The jv and varsity boys took on Victor at home last Tuesday, January 17. The jv team was missing a few players due to academic ineligibility and facing a taller, stronger group from Victor. Trying to work against that put us into foul difficulty early, while we did not get to the charity stripe until time expired in the first half, when Jake Clyde calmly sunk two while alone on the court. Meanwhile they had sunk 7 for 10. Poor passing added to our problems, and we looked at a 12-6 deficit at the end of the first period. We had cut it to 18-17 by the half.
Every time we came close, within 2, in the third, they went on a mini run and thereby kept the lead, 34-29 at the end of the third quarter. Two minutes into the fourth we had closed to 34-33, and we stayed with them. We took a 37-36 lead with four minutes to go, and then lost it, 40-39, with one minute left. Midlakes regained the lead, 42-40, on Jake's trey. Sean Sweeney missed the front end of a 1-1, they grabbed the rebound but couldn't get a shot off, and we won. Jake finished the game with 13 points, Josh DeBoover, who was in foul trouble early, added 19 and a lot of rebounds. Sean had 8 points, and Erin Kelly, who didn't score, gave us a lot of help on the boards.
The varsity team jumped out to a 7-2 advantage after 1 minute and blew it in the next minute. After that they settled down to play at both ends of the floor and had a 20-15 lead at the end of the quarter. Victor tied the game at 25 with a few 3's and went on to outscore us by a huge margin, helped by their defensive rebounding that gave us "1 and done" chances on our end and left us down, 34-27, at the half.
We outscored them 12-9 in the third but were still in a two-point hole until Zach Maslyn, who was rebounding well, tied the game at 41 with a put-back. Victor responded with a 7-2 run before we recovered to get within one. Victor had a 52-49 lead with 1:40 left and, while we hung close, they sealed their win with a 3 with 35 seconds left for a 62-56 final score. Randy Kuhlman scored only 2 points but did a great job on the boards. Jesse DeBoover also only had 2 points but worked very hard underneath, finally fouling out. Caleb Frederick also fouled out, just before the game ended, but Victor's height advantage had held him to 10 points. Zach had 8, Torey Pieters had 9, Greg VanderBrook had 11 and Ben Sheppard led our scoring with 15, including 6/7 at the free throw line. The team was 15/22 in free throws. Their leading scorer, who had 25 points, 10/11 from the foul line, should have fouled out early but never did. He spent the entire game with his elbow pushing our defender in the stomach or face, but apparently it was not visible to the refs.
The wrestling team had beaten Mynderse soundly and came home on January 19 to face Marcus Whitman, who always seems to have some great wrestlers. Nonetheless, Midlakes started out on the right foot. Trent Jones at 189lbs. was down 5-2 after one period and won, 16-10. Billy Hanvey at 215 lbs. never trailed in the scoring of a very even match and pulled out a 6-2 win.
Tyler Brooks Lambert at 103 lbs. came out aggressively and carried the match into the 3rd period tied at 2 before he was pinned. Chris Stobie at 112, Jacob DeVoll at 119, and Travis Bevins at 160 were also pinned. We forfeited at 125, 130, and 140, and Josh Morocco received a forfeit at 171.
Eric Minns (145) developed a bloody nose in the first period and never recovered, losing 10-1, a "superior decision," worth 4 points for them. Jesse Goodman at 152 was down 4-2 after one period, in control in the second to tie at 4 and lost a heart-breaker, 7-6. Morgan Hoven (135) kept his hopes for an unbeaten season going with a 15-0 technical fall win, worth 5 points. Totaling all this gave Whitman the 49-17 win.
In the two exhibition matches, Kaleb DeVoll was pinned, and Steve Kemp pinned his opponent.
The freshmen hosted Geneva last Friday. Both teams were rebounding well on the defensive end, not allowing for any poor shooting techniques. Victor was ahead, 14-10, after one period, thanks to four threes (I counted 8 for the afternoon, to our 2). Better shooting and better defense helped us to a 27-24 lead at the half. Ben Uveges had the hot hand and 13 points in that quarter, Tom Cheney added the other four.
