soccer

Wheatland-Chili senior forward was not only the Genesee Region League Player of the Year, and a sectional champion; he was named to the All-Greater  Rochester first-team by the Democrat & Chronicle.

Varin led W-C to a 19-4 record and a second consecutive sectional championship, while scoring 27 goals with 13 assists. He finished his high school career with 51 goals and 31 assists.

Teammate Tony Pipitone made the second-team as a goalie.

The GR also had a bunch of honorable mention selections.

Steve Abbey (Wheatland-Chili), Dakota Longhini (Byron-Bergen), Jordan Kiessling (B-B), Jason Gaylord (Kendall), Brandon Moore (Kendall), Paul Brightly (Kendall), Andy Hagen (Attica), Brandon Reiner (Attica), Tyler Silversmith (Lyndonville), Joe Ianni (Lyndonville), Jordon O'Connor (Lyndonville), Colton Orbaker (Holley), Eric Spychalski (Holley), Nick Troup (Holley), Brandon Comden (Holley). 

You can see the entire All-Greater Rochester list here.

Wheatland-Chili's Garhett Varin led his squad to an 18-3 record and the Section 5 Class DD championship this past soccer season.

The senior had 25 goals with 11 assists and earned Genesee Region League Player of the Year, which was announced by The Batavian in our GR all-star write-up on Oct. 29.

 The Democrat & Chronicle lists the Players of the Year for each league in Section 5 this morning.

Wheatland-Chili senior attacker Garhett Varin of Wheatland-Chili had 61 points, 25 goals and 11 assists, in leading his team to an 18-3 record to date and the Section V Class DD championship. He had five goals and an assist in the sectionals. Wheatland also beat Andover 2-1 in the State Class D Qualifier Game.

You can see the entire roundup of Players of the Year here.

Senior midfielder Brittany Luckey had a fantastic high school soccer career, and will be ending it with a second big honor.

The five-year starter for Le Roy had already won Livingston Conference Division I Player of the Year and now is named to the All-Greater Rochester second-team by the Democrat & Chronicle today.

Luckey was a three-time captain for the Oatkan Knights, who won the Section 5 Class B title this season. Well, actually shared it with Greece Odyssey after playing to a 0-0 tie. Odyssey moved on to the state tournament after winning a shootout.

Luckey scored 31 goals and had 81 assists in her high school career and led Le Roy to a sectional title three times in five seasons. The Oatkan Knights went 12-2-6 this season. She scored 12 goals with 22 helpers this season.

No other local players made the AGR first or second team, but 17 players received honorable mentions for the Genesee Region League.

Julie Brooks (Holley), Hannah Wilson (Alexander), Abby Shilvock (Alexander), Lindsey Hall (Alexander), Christina West (Attica), Corinne VanSchoick (Holley), Rachel Warren (Pembroke), Rachel Pettys (Alexander), Chloe Smith (Wheatland-Chili), Emily Troup (Holley), Hillary Bates (Oakfield-Alabama), Julie Marshall (Elba), Todne Crowe (Byron-Bergen), Kaila Browe (Kendall), Chelsi Clark (Elba), Stacy Maskell (Byron-Bergen), Nicole Sharick (Pembroke).

Stacy Hein of Batavia received an honorable mention for Monroe County. You can check out the entire All-Greater Rochester girls team here.

 There is that photo again.

The front page of Tuesday's Daily News sports has basically the same photo as the Genesee Region League girls soccer all-stars, just a team photo. I have never been a fan.

But again, Daily News sportswriter Alana Stage writes a stat-packed roundup of the GR boys soccer all-stars. She leads with the Wheatland-Chili squad that went 19-3 and are Class DD champions. 

The Batavian also led with the Wildcats in our roundup of all-stars, which ran on Oct. 29.

The winter high school season is just getting going, so this is the only local information in today's paper.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

 In Friday's Daily News, the photo and roundup of Genesee Region League girls all-stars are the main focus of the front page of sports.

