With the varsity football season at the halfway point, we will be presenting our midseason player awards on the latest edition of Varsity Central Live on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.Be sure to join Kevin Devaney Jr. and me, and post your questions and comments by visiting  “LoHud.com/vclive.”:http://lohud.com/vclive

Last week when I released my initial Top 10 a few people asked for some recognition for the small schools. It’s a good idea, since they would be hard pressed to crack the overall Top 10. No amount of 6-0 wins over Pawling is going to leapfrog a Class B or C school into there. Not in my mind anyway.

Small schools should get their own power rankings. I’ll release that tomorrow or Wednesday. That’ll fill in the time gap while we wait for the action to kick up again after Rosh Hashanah.

The only thing I’m debating is how to define “small school.” Is it only Class B and C? That would exclude Rye, for example. Rye is one of the smallest Class A schools and so wouldn’t qualify, and also just missed the cut for the overall Top 10. It shouldn’t get caught in between like that. So do I make it everyone but Class AA? That would include schools like Harrison that aren’t exactly tiny.

Which would you like to see? Or give me another suggestion for how to define “small schools.”

Not much going on. Here’s what we had:

Lakeland 1, Yorktown 0: At Lakeland, Kristina Baldassarri scored  on a header off of Meghan Tremblay’s corner kick with 12 minutes left. Kristen Reiche made 16 saves for the shutout. Gabrielle Lawrence had 10 saves for the Cornhuskers.

Gorton 2, Lincoln 1, OT:  At Lincoln, Ashley Molina scored with two minutes left in the second overtime for the Wolves’ first win of the season. Anna Cortez made 21 saves. Frenchy Torjani scored for the Lancers. Teammate Sylvia Dominquez had 15 saves.

Maria Regina 9, Mount St. Ursula 0: At Maria Regina, Meghan Malone and Danielle Sacchinelli each scored twice.

Warwick 4, Clarkstown South 2: At South, freshman Christina Jean-Charles had a goal and an assist in her first varsity game.

Beacon 5, Haldane 1:  At Haldane, Meghan Rohan scored for the Blue Devils. Teammate Katelyn Mastrantone made 29 saves.

Greens Farms 2, Holy Child 1:  At Holy Child, Morrin Carlin scored for the Gryphons.

A trickle of results tonight, and it’s only going to get worse the next two days with school out for the Jewish holidays.

Pearl River 2, Albertus Magnus 1, OT: At Albertus Magnus, Chris Relihan scored the game-winning goal five minutes into the overtime period. Teammate Rob Ferreira scored. Michael Lincoln scored for the Falcons.
Salesian 9, Blessed Sacrament 0:  At Blessed Sacrament, James Reyes had a hat trick. Nick Camacho made three saves. John Guiliano made four saves.
Mount Vernon 8, Roosevelt 1: At Mount Vernon, Akeeba Marshall had two goals and three assists. Jahmar Marshall also had two goals. William Andrade scored for the Indians.
White Plains 7, Saunders 0:  At White Plains, Michell Alex Lopez had a goal and three assists. Andre Young scored twice. Bryan Garcia (one save) and Celso Rodriguez combined to make one save. Ivan Escobar made eight saves.
Iona Prep 2, Regis 1: At Fordham Prep, freshman Cesar Ceja scored two goals, including the game winning goal with three minutes left. Both goals were assisted by his brother, junior Gerardo Ceja.
New Jersey School for the Deaf 3, New York School for the Deaf 2:  At New Jersey School for the Deaf, Rood Mettellus scored both for the Golden Tornado. Teammate Ryan Benson made six saves.

Jake has many great ideas. If you ever want to know what to order from a pizza place, he’s your man. His top 10 is also a good one and blog reader “Request” requested one.

Sounds good.  Here we go.

1. John Jay-East Fishkill (5-0): Through the five games reported against Journal News-area teams, Fishkill hasn’t even allowed a goal, and that includes shutout wins over John Jay and North Rockland. Note: There could be a game or two that we don’t have against other out-of area teams, so this could change.