Geneva stepped up the defensive pressure in the second half, continuing their press. If we broke it we usually scored, but we began to have trouble inbounding. Still we hung on for a 43-41 lead, thanks to a buzzer-beating lay-up by Justin Huntsman at the end of the third period. In the fourth period we began to turn the ball over regularly and Geneva scored a lot on fast breaks to push to a 10 point lead. Jordan Dutcher hit a 3 to cut into their lead, but they won, 64-54. Ben finished with 19 points, Justin and Sully Fratto each had 8.
The 7th and 8th grade girls begin their home season on Tuesday, January 24, and the modified wrestlers, who were introduced at the match on Thursday, begin their home matches with one on Wednesday, Jan. 25.
2/1/06
|
|
Last week was regents/midterm exam week and therefore rather quiet on the high school sports front. The 7th and 8th grade girls' basketball teams made their first home appearances last Tuesday against the corresponding teams from Canandaigua.
I started the afternoon at the 8th grade game. Both teams exhibited some of the early season problems - ball slips through the hands, traveling, and tentative passes. We took several good shots that just didn't drop, but they weren't having as much trouble in that department, hence a 10-4 1st quarter lead.
We became more confident as the game wore on, intercepting passes to start fast breaks and passing better, but we still did not shoot well whereas Canandaigua had more than one accurate outside shooter and a 16-7 halftime lead. We made a run at them, but they pulled away again in the fourth for a 26-16 win.
The 7th graders were competing against a much taller, quicker and more confident Canandaigua team that shot much better and had a 28-6 halftime lead. It was painful to watch because it didn't seem to matter what we tried -it didn't work. This team lost by a 48-10 score. Coach Wescott said, "We did better than we did in Geneva (1 point for the entire game), so we'll take each little improvement as it comes and hope for more each week."
Only one girl on this roster has any previous organized basketball experience: Abbey Notter. The others on the roster are Megan Anstee, Bethany DeJonge, Cassie Goodman, Gina Natoli, Emily Raeman, Mary Riley, Emily Rinaldo, Tiffany Scott, Caitlin Suchecki, Lynsey VanWyngaarden, and Sierra Wood.
The 8th grade roster consists of girls who were on last year's 7th grade team so they have some experience playing together. Coach Czerkas is working with Emmi Clark, Liz Cooley, Kaitlyn Crance, Morgan Doyle, Mareasa Garver, Jaci Gross, Jolyne Kane, Kelsey Knitter, Liz Maloney, Nicole Mattoon, Shannon Murphy, and Meghan Tillman. Both these teams will be home again on January 31.
The modified wrestling squad began their season at home last Wednesday hosting Penn Yan and Wayne. We had more wrestlers than the other two teams put together, making this a hard meet to watch. There are two matches going on simultaneously, and with our numbers there was only one match that didn't involve Midlakes. There were even two matches where Midlakes teammates wrestled each other.
The roster, released by Coach Langdon and Coach Smith, follows: Chris Swart, Billy Podolak, Brent Rugenstein, Evan Jones, Erik Baker, Sean Peck, Dillion Hudson, John Rau, Jesse Casler, Tyler Jansen, Wesley Campbell, Tucker Jensen, and Nathan Couse, 7th graders; and Rob Buckwald, Aaron Tornow, Bryan Combs, Mike Adams, Jesse Festa, Cody Cooper, Dan King, Austin Cummings, Travis Landschoot, Max Peters, and Ricky Randall, 8th graders.
Some of the boys enjoyed success at Wednesday's meet. Mike Adams pinned his opponent after falling behind in points; Chris Swart won a close decision; Cody Cooper led the entire way and pinned his opponent; Evan Jones won both his matches; Aaron Tornow won both of his; Dillion Hudson found himself in two close matches and won both; Jesse Festa pinned one opponent, decisioned the other; Bryan Combs pinned his opponent; Rob Buckwald won by decision; Max Peters won a close one; Sean Peck won; and John Rau, pinned in his first match, came back to win the second by an 11-0 score.