A nice roundup of the players, featuring the Division I champion Holley Hawks, pretty much fills the page.

The Batavian led with Division II champion Wheatland-Chili in our roundup of all-stars, posted on Oct. 22.

The writeup is packed with information, but features the boring team photo that just about every all-star team roundup has had for, oh, ever. I think most would prefer headshots or action photos from the season.

That's the only local sports because the winter sports teams are still getting ready for the season, but there is a cool AP story on the Syracuse football team on B-4. AP sportswriter John Kekis writes about how little has changed since it was announced coach Greg Robinson was fired and will be replaced at the end of the season.

Any Syracuse football fan will admit that the program was in dire need of a change as Robinson was never able to turn the team into a winner. The Orange are currently 2-8.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

The Alexander Girl's Soccer team outplayed many peoples predictions and gave Geneseo all they could handle in the 2nd round of the class C sectionals and lead 1-0 at halftime, but Geneseo came from behind in the 2nd half and put two in the net to win the game 2-1 and move on to the semi-finals to face York.

Geneseo came out hot in the 1st half and peppered the Alexander goal with shots but only a few found the target and were turned away by Sophomore goalie Hannah Wilson.  Alexander struggled with Geneseo's formation in the first 15 minutes and had to make an adjustment, but settled down after the inital Geneseo flury and played quite well from there on out.

Alexander struck first on their first good chance of the game as Junior Anna Dominick found her sister 8th grade Midfielder Maria Dominick on a cross to put Alexander up 1-0 with 10 minutes left in the first half.  Alexander held the lead into halftime and knew they were in for a fight in the 2nd half.

Alexander held strong for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half but #14 finally got lose down the left flank and crossed a ball that just eluded a leaping Wilson at the near post and was ran into the goal by #3.  Alexander didn't back down and kept working hard all over the field.  With #11 on the bench Alexander saw the 2nd goal find their net as #2 had a great little play inside the 18 and fired it inside the right post to make it 2-1.  Alexander kept attacking but just couldn't get a ball in a dangerous spot.  Anna Dominick had a cross that was grabbed by the keeper with 5 minutes left and Alexander had 2 corners in the final 2 minutes but couldn't get either in a dangerous spot.

Lost in the scoreline was the play of 8th grade marking defender Abby Shilvock who held Sarah Bono (who has 23 goals this year) to under 5 shots on net throughout the game.  Shilvock seemed to be inside Bono's head reading her moves and winning the ball throughout the game.  Sophomore Tessa Bigelow did an equally strong job on #10 from Geneseo who is another fantastic player.

Great performances were turned in by Sophomore defender Savannah VanSon, 8th grade defender Gabby Kwiatek, 11th grade defender Leah Johnson, 10th grade midfielders Claire Hartl and Autumn Atkinson, 9th grade midfielder Julia Pettys, and Senior Midfielder Rachel Pettys.  Great minutes were contributed by 10th grade Mid Ashley Szymanski and 10th grade forward Morgan Mattice off the bench.

Congrats to Geneseo on a great game and a great season.  I am very proud of the way that all my girls played in this game, you all really stepped up to the plate in this game and gave Geneseo all they could handle.  Great job to all of you - you should be very proud.

Alexander came away with a 2-0 win over Perry at Wheatland-Chili Tuesday night in what was less than ideal weather.  Williamson and Canisteo-Greenwood had played before at 5pm and the field was in very good condition despite the game prior to ours.

We cut our warmup shorter than usual to avoid getting completely soaked before the game even started and hoped to come out quick.  We attacked right away and put some pressure on Perry's net with 5 shots in the first 8 minutes of the game.  Alexander went ahead 1-0 as Junior Anna Dominick crossed the ball to Senior Rachel Pettys and she fired a shot high in the far left corner to make the score 1-0 in the 11th minute of the game.  Alexander dominated possession in the 1st half and had several chances to go on top 2-0 but none found the back of the net.