2. North Rockland (7-1): The only blemish is a one-goal loss to John Jay-East Fishkill. Thursday’s matchup with Mamaroneck should be telling about favorites heading into the AA playoffs.

3. Nanuet (9-0): The way for a Class B school to be ranked above the best in AA is to beat strong competition and to win many games decisively. It’s fair to say Nanuet has done both, handing Briarcliff its only loss and beating every team except Briarcliff by more than a goal.

4. Briarcliff (8-1): Since losing to Nanuet, Briarcliff has outscored opponents 20-1. Guess that loss didn’t set this team back.

5. Horace Greeley (7-1): The goalkeeper combination of Beth Ashinsky and Katye Gallardo has been stellar. Each has given up just one goal the whole year.

6. Mamaroneck (6-2-2): Stephanie Velez returns to the Tigers for this week’s matchup with North Rockland. The team understandably struggled at times without her.

7. Arlington (6-2): Plays Fishkill on Saturday.

8. John Jay (6-2-2): Handed Greeley its only loss on the year and has only lost to out-of-area powers Arlington and John Jay.

9. Rye (5-1): Still has to play two games against Byram Hills, Eastchester and Pelham. Navigating its way through such a tough schedule will be challenging.

10. Hackley (7-1-1): The 2-0 win over Byram Hills proved this team could certainly compete and do well in Section 1.

1. John Jay-East Fishkill (9-0): One of the Big Two will finally take a loss on Thursday after they meet at Arlington. Unless it’s a tie. Which nobody wants. Let’s get a clear No. 1 here!

2. Arlington (7-0-1): At least we know Arlington’s not going to be perfect. Has there been a bigger surprise this season than Mahopac forging a tie with the Admirals? Ian Tenzer put Mahopac on the board and keeper Brendan Synan made it stand for 100 minutes in the 1-1 tie.

3. Scarsdale (6-2): The threat of big weekend rain (which never materialized) wiped out a lot of games and made it a light week for several teams. Scarsdale played only once, though it was a big one. The Raiders needed two overtimes but were able to hand New Rochelle its first loss thanks to three goals by Hiroki Kobayashi. New Ro actually doubled Scarsdale’s shots on net but only got two past Daniel Kelly.

4. Horace Greeley (7-0): Another team that played only once last week. A 2-1 win over Somers kept the Quakers on track for an undefeated regular season. I detailed the possibility of that in Sunday’s notebook. I see it hinging on Thursday’s game at John Jay, which still has one loss. It was good to see Stephen Reisert coming up with two goals against Somers.

5. White Plains (6-1-1): Two days after New Ro lost its first, White Plains gave the Huguenots another 3-2 defeat. That was the blow that nearly knocked them off this list. White Plains did force Mamaroneck off by shutting Mamaroneck out in their rematch. For now White Plains doesn’t move up because none of the teams ahead of it lost. But that would change with a Thursday win.

6. Byram Hills (7-0): On Friday the Bobcats got to watch three of their former teammates go at it in college soccer. Hayden Morris’s Seton Hall team beat Villanova, which features Will Ogden and Stephen Paresi, in overtime. Morris and Ogden were The Journal News players of the year in 2006 and 2007. None factored in the winning score. The game was seen on Villanova’s website, which streams the game broadcasts.

7. Ossining (8-1): Joe Scamarone has been very equitable about platooning goaltenders Fabio Hernandez and Jeff Worden. They’ve pretty much flipped game to game. Worden is pitching a shutout so far, while Hernandez has allowed six goals. In fairness to Hernandez, three were to Greeley.

8. Iona Prep (5-1): The Gaels are starting to put people away. They scored three in each of their last two games. Leading scorer Shane Carthy still only has three goals total, which has to be the lowest among top teams. Certainly the lowest among teams on this list.

9. John Jay (5-1-2): The Indians have been very different at home than on the road. In fact they just got their first road win on Friday. Lucky for them, Thursday’s clash with Greeley is on the roadside turf at Cross River.

