Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Akron’s Isabella Jones and Barker’s Carnes Cole, shown here battling for the ball during a regular season meeting, and their teammates will vie for the Section VI Class C championship on Wednesday.

Perennial league and sectional title rivals No. 1 seed Akron and No. 2 Barker will meet for the Section VI Class C field hockey championship at 7 p.m. Wednesday at West Seneca West.

It marks the 14th time in the past 20 years that the two Niagara-Orleans League rivals have met for the sectional crown.

Akron has won the least three meetings and three of the last four. However, Barker holds a 9-4 lead in the series including wins in the first eight meetings between 2003 and 2014.

Akron won both regular season meetings with Barker in route to posting a second straight 12-0 N-O title season. Barker finished in the runner-up spot at 10-2.

Offensively Akron has been led by Madison Brege with 20 goals, Lacey Berghorn 17, Nevada Bergman 14 and Olivia McClaine 13.

Barker has been paced by Mia Herman with 16 goals, Alexa Zglinicki 16 and Miya Goodale 11.

Both teams have also had stingy defenses as Akron has posted 10 shutouts in league action and Barker 8.

Wednesday’s winner will advance to the Far West Regional.

Section VI Volleyball

Two N-O League teams will be competing in the Section VI Class C1 volleyball semifinals this evening. No. 2 seed Akron will host No. 3 Southwestern and No. 5 Newfane will visit No. 1 Eden, both at 6 p.m.

Contributed Photo – Lionel Rhim

Contributed Photo – Adriana Botello

The SUNY Brockport Athletic Hall of Fame recently inducted the 2002 football team whose roster included Medina High graduate Lionel Rhim.

The 2002 Golden Eagles squad won a school record 1- games and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division III tournament.

Interestingly, one of Lionel’s sons, Jarin, is a freshman wide receiver on this season’s Golden Eagles football team.

Botello on FLCC Volleyball squad

Holley graduate Adriana Botello is a freshman member of the Finger Lakes Community volleyball squad which captured its second straight Region III Division B playoff championship.

FLCC defeated Jamestown Community College in 4 sets to repeat as Region III champions and earn a second straight trip to the national tournament.

Botello has 33 service aces and 18 spiking kills to date on the season.

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Lorelei Dillenbeck (Lyndonville) and Taigan Guerrero (Kendall)

Two local players, Lyndonville’s Lorelei Dillenbeck and Kendall’s Taigan Guerrero, both seniors, have been named to the Genesee Region League volleyball All-Star team.

Attica and Alexander, which shared the Division 1 title at 14-1, both placed three players on the team.

Attica is represented by seniors Olivia Mercado and Maddy Durfee and junior Ellie Cusmano.

Alexander has placed the junior trio of Alyssa Kramer, Riley Powell and Holly Bykowski.

Notre Dame, which captured the Division 2 title at 11-3, likewise has placed three players including Amelia McCulley, Maggie Monachino and Avelin Tomidy, all seniors.

The All-Star team also includes junior Jackie Neureuter and sophomore Reagan Schneider from Pembroke, senior Taylor Drummond from Wheatland-Chili, junior Sayde Bush from Oakfield-Alabama, sophomore Sydney Reilly from Elba and junior Emma Balduf from Byron-Bergen.

Contributed Photo – Jalin Cooper

Medina High graduate Jalin Cooper is a senior wide receiver on the Duquesne University football team this season.

Cooper has caught 9 passes for 143 yards so far this season including a 24 yard touchdown reception during the Dukes recent 30-6 win over Central Connecticut State and a 59 yard reception Saturday against Long Island University.

Cooper graduated last spring from Toledo University with a B.A. degree in University Studies with a focus on Human Resources Development.

Now at Duquesne is is working toward a M.S. degree in Leadership.

During his scholastic days at Medina he played varsity football and basketball and ran track where he qualified for the state meet in the sprints.

Contributed Photos – Claire Squicciarini, left, Abby Scanlan and Aly Knaak, right.

Albion High is represented on the rosters of both the neighboring Alfred University and Alfred State College women’s soccer teams this season.

Claire Squicciarini is a sophomore defender and Abby Scanlan a freshman forward/midfielder on the Alfred University squad.

Squicciarini, a Communications Studies major, has started all 17 games on defense and has scored 1 goal.

Scanlan, who is majoring in Criminal Justice, has started in 12 games and has 2 goals and 2 assists.

Aly Knaak is a freshman defender on the Alfred State team. A Veterinary Technology major, she has started all 16 games and has scored 1 goal.

In women’s college soccer playoff action Saturday, Genesee Community College defeated Broome CC 2-0 in the Region III B North championship game. The GCC roster includes Paige Derisley and Quinn McCue from Albion, Julie Coble from Kendall and Tatum Gagne and Sara Kingdollar from Holley.