Alexander came out in the 2nd half and continued to dominate possession but could not find the net, as has been the case all year long.  Perry had some dangerous moments and had 5 corners in the game but Alexander's defense stood strong and Sophomore goalie Hannah Wilson came up big on several saves throughout the game to earn her 7th shutout of the year.

A trio of sophomores did a great job in the middle, none of which started at the beginning of the year.  Morgan Mattice, Claire Hartl, and Ashley Szymanski logged all the minutes in the center of the pitch, won a majority of the headers, and had some great quick movement of the ball in and out of the field.  9th grader Julia Pettys and 8th grader Abby Shilvock were both moved from the positions they have played all year to the outside mids and did a fantastic job creating as Alexander saw a great improvement in the overall play of their midfield.

Alexander iced the game with 55 seconds left as Julia Pettys sent a cross from the left side of the field to Anna Dominick who settled, took a touch and beat the keeper high over her to give Alexander the 2-0 lead.

Alexander's defense played qutie well and was lead by Sophomore Savannah VanSon who logged her 19th straight start at sweeper and kept things organized.  8th grader Gabby Kwiatek, Junior Leah Johnson, and Sophomore Tessa Bigelow all did a great job in front her sticking with marks despite difficult footing throughout the game.

8th grader Maria Dominick and Senior Rachel Nielans both contributed key minutes at outside mid throughout the game.

Alexander's record improves to 9-6-4 on the season and they move on to play Geneseo on Friday at 6pm in Geneseo.  Geneseo is ranked in the top 10 in the state in the last poll that was released.

Chrissy Rennard was a rising star for the Attica girls soccer team last season as a freshman. She was the second leading scorer on the team.

But this year she has been slowed by an ankle injury and hasn't produced like she would like.

But it looks like she's back at the right time, and that's a good thing for the Blue Devils.

Attica is the No. 8 seed in the Section 5 Class BB tournament and because of Rennard's two goals and assist will be moving on to face No. 1 Hornell on Saturday because the Blue Devils topped No. 9 Dansville in the opening round 5-1.

Christina West, Kelsey Talley and Chelsea Lynch also scored and Attica improves to 2-13-4.

Oakfield-Alabama, Byron-Bergen, Alexander, Pembroke, Kendall and Lyndonville are all also playing sectional games tonight and results will be posted on the Section 5 Web site as they come in.

Alexander and Holley played to a 0-0 tie Thursday and Holley earned the Division 1 title with the tie.  It was a great defensive game from both sides and arguably the two most skilled goalies in the league showed why they have earned that reputation as they each had one huge save to keep the other team off the scoreboard.  Hannah Wilson stopped Holley's Emily Troup with a quick reaction save diving to her left to get a hand on a shot that Troup ripped from 10 yards and Wilson collected the rebound to keep Holley off the board in the 1st half.  Julie Brooks stopped Alexander late in the game on a scramble in front of the net that was eventually cleared by a defender to keep Alexander from sneaking in a late goal to steal the win.

It was a very even game with both teams keeping fantastic shape in the back and holding strong on their marking to only give up a handful of shots.  Alexander will be the 6th seed in Class C Sectionals and Holley looks to be the 4th seed in Class B Sectionals.

Holley beat Kendall 1-0 at home Tuesday night to move into 1st place for the first time this year.  It is the first time Holley has been in 1st place alone in quite a while (i would guess 3 or 4 years).  Holley currently sits 10-2-2 with 1 game left (@ Alexander Thursday) while Pembroke sits 10-3-1 with 1 game left (@ Attica Thursday).  With a tie or win by Holley or a loss or tie by Pembroke Holley will be division champs.  Pembroke needs a win and a Holley loss to win the division.  This is the first time since 2004 that the division title has gone down to the last day of the season.

