Check the Prep Talk Live page for live coverage of playoff football and outstanding photography from The News' Mark Mulville.
What did you think of the game? Let us know in the comments section below.
---Keith McShea
Section VI sent four teams to the Carrier Dome for the state championships last year. Four teams will try and repeat the feat this weekend.
See you here tonight as we bring you the games to you from Rochester via Prep Talk Live.
---Keith McShea
Around this time of year, we bop around the Web doing a lot of research and then pass on the links to you. Here's where our research of our state semifinal football preview took us. The preview appears as part of Football Friday.
First and foremost, of course, is the link to Prep Talk Live, where I'll have coverage of all four Section VI teams' games this weekend along with Mark Mulville's kick-butt photos.
Here are the basics:
* The Section V football site has plenty of basic info as well as the lineup of the entire state football tournament.
* Here's our history of Section VI football in the state tournament, which includes last year's tremendous results as well as all previous years, from the regionals to the state finals.
* Section4football has great overall history of the state, including the two Section IV teams that are taking on Section VI teams this weekend.
* We again will be live from Rochester's Marina Auto Stadium, where this link shows you what I can attest to first-hand -- that the stadium, for the third straight year, remains a work in progress. The picture of the work being done on the luxury box isn't too far from the appearance of our indoor/outdoor press box. Hey, as a colleague of mine says, it's not shoveling coal. There is electricity and a place to work, even if the entire press box is to one side of midfield. But it is far from an ideal venue for a state semifinal.
* Here are this week's state rankings, part of the gallons of info available at the outstanding Road To Syracuse site administered by Moriello of the state sportswriters association.
Going class-by-class ...
Continue reading "Research material: State football semifinals" »
So who comes home with a plaque?
As always, let us know how and why you voted in the comments section below.
---Keith McShea
There are four football teams in the state semifinals for the second straight year -- will there be four football teams advancing to state title games for the second straight year? How will the nine Section VI soccer, volleyball and field hockey teams do at the states?
How about these questions? We don't have a football poll this week but ...
It makes for plenty to talk about during our weekly chat at 7 tonight.
You can review our previous chats from Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five, Week Six, Week Seven, Week Eight, Week Nine, Week 10 and Week 11.
As always, anything related to high school sports is up for discussion -- last week's big games, this week's big games or any fall -- or winter -- sport.
If you're not going to be around, type in a question in the comments section below and I'll discuss it during the chat.
---Keith McShea
Random things I'm kicking myself about:
** I should have based my Monsignor Martin League AA championship pick on my gut and what I had seen when Canisius and St. Joe's played the first time they me, not to mention my poll pick of Canisius over Joe's (which I wrote a little bit about here).
I suppose part of it was that I had to see Canisius winning a title to believe it. The 0-for-The Ralph had an impact. That, combined with St. Joe's tenaciousness in the first game and its winning streak since then (and maybe a reporter wanting to see a close game?), helped create enough doubt in my mind. Caught between picking Canisius comfortably and Joe's in a close one, I went with Joe's in a close one.
With the exception of the times of the Frewsburg girls soccer team's contests in the Class C final four, everything concerning this week's playoff schedule has been posted.
Check it out. It's the lineup for this week's three boys soccer teams, three girls volleyball teams, two field hockey teams along with the Frewsburg girls, as well as the football schedule for the next two weeks.
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First, check a separate boys soccer post that resulted from our whirlwind tour of the Web.
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Here are some other places ur google-ing took us as we got our facts and figures straight:
* The New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships page has brackets and times straight from the mothership.
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The lone girls soccer representative from Western New York is Frewsburg, which takes on the state's top-ranked team in Saquiot Valley -- which advanced by beating the state's No. 2 team
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Check out a great site set up by organizers of the girls volleyball final four -- dubbed the "Rush at the Falls."
---Keith McShea
Give me some time to get a schedule straight and do some research -- and no live blogging to do -- and this is what happens:
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All three Section VI boys soccer teams which have advanced to the state final four are meeting teams from Long Island.
Clarence is taking on Brentwood of Long Island in a rematch of last year's memorable Class AA state championship game, won by Brentwood, 2-1.
(Here's last year's live blog and an exhaustive account from the Clarence and EA games on what was one of the coldest days I've ever spent covering high school sports. Also, check the comments after the "More from ..." post -- pretty entertaining stuff from one of our nominations for Crazy High School Sports Parent of 2008.).
Brentwood ended last year, and began this season, as the top-ranked team in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll (check out their poll page, which will be updated Tuesday).
Here's a Newsday blog entry about how Strong Island ... I mean Long Island ... soccer people were wondering "What's going on with Brentwood?" this season.
The Riverside Athletic Club's Connolly Cup committee has announced its 10 finalists for the award given to the most outstanding football player in Western New York:
David Fluellen, Lockport
Justin Juda, Lancaster
Andy LaLonde, Grand Island
Joe Licata, Williamsville South
Patrick McMahon, Sweet Home
B.J. Monacelli, Cassadaga Valley
Matt Rosenhahn, St. Joe’s
Chris Secky, Maple Grove
Calvin Sluberski, Iroquois
Zack Sopak, Southwestern
The winner will be announced, as always, on the first Saturday of December (the fifth) in a ceremony at Ilio DiPaolo's Restauraunt in Blasdell.
A reminder to all that any discussions about who should win the award, or about players who should have made the the top 10, should be respectful. Thanks.
---Keith McShea
Check the Prep Talk Live page for live coverage of playoff football and outstanding photography from The News' Mark Mulville.
Our apologies for the technical difficulties that hampered our live coverage of the AA game. The response time on my end was terrible -- I was literally typing and waiting several seconds for the computer to catch up. I don't know if it was my computer, the connection or the amount of people trying to keep track of the game -- although none of those variables have been different during our Prep Talk Live games this postseason.
We'll check it out and hope to have it remedied by this weekend's state semifinals. The Prep Talk Live isn't only a cool feature (we hope) for readers as you keep track of the game, it literally becomes my notes for my story -- so let's just say I wasn't pleased :-). Thanks again to all for your patience and your participation.
What did you think of the game? Let us know in the comments section below.
---Keith McShea
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