Finger Lakes Community College lost 11-1 to Mohawk Valley CC in the Region III A North title contest. Lyndonville graduate Ella Lewis scored the lone Finger Lakes goal, her 25th of the season, and was named to the All Tournament team. The FLCC lineup also included Holley grad Halee Passarell.

No. 3 seed Notre Dame edged visiting No. 6 Lyndonville 25-21, 20-25, 25-21, 25-22 in a Section V Class D3 quarterfinal round volleyball playoff match this afternoon.

Leading the way for Lyndonville were Lorelei Dillenbeck with 7 kills, 2 aces and 4 blocks, Addison Dillenbeck 7 kills, 2 aces and 14 digs, Ashlee Stephens 16 assists, 9 digs and 1 block, Jocelyn Mack 8 kills and 2 blocks and Haley Shaffer 24 digs.

Girls Soccer
No. 3 seed Frewsburg scored a goal in the five minutes to nip top seeded Wilson 3-2 in the Section VI Class C girls soccer championship game today at Dunkirk.

Leah Cloy scored two goals, the first on a penalty kick, to pull Wilson even at 2-2.

A fourth quarter comeback bid fell just short as No. 6 seed Holley dropped a narrow 26-22 decision at No. 3 Bolivar-Richburg this evening in the quarterfinals of the Section V 8 Man Division playoffs.

Trailing 26-8, Holley battled back to within four at 26-22 as Vinny Golisano returned a kickoff 70 yards for one touchdown and caught a 31 yard pass from quarterback Destin Kuyal in the first four minutes of the final quarter. Tony Geska added a two-point conversion run after the first TD. However the Hawks could get no closer.

Holley did hold an 8-6 lead at the half on a 6 yard touchdown run by Geska and a two-point conversion pass from Kuyal to Zach Milner in the second quarter.

Bolivar-Richburg though answered back with two unanswered touchdowns in the third quarter and another to open the final period to open up a 26-8 lead.

Holley finishes the season at 3-6 while Bolivar-Richburg advances to the semifinals with a 6-3 record.

Top seeded Gananda downed No. 3 Holley 3-1 in the Section V Class C1 girls soccer championship game this evening at Webster Thomas High School.

Jailyn Bishop scored the Holley goal while Nicole Cruz had a pair of goals for Gananda.

Gananda improves to 20-0 while Holley finishes the season at 16-3-1.

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Medina’s Amari Soule breaks into the clear for a big gain during the Mustangs 48-7 Section VI Class C quarterfinal win over Eden at Vets Park this evening.

Exploding for touchdowns on all seven first half posessions, top seeded Medina opened defense of its Section VI Class C title with a 48-7 quarterfinal round romp over No. 8 Eden at Vets Park this evening.

The Mustangs blitzed out to a 48-7 first half lead as Noah Skinner scored 4 touchdowns and Aiden Pitts, Brody Fry and Kaedon Cleveland each had 1.

The defense set up three of those scores on interceptions by Amari Soule and Noah Cudzilo and a fumble recovery by Logan Gray, each of which gave the Mustangs offense great field position in Eden territory.

It took Medina just 45 seconds to get on the scoreboard as Skinner scored on an 11 yard run and Cole Callard tacked on the first of his six extra point kicks. A big 44 yard run by Skinner set up the score.

Turnovers by the defense, first on the fumble recovery by Gray at the Eden 33 and then on the interception by Cudzilo at the Raiders 38 set up the next two scores.

The offense was quick to capitalize both times, first on a 2 yard touchdown run by Pitts and then on an 11 yard TD carry by Fry upping the lead to 20-0. Runs of 29 by Soule and 13 by Pitts highlighted the first drive which was briefly slowed by a penalty.

Eden did cut the deficit to 20-7 on an 82 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Matt Sweet to Carson Teijeira but the Raiders could not find the endzone again.

Medina got that one back just three plays after the ensuing kickoff on an 8 yard touchdown run by Skinner to make it 27-7 at the end of the opening quarter. Soule had a big 46 yard run to key that short drive.

Keeping the momentum, Medina scored on all three second quarter possessions on touchdown runs by Skinner of 10 and 67 yards and by Cleveland of 43 yards to make it 48-7 at the half.

An interception by Soule on the first play of the quarter set up the first scoring drive which was highlighted by a 28 yard pass completion from Pitts to Cleveland.

The scoreless second half was played with a running clock.

Improving to 8-1, Medina will now host  No. 5 Fredonia in the semifinals next Friday. It will be a rematch of last year’s Class C title game won by the Mustangs in a snowstorm at Highmark Stadium. Fredonia defeated No. 4 Depew 43-22 this evening to improve to 8-1.

Eden finishes the season at 4-5.

The Medina defensive trio of Ollie Wilson, Roosevelt Mitchell and Josh Wilson tackle Eden’s Steven Woods.

Medina’s Noah Cudzilo works to get away from Eden defender Jacob Cecchini.

Medina’s Brody Fry blocks Eden’s Steven Woods to clear the way for Jerrell Nealy.