The Class B field is set, and there are favorites everywhere you turn -- Cheektowaga is tops in the polls, Depew is coming off a tremendous performance against No. 1 large school Lancaster, East Aurora might be the hottest team in the bracket, and Lackawanna is the defending champion.
The best highlights from my trip from North Tonawanda to Hamburg to Depew is at the Friday Night Live post, but here's every video clip that I shot (that was worth keeping).
In case you didn't realize that tonight marks the end of the regular season in high school football, just step outside.
Some high-impact games will have some low temperatures as football playoff weather comes rolling across your Doppler Radar screen tonight. Monday morning's forecast called for lows of 31, highs of 45 and a chance of flurries in the Buffalo area. Down Southern Tier way, there is a greater chance of snow.
For those who want to keep their blood moving tonight, there's a chance to see a lot of action (and see your breath) by bopping around to different sites -- which is what a certain reporter is going to do.
The traditional 5 p.m. Harvard Cup game has South Park meeting East at All High Stadium. The 100th game in the Tonawanda-North Tonawanda series kicks off at 6 p.m. at NT's Lumberjack Sports Complex. Among several 7 p.m. kickoffs is the crucial Class A contest in which Williamsville South plays at Hamburg. The lineup of games at 7:30 p.m. includes Lancaster at Depew, an outstanding rivalry game featuring two ranked teams, as well as a big Class B South game of Lackawanna at Alden.
6:36 p.m. It's going as expected at NT, where North Tonawanda has a 20-0 lead after one quarter. Having some trouble with the youtube-ing, so sit tight. I'm off to Hamburg.
Here's the kickoff of the 100th edition of the rivalry, with the classic voice of Dick Grapes on the call:
Here's Aaron Davis scoring NT's first touchdown on a 3-yard run.
Here's NT's second touchdown on a razzle-dazzle halfback option.
7:18 p.m. Made the long trip to Hamburg and pulled in as Will South scored a touchdown to go up 7-0 early.
Lockport's WJJL reported that NT was five for five on possessions as it built a 35-0 lead in the first half.
8:20 p.m. Spent a good amount of time watching Hamburg-Will South because it sure was entertaining. The teams were tied at 16-16 in the last half-minute of the first half. Hamburg had the ball but had just been pushed back on a penalty when it called timeout -- I don't have much time to spare so I headed out. I'm off to try and catch a few plays of Lancaster-Depew before returning to the office.
There was a light, cold rain adding to a brrrr of a night at Hamburg but both teams were slugging it out. Both defenses had some key stops while Hamburg was showing a nice quarterbacking game to answer some big plays by South's Joe Licata.
Hamburg scored a field goal off an interception, which is right here:
Here's a great connection from Licata to Mark Coppola -- note the nice block by Tyler Krempa.
Hamburg's Nico Zarcone had several nice plays, including this big pass for a TD on third down.
Hamburg stopped Will South late in the first half, including this fourth-down incompletion.
8:53 p.m. We're at Depew, where WXRL tells me that Lancaster has a 20-6 halftime lead. The halftime show on the radio was very enjoyable on the drive here -- Milt Latimer of the Prep Talk blog was the guest! Gotta love it.
We won't be here for long. Gotta run.
9:30 p.m. We're back in the One News Plaza parking lot. We caught a touchdown by Depew that made the score 20-12, but as we headed to the parking lot, Lancaster returned the ensuing kickoff for a score and added another touchdown.
Here's a video of a nice run by Lancaster's Justin Juda.
Depew got a big gain on an Anthony Emmanuele run which got the big crowd around the blue track going.
That run helped set up Depew's pass play for a score at the jam-packed Frank Constantino complex. Great venue.
In the fourth, Lancaster is up, 34-12.
10:40 p.m. In the midst of deadline madness at the home office right now ... here is the scoreboard that we will be updating as soon as we can.
The big score in so far is Hamburg 23, Williamsville South 22.
11:14 p.m. Just got off the phone with Dan McGrath, whose Depew team lost to Lancaster, 41-40. Wow.
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Stay here through the night as we'll have updates and scores as soon as we get them.
Also, tune your twitter to "bufnewspreptalk" to get instant updates of the scores as soon as they are reported to us. We also have a fan page at Facebook -- just search "The Buffalo News' Prep Talk blog" -- and you'll get updates with links to our high school sports stories.
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If you are at a game, or saw one tonight, be sure to let us know what you thought of the action in the comments section below.
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Our end of business report:
* Here's our roundup which is led off with the big wins for Lancaster and Hamburg, both of which include more information than we could squeeze in the paper. There are several other games which have bonus coverage -- the nice road win for St. Joe's is just one of them.
* Here's a separate story on the 100th T-NT game won by NT in a blowout.