Goal was scored by Emily Troup on a rebound.  Congrats to Coach Mann and the Holley Hawks

Final week of GR Soccer for the year and here are the standings:

Division i:

1) Pembroke - 10-3-1 (@ Attica)

2) Holley - 9-2-2 (Kendall, @Alexander)

3) Alexander - 8-4-2 (Holley)

4) Byron-Bergen - 8-4-1 (Attica, Kendall)

5) Kendall - 5-7-1 (@Holley, @ Bergen)

6) Attica - 1-9-3 (@BB, Pembroke)

Pembroke and Holley are the only two teams with a chance to win the division outright, but Bergen can still become co-champs.  Alexander was eliminated from title contention with the loss to Bergen Friday.  I am a big nerd when it comes to standings and such so I will try to make this really simple so anyone can understand it.  Pembroke and Holley are easy.

Pembroke wins the league if they win their final game and Holley must lose either of their final 2 games.  Holley holds the tiebreaker over Pembroke because they beat them and tied them.

Holley wins the league if they regardless of what Pembroke does if they manage a win and a tie in their last two games because they hold the tiebreaker over Pembroke.  If Pembroke loses their final game Holley would need only one tie in their final 2 to win the league.  If Pembroke ties their final game Holley would need to either win one of their final two games are tie both.

Bergen can become co-champs if they win their last two games, Pembroke loses their last game and Holley loses both of their last 2 games.  This would leave Pembroke 10-4-1, Bergen 10-4-1, and Holley 9-4-2.  Pembroke and Bergen would be co-champs because they split the season 1 win a piece and they have identical division records.

If Holley, Pembroke, and Bergen all finished tied (Pembroke loses their final game, Bergen wins both of their final games, and Holley ties on game and loses another) it would leave them all with 21 points.  In this senario Holley would win the title because they hold the tie breaker over Bergen (2 wins) and Pembroke (1 win and 1 tie).

Division II:

1) Wheatland-Chili 10-2-1 (Lyndonville)

2) Elba 7-3-3 (@ ND)

3) Lyndonville - 4-7-3 (@Oak, @ WC)

4) Oakfield-Alabama - 1-10-1 (Lyndonville, ND)

5) Batavia Notre Dame - 0-12 (Elba, @ OA)

The order of finish is all set here.  With a win Wheatland will win the overall league title.

I will post a sectional preview for the league once the seedings come out at the end of the week.  Wheatland and Holley both have solid chances to go deep in the playoffs in my opinion.  Pembroke has a very difficult bracket (Wheatlands is no piece of cake either).  Kendall and Alexander are in a very thin bracket but both will have to step up their games to make any noise in sectionals.

Alexander lost for the 2nd time this week by a 1-0 score, this time to Byron-Bergen.  The loss dropped Alexander to 4th place in the league and 6th place in Class C Secional standings.

Alexander didn't get much going offensively in the game getting only one shot on goal during the game.  Goalkeeper Hannah Wilson made 12 saves in goal including a couple acrobatic saves in the 1st half to keep the game close.

Bergen scored their goal on a great dribbling play up the middle by #13 midway through the 2nd half.

Alexander closes out the season against Holley at home next Thursday.  Holley beat Pembroke 1-0 on Friday meaning if Holley can win @ Kendall and @ Alexander next week they will claim the Division 1 title.

The Alexander Girl's soccer team was all but eliminated from the Division 1 title race after tieing Kendall 2-2 Wednesday at home.  Pembroke knocked off Bergen 3-0 and Holley knocked off Attica 1-0 moving Attica into 2nd place and Alexander into 3rd.

Alexander jumped out to an early 2 goal lead thanks to a header by Anna Dominick off a corner from Autumn Atkinson in the 11th minute and a header by Tessa Bigelow on a cross from Amber Finan in the 13th minute.  Kendall came right back as Kayla Browe shot a ball in off the crossbar and in just a minute later to make it 2-1.  With 12 minutes left in the half it was 2-2 as Kendall fired another shot high and in the far corner.

In the 2nd half Kendall was dominant for the first 35 minutes outworking Alexander and controlling play.  Kendall rang 3 balls off the crossbar in the half and was very unlucky not to put one in the net.  Alexander came alive in the last 5 minutes of the game and had two chances to go up 3-2 but couldn't find the net.

