Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Casey Winiecki, shown here gaining control of the ball during regular season action, and his Medina Mustangs FC teammates will host the United Warriors n the Buffalo District soccer League’s 3rd Division playoff semifinals at 6 p.m. Sunday at Vets Park.

Seeded No. 2, the Medina Mustangs FC will host the No. 3 United Warriors in the semifinals of the Buffalo District Soccer League 3rd Division playoffs at 6 p.m. Sunday at Vets Park.

The other semi will have the top seeded Buffalo Cosmos facing No. 4 Buffalo Brighten Stars.

This past Sunday’s quarterfinals saw the Warriors best Lake Shore and the Brighten Stars oust the WNY United Reds.

The playoff championship is scheduled for August 14.

The Mustangs will be looking to avenge a 2-0 midseason loss to the Warriors.

The Mustangs bring a 7-2-1 record into the semifinals while the Warriors are 6-1-4.

Nathan Dillenbeck leads the Mustangs in scoring with 7 goals while Ethan Leonard and Steven Anderson both have 4 and Grayson Dolata, Greg Husung and Casey Winiecki each have 2.

Husung leads the team in assists with 4 as Dillenbeck, Leonard, Anderson and Trenton Jones each have 2.

Medina Women’s Softball League playoff action will begin Monday evening with three games in both the ‘A League and the ‘B’ League.

The ‘A’ League playoffs will be held at the Jr. Wilson fields and the ‘B’ League at Butts Park.

The ‘A’ League playoffs will open with No. 4 seed White Birch facing No. 3 Hemp House/810 Meadworks at 6 p.m. The winner will then face No. 1 Banes at 7:15 p.m. The other game will have No. 2 Jr. Wilson 1 vs. No. 5 NYSCOPBA at 6:30 p.m.

The ‘B’ League playoffs will get underway with No. 4 Jr. Wilson 2 vs. No. 3 Lizzy & Lyric at 6 p.m. The winner will then take on No. 1 Medina VFW at 7:15 p.m. The other contest will have No. 2 Just Us vs. No. 5 Mera Hair at 6:30 p.m.

The playoffs will continue on Monday August 8 with the winners bracket semifinals and the first round of the losers bracket.

The playoffs will conclude on Saturday August 13 with the finals scheduled for 1 p.m..

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Alezya Brown had a pair of goals