* The High School Extra delves into soccer, field hockey, swimming, cross country -- and swine flu!
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Some random blabbity-blah: I'd have to think there were crowds of over 5,000 at both the T-NT game and the Lancaster-Depew game. ... The Hamburg-Will South game was a gritty, cold, tough game where South (not surprisingly) went for two and the win at the end. They've been playing aggressively all year. Class A is going to be pretty crazy the next couple of weeks. ... I tried to squeeze in a trip to the South Park game to start the evening off, but the Main St. construction made that a no sale. I had to U-turn it to the 198 and head to T-NT land. I wanted to catch the opening kickoff; Tonawanda, on the other hand, didn't -- but that was just the start of an expectedly tough night for the Warriors.
Should they keep playing the game? Absolutely. Class B teams can be competitive with Class AA teams. Just ask Lancaster and Depew.
I'll have more videos posted when I get a chance to dig the best stuff out of the iPhone. See you back here for Saturday Afternoon Live.
Here are some additional notes on the eighth-graders as well as notes on all sorts of cross country topics:
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Among the top 18 at the 15-team Bemus Point Invitational were more eighth graders (five) than seniors (four).
Caroline Benson of Maple Grove won the race, while two other fellow eighth-graders were teammates … Emma Verdonik (fifth) and Abby Sirwatka (18th). Falconer's Kirsten Holmberg was third and Fredonia's Micaela Tramuta was 11th.
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Kiki Dy is an accomplished swimmer who came to the Newfane program from field hockey, while Sarah Ziemba and twins Kelly and Kate Bocknewetch all excelled in modified track and cross country last year.
Dy "fell into our lap," said Newfane coach Mike Heitzenrater. "Because of the way our league is run in swimming, with the girls competing in the winter, she could never qualify for states. So she said, "I want to do cross country and get to the states.' "
The youngsters have meshed well with senior Bethany Dewey and juniors Erin Hannah and Amy Lanighan.
It may have helped that Newfane had a significant amount of spots to fill in its lineup after graduating much of its team last year.
WGR's Web site states it will be broadcasting the following games on Friday nights:
Friday: East Aurora at Iroquois Sept. 11: Williamsville North at North Tonawanda Sept. 18: Depew at Maryvale Sept. 25: Sweet Home at West Seneca East Oct. 2: Orchard Park at Lancaster Oct. 9: Iroquois at Williamsville South Oct. 17 (Saturday): Kenmore East at Kenmore West
A quality lineup of games, and it's definitely cool to see high schools going primetime -- especially on a station where they high school sports talk has been quarantined to one hour on Saturday mornings for years.
Iroquois is a big winner with two games, but both are good matchups. The Monsignor Martin Association is a big loser with zero games, but it's somewhat understandable since there aren't any Friday nighters screaming for coverage. If GR is still doing games on Oct. 30, it might not be a bad, spread-the-wealth idea to go with the Monsignor Martin championship rematch of Canisius at St. Francis rather than a Section VI semifinal.
The list is a good mix of games, teams and areas, and it shouldn't be a surprise that the lineup consists of all Erie County teams other than just-across-the-bridge North Tonawanda. Randolph-Maple Grove is a great game for high school football fans, but GR wants to move the ratings needle, especially in a first-time venture like this.
The actual poll starts next week, so this, just like everything in high school football the past two weeks, is just practice. That's right, we're talkin bout practice.
So much so that -- hours after we submitted a top 10 list for publication in the paper -- we have second thoughts about a bunch of this top 10, particularly the large schools. If most polls should be taken with a grain of salt, this one should be taken with 1/10th of a grain.
One final look back is here with the 2008 final poll, and here's our 2009 look forward:
1. Orchard Park (13-0 last year) [last year's final poll: 1] - A no-brainer to end last year, a no-brainer to start this year.
2. Sweet Home (13-0) [2] - They might not be the state championship-caliber team they were a year ago (last year's depth was phenomenal), but we still like them here.
3. North Tonawanda (9-1) [3] - A lot back from a team that gave OP a tough test. You could argue they could be No. 2. Preseason-wise, we clearly see the top three, then a bunch of more teams.
4. Iroquois (8-2) [9] - Call it scrimmage bias after being fairly impressed with them on their Field of Dreams. After how low I voted them last year, they shouldn't be up this high. But certainly a great year-after-year program that should be in the top 10.
5. Lancaster (6-3) [7] - Speaking of great year-after-year, here's another top 10 team. We eagerly await the battles of AA South.
6. St. Francis (4-6) [4] - They beat Canisius when it counted last year, so we gave them a slight edge here, as we did in last year's final poll. Yet another top program which should be in the mix. Another murderous schedule this year.
