy, Grogan wanted to be a doctor, her father said.
"She thought soccer may interfere with it, but she wasn't sure," Terrence Grogan said. "She would've made a hell of a doc."
Gruber, her teammate on the FC New York United Tigers was taken to a local hospital in serious condition with head injuries. The driver was not charged.
Referee controversy: I had to verify I was reading USA Today rather than The Onion:
The Kansas State High School Activities Association's executive board will decide next month whether St. Mary's Academy can stay on its list of approved schools that members can compete against.
St. Mary's, a small religious school, refused to allow Michelle Campbell to referee a boys basketball game at its gym on Feb. 2. According to Gary Campbell, the association's executive director, the reason given was that as a woman, she could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy's beliefs.
Far be it for me to step on someone's religious beliefs, but don't these folks understand that even Jesus was reared by a woman? I presume Mary had some authority over her son for a number of years, so a 32-minute basketball game pretty much pales in comparison.
Auburn officials cautious: The Auburn school board continues to study renovations at Holland Stadium, including adding artificial turf as part of a proposed $15.68 million capital project that voters may consider this spring.
But officials are carefully studying possible health issues related to the crumb rubber fill that would sit just below the surface because of the possible presence of chemicals and materials some believe to be carcinogenic.
“Obviously we won't include anything hazardous in our specs,” Auburn Board of Education President David Lansford told The Citizen recently.
