Welcome to buffalonews.com's Prep Talk blog, home to news, notes, videos and all sorts of coverage of Western New York high school sports.
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All Section VI playoff games 5 p.m. unless noted.
CLASS A
Tuesday’s quarterfinal
5-Lockport at 4-Lancaster
Thursday’s semifinals
Lock/Lanc at 1-Orchard Park
3-Frontier at 2-Lancaster
Final: May 28 at All High, 8 p.m.
For nightly updates and day-by-day schedules, go to our scoreboard page.
Note: This schedule was published Saturday, May 18, the first day of competition.
All games at 4:45 p.m. unless noted. Higher seed is home team until finals.
CLASS AA
Tuesday’s prequarterfinals
12-North Tonawanda at 5-Kenmore West
11-Frontier at 6-Wmsv. North
10-West Seneca West at 7-Lockport
9-Jamestown at 8-Orchard Park
Quarterfinals -- Fri. May 24
9-James/8-OP at 1-Clarence
12-NT/5-KW at. 4-Niagara-Wheatfield
10-WSW/7-Lock at 2-Niagara Falls
11-Fron/6-WN at 3-Lancaster
Semifinals: May 28 at higher seed
Final: June 1 at Sunshine Park, 4 p.m.
By Keith McShea
The fifth Tom Borrelli Memorial Award Golf Tournament presented by the Buffalo Bandits will be held Monday, July 1 at Holland Hills.
It is not only our annual major fundraiser for the Borrelli Scholarship Fund but it is also the forum for the presentation of this year's awards.
The Borrelli Award will be presented to the top senior boys player and top senior girls player in Western New York. Last year's award went to Josh Babcock of Hambug. Previous boys winners have been: Jeff Tundo (Orchard Park), Chris Kane (Bishop Timon-St. Jude) and Brian Sullivan (Bishop Timon-St. Jude).
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It is the third year for the girls award. Spring Sanders of Nichols won last year, following Julia Suriani of West Seneca East.
Last year, the "Ox" Awards were added -- again, one to a boy player and one to a girl player. The "Ox" Awards go to a player that displays the talent, versatility, hard work, dedication and toughness displayed by Tom Borrelli -- whose nickname was "Ox" -- in his work as a reporter and editor at The Buffalo News. Last year's first recipients were Nate Gowen (Amherst) and Amanda Obenshain (Hamburg).
Coaches and lacrosse fans: Your nominations for the top senior players as well as for the "Ox" Awards should be sent to kmcshea@buffnews.com. Nominations can be sent in now; the latest we will accept them is Monday, June 10 (the first Monday after the end of the high school lacrosse season).
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The awards are our way of honoring our late coworker and friend Tom Borrelli, who was a fan of all high school sports, particularly lacrosse. He was an award-winning reporter as he covered the Bandits of the National Lacrosse League; the league gives out a media award named after Borrelli.
By Keith McShea
The News' tribute to the state champions of the winter season began today with a poster page devoted to the McKinley boys basketball team.
Next Monday there will be a poster page of the St. Joe's hockey team.
You can purchase high-quality versions of the championship pages at buffalonewsstore.com.
There will also be a page, to be published at a yet-to-be-determined date, devoted to individual state champions from the winter.
By Keith McShea and Lauren Mariacher
Today's Prep Talk feature story takes a look at outstanding Cheektowaga wrestler Renaldo Rodriguez-Spencer and the move known as the "Flying Squirrel" that he pulled off to win a National High School Coaches Association wrestling championship last month at Virginia Beach.
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Below, watch Rodriguez-Spencer's match-winning move against Alfred Bannister of Maryland, who entered the match the country's fifth-ranked junior at 138 pounds. Rodriguez-Spencer, who moved up from his state championship weight of 132, was trailing before the forward-flip move with 10 seconds left helped him to a 4-3 victory.
The move earned him a national Junior Class (11th graders) title as well as the Most Outstanding Wrestler award for the juniors' meet.
Check it out here in video uploaded by allsportswny:
By Keith McShea
Brad Zaffram, a first-team All-Western New York football player for Sweet Home as a sophomore this past season, will transfer to Canisius next year.