10. New Rochelle (8-2): I debated between New Ro, Rye, and Mamaroneck for the last spot. Ultimately I gave it to the Huguenots despite their 0-2 week. Frankly I thought they’d lose by bigger margins to White Plains and Scarsdale. The fact that both were 3-2 games, including one in overtime, means New Rochelle is more competitive than some thought. Including, obviously, myself.

Game of the day: Pearl River at Albertus Magnus, 3:30 p.m.

Roosevelt at Mount Vernon, 4 p.m.

Blessed Sacrament at Salesian, 4 p.m.

Spellman at Sacred Heart, 4 p.m.

NY School for the Deaf at MKSD, 4 p.m.

Mount St. Michael at St. Raymond, 4 p.m.

Saunders at White Plains, 4:15 p.m.

Did you know Horace Greeley has a very good chance to go undefeated? It’s true, thanks to Greg Waller sliding in neatly for Dan Thau in net.

Keio started its year 0-4 but has bounced back nicely and is again poised to win its league.

In Rockland, Dan Davren has risen to No. 2 in the area points leaders. His nine assists largely come from a secret weapon.

Lakeland 1, Hen Hud 0: In the championship of the Putnam Valley tournament, Laurel Reed scored 10 minutes into the second half, assisted by Felicia Daniele. Tournament MVP Kristen Reiche made 14 saves for the shutout. Lauren Luposello made nine saves for Hen Hud. 

Ursuline 2, Scarsdale 1: At Ursuline, Gabby Biagini scored the go-ahead goal 25 minutes into the second half. Nina Curto added a goal and an assist. Meg Smith had 13 saves. Shelby Schrier scored for the Raiders. Lizzy Schapiro made 14 saves.

North Rockland 3, Minisink Valley 2: At North Rockland, Francesca Kentimenos scored two goals for the Red Raiders, including the winning goal. Scarlett Panepinto had a goal and an assist.

Somers 2, John Jay 2, OT: At John Jay, Michelle Linkletter scored the tying goal with 11 minutes left in regulation for the Tuskers. Teammate Beth Coppolecchia made 15 saves. Zoe Boyd scored 20 minutes into the second half on a direct kick to give the Indians a 2-1 lead

Mahopac 0, Carmel 0, OT: At Mahopac, Monica D’Ippolito made 13 saves for the Indians. Alissa Santulio made seven saves for the Rams.

New Rochelle 1, Mamaroneck 1, OT: At New Rochelle, Amanda Tuck scored with 2:40 left in the second overtime to tie the game. Deborah Gilwit scored at 3:57 into the first overtime to give the Huguenots a 1-0 lead.

Rye Neck 9, Keio 1: At Keio, Rosina Calisto had three goals and two assists. Teammate Lona Speidell had three goals and an assist. Marina Uno scored off a pass from Rei Adachi for the Unicorns.

Ossining 2, Croton-Harmon 2, OT: At Ossining, Kayla Encalada tied the game with 13 minutes left in regulation for Ossining. Teammate Emma Halpern made 11 saves. Julie Ledee scored both goals for the Tigers. Teammate Leeanne Carroll made eight saves.

Horace Greeley 3, Tappan Zee 0: At Tappan Zee, Kelsey Hill had a goal and an assist. Sophia Orlander and Sydney Rutman each had a goal. Deanna Amoia had 13 saves for the Dutchies.

North Salem 6, Blind Brook 1: At North Salem, Michelle Kay scored two goals. Valerie Kay had one goal and one assist. Chelsea Louis scored one goal for the Trojans.

Maria Regina 3, Our Lady of Victory 0: At Maria Regina, Samantha DeLuca scored two goals. Teammate Meghan Malone had 13 saves. Nicole Champion had 20 saves for the Jaguars.

Panas 2, Putnam Valley 0: In the consolation game of the Putnam Valley tournament, Christine Meyers had a goal and an assist. Teammate Stephanie Staff had eight saves. Victoria Hamilton had nine saves for the Tigers.

Here are the notebooks for this week. Hope you enjoy them.

