I'll be spending the afternoon and evening at the Far West Regional boys lacrosse games championships at Hamburg High School.
While I'll have updates from those games, tweets to the hashtag #preptalkscores will also automatically show up in the live blog below. So if you are a game tonight and you're updating via Twitter, be sure to include that hashtag. I'll have periodic tweets updating these games at @KeithMcSheaBN, but most of my play-by-play updating will come in the live blog.
Check out today's full schedule on our scoreboard page, where you can check back throughout the evening for updated scores and highlights.
See you out at the games, in the blog and on the tweeter. :-)
Friday's Section VI softball championship doubleheader has been postponed.
The games will be played Saturday at Niagara-Wheatfield.
Hamburg will play Albion in the Class A game at 3:30 p.m.
Clarence will play Niagara Falls in the Class AA game at 4.
The Section VI committee made the call shortly after 1 p.m. Friday due to rainy conditions and more forecasted to come.
The games had been moved Thursday from Niagara Falls to Niagara-Wheatfield. The move was made due to Falls' presence in the title game; the finals must be held at a neutral site.
I'll be spending the afternoon and evening at the Section VI boys lacrosse championships at All High Stadium.
While I'll have updates from those games, tweets to the hashtag #preptalkscores will also automatically show up in the live blog below. So if you are a game tonight and you're updating via Twitter, be sure to include that hashtag. I'll have periodic tweets updating the girls lacrosse finals at @KeithMcSheaBN, but most of my play-by-play updating will come in the live blog.
Check out today's full schedule on our scoreboard page, where you can check back throughout the evening for updated scores and highlights.
See you out at the games, in the blog and on the tweeter. :-)
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The postgame show:
Orchard Park seniors Dan Murphy and Ben Johnson and coach Gene Tundo:
Hamburg coach Jerry Severino, junior Max Maxwell and senior Ryan Jurek:
Silver Creek junior Zed Williams and coach Bill Brennan:
It is a Super Tuesday in high school sports today with major matchups and championships in baseball, softball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse. If you are at a game and getting your Tweeter on, make sure to tweet to #preptalkscores.
I'll be spending the afternoon and evening at the Section VI girls lacrosse championships at All High Stadium. We'll also have reporters at the Monsignor Martin boys lacrosse championship and the Georgetown Cup baseball semifinals.
While I'll have updates from those games, tweets to the hashtag #preptalkscores will also automatically show up in the live blog below. So if you are a game tonight and you're updating via Twitter, be sure to include that hashtag. I'll have periodic tweets updating the girls lacrosse finals at @KeithMcSheaBN, but most of my play-by-play updating will come in the live blog.
Check out today's full schedule on our scoreboard page, where you can check back throughout the evening for updated scores and highlights.
See you out at the games, in the blog and on the tweeter. :-)
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Note: Super Tuesday is so super-full of high school playoff action that we're covering, that my Prep Talk column & the Power 10 will appear in Friday's paper instead of its traditional Wednesday. That actually will be a better fit for the Power 10 since the pool of teams will be whittled down by then.
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Postgame show from the Section VI girls lacrosse championships:
Lancaster coach Julie Buccieri, sophomore Allie Stewart and junior goalie Karli Pawlak:
Hamburg coach Katy Ryan and senior Amanda Obenshain:
Christian Central, in its second year in the Monsignor Martin Association (last year they were probabtionary and not eligible for postseason), came close to delivering another stunner in the Georgetown Cup playoffs before a stunning ill-time gaffe in the field and a relentless St. Joe's attack ended the Crusaders' dream of playing for the Cup at Coca-Cola Field.
As difficult a loss as that was for Christian Central to swallow, the program still did a lot of good in finishing with a 7-11 record which included a pair of wins over three-time defending Georgetown Cup champion and perennial WNY power Canisius.