Zaffram tweeted the news this afternoon and confirmed his transfer to The News via Twitter direct message a few minutes ago. A Canisius football source has confirmed the transfer as well.
The tweet, from his protected @BradZaffram account, read: "On my way to canisius to finalize it with a signature".
Sweet Home has won six straight Section VI Class A titles and advanced to the state championship game this year. Canisius won the Monsignor Martin Association title during an undefeated season and was the No. 1 large school in The News final poll.
The 6-foot, 205-pound Zaffram had a tremendous season for the Panthers, especially during the postseason. He delivered hit after hit from his linebacker spot while he was an offensive weapon as well.
By Keith McShea
I'm heading out to catch some boys lacrosse action as I gather info for a Scholastic Spotlight story next week. Two great matchups today: Perennial power Orchard Park travels to Silver Creek at 5 while Canisius plays at Bishop Timon-St. Jude's Fitzpatrick Field on Tifft St. at 7 p.m. I'm going to try and hit at least part of both.
No matter what sport you are watching, be sure to tweet updates with the hashtag #preptalkscores. Those tweets will automatically appear in the live blog below. I've also piped in @OrchParkSports for OP-Silver Creek updates:
By Keith McShea
St. Joe's lacrosse recorded a tremendous victory today.
But there is a tremendous amount of controversy about the finish.
St. Joe's beat longtime Monsignor Martin power Bishop Timon-St. Jude, 13-12, in two overtime Monday afternoon at St. Joe's. The loss ended 49-game win streak for Timon in Monsignor Martin regular season games. The Tigers' last loss was to St. Francis on May 19, 2007.
Junior James Bassett scored 59 seconds into the second overtime after Timon thought it had won the game.
I watched the live video feed via sjci.com. It's available here; the archived broadcast is not available yet but should be within the next 24 hours. I could not tell whether or not Timon's goal was actually a goal. Here's what I saw:
April 19, 2013 - 10:40 PM
By Keith McShea
Here is the 2013 Section VI football schedule, sent to us by Section VI football chairman Ken Stoldt.
2013 SECTION VI FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
Friday games 7 p.m. and Saturday games 2 p.m. unless noted.
City host fields: All High Stadium (AH), Riverside (R), Johnnie B. Wiley Stadium (JBW)
WEEK ONE
Friday, Sept. 6
Clarence at Frontier
Niagara Falls at Jamestown
Orchard Park at West Seneca West
Grand Island at Hamburg
Sweet Home at Iroquois
North Tonawanda at Lake Shore, 6:30 p.m.
Kenmore East at East Aurora/Holland, 7:30 p.m.
Williamsville South vs. East (JBW), 6 p.m.
Williamsville North vs. McKinley (R)
Amherst at Medina /Lyndonville (Veterans Park), 7:30 p.m.
Bennett vs. Burgard (AH)
Dunkirk at Alden
Wilson at Akron
Barker/Roy-Hart at Lackawanna (Veterans Stadium)
Cattaraugus/Little Valley at Allegany-Limestone, 7:30 p.m.
Salamanca at Falconer
Fredonia at Silver Creek/Forestville
Southwestern at Gowanda
Sherman at Franklinville
Frewsburg at Pine Valley, 7:30 p.m.
Portville at Maple Grove/Chautauqua Lake (at MG)
Westfield/Brocton at Randolph
Cassadaga Valley at Ellicottville/West Valley, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 7
By Keith McShea
I was unable to cover it this year, but here is the rundown from Thursday night's Niagara PAL/ACE All-Star Classic at Niagara Falls. Both games featured impressive performances by Canisius guards, one graduating (Aaron White), and two seemingly poised to step up as they heads into their junior (LaTerrance Reed) and sophomore (Howard Washington) seasons.
Falls coach Sal Constantino reported that the Freshman/Sophomore game that tipped off the night was "the best game we've had since I have been involved" with the games.
The East beat the West, 95-91, in TRIPLE-overtime. "It was a tough game all the way through, and at the end of regulation and the OTs, kids kept hitting clutch shots," said Constantino.
East High sophomore Percy Bryant (22 points) and Canisius freshman Washington (16) led the winning East side while Canisius sophomore Reed had 30 for the West, including many clutch shots in the late going.
Freshman/Sophomore box score (full rosters here):