Feel free to offer suggestions at any time for good notebook topics.

In Southern/Central Westchester, I wrote about Scarsdale and its freshman sensation Charlotte Miller, who has made an immediate impact for Scarsdale after moving to the district from Dallas this summer.

In North Westchester/Putnam, I wrote about Carmel, which won its first league in five years. Seriously, five years.

In Rockland, I wrote about Lauren Kahn breaking Nanuet’s career goals mark with 76. She’s been unstoppable this season.

Despite the rain, some games were still played. They were as follows:

Hen Hud 5, Panas 2: In the first round of the Putham Valley tournament, Kelly Hanly had three goals and one assist, all in the second half, as Hen Hud rallied from a 2-0 deficit. Leeann Benson had three assists. Chelsea Ireland scored both goals for the Panthers. Hen Hud is scheduled to face Lakeland today at 1 p.m. in the final, following the 11 a.m. consolation game between Panas and Putnam Valley.

Lakeland 3, Putnam Valley 0: In the first round of the Putham Valley tournament, Victoria Amendola, Meghan Tremblay and Taylor Baldassarri scored. Kristen Reiche made four saves for the Hornets. Victoriea Hamilton had 11 saves for the Tigers.

Bronxville 5, Valhalla 0: At Bronxville, Christie Bonfiglio broke a scoreless tie with three goals in the second half. Jeanie Einhorn had 12 saves for the Vikings.

Haldane 4, Tuckahoe 2: At Tuckahoe, Liz Miner and Meghan Rohan each scored two goals. Lauren Mitchell and Olivia Fox scored for the Tigers.

Hackley 2, Fieldston 0: At Hackley, Anjelique Parnell scored both goals. Jocelyn Remmert had six saves for the shutout.

What a super response on our first girl poll of the season. I’m almost sorry to take it down. Obviously the girls soccer fans were chomping at the bit to make your opinions heard.

Naturally, Mamaroneck won again. So far you’ve voted Mamaroneck the boys team most likely to turnaround this year AND the best girls team in the section. I don’t know if the fans are incredibly loyal along the Sound Shore or if its just coincidence.

This time the voting was neck and neck with Briarcliff all week. In the end the results were as follows: Mamaroneck 17%, Briarcliff 16%, Byram 12%, Greeley 11%, Nanuet 9%, John Jay-East Fishkill 8%, others 26%. Note that Greeley and Fishkill got good support despite being write-in candidates.

For our new poll I’m going to do something a little drier. Remember earlier in the season I had a discussion with a few of you about the merits of combining the girls and boys into one blog? At the time I promised to revisit the issue later. I feel like now that a few weeks have gone by you’ve all had a chance to get used to the combined blog and can fairly assess it.

So I want to know what everybody thinks. The question is simple: Should boys and girls soccer keep one combined blog? The advantage of a combined blog is you get all your soccer news together in one source. The disadvantage is that if you care about one but not the other, you have to work around the other stuff.

This survey is informal. Jeff and I don’t have the power to separate the blogs—that belongs to our editor—but if a majority of you want that we’ll take the idea to our editor and see what she says. I’m only going to leave this poll up for a few days—figure Wednesday of next week—so make your voices heard quickly.

And speaking of democracy, don’t forget to watch tonight’s presidential debate, which John McCain has formally agreed to participate in.

Rain has canceled a few games. Here’s what’s still on as of 2 p.m.

Carmel at Mahopac, 3:30 p.m.

Hayes at Salesian, 4 p.m.

St. Agnes at Sacred Heart, 4 p.m.
Blessed Sacrament at All Hallows, 4 p.m.

Stepinac at Xavier, 4 p.m.

Rye Country Day at Hamden Hall, 4:15  p.m.

Iona Prep vs Regis at Fordham, 4:30

Gorton at Lincoln, 4 p.m

Sleepy Hollow at Ossining, 4:15 p.m.

White Plains at New Rochelle, 4:30 p.m.

Mount Vernon at Mamaroneck, 4:30 p.m.

