It wasn’t a game at Yorktown, as the host easily handled Nyack. The defense, led by Maggie Natell and Lindsay Bordonaro, squashed Nyack attacks before they began, and Yorktown was never threatened. If you want to watch me talk about this game, or if you never learned to read, you can see my vidcast “here”:http://vcreport.lohudblogs.com/2007/09/17/yorktown-over-nyack-and-other-girls-soccer-news/.

Like last year, the Huskers (3-0-1) have started hot. Unlike last year, I can see it lasting. Their next five games read like this: Panas, Arlington, Peekskill, Harrison, Lakeland. Except for Arlington, which has come out of the gate strong, that’s not a formidable group. Yorktown could be looking at 7-1-1 when it hosts Greeley on October 5.

Samantha Russo (above) had a pair of goals today, giving her five on the year (to go with three assists). The sophomore’s got a quick turn and an accurate leg. She’ll finish among the scoring leaders, no doubt.

Last week was a slow week and I wasn’t able to get out to any games, but that will change this week. So prepare to be inundated with plenty of thoughtful insight, game recaps, discussion questions and more as the season begins to kick into high gear over the next week or so.

Today, I covered Bronxville @ North Salem and below is a short video report on the game. Enjoy.

No wise cracks!

Download:

The season barely started and already the section took a two day break. The only schools playing during Rosh Hashanah were the Catholics and privates (and Panas played North Salem on Thursday). Apparently the good folks at Maria Regina don’t celebrate the Jewish New Year. Who knew?

On Saturday, as Manischewitz stains were being scrubbed out of white tablecloths across Westchester, soccer resumed. As did other sports. I was in Dobbs Ferry watching the football team crush yet another Section 1 opponent. Anyone interested in that game can see my iMovie report “here”:http://vcreport.lohudblogs.com/2007/09/15/dobbs-ferry-defeats-croton-harmon/. Kevin Devaney— known as The Varsity Insider in the superhero circuit—saw a “3OT classic between New Rochelle and John Jay”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070916/SPORTS02/709160403/1050 that probably confirmed them as the two best football teams in the section.

As for girls soccer, the Yorktown tournament finally wrapped up after a long hiatus. Mahopac won it in penalty kicks against the host, 3-1. I like regular-season tournaments because of the PK aspect. While I agree with critics that PKs aren’t really soccer (90 percent of the time the goalie guesses in advance which side to cover so there’s not much skill involved), I like that the games are decided somehow. Call me an uncultured American, but ties stink. Sports must have victors. And from a journalistic standpoint, the tension of a PK session is a reporter’s goldmine. You’re guaranteed at least eight of these dramatic snapshot kicks, followed by interviews with a bunch of excited players. Makes for good copy.

In other news, Eastchester got a 2-0 win at Scarsdale, one of the most underrated programs of the last few years. We’ll see how well Bob Zayac keeps the Raiders afloat after some tough graduations.

North Rockland dispensed with the first of two Long Island visitors, Melville, 3-0. Will Islip fare any better against the Red menace tomorrow morning at 11? I say nyet.

Rye Neck scored nine goals again, this time against Keio. The two leading scorers in the area are now both Rye Neck Panthers—Lona Speidell and Jodi Rosenzweig. Get this, Rosenzweig has six goals and seven assists in two games. She’s on pace for 49,786,676 points. Or something like that. The schedule over the next couple weeks isn’t exactly daunting, so expect to see their names at or near the top of the leaderboard for a while.

So on my first real day back from vacation, I was summoned to the RNN studios to talk about expectations for the boys soccer season with sports anchor Ben Sosenko. It was a short segment that appeared last night on NewsCenter Now, a weeknight news cast brought to you by The Journal News/LoHud.com and RNN.

After a quick glimpse of me on the tube, you’ll figure out why went into the newspaper business and not television. Can you imagine having to see that mug on TV every night? I, and you guys too, probably shudder at the thought.

Anyway, you can check it out here Download:

What I figured would be the game of the day, Mamaroneck at North Rockland, didn’t turn out to be much of a game. The Red Raiders bottled up Stephanie Velez in a 5-0 win. Loryn Ginley had two goals and an assist and Sandy Traynor tacked on a goal and assist. North Rockland’s just got too many weapons.

I don’t want to judge Mamaroneck on one game. Velez is a sick striker. But she needs help. Vanessa Crowley and Anna Moser were important pieces whose graduation is going to be felt. It’s not too much to say Mamaroneck’s taken a small step back. But I should heed my own advice and wait before drawing any conclusions. The Tigers face Greeley next Thursday in another interesting test. Let’s see how that one turns out.

As I quickly duck my head into the room for a day before completing the final few hours of my much-needed vacation, I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to eyeball our boys soccer preview. So just in case you didn’t see it Thursday, I’ll be happy to share it with ya.

Here’s the preview on Scarsdale.

Here’s one on Suffern.

Then there’s Bronxville.

Can’t forget about John Jay.

Lastly, here’s a season outlook outling the top teams by Class.

Want a few players to keep an eye on this season? Well, here you go.

Thoughts on any of this or the season in general?

Athletes get pretty attached to their cleats. Once they find a good pair, no one wants to let them go, even when they’re falling apart. For this week’s Behind the Scenes feature I wrote about a few kids in different sports who are “very particular about their cleats”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/SPORTS02/709040375/1136 in different ways. Next time you watch a varsity soccer game, and kids are cutting and kicking and sliding all over, think about how much is riding on those little pieces of leather.

Sorry to break out the Ned Flanders, but soccer is around the corner and there’s excitement in the air. Can you smell it? I can smell it. Like Rod said, I’ll be handling the bride’s half of the aisle as the girls soccer writer. Direct any girls-related comments/questions to me and boys comments/questions to Rod.

The girls season starts on Friday, Sept. 7 with a handful of 4:30 games. Defending Class A champion Somers — minus Amanda DaCosta, The Journal News Westchester Player of the Year — begins its title defense against Ursuline, while Class A contenders Byram Hills and Nyack show their stuff under new coaches. Because football season also begins on Friday, I won’t get a chance to see any soccer, but hopefully on Monday I’ll get to a game and you can start reading on Tuesday.

I picked North Rockland, Tappan Zee, Nanuet/Briarcliff, and Valhalla as the favorites in my “soccer preview”:http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/SPORTS02/709050374/1070/SPORTS, which came out in today’s newspaper. There are also “three questions”:http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/SPORTS02/709050376/1070/SPORTS about the season, “players to watch”:http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/SPORTS02/709050375/1070/SPORTS, features on “Horace Greeley”:http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/SPORTS02/709050384/1136/SPORTS, “Nyack”:http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/SPORTS02/709050386/1136/SPORTS, “Eastchester”:http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/SPORTS02/709050380/1070/SPORTS, and “Rye Neck”:http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/SPORTS02/709050382/1136/SPORTS. Let me know what you think about my choices. Get those predictions in before the season starts so you can brag about it later!