7.Canisius (6-4) [5] - On paper they lost a lot, but so did they teams ahead of them. Proof that Nos. 4-7 in this poll could be interchangable. This year their schedule might be just as murderous as Frannies' (both play Ohio's St. Ignatius, Rochester's Aquinas and Pennsylvania's Cathedral Prep).
8. Riverside (10-1) [6] - The Harvard Cup
champions kept a lot of talent and welcomed top lineman Sean Mulhern of Canisius. With no nonleague games for Harvard Cup teams this year, it's pure guesswork how they stack up against the rest of Western New York. Talk about a poll headache.
9. Kenmore West (6-3) [8] - Here's a nod to the Blue Devils playing OP tough in the postseason (two losses at OP, one at NT). We err on the side of what you did last year, rather than offseason hype, and we reserve the right to change our mind once the teams hit the field :-).
10. Williamsville South (6-4) [NR] - A whole lot back from last year's team, so we'll throw the Billies in this spot, slightly edging out Grand Island, a top 10 team that's not in the top 10 (I have Frontier right after that at 12, for what it's worth). And well, would you look at this: Saturday afternoon -- Williamsville South at Grand Island.
Small schools
1. Southwestern (13-0) [2] - Too many weapons back to not be in this spot.
2. Maple Grove (13-0) [1] - All signs point to these two being atop the poll for a while. But I guess that's why they play the games.
3. Lackawanna (10-1) [3] - We'll keep the Steelers up high despite the loss of Capone Smith. Like Iroquois, this might be a case of seeing Lackawanna scrimmage (and scrimmage well).
4. Fredonia (8-2) [4] - Another slot-them-in-from-last-year, although this year's schedule (C) might hurt them in the polls (to the bunch at B).
5. Cleveland Hill (8-1) [7] - A bunch back from a team that was a top three program last year until losing to Silver Creek in last year's semis.
6. Depew (6-3) [9] - When in doubt, rank the teams that are usually ranked.
7. Alden (8-1) [5] - Might be generous considering what they lost in graduation.
8. Cardinal O'Hara (6-4)
[10] - Four Monsignor Martin small school titles in a row make them one of the best small schools. They looked it on Scrimmage Saturday, too.
9. Randolph (6-3) [NR] - Could make some noise Friday night at Maple Grove.
10. Cheektowaga (4-5) [NR] - You'd think these guys will be in the top 10 after dropping down from Class A. We shall see -- starting Friday when the Warriors host high-powered Medina.
Our small-school poll regret? Probably not making room for Burgard. We'll call them the small school version of Grand Island (the 11th top 10 team).
Don't like what you're reading? The comment space is below.
Also, visit here Wednesday for a live chat with yours truly at 7 p.m.
Members of Lancaster's High School's championship football teams in 1969, 1989 and 1999,
set aside Sept. 18. You are wanted at Foyle/Kling Field.
The Redskins are sponsoring a Salute of the Champions Night when they host Frontier in the
home opener on the 18th and all players from those three team are invited. There will be a
pregame dinner for the current and former athletes on Thursday of game week. The former
players will also be honored in a pre-game ceremony before the 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
"We bring back Championship teams as a way of rekindling and reliving those moments players
had during their era. It's important to connect those teams with our present players to put
substance into our tradition,” said current coach Len Jankiewicz. "It gives the kids some
first hand insight into the history of the program."
Former players planning to attend are asked to call Len Jankiewicz at 686-3270 or e-mail
him at: LJankiewicz@lancaster.wnyric.org. Len Jankiewicz was coach of the 1999 and 1989 squads
while Joe Foyle was the head coach in 1969.
The calendar says 2009 and that's good news for Lancaster fans. Besides the titles in 1969,
1989 and 1999, this is the 90th season of Lancaster football and its program was founded in
1919.
Last week I stopped by Sweet Home to see the opening week of a summer league. Tonight I checked out the semifinals at a league at Depew's Boys & Girls Club.
Man, what a difference.
It's still the summer, of course, but the Depew games were a lot more intense -- the result of having about six or seven weeks of games building up to the playoffs.
My first stop in the old building was downstairs to seek out a bathroom. With a game going on the gym floor directly one floor up, the thundering sounds above made it seem like you were beneath some sort of furniture-moving contest.
The gym is a bit under-sized -- the three-point line literally is one sneaker-length away from the sideline.
That didn't stop Depew and Bishop TImon-St. Jude from knocking down a ton of threes. I counted a combined 10 from both teams in the first half. At one point in the first half, after a Depew player hit three three-pointers, Timon's Jim Palano called a timeout and said in his usual quiet, calm tone to a player, "that guy has three threes, you think you want to check him?"
In two weeks, I've seen two coaches in flip-flops -- this time it was Depew's Larry
Jones, who otherwise was in midseason form, hollering out plays and at one point filling the tiny, steamy gym with, "WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!"