Nyack at Keio, 4:30 p.m.

Yonkers at Spring Valley, 4:30 p.m.

Croton at Westlake, 4:30 p.m.

Brewster at John Jay, 7 p.m.

I covered Mamaroneck-Ursuline,  3-2 win for Mamaroneck.  Here are the rest of the games:

Saunders 6, Gorton 0: At Gorton,  Danielle DiNardo had three goals and two assists and teammate Jessica Negron had two saves. Marlene Sanchez had 10 saves for the Wolves.

Good Counsel 6, St. Catharine 1: At Good Counsel, Ashley Micceri had two goals and two assists. Teammates Valerie Stanson and Jamie Tannura each had a goal and an assist.

Clarkstown South 5, East Ramapo 0: At Clarkstown South, Kaitlyn Greeley had two goals. Nicole Acito, Elisa Cullaro and Allison Kopunek each scored a goal. Caroline Louis-Jean and Bergelie Louis combined for 12 saves. The game was stopped after one half because injuries left East Ramapo without enough players.

Solomon Schechter 6, Valhalla 1: At Valhalla, Naomi Pollack scored four goals. Teammate Lizzie Goldman had five saves. Jeanie Einhorn had 12 saves for the Vikings.

Yonkers 2, Port Chester 1: At Yonkers, Yakira Young scored the winning goal on a breakaway with a minute left. Diana Ramirez also had a goal for the Bulldogs. Barbara Delpezo scored for the Rams.

White Plains 0, Scarsdale 0, OT: At White Plains, Sandra Reina made nine saves for the Tigers. Lizzy Schapiro made 11 saves for the Raiders.

Carmel 3, Ketcham 1: At Carmel, Kim Broccoli had a goal and an assist as she helped lead the Rams to their first league win in five years. Alissa Santullo made nine saves for Carmel.

North Rockland 2, Clarkstown North 0: At Clarkstown North, Nicole Landes and Francesca Kentimenos each had a goal and an assist. Shelun Tsai made 27 saves for the Rams.

Lakeland 4, Harrison 1: At Lakeland, Michelle Dobrayel had two goals and one assist. Meghan Tremblay had a goal and an assist for the Hornets. Daniela Maddaloni scored for the Huskies.

Tappan Zee 2, Yorktown 1: At Yorktown, Emma Loinewski and Aileen Lennon scored for the Dutchies. Teammate Deanna Amoia had seven saves. Cleo Reiss scored off a pass from Kristen Hodgkinson for the ‘Huskers.

Mount Vernon 4, Lincoln 1: At Lincoln, Elvia Cunduri had two goals and an assist. Larraine Perdomo scored for the Lancers. Sylvia Dominguez made 13 saves in her first varsity game as goalie for Lincoln.

Nyack 3, Ossining 0: At Nyack, Mary Gray had two goals. Caroline Chesterman made five saves for Nyack. Claire Yergeau had five saves for Ossining.

Fox Lane 2, Brewster 0: At Brewster, Samantha Ricker and Michelle Kowalski each had a goal. Kate Burbank made six saves for the Foxes. Rori Stark made 15 saves for the Bears.

John Jay-East Fishkill 3, Mahopac 0: At John Jay-East Fishkill, Monica D’Ippolito had 16 saves for the Indians.

Arlington 2, John Jay 1: At Arlington, Alex Kass scored off an assist from Zoe Boyd and teammate Leslye Burleson had 12 saves for John Jay.

Don’t be fooled by Mamaroneck’s two losses. Both defeats came without their best player, Stephanie Velez, who will return next Thursday for what should be a fantastic game against North Rockland.

In Mamaroneck’s 3-2 win over Ursuline, I saw the player that could take over from Velez, once she’s graduated, as the next prolific scorer for Mamaroneck. Freshman Abby Baigelman is tiny—I’m guessing she isn’t even 5 feet tall—but I haven’t seen a quicker player in the section.

She’s so fast that she doesn’t really need to risk being off sides because she can outrun just about anyone on a through ball.

