Top-ranked N.Y. team's QB battles injury

Monroe-Woodbury (Central Valley), ranked No. 1 in Class AA by the New York State Sportswriters Association, could be without junior quarterback Ryan Spelman this weekend because of an ankle injury.

Spelman sustained a high ankle sprain during a 33-7 victory over Binghamton on Thursday and is likely to sit out against Kingston on Friday, The Times Herald-Record reported.

Crusaders coach Pat D'Aliso said the quarterback was injured on the second series but would not comment specifically on Spelman's status. Sophomore Justin Kaffenberger took over vs. Binghamton with the game scoreless. He rushed for 84 yards and threw a touchdown pass.

MORE FOOTBALL
* Columbus (Bronx) ended a 28-game losing streak dating to November 2006 by winning at Long Island City over the weekend, 22-18. Prince Jackson had two touchdowns, including an 85-yard fumble return. A Tre Vis Blackwood interception set up Jackson's go-ahead rushing score. Columbus won without Rutgers-bound lineman Al Page, who was undergoing follow-up tests from an August abdominal injury. Page could return to the lineup this week.

* The weekend's top large-school game figures to be No. 6 Rye vs. No. 16 Nyack (Upper Nyack) in a battle of Section I Class A teams off to 2-0 starts. Nyack scored a 34-7 victory last year as Rye was making the jump from a NYSPHSAA 2008 Class B title.

Among small schools, the winner of the Class C contest between No. 7 Cleveland Hill (Cheektowaga) and No. 11 Grover Cleveland (Buffalo), both 3-0, quite possibly avoids two-time NYSPHSAA champion Southwestern until the Section VI final. That's no small consideration in light of Southwestern's 31-game winning streak.

DRY RUN AT GREEN MOUNTAIN LAKE
The most important three-week stretch of the cross country regular season begins Saturday at Lakeside Park in Pawling, when many of the state's best teams and individuals will compete at the Green Mountain Lake Invitational.

The appeal of the meet is that the course is the same one that will be used for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championships in November, making this a prime opportunity to scout the terrain. Much of the course winds through trails, beginning with a flat opening mile.

After the Green Mountain race, the scene shifts to Rochester for the McQuaid Invitational in Genesee Valley Park on Oct. 2 and then the Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park on Oct. 9. Those two meets historically are among the largest on the East Coast each year, drawing hundreds of schools.

* Johnson City's Lauren Mullins won her third straight Elmira Invitational title over the weekend, finishing in 19 minutes, 27.6 seconds at Newtown Battlefield to set a course record and beat the field by more than two minutes.

GOOD SPORTS
The host Hunter-Tannersville (Tannersville) girls soccer team probably could have just steamrolled a short-handed Coleman Catholic squad on Saturday in the semifinals of its tournament. Instead, the Wildcats did the sporting thing.

Coleman, down to 11 players on the roster, showed up with only eight for the game in part due to some girls not having enough practices under their belt. So the H-T coaches took some of their own players off the field to keep the game competitive.

Kate Shults scored both goals and Coleman ended up advancing with a 2-1 triumph as the hosts failed to capitalize on a pair of penalty kicks.

"We were actually down to seven at one point, because one of the girls had to step off the field because she was so exhausted," coach Dave Jutton told The Daily Freeman. "I have to give credit to the AD and coach for playing with nine or 10 most of the game. It's a great start for us."

TALE OF TWO COMMUNITIES
The "small" sports took the hit at O'Neill (Highland Falls) last spring when the budget proposal was rejected by voters. Needing to cut costs, the school board axed boys and girls tennis, girls golf, ice hockey and skiing.

Parents of tennis players approached the school board with a fund-raising plan and were given the go-ahead to try to fund the sport themselves. Through a variety of events, they raised $16,000 in six weeks and received an $8,000 loan from the sports boosters club to save the girls and boys tennis teams.

"It's a life experience," tennis coach Pam Deans told The Times Herald-Record. "It was great to have the support of the community and the parents, who stuck by the kids and helped them out. It was a great thing. People around town knew how hard they worked to raise the money and saw they wanted it that badly."

Officials in another district have decided they don't want a similar scenario. The Hadley-Luzerne school board voted Monday during an at-times heated meeting to move ahead with a new policy requiring residents who want to raise money for one athletic program that's been dropped to do it for all. A vote to formally adopt the policy could come next month.

The board approved various cuts this summer under a contingency budget necessitated when voters rejected a spending plan that included a 25 percent increase to the tax levy, The Post-Star reported. The cuts included all 10 junior varsity sports and saved $63,900 for the district.

John Schiano, who has written about high school sports in western and central New York for more than 25 years, covers New York for MaxPreps. He may be reached at johnschianosports@gmail.com.