There were small groups of parents out to watch the games, many of them doing so in folding chairs that you'll otherwise see these days at the beach or the park. It was a little discouraging to see that an official had to chastize one parent for hollering during a game. That kind of riding the officials is grating during games that mean something, but we need to hear it during a summer game?
Again, it really hit home how teams are made in the offseason. Both of these teams are always quality programs, and the work the players and coaches are doing in July will pay off come winter-time. Timon had a strong finish to win the game by 10.
The second game pitted Maryvale against Lancaster. Lancaster brought a lot of players (I think there were 12) and had a fired-up following of parents get excited as the team took a lead in the second half, but then Maryvale surged back to win going away (by about 20) behind pressure defense, its usual disciplined basketball and several standout performances.
Who was the most impressive? My notebook is fairly full of notes, but I'm not letting them out of the bag until basketball season, or close to it. It's still the summer, after all.
Some teams are trying out different styles or concentrating on certain aspects for entire games; some teams are short-handed; some teams are rotating players to get everyone equal playing time.
I never made it to Lancaster because those games were postponed. Thanks much to Dave Hoch for letting me know about the games in general (and then passing on word that the Lancaster contests were canceled -- I was going to try and get to both places).
The raffle drawing is scheduled for early next week. I don't think I'll be able to continue the raffle ticket tour, but if you have a suggestion
for a good summertime stop for high school fans (of any sport), drop me a line below or at
kmcshea@buffnews.com.
Last-minute requests for tickets are certainly welcome. If you'd like to buy some, email
me and I'll set aside tickets for you and give you the information
on where to send a check. Thanks.
Thursday will mark the second and possibly final stop of my informal (and obviously brief!) raffle ticket tour stop as I sell chances that will benefit the Tom Borrelli Memorial Scholarship Fund (check this link for the details and great prizes).
I have a late afternoon meeting, but I'm hoping to at least get to the Depew end of the Depew-Lancaster Boys & Girls Club summer league playoffs in boys basketball.
At the Depew (60 Preston St.) location, Bishop Timon-St. Jude is playing Depew at 6 p.m., followed by Maryvale against Lancaster at 7.
At the Lancaster (5440 Broadway St.) location, Pioneer meets West Seneca West at 6 p.m. followed by Clarence and JFK at 7.
Hopefully I'll be at Depew for the end of the first game and the beginning of the second with enough time to zip down the street for the second game at Lancaster -- or maybe I'll zip back and forth :-). I get to check out some hoops and raise money for a great cause.
It was great to get to Sweet Home last week on my first stop of the tour, where several coaches and fans were gracious enough to buy the $5 raffle
tickets.
The raffle drawing is Sunday, July 19. If you'd like to buy tickets, email
me at kmcshea@buffnews.com. I'll set aside tickets for you and give you the information
on where to send a check. Thanks.
Below is a list we've compiled from your responses to the Kicking off 2009 football talk post as well as some other research.
PLEASE let us know of any inaccuracies, updates or additions via the comments section below or an email to kmcshea@buffnews.com Thanks.
Also, check out a statewide scrimmage list from the NYS Sportswriters Association.
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Saturday's scrimmages
Cardinal O'Hara at Cleveland Hill, 8 a.m.
St. Francis, Sweet Home and East at Lockport, 9 a.m.
Williamsville North, Burgard, Starpoint and Kenmore West at Clarence, 9 a.m.
Maple Grove and Clymer at Cassadaga Valley, 9 a.m.
V-Hornell at Olean, 9 a.m.
Alden, Wilson and Lew-Port at Medina, 9:30 a.m.
East Aurora and Gowanda at Cattaraugus/Little Valley, at 9:30 a.m.
Riverside and Grand Island at North Tonawanda, 10 a.m.
Maryvale, Grover Cleveland, Eden and three others -- yup, a seven-team scrimmage -- at Williamsville South, 10 a.m.
West Seneca East and Cheektowaga at Canisius, 10 a.m. (Stransky Complex at 2885 Clinton St., West Seneca)
St Joe's at Orchard Park, 10 a.m.
Salamanca, V-Dansville and V-Wellsville at Pioneer, 10 a.m.
Hamburg at Jamestown, 10 a.m.
Southwestern at Randolph, 10 a.m.
Frontier and Lackawanna at Iroquois, 5 p.m.
West Seneca West, Lake Shore and Kenmore East at Amherst, 6 p.m.
Depew and Niagara-Wheatfield at Williamsville East, TBA
Batavia at Albion, TBA
Lancaster at V-Webster Schroeder, 9:30 a.m.
Newfane and V-Charles Finney at V-Elba/Byron-Bergen, 10 a.m.
Niagara Falls, V-Hilton, V-Marshall, V-Spencerport at V-Greece-Olympia, 10 a.m.
---Keith McShea