Monday, Oct. 29, 2012: Hurricane Sandy cuts into playoff schedule

   Leading off: It's now a certainty that much of New York will feel the effects of Hurricane Sandy over the next 48 hours, and downstate is expected to take a major hit unless the storm takes an abrupt right turn.

   With playoffs in full swing and SATs slated for Saturday, athletic administrators started making decisions Sunday. Section 1 postponed all contests scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, and Section 8 and the PSAL also wiped out Monday slates.

   More changes and announcements were made Monday, and you can count on more Tuesday. Here's a brief rundown of the highlights and links to more extensive details::

   Section 1: Nearly all schools in the Lower Hudson Valley canceled classes and activities Monday and are candidates to do so again Tuesday.

   If the Wednesday Class A football semifinals are completed on time, the finals will remain on Sunday's schedule. Other finals are still slated for Saturday. Boys volleyball quarterfinals will be held Wednesday, semifinals Thursday and finals Saturday and Monday. Boys soccer's final three rounds are on a Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday schedule, and the girls will go Thursday/Friday/Sunday.

   Details from The Journal News.

   Section 2: Tuesday's boys soccer semifinals and field hockey Class C games were pushed back to Thursday. Tennis and boys volleyball were pushed back a day to Tuesday, and girls Class C soccer was moved back a day to Wednesday.

   Details from Times Union.

   Section 3: In Girls soccer, the C-1 and C-2 semifinals have been pushed back to Tuesday.

   Details from The Post-Standard.

   Section 9: All Monday events, including 12 boys or girls soccer semifinals, were postponed by Hurricane Sandy.

   Long Island: All Section 8 and 11 contests on Monday were canceled, and Section 8 has already scrapped Tuesday's action.

   No-nonsense approach: Mahopac officials tried the zero-tolerance approach and created near-zero attendance for Saturday's 28-0 football victory over Clarkstown North.

   Clamping down after students rushed the field in defiance of staff orders the previous week at Carmel, district officials instituted a one-time requirement that students present a signed permission slip stating they would behave properly, The Journal News reported.

   The permission slips had to be signed by parents, and students were admonished to treat those at the game “with respect and courtesy.” Signs and banners also had to be “positive and supportive,” and noisemakers and

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horns were banned, the paper reported.

   The result? Most students skipped the game, giving police and school security staff little to watch out for at the game.

   Mahopac Superintendent Thomas Manko said the rule was a “one-time thing.”

   “It’s a reminder to everybody that we have high expectations for our kids,” Manko told the paper.

   Pittsford shocker: Anita Baiaji scored in the sixth round of the shootout Saturday to propel the ninth-seeded Pittsford Sutherland girls soccer team to a 2-1 win over top-seeded Pittsford Mendon, ranked second in the state at the time.

   Sutherland (5-7-6) advanced 5-4 on penalty kicks after regulation and two OTs ended 1-1.

   Rankings: Our latest rankings for soccer and girls cross country are available here. Boys cross country will be updated Tuesday.

   Week 9 football scoreboard: The full list of New York scores from the weekend is available on the site, as is the rundown on how the ranked teams fared.

   More to come: I wanted to get some of the above stuff out on the site as quickly as possible. I'll be back later Monday (unless we lose power) with more stuff, including Aquinas' victory over Rush-Henrietta, the top-ranked Class AA football team.

   In addition, there's more news on Tottenville's football team.