Probably because it was a slow week for high school sports the Finger Lakes Times printed the All-League teams from some of the fall sports and, on Thursday featured some Midlakes athletes. Whitney Dixon and Morgan Hoven were in the "Roaming the Halls of…" weekly feature. I found it interesting that both felt most influenced by their dads, and we'll need to keep up with them to see if they are where they hope to be in 10 years.
RC Weston and Greg Marks were the "poster boys" for an article focusing on students who train and compete with other schools because their own school does not have a team in their chosen sport. In this case it's varsity swimming, and the article explained that they don't score points and can't swim in the league championships. However, both boys have qualified for sectionals with times posted earlier: RC in the backstroke and 100-yard freestyle and Greg in the 200 individual medley and breaststroke.
Last Wednesday's FLT listed the members of the Finger Lakes volleyball all-league teams, and there were nice comments from Coach Salisbury about 1st teamers Mark DeCook, Tyler DiCicco, Neil Scheible, and EJ Wells-Spicer. Dan Mowery made the 2nd team, and Josh DeBoover and AJ DeSain received honorable mention. Jane Petzoldt and Melissa Wells-Spicer received honorable mention in the girls' program.
Thursday's FLT featured the all-league soccer teams. Two Midlakes boys made the first team in Division II: Brett Adams and Aaron Dorman. Coach Scalise pointed out the traits that put them there. Riley O'Neil and Adam Sheppard were named to the 2nd team; Ben Bengston and Ben Sheppard received honorable mention.
Whitney Dixon, Stephanie Groff, and Taryn Millerd were named to the 1st team in Division II of girls' soccer and "Coach Spoto's take" on the talents of each was great. Maureen Cooley, Jeannette Frederick and Ashley Rooney were named to the second team; and Liz Donk and Stephanie Vavra made honorable mention.
The golf and tennis teams were included in Friday's edition. It had been reported earlier but was nice to see Jordan Wilson listed as the player of the year in the Finger Lakes Central golf league and Rick Ciciarelli listed as Co-Coach of the Year. Zach Maslyn joined Jordan on the first team, and Coach Ciciarelli very succinctly explained why both are the players they are. RC Weston was named to the second team.
The tennis segment was packed with Midlakes players, not surprising since we won the league, and this, too, had been reported here, but again it's nice to see it again. "Coach Hicks' take" on 1st team all leaguers Sara Green, Krystal Lathrop, Hillary Marshall, and KC Wolford were fun to read. Amber Beman, April Hawman, and Katelyn Leitner received honorable mention from the league.
Friday night it was back to business as usual, and our jv and varsity girls hosted Pal-Mac. Our jv team had a very disappointing outing, moving in slow motion and shooting poorly; even the good shots just would not drop. Pal-Mac had one athletic low post player that shut down that area and two talented little guards that shot well from outside and were also quick and confident defenders.
Turnovers and shot clock violations plagued the second half, even though we outscored them (3-2) in the opening minutes of that period. We stalled there but a more energetic defense kept them from running up the score in that period. The game was really over in the first period when we fell behind by 10 (13-3), but we didn't clear our bench, nor did they, until the final three minutes. The final score was 34-13.
In the last several girls' games 7th grader Emily Rinaldo has sung the Star Spangled Banner before the varsity game. She has an incredibly rich and well-developed voice for one so young. That was probably the Midlakes high point of the evening.
Our varsity team came out playing a pretty decent defense, but turnovers plagued our offense, and we grabbed few offensive rebounds, a problem because our shooting was "off." We managed 9 points in each of the first two periods, but gave up 15, so we were looking at a 30-18 deficit at halftime.
We came out pressing in the second half, and it paid off in turnovers that we were able to capitalize on for a 10-0 run in the first 4:30. Then we cooled off and the 3rd ended with us down, 39-31. We scrambled to close to 42-39 with 3 minutes to go, then we caused two turnovers we didn't score from and the game slipped away, 49-39.
|
