Leading off today: A misplayed quick kick gave Garden City the break it needed last night for a 9-6 victory over North Babylon in the Long Island Class II football championship.

   With the score 6-6 and facing a third-and-8 at his own 8, Garden City's Brian Fischer got off a quick kick that took a favorable bounce and roll to the North Babylon 24. There, North Babylon's Ian Perez touched the ball as if to down it, and Garden City recovered to set up the winning field goal.

   Sophomore Ryan Norton's 38-yard field goal with 6:50 to go in his first varsity attempt gave Garden City the lead and the victory.

   Garden City scored on its first possession when Matt Montgomery threw 20 yards to Kevin Dachille, but the Trojans were held to their fewest points all year.

   "It was a tough defense," Montgomery told Newsday. "It's more like a college defense."

   Preshod McCoy ran 22 times for 118 yards and a 32-yard TD in the third quarter for North Babylon.

   Seaford earned the Class IV crown by topping Amityville 34-20. Mike Gallo's four catches for 35 yards included TDs of 7 yards in the firdt quarter and 11 in the fourth.

   St. Joe's coach retires: In Buffalo, Bob O'Connor announced his retirement as St. Joseph's football coach after 169 wins and 13 Monsignor Martin Association titles in 29 seasons. His record included a 26-8 record in the rivalry vs. Canisius.

   “While his contributions to St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute are, quite frankly, irreplaceable, we will now turn our attention to identifying a candidate who will build upon the foundations established by Coach (Joseph) Brown, Coach (William) Fitzhenry, Coach (Tom 'Tucker') Reddington and Coach O’Connor, and leave his own distinguishable imprint on the legacy of St. Joe’s football," athletic director Pete Schneider said in a statement.

   Nike Cross Nationals today: Three-time defending national champion Fayetteville-Manlius will compete today in the Nike Cross Nationals regional qualifier at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls and is favored to book another trip to the Dec. 5 finals in Portland, Ore.

   New York is the only state that is a self-contained region under the NCN format, with two teams earning automatic bids and the next two receiving consideration as wildcards.

Also available on the site RoadToSyracuse.com Football Site NYSPHSAA football playoff brackets NYSPHSAA boys soccer playoff brackets NYSPHSAA girls soccer playoff brackets NYSPHSAA field hockey playoff brackets

   F-M's boys will also be in contention, but they'll be running minus 2008 state Class AA champ Alex Hatz, who has been on the comeback since surgery in August but is being shut down until the spring track season, The Post Standard reported.

   Gotta love technology: This from Greg Brownell of The Post-Star, who was covering the NYSPHSAA girls volleyball tournament last weekend by means of some live blogging intended to reach fans who couldn't travel to Glens Falls Civic Center.

   "At one point I wrote something to the effect that I’d give my right arm for a hot dog," he wrote "I was half kidding, but five minutes later a couple of young girls from Pine Bush showed up at the press table asking if I was the man who was hungry. They offered to get me the hot dog."

   You blew it Greg. You should have been angling for a new car instead of a hot dog.

   The standard of success: Under normal circumstances, playing for a state championship on the final weekend of the fall season might be a big deal. At Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, the football team could actually face a mindset of "been there, done that" from the sports community.

   So far this fall, the Burnt Hills have won a state championship in boys cross country and sent the football team to tomorrow's final against Sweet Home in Syracuse. The girls soccer and volleyball teams played their way into state semifinals, and the boys soccer and girls tennis teams also won sectionals.

   The girls cross country team "only" placed second in the Section 2 meet to state champion Queensbury.

   Quality work like that is how Burnt Hills won the first NYSSWA All-Sport Championship for the 2008-09 school year.

   Extra points: Spencerport has been advertising for a replacement for football coach Dan Pinelli. The Rangers are coming off back-to-back 1-7 seasons. . . . Congratulations to the folks at Canandaigua, who held a ceremony last week for 16 athletes accepting college athletic scholarships. Among them were seven boys and five girls who'll be playing Division I lacrosse.