Keeping Track

Arlington HS grad Brittany Reilly recently wrapped up her sophomore season as a forward/midfielder for the SUNY Oneonta women's soccer team. Reilly played in 21 games for the Red Dragons, starting five of them. She scored three goals and added an assist for her team, which finished 12-6-3 overall and qualified for the NCAA tournament for an 11th straight year.

Lauren Brunetto, a sophomore at SUNY Oneonta who graduated from Beacon HS, ran in seven competitions with the Red Dragons' women's cross country team. Her best performance came at the Oneonta State Early Bird Meet, in which she finished the 4,500-meter course fourth overall in a time of 18 minutes, 17 seconds. In a meet at Cortland, Brunetto also took fourth place overall, crossing the finish line of the 6K race in 24:29.12. As a team, the Red Dragons ran in nine competitions, including the SUNYAC championship meet in which they finished sixth, and the NCAA Atlantic Regional Championships, where the team placed 15th.

Former Arlington runner Carolyn Nasr was similarly a member of the SUNY Oneonta women's cross country team, having taken part in eight competitions with the Red Dragons in her freshman season. Nasr took the runner-up spot in a pair of meets: the Hartwick meet (19:17 on the 5K course) and her school's Early Bird Meet (18:07 on the 4.5K trail).

Editor's note: Keeping Track is a regular feature on the Varsity Club blog during the school year. If you have a college note to submit, you can e-mail the link or a copy of the school's press release to pjsports@poughkee.gannett.com.

Keeping Track

Washington College freshman defender Hillary Kane, a Rhinebeck native who graduated from the Millbrook School, concluded her first season with the Washington College field hockey team in 2009. She played in 11 games, earning three starts. Kane scored her first career goal versus Haverford on October 21. She had one goal for two points in her first season with the Shorewomen.

Jordan Bledsoe, a former Our Lady of Lourdes football standout now playing defensive lineman for Fordham University, honored today by being named a second-team, All-Patriot League selection in voting by the league’s seven head coaches. Bledsoe, who moved over to the defensive line after playing on the offensive line his first two years at Fordham, led the Rams (5-6 overall) in tackles for loss with nine and was second in sacks with 4.5. On the year, he recorded 39 total tackles, 23 solo, while also registering a pass deflection. Bledsoe is seventh in the Patriot League in sacks (0.41/game) and 10th in tackles for loss (0.82/game). His best game in 2009 was a nine-tackle effort at Lafayette on October 17th, which included 2.5 tackles for loss and two sacks.

Through her first three games as a member of the University of West Florida women's basketball team former John Jay star Kirstin McIntyre is averaging 9.3 points — that's the third-most among the Argos — and a team-leading 4.7 rebounds a game.

Editor's note: Keeping Track is a regular feature on the Varsity Club blog during the school year. If you have a college note to submit, you can e-mail the link or a copy of the school's press release to pjsports@poughkee.gannett.com.

Links to John Jay's state girls soccer state title win

We had our coverage of John Jay's title win all over our website over the weekend, so I figured our regular Varsity Club readers might like a central place to get a lot of the links to everything Patriots.

Here's the game story from John Jay's 3-0 win in the finals over Christian Brothers Academy from the Syracuse area.

Here's the story that ran on the cover of Sunday's Poughkeepsie Journal.

Here's the notebook, mentioning seniors Keara Hunt, Caroline Kaplan, Lissa Mansfield and LeAnn DiSisto, sophomore wunderkind Sam McGuire and a special guest appearance by one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time, Gary Gait.

Here are the links to Darryl Bautista's wonderful galleries of photos from the semifinals and finals.

Here's my story on John Jay's 3-2 win over West Islip in the state semifinals.

Here's the story I wrote from practice earlier in the week.

Here's my live blog from the West Islip semifinal game and here's my blog from the CBA finals game.

FINAL: John Jay 3, West Islip 2

In case you missed Phil Strum's live blog from the state Class AA semifinals, you can catch up on all you missed by reading his updates below.

Check out the complete story of this game in Saturday's edition of the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Thursday's scoreboard

Boys bowling
Arlington 7, Beacon 0
Ketcham 5, John Jay 2

Girls bowling
Arlington 7, Beacon 0
Ketcham 7, John Jay 0

Keeping Track

Hopewell Junction native Danielle Scharf, who graduated from the Berkshire School before heading to SUNY Cortland to play ice hockey, assisted on the Red Dragons' first goal in a recent 3-2 loss at Buffalo State.