Having such a fast player can really limit the opposition’s ability to push its defense up to sustain pressure. If the back line creeps up against a player like Baigelman, it will never run her down if she has the ball with any space. At that point, it’s one on one with the goalie, and if a player has any finishing skills, it’s going to be a goal pretty often. Baigelman already has 10 on the season.

A couple days ago I named Eli Wenig the player of the day after his header beat Rye Neck 2-1 on overtime. Turns out the info I got was faulty and it wasn’t his header after all.

Recognition should go to Max Wein for the winning goal. Max, you are hereby awarded Player of the Day after the fact. Eli, you can keep the imaginary trophy.

Score du jour: Byram Hills 3, Edgemont 0. Uh oh. Byram is nasty again. Pat Vierengel had one goal and assisted on the other two. Josh Weiner stopped seven in the shutout.

Player of the day: Cesar Ceja, Iona Prep. Congrats to the freshman on his first two varsity goals. Brother Gerardo had the third in a 3-1 win over Holy Cross.

Other results:

Eastchester 4, Ardsley 0: At Eastchester, Marcello Padula had a goal and an assist. Slade Capasso, Jonas Bittencourt and Kenta Aratani each had a goal. Kleckner Charles had 11 saves for the Panthers.
Rye 6, Woodlands 1: At Woodlands, Eric Pierot had two goals. Ivan Avila had a goal on an assist from Shane Powell for Woodlands.
Bronxville 4, Hamilton 1: At Bronxville, Brian Rogers scored twice. Michael Janos made 17 saves for the Red Raiders.
Harrison 3, Tappan Zee 1: At Harrison, Andres Duarte, Antonio Britto, and Andre Fonseca each scored a goal for the Huskies. Hank Rubenstein made seven saves. Jordan Pardo scored for the Dutchmen. John Leonard made 12 saves.

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Normally we at The Journal News don’t report complaints about referees. I agree with this policy. 80% of games have players or coaches yelling at officials, and 25% of the time they complain about it afterwards. Most of the time it’s baseless. And when it happens that often, it’s not newsworthy anyway.

But it’s not every day you get a coach telling me the refs can do something to themselves that’s considered anatomically impossible.

Coach Fred Sandhop of Hastings (pictured right during the game) wasn’t screaming, but it didn’t take Perry Mason to see how furious the guy was. He couldn’t get onto the bus fast enough after a game in which his team got three red cards, two yellows, and a 1-0 loss to Albertus. He could barely stop as I approached to talk to him. All he did was spit out the angry command to the refs (I should point out that there was no one else around during this exchange), which he told me to print. A few seconds later he thought better of it, turned around and came back, and issued the following revision: “Tell the refs to stick to football, American football, not soccer.” With that he was gone.

You see, one of the two officials doing yesterday’s game at Albertus was a football ref. That obviously worked against him when he started making questionable calls. Hastings players really gave him a hard time all game. Clearly his credibility was already low with them. Hastings ended up with the five cards, which were as much for complaining as anything on the field. In fact one of them came after the game was over.

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Finally the state rankings are out. You can view them here. Keep in mind these are based on records through Sept. 21.

We’ve got two No. 1 ranked teams in Byram Hills and Bronxville. Byram you can understand, but that’s a lot of love for Bronxville from the state committee.

You’ll likely see New Ro and Harrison drop off by next week because of recent losses.

Game of the day: Byram Hills at Edgemont. Can Justin Orden and 4-1-1 Edgemont end Byram’s massive sectional win streak?

NY School for the Deaf at RISD, 3:30 p.m.

Clarkstown North at North Rockland, 4:30 p.m.

Clarkstown South at Ramapo, 4:30 p.m.

Croton-Harmon at Kennedy, 4:30 p.m.

Briarcliff at Byram Hills B, 4:30 p.m.

Ardsley at Eastchester, 4:30 p.m.

Rye at Woodlands, 4:30 p.m.

Byram Hills at Edgemont, 4:30 p.m.

Irvington at Nanuet, 4:30 p.m.

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