Leading off today: Edgemont has withdrawn from the Section 1 football playoffs due to a lack of healthy players,
The Journal News reported Monday.
Edgemont (4-3) was scheduled to take on top-seeded Pleasantville in the Class B quarterfinals, coach Brian Connolly told the paper that replacing injured players in order to reach the required roster of 16 would require using second-string players and inexperienced underclassmen to fill holes.
"The bottom line is, we could've had 16 kids," Connolly told the newspaper. "But we would've had kids that should never even be put in that position. I think we should play and go, but the kids who were there felt that it wouldn't be right to play."
AD Anthony De Rosa contacted Section 1 on Saturday at Connolly's request, seeking to have Putnam Valley (the ninth-place team in Class B) moved into the playoffs instead. The request was denied and made official when Section 1 released its playoff matchups Saturday night, the paper reported.
"I knew this was a possibility," Connolly said. "It doesn't make anyone look good. I don't know what we would benefit by going up to play Pleasantville."
AD John Bauerlein said Pleasantville would not play an opponent other than Edgemont.
A late development: Vestal, ranked ninth in the state in Class A, and Ithaca, the No. 14 Class AA team, played to a scoreless standstill for more than 99 minutes Monday in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference boys soccer championship game.
That ended in the final minute of overtime as senior Carter Watson converted a long throw-in by Alex Paccone to give Vestal a 1-0 victory.
"It was an exciting game, we had our chances to finish and we didn't capitalize," Ithaca coach Gilbert Antoine said. "Both teams played really hard, they did a very good job, and there's got to be a winner."
An even later development: The Mamaroneck and Scarsdale field hockey teams were so evenly matched that they put up zeroes in the first half and matched goals just 1:04 apart in the second half. And then they swapped goals again 2:24 apart.
With the clock ticking down, Mamaroneck was awarded a penalty corner. With the game clock having officially ticked down to 0:00, knocked in a rebound inside the left post to give Mamaroneck a 3-2 win and improved to 13-1-2 for the season.
"Knowing we were either going to win or tie was very motivating," Banks said. "I really think everyone put in extra effort during that play."
More field hockey: Lakeland's 6-0 win over Somers clinched the Hornets' 20th consecutive league championship. Meghan Fahey scored twice and Cassie Halpin recorded the shutout.
Career over: Akeel Lynch, the former Buffalo St. Francis running back who went on to some success at Penn State and was playing for Nevada-Reno as a graduate transfer this fall, has ended his playing career.
Lynch wrote on Twitter that his decision was motivated by multiple concussions while playing football.
"Honestly speaking, this is one of the hardest decisions I've come across," he wrote. "The decision I made was for my future self. I've been battling the internal conflict between a childhood dream and the consequence of another concussion."
