Leading off today: Phoenix fought off a strong Fulton rally on Saturday to earn a 25-24 victory in the final of the Section 3 dual-meet wrestling tournament at Rome Free Academy. Phoenix ended Fulton's 155-0-1 unbeaten streak vs. Section 3 teams since a 31-30 setback to South Lewis in 1998.

   The actual match score was 24-24, but Gene Mills' Phoenix squad earned the win based on the first criteria tiebreaker rule as the Firebirds won seven of the 13 individual bouts.

   Phoenix built a 24-14 lead through 11 matches before Fulton's Matt Bogardus (160 pounds) and Derek Shue (171) scored consecutive technical falls.

   In the semifinals, Phoenix defeated Adirondack, 52-15, and Fulton topped Mexico, 38-19.

   Wild weekend for Aquinas: Sophomore Dan Schuler scored with three seconds to play yesterday as visiting Aquinas defeated Massena in non-league hockey, 2-1. Schuler dug the puck out of the corner, went around the back of the the net and slid the puck beneath the legs of the Massena goaltender.

   Aquinas' Terry Schafer made 29 saves, including 12 in the third period. Aquinas is ranked eighth and Massena Fifth in Division 1 by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   On Friday, Aquinas played a wild 3-3 tie with Salmon River. Cameron Corsaro gave the Little Irish the lead with 10 seconds left in regulation, but Salmon River's Ty Thompson tied it by poking home a rebound with only three seconds left.

   Memorable night for basketball: Some of the state's best teams were involved in a pair of multi-overtime boys basketball games Friday night.

   Christ The King, ranked first in Class AA but smarting from a loss to Bishop Loughlin two days earlier, beat No. 8 Holy Cross in 2 OTs, 92-87.

   Center Ernest Pearson (34 points) banked in a three-pointer at the regulation buzzer to cap a rally from a 13-point deficit. The other hero for the Royals was Erving Walker, who scored 26 of his 33 points after halftime. Guard Sylven Landesberg scored 34 points for Holy Cross.

   Meanwhile, No. 17 New Rochelle was fending off visiting White Plains in three OTs, finally leaving the gym with a 92-84 victory.

   New Rochelle's John Calarco buried a three-pointer at the end of the second OT to finish wiping out what had been a 77-72 deficit with 40 seconds to go.

   New Rochelle ran off the first seven points of the third extra period. Antoine Mason led the winners with 28 points. Rashad James of White Plains connected for 30.

   Why no love for bowling? Newsday asked the other day why bowlers and their sport don't get more attention and respect in schools and in the community.

   I'll venture that East Islip Coach Rick Papandrea supplied a large part of the answer in the finally paragraph of the story as he noted the lack of credentials that some coaches have.

   "Some of them don't know anything about bowling," he told the paper. "They just take it as an extra job. They don't know how to keep score, they don't know how to bowl and they don't have any equipment, so how can they coach? This would never happen in other sports."

   Absolutely correct. I can name five golf coaches in Section 5 alone who probably aren't with a warm bucket of spit with respect to teaching the sport, but they at least own a set of clubs and get out to play 18 a couple times a month.

   Extra points: Dom Cecala is the interim girls basketball coach at Archbishop Molloy, moving up from JV duties last week after the resignation of John McGlynn, who launched the program seven years ago, and assistant Kevin McBride. Cecala won twice as Molloy improved to 10-5. McGylnn indicated that dissention on the team over playing time was a factor.

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