The OT came and went without a goal.  Alexander had more possession in OT but couldn't put a ball in the net and the game finished 2-2.

Hannah Wilson had a strong game in goal making 11 saves and getting her hands on several crosses to kill Kendall attacks before they got a shot off.

 There is a very interesting race going on in Genesee Region League girls soccer.

There is a three-way race for the goal scoring title and a two-way race for the goal scoring title. It is mixed with players from Division I and II.

Wheatland-Chili's Lauren Drago has 20 goals and 12 assists, for 52 points to lead Division II. 

The Wildcats are currently 9-2 and lead Division II. Elba is second at 6-3-2.

W-C is the most potent scoring team in the division as Taylor Smith is third in the division with 13 goals and eight assists for 34 points.

Carrie Grande is fourth with eight goals and nine helpers, for 25 points.

Drago is currently one goal behind Pembroke's Nicole Sharick for the goal scoring title. Sharick leads all GR scorers with 21 goals, but has nine assists and is at 51 total points, one behind Drago.

The Dragons are in first in Division I with a 9-2-1 record with  Alexander in second at 8-3-1.

Alexander's leading scorer is Rachel Pettys, who is eighth with seven goals, two assists and 16 points.

Byron-Bergen's Stacy Maskell and Holley's Emily Troup are tied for second in scoring with nine goals, three assists and 21 points apiece.

Elba's Chelsi Clark is just one goal behind Drago and Sharick with 19. She also has five assists for 43 points.

You can check out all of the scoring leaders for Division I here and Division II here. 

Pembroke and Alexander squared off in Pembroke Monday with sole possession of 1st place on the line and Pembroke came away with a well earned 1-0 victory in a hard fought game.  The 1st half saw only two real scoring chances, one by Pembroke which rang off the crossbar and one by Alexander that was blown offsides (quite possibly incorrectly) on a direct kick from midfield.  Pembroke had the better of the posession in the 1st half but neither team generated many good looks on the goal.

The 2nd half was a highly entertaining half which saw both teams create several scoring chances with none finding the net.  Alexander's 8th grade defender Abby Shilvock had Pembroke's top scorer Nicole Sharrick under wraps for the majority of the game as Sharrick only managed to put a couple dangerous crosses at the front of the net throughout the game.

In a 8 minute span in the middle of the 2nd half Alexander had 6 shots from inside the 18 but didn't strike any of them that well and none managed to find their way into the net.  Pembroke had a couple crosses that went through the 6 yard box on the ground but none of them were connected on the back post.

With both teams playing at such a high level it was going to take a mistake or fantastic shot for either team to put a goal in the back of the net.  With just over 3 minutes left in the game both happened on the same play.  An Alexander defender committed an unnecessary foul near the right sideline about 18 yards off the endline and the direct kick was fired in at the far post.  Goalkeeper Hannah Wilson couldn't get enough on her jump and the ball found the far side netting to give Pembroke a 1-0 lead.  Alexander pushed everything forward for the last 3 minutes but was unable to get a ball in the net.

It was a very even game overall with both teams accounting for 3 corners, around 8 saves for each goalie, and around 12 shots on goal.  It was a fantastic game, congrats to Pembroke on the hard fought win.  They are alone atop the GR standings 1 game ahead of Alexander (and they also hold the tiebreaker) with 3 games remaining for each team.  Holley is a game and a half behind with 4 to play and Bergen is 2 behind with 5 games remaining.