Mimi Anthony, a Millbrook native and a graduate of the Millbrook School who just finished her sophomore season on the Ohio Wesleyan University field hockey team, recently received an honorable mention for the All-North Coast Athletic Conference team. Anthony ranked second on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 2 assists. Her 12 goals and her average of 1.37 points per game both ranked 10th in the conference. She was one of six players to receive all-conference consideration from Ohio Wesleyan, which finished the season with a 10-9 overall record.

Former Poughkeepsie basketball standout Nyquan Bellamy scored 10 points in his first game as a member of the Indiana Institute of Technology men's hoops squad. In the Warriors' first four games, Bellamy is averaging 4.0 points and shooting 31.6 percent from the field.

Editor's note: Keeping Track is a regular feature on the Varsity Club blog during the school year. If you have a college note to submit, you can e-mail the link or a copy of the school's press release to pjsports@poughkee.gannett.com.

Wednesday scoreboard

Boys bowling
John Jay 7, Beacon 0
Arlington 5, Ketcham 2

Girls bowling
Ketcham 4, Arlington 3
Beacon 7, John Jay 0

Pioneers' Simpkins lauded

The postseason awards have rolled in for one Poughkeepsie HS football player, in particular, so far.

Jaquawne Simpkins has been nominated as an Old Spice Red Zone Player of the Year. As a result of this achievement, Simpkins is among a select group of players who are eligible to be selected as a national Red Zone Player of the Year and be honored in a full-page feature in a national print publication. He is also eligible to be named one of 50 national Players of the Year. The top 50 players nationwide will be named Red Zone Players of the Year and will receive a plaque and other awards.

High school coaches across the country are naming one player from their team as their Player of the Year. Each team’s Player of the Year will receive a certificate to acknowledge his accomplishment.

For the ninth straight year, Old Spice is recognizing high school football players who go above and beyond the call of duty, particularly in the Red Zone. The program honors athletes who are able to elevate their play and step up when the heat is really on. These athletes embody leadership, performance and desire, and serve as examples to their teammates on and off the field.

Keeping Track

Jason Sabia, a graduate of Franklin D. Roosevelt HS, just finished his career at Western New England College with an appearance in the NCAA tournament. He lifted the Golden Bears over Babson on Saturday to lead his team to the final 32 teams left on Sunday against Wesleyan College.

Sophomore Chris Matteo, a Webutuck graduate, recently completed his second year with the Guilford College men's soccer team. A 5-7 midfielder, Matteo started in three of his 19 games played this season. He finished the season with six points on two goals and two assists. Matteo recorded his first career points in a victory against Gallaudet University Sept. 4, when he had a goal and an assist. He also scored in a victory against Averett University Sept. 9 and recorded an assist against Bridgewater College Sept. 26.

Former Roy C. Ketcham standout Hannah Cerrone has helped her Boston College women's soccer team (17-3-2 overall) into the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA tournament. For more on Cerrone and her Eagles' trip through the NCAA tournament, click here for the story.

Editor's note: Keeping Track is a regular feature on the Varsity Club blog during the school year. If you have a college note to submit, you can e-mail the link or a copy of the school's press release to pjsports@poughkee.gannett.com.

John Jay girls soccer state site announced

The John Jay High School girls soccer team's road to the Class AA state championship continues this Friday at 11:45 a.m. at Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden.

There, the Section 1 champion Patriots (21-1 overall) will face the champions of Section 11, West Islip (15-3-2) of Suffolk County for a berth in Saturday morning's state title game.

For information on how to get to Tompkins Cortland CC (or TC3 as the locals apparently refer to it), visit here.

In Friday's other semifinal, Section 3's Christian Brothers Academy will face Section 5's Penfield at Homer High School, also at 11:45 a.m.

The title game between the two winners will be on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Tompkins Cortland Community College.

Keeping Track

Former John Jay HS hoops star Kirstin McIntyre, now a sophomore at the University of Western Florida, scored 14 points in her first game as an Argonaut on Monday, though her team lost to visiting Mobile 81-76.

Christie Morano, who starred in soccer at Highland before graduating this past spring and joining the LeMoyne College women's soccer team, was recently named the 2009 Northeast-10 Conference women's soccer Freshman of the Year, as voted on by the league's 16 head coaches. In her rookie season, Morano led the Dolphins with 11 goals.