"It's huge (to reach the semifinals)," coach Zack Boron said. "I told the guys at the beginning of the year if we don't make (a lot of) errors and capitalize (on scoring chances), we'll beat teams. ... I think we proved that today. All we needed were three outs and we're the team going to Coca-Cola Field. I think we shocked a lot of people getting this far. ... But you have to give St. Joe's credit. St. Joe's played a great game."
On pitcher Peter Moran, the senior with the unorthodox delivery that frustrated teams all year long -- including Canisius in the quarterfinals and St. Joe's through six innings of the semifinals: "He pitched his heart out for us all season," Boron said. "He was our leader on the team."
Other notes from the Georgetown Cup semifinals:
-- St. Joe's Matt Matre and St. Francis' Drew Bassini not only provided boosts for their teams out of the bullpen but earned the wins in relief.
-- An estimated 600 showed up for the doubleheader at Northtown Center in Amherst.
-- It's not football but the Catholic baseball final features the two programs that battled for the league's football title.
-- Brian Dudek went 2 for 4 with a three-run triple for St. Mary's. While some thought it was an inside the park Grand Slam, the St. Mary's scorer ruled the shot a triple. A bobble/fumble by the cut-off on the relay throw into the infield creating the opening for Dudek to score on the exciting fifth-inning play. He was being held up at third otherwise.
St. Joe's rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the final two innings to end Christian Central's Cinderella run in the Georgetown Cup playoffs. Jared Baldinelli's two-run double to right-center completed St. Joe's 4-3 triumph. A walk and an error on what could have been a double-play ball by St. Joe's opened the door in the bottom of the seventh for the Marauders, who will appear in the Georgetown Cup final for the first time since 2005.
They will face usual finalist St. Francis, which rallied from a 6-2 deficit for a 12-6 triumph over St. Mary's in the early semifinal game at Northtown Center in Amherst. The Red Raiders secured their seventh straight trip to the final when sophomore Andrew Krakowski drilled a three-run triple with two out in the bottom of the sixth to break a 6-6 tie.
Game One of the title series is at 4 p.m. Monday at Coca-Cola Field. Games Two and Three will be next Tuesday and June 6 (if necessary).
Each program has won 11 titles during their history. St. Francis last won in 2008. St. Joe's in 2005.
With the quickest-of-all-seasons zooming towards the finish, we will hold our final live chat of the school year tonight at 9 p.m.
The hectic playoff schedule over the next two weeks -- the last weeks of the spring season -- keep me too busy to hold a chat. I will, however, be doing several live blogs from postseason games. There may be a chat after the season is over, but we'll see.
For tonight ...
* We'll monitor on the scoreboard page and the #preptalkscores hashtag on Twitter as the playoffs continue tonight. Included are championships in Monsignor Martin softball, All-High track and Section VI boys tennis. We have correspondents at all three.
* Pick a sport and there are brackets to break down: baseball and softball are headed to the quarterfinals while girls lacrosse (Thursday) and boys lacrosse (Friday) have semifinals later this week (if those postseason schedule pages don't have results, they should be on our scoreboard page).
As always, anything in the world of high school sports -- or our coverage of it -- is up for discussion.
I promise I'll get to your question or comment -- but please be patient. It can get busy fielding all of the questions and I can only answer one at a time. And PLEASE don't enter your question/comment multiple times -- that only makes things more hectic.
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Last week's chat was May 16, which followed May 9 (debut of spring Power 10) and May 2 (polls & rankings of all spring sports).
Our previous winter chats: March 29 (post-Fed hoops), March 22 (pre-Federation), March 14 (NYSPHSAA should be benched), March 7 (pre-Far West Regionals), Feb. 22 (Prequarterfinal Wednesday), Feb. 15 (starting with Ken West at Ken East), Feb. 8 (scorekeepers), Feb. 1 (twitter smh column & football signing day), Jan. 25 (pre-Canisius-Joe's), Jan. 18 (2012 video debut), Jan. 11 (2012 debut/Aquinas-Kearney viewing), Dec. 14 (from the MMA-ECIC Challenge), All-WNY football talk (Dec. 7 w/video); our first was Nov. 30 (live from the Pastor-Cooper Showcase tipoff).
As always, if you have a question but you won't be able to make the chat, post one in the comments section here, email me, Tweet it or post it on Facebook and I'll do my best to address it.
Jasen Oden, a 2011 East High grad who attended North Carolina Tech Prep this past year, signed with Colorado State football Tuesday afternoon at the Delevan-Grider Community Center.
Wearing a Colorado State lanyard given to him on his official visit, as well as a green-and-gold Rams baseball cap, he signed a financial aid agreement with Colorado State for a full scholarship in front of family and friends at Delevan-Grider.
Oden said his trip to Colorado State went so well that he canceled scheduled visits with Illinois and Connecticut.
Oden headed to NC Tech in order to improve is standardized test score and make him eligible for NCAA Division I football. He headed there after former Sweet Home standout D.J. Nettles had attended NC Tech (Nettles signed with Bethune-Cookman after attending NC Tech, but a transcript glitch has him headed to a junior college this fall to help clear that up).
By the looks of its website, NC Tech has cranked out players to Division I.
Oden is believed to be the first football player from the Buffalo Public Schools to head to Division I since 2008 Grover Cleveland grad Steve Means headed to the University at Buffalo; the last major college signing from the former Harvard Cup schools was current Tampa Bay Buccaneer Mike Williams from Riverside (2006) to Syracuse.
Oden was a third-team All-Western New York selection at defensive back in 2010. He helped East to a 6-3 overall record and a 4-2 record in Class B Central, although the Panthers were ineligible for the postseason due to an administrative move that placed East, an A-sized school, in Class B. East impressed with a victory at Cheektowaga and were part of a very strong first season in Section VI for the Buffalo Public Schools.
Colorado State of the Mountain West Conference is entering its first season under coach Jim McElwain, who came to the Rams after four years as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Alabama, where he was part of two national titles. In the recruiting process, Oden dealt mainly with assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach Billy Napier, who came with McElwain from Alabama.
I'll have more in my Prep Talk column in Wednesday's paper.
As always, anything in the world of high school sports -- or our coverage of it -- is up for discussion.
I promise I'll get to your question or comment -- but please be patient. It can get busy fielding all of the questions and I can only answer one at a time. And PLEASE don't enter your question/comment multiple times -- that only makes things more hectic.
* * *
Last week's chat was May 9 (debut of spring Power 10), which followed May 2 (polls & rankings of all spring sports).
Our previous winter chats: March 29 (post-Fed hoops), March 22 (pre-Federation), March 14 (NYSPHSAA should be benched), March 7 (pre-Far West Regionals), Feb. 22 (Prequarterfinal Wednesday), Feb. 15 (starting with Ken West at Ken East), Feb. 8 (scorekeepers), Feb. 1 (twitter smh column & football signing day), Jan. 25 (pre-Canisius-Joe's), Jan. 18 (2012 video debut), Jan. 11 (2012 debut/Aquinas-Kearney viewing), Dec. 14 (from the MMA-ECIC Challenge), All-WNY football talk (Dec. 7 w/video); our first was Nov. 30 (live from the Pastor-Cooper Showcase tipoff).
As always, if you have a question but you won't be able to make the chat, post one in the comments section here, email me, Tweet it or post it on Facebook and I'll do my best to address it.
Jaysean Paige, who starred in Western New York before moving to Kentucky for his senior season, is headed to the College of Southern Idaho, according to the Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho.
Paige was The Buffalo News Player of the Year in boys basketball in 2011 after a season in which he led Jamestown to the Class AA state championship game. He transferred to Perry County Central in Hazard, Ky., late last summer.
The College of Southern Idaho is a top-flight junior college which won the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I championship in 2011; it lost in the first round this year. The men's basketball home page features stories on four players who are going on to play Division I next season. In the final NJCAA Division I poll of the season, held before the postseason, Southern Idaho was No. 4 in the country.