Here are the standings with 2 weeks to go:

Division 1 (games this week in parenthesis)

1) Pembroke 8-2-1 (Alexander, Bergen, Holley)

2) Alexander 8-2-1 (@ Pembroke, Kendall, Bergen)

3) Holley 7-2-2 (Attica, @ Pembroke)

4) Byron-Bergen 6-3-1 (Lyndonville, @ Pembroke, @ Alexander)

5) Kendall 3-7 (Attica, @ Alexander, @ Attica)

6) Attica 1-6-3 (@ Kendall, @ Holley, Kendall)

Division 2

1) Wheatland-Chili 9-2 (@ND, Elba)

2) Elba 6-3-2 (Oakfield, @ WC)

3) Lyndonville 3-6-1 (@ Bergen, ND)

4) Oakfield-Alabama 1-9-1 (@ Elba)

5) Batavia Notre Dame 0-10 (Wheatland, @ Lyndonville)

Every game is a big one this week with losses causing the top teams to fall off the pace with no time to catch up.  Biggest games are probably Alexander @ Pembroke  (Pembroke won the first game 1-0), Elba @ Wheatland (Elba won 3-2 first time around), Bergen @ Alexander (they tied 2-2 the first time), Holley @ Pembroke (tied 0-0 the first time).  If any of the top 4 teams in division 1 sweep their games this week they should be in 1st alone on Friday.

 The Alexander girls soccer team had some key players out with injury and had to fight through the rain and the cold wind that Genesee Community College's fields produce, but gained the experience of playing in those conditions to beat host Notre Dame 5-0.

The Trojans lead Division I of the Genesee Region League with an 8-4-2 record.

While the temperatures were cold at the start of the game, it didn't take long before the wind picked up and the rain started coming down. 

The conditions led to some sloppy play over the first 10 minutes or so, and both squads had opportunities to score off corner kicks but were not able to convert.

But Alexander settled in and took over after a few minutes.

Sophomore midfielder Tessa Bigelow took a pass from freshman forward Julia Pettys and scored 11:53 in.

Pettys then scored 14 minutes later to give the Trojans a firm 2-0 advantage.

Morgan Mattice scored 29:21 in off a pass by Savannah VanSon.

Exchange student Anni Lehtola pitched in a second half goal and Pettys assisted another Mattice goal in the closing moments.

Hannah Wilson only needed to stop one shot to earn the shutout for Alexander.

Notre Dame keeper Nicole Guilds stopped 10 shots in the contest as the Fighting Irish fall to 1-10.

Updated with video. Sorry for the poor sound quality. The wind was out of control.

For the 2nd time this year Alexander slipped by Attica 1-0, this time at Attica.  The 1st half saw neither team put a shot on goal and the score was 0-0.  In the 2nd half an Alexander player was fouled on the left sideline about 30 yards from goal.  Senior Midfielder Rachel Pettys sent the direct kick into the center of the box and an Attica defender attempted to head it clear, however her clearance went into the top left corner of the net giving Alexander the 1-0 lead.  Alexander had two players directly behind the defender so she had no choice but to try to clear it, it was just a bad bounce.

Alexander had a chance to go on top 2-0 when Freshman forward Julia Pettys got through the defense on a breakway with around 10 minutes left but the Attica keeper came up with the save.  Alexander had another chance to go up 2-0 with around 5 minutes left when Sophmore Savannah VanSon sent a corner kick in and Sophmore Morgan Mattice ripped a header that went about a foot wide of the left post.

Attica had a chance tie the game with under 2 minutes left when Chrissy Rennard had header from 8 yards but put it right at the Hannah Wilson who made the save.  Wilson also came charging out of the goal midway through the 2nd half and broke up a potential breakway 20 yards from goal by clearing an errant pass from a defender.

Alexander improves to 7-4-2 overall and 7-2-1 in the league.  Alexander was lead in the back by Sophmore central defender Savannah VanSon who did a solid job keeping Attica away from goal and Sophmore keeper Hannah Wilson who only need to make 5 saves in goal picking up her 7th win and 4th shutout of the season.

Holley knocked off Byron-Bergen 2-1 last night as well meaning that Alexander, Pembroke, Byron-Bergen, and Holley all have 2 losses and 1 tie in the league making all 4 teams virtually tied atop the Division 1 standings with 2 and a half weeks left in the GR season.