Also a former John Jay Patriot, Melissa Flaherty is a member of the field hockey team from Montclair, which recently won ECAC Mid-Atlantic championship with a 3-0 triumph over Hartwick.

A former Our Lady of Lourdes Warrior Jen Labrenz finished out her freshman season with the Saint Michael’s College women's cross country team by finishing in the top 75 competitors at the recent NCAA Cross Country Regionals, hosted by UMass-Lowell.

A senior on the women's soccer team at Wheaton (Mass.) College, New Paltz alumn Kathleen Carroll was recently named to the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference Academic All-Conference team. Carroll was also selected for the ESPN The Magazine Academic College Division All-District I first team.

Editor's note: Keeping Track is a regular feature on the Varsity Club blog during the school year. If you have a college note to submit, you can e-mail the link or a copy of the school's press release to pjsports@poughkee.gannett.com.

‘Monty’ proud of Admirals

When Gary Montalto's 31-year run as Arlington's varsity boys soccer coach came to end earlier today, he thanked each of his Admirals, hugged every one of them, and spoke of the pride he felt for them.
“As an Arlington soccer coach,” Montalto said, “there’s nobody better than these guys to coach — over the years and this year, particularly.”

The mentor, affectionately known as ‘Monty,’ finished his career in Freedom Plains with a 542-83-43 overall record as the Admirals’ varsity coach. His players, though, had hoped for three more wins, culminating in a fourth state title.

“At the beginning of the season, we all told each other we were going to win states,” said senior forward Ethan Ashong, who scored both of Arlington's goals today in a 3-2 loss to Newburgh, “but, obviously, we didn’t, unfortunately. Just our energy in the beginning of the year, our preparation to win states, just to even get this far and give ‘Monty’ this good last year. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t do that.”

For more on Montalto's final game on the Admirals' bench, check out Sunday's edition of the Poughkeepsie Journal.

Patriots win, reach Final Four

The girls soccer team from John Jay High School has beaten Union-Endicott, 2-1, in the state Class AA regional finals.

Wiccopee's Patriots improved to 21-1 on the season, and they now move on to the state Class AA semifinals next weekend in the Cortland area. John Jay reached today's regional finals by beating Washingtonville, 4-0, in the regional semifinals earlier this week.

For more on this game, check out Sunday's edition of the Poughkeepspie Journal.

Red Hook, Pine Plains field hockey blogs

For these live blogs, click HERE

FINAL: Newburgh 3, Arlington 2

FREEDOM PLAINS — The boys soccer team from Newburgh Free Academy has defeated the Arlington Admirals, 3-2, to capture the state Class AA regional title and a trip to the state semifinals.

For the complete story on today's game, check out Sunday's edition of the Poughkeepsie Journal.

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After Newburgh's Alex Bramall received a red card and left the game, his team quickly took down an Admiral inside the box.

Ethan Ashong converted his second penalty kick of the game, bringing his Arlington Admirals to within a goal, 3-2, with 6:01 left in the second half.

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Michael Demshick's break-away goal with 17:11 left in the game has put his Newburgh Goldbacks ahead of Arlington, 3-1, with a trip to the state Final Four on the line.

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Only 17 seconds of the second half elapsed before Newbugh took a 2-1 lead in this state Class AA regional title game.

Alex Bramall streaked down the left sideline and blasted a shot, which hit the left goal post and ricocheted into the far side of the net to give the Section-9 champs the lead.

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The boys soccer teams from Arlington and Newburgh are knotted at a goal apiece at halftime of their state Class AA regional championship game.

The winner of this game will head up to Oneonta, having gained a berth in the state Class AA semifinals.

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At the 13:52 mark of the first half, Wes Finch stormed down the left side of the field, cut back to his right and then fired a shot into the rear, left-hand corner of the goal, giving his Newburgh Goldbacks the tying goal, as his team is now knotted with Arlington, 1-1.

***

Just 10 minutes, 38 seconds into the game, the Arlington Admirals have taken a 1-0 lead over Newburgh, thanks to a penalty kick from Ethan Ashong.

Cody Farrier, making a move deep in Arlington's offensive end, was tackled inside the box, setting up the early PK.

From there, Ashong buried the ball in the lower, left-hand corner of the net to put the Admirals ahead in this state Class AA regional final.

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We're about 15 minutes away from the state Class AA regional boys soccer final between Section 1's Arlington and Section 9's Newburgh.
Check back throughout the game as we post live updates here, and don't forget to look for the full story in Sunday's edition of the Poughkeepsie Journal.