Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015: F-M scores XC dual-meet win over Liverpool

   Leading off today: An impressive weekend showing at the McQuaid Invitational allowed Liverpool to leapfrog Fayetteville-Manlius into the No. 1 in the boys state cross country rankings. Barring a similar performance this weekend, the Warriors' time at the top may be short-lived.

   Fayetteville-Manlius, ranked No. 2 this week, scored a 24-31 win over Liverpool on Wednesday during a CNY Counties League triangular. Liverpool's Ben Petrella won in 15:34, but F-M swept the next four spots paced by Peter Ryan (15:51) and Patrick Perry (15:52).

   F-M and Liverpool are slated to go head-to-head Saturday in the Boys Eastern States Championship during the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park.

   Boys volleyball: Undefeated Canisius (20-0) swept past Eden 25-16, 31-29, 25-30 in a clash of top Western New York teams.

   Griffin Schmit led Canisius with 15 kills,and Devin Joslyn added 11.

   Boys soccer: Fort Ann, ranked No. 1 in the state in Class D, scored a 3-1 win over Lake George, the No. 15 Class C squad, on the strength of two goals before halftime from junior midfielder Garrett Bailey.

   Bailey's second goal came on a penalty kick 7:45 before the half, giving him 22 goals for the season.

   The Warriors closed to 2-1 on Alex Jones' goal early in the second half, but Tyler Ward restored the two-goal advantage for Fort Ann (14-0).

   Fort Ann has outscored opponents 105-2 this fall. Lake George had surrendered just two goals all year entering the game.

   Girls soccer: Bath midfielder/defender Mackenzie Smith is training this week with the U.S. Women's National Under-19 team in Carson, Calif., as one of 24 invitees as the staff continues evaluations ahead of the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papau, New Guinea.

   There are no New Yorkers in the list of invitees for next week's U-17 and U-16 camps in California.

   Following up: The Rye School District will not appeal Monday's ruling by the Section 1 Athletic Council that upholds an earlier decision prohibiting two boys from playing on the varsity field hockey team, The Journal News reported.

   A statement from the district cited time as a factor in not taking the case to the NYSPHSAA since the undefeated team's regular season ends Oct. 19.

   Scholarship-fueled behavior? North Salem AD Henry Sassone neatly summarized a significant issue in scholastic sports last week in an interview with The Journal News.

   In a feature about how players and their parents are creating a demand for athletic scholarships where the

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coveted supply simply does not exist, Sassone noted that the days of genuine elite travel teams don't really exist anymore.

   "The problem with this whole scholarship craze is that elite travel and AAU teams used to be for elite athletes. Now they're for everyone because of the money involved," he said. "Today there are kids who are not making their junior varsity and varsity teams who are playing in travel programs where the coaches are dangling the carrot of an athletic scholarship and with college costing upward of $50,000, $60,000, $70,0000, parents are chasing this dream.

   "A lot don't want to know the real deal. You're bursting their dream.

   You can read the full story here.

   More later? I'm trying to put the finishing touches on a story that will be of fairly wide interest to New York high school sports fans, but it might be a close call as to whether I can get it done in time to post Thursday. Otherwise, it may have to wait a day or two.