High School Extra /News and notes
East Aurora trims St. Joe’s
After losing four straight times in the series, the East Aurora boys soccer team has figured out how to beat St. Joe’s.
Isaac Allen scored with 18 minutes remaining Wednesday to give the Blue Devils (5-0), the second- ranked small school in the coaches poll, a 2-1 victory over the Marauders, who are No. 2 among large schools but have lost two consecutive games on their new turf field.
“We’ve won the last two years after they had won four in a row from us,” said East Aurora coach Kevin Beale. “They’re a high-level team with a lot of personality players. We play them every year in order to get a great, competitive schedule.”
Allen accepted a pass from Kurt Knolle and hit a 35-yard shot into the upper corner to break a 1-1 tie. Barry Hunt redirected a pass from Kevin Kot in the first half for East Aurora and Chris Scirto beat two defenders and put a 25-yard shot inside the far left post for St. Joe’s (3-2-1).
East Aurora’s Dan Coulter made six saves, including one with just under three minutes left, when he palmed a long shot by Scirto that was headed toward the corner.
Frontier, West Seneca West advance
In boys soccer, it will be Frontier against West Seneca West in Saturday’s 7 p. m. championship game of the Dan Turick Memorial Tournament at Clint Small Stadium in Tonawanda.
Freshman goalie Alex Warren made six saves in his first career start and senior Greg Zitnik netted the winner with two minutes left as Frontier (1-1-1) scored a 2-1 victory over the host Warriors. West Seneca West (2-3) got three goals from Zach Thomas in its 9-3 victory over Depew.
“He [Warren] had a couple good saves, nothing too spectacular, but he held his own,” said Frontier coach Nick Christou.
Zitnik scored the winner off a corner kick from John Sikorski after Erik Greiner had potted the Falcons’ first goal in the first half.
“In the first half we were dominating, winning the battles all over the field,” said Christou. “Tonawanda got a little bit of momentum in the second half and made it a little tougher.”
Randy Peccia and Mohammed Ahmed added two goals apiece for West Seneca West. Tonawanda (1-3), which got a goal from Matt Pohzehr, meets Depew at 3 p. m. Saturday for third place.
Elsewhere, Andrew Granchelli scored with 13:58 remaining and Chris Paradise registered the shutout as No. 4 large school Lockport (4-2, 2-1) registered a 1-0 victory over Grand Island in the Niagara Frontier League.
NT does it in extra time
North Tonawanda junior forward Amanda Smyth was at her best in overtime, scoring three times in the two 10-minute extra sessions to lead her Lumberjacks to their 4-1 NFL girls soccer victory over visiting Niagara-Wheatfield.
Smyth scored four minutes into the first OT, then with five minutes and three minutes left in the second OT. Colleen Wiechec, who assisted on two of Smyth’s goals, tied it for NT early in the second half.
“We came out and the team finally woke up,” said NT coach Steve Sabo. “We’re so young this year. We finally put stuff together and it just worked for us.”
Caitlin Attfield scored two minutes into the game for the Falcons and freshman goalkeeper Christina Sarokon, who played on the under-14 national team, made seven saves for NT (4-1).
“We’re playing Williamsville East on Friday night at home, and I believe they’re the top team in Western New York,” said Sabo. “So I’m hoping our momentum carries into that game.”
Spartans roll in field hockey
Score one for Williamsville North in a battle of defending field hockey champions.
Four North players scored and Jess Wess stopped all nine shots she saw in the Spartans’ 4-0 ECIC victory over visiting Iroquois (2-1), the defending Section VI Class B champion.
“Iroquois always gives us a good game,” said coach Kris LaPaglia, whose Spartans are the defending state Class A champions. “The kids knew coming in that they’d need to play a pretty strong game in order to come out on top.”
Allie Ahern had a goal and an assist and Lauren Weber had two assists for North (3-0), which has won 26 straight games.
“I like games like this, especially early in the season,” said LaPaglia. “It not only sets the tone but it also shows the kids they still have a long way to go because we’re not at the top of our game just yet, either.”
The state record of 88 consecutive victories is held by defending Class C state champion Marathon of Section IV.
“I just told them if they keep it up maybe we can chip away toward that one,” LaPaglia said.
Etcetera
• Troy Nowak had 35 assists and Tom Comfort added nine kills and six blocks as No. 1 Orchard Park breezed past No. 6 Lancaster in ECIC I boys volleyball in three straight games. The Quakers improved to 6-0 overall, 2-0 in the league.
• Victoria Jacumski set a Clarence pool record of 1:07.1 in the 100 breaststroke as the Red Devils scored a 92-84 nonleague girls swimming victory over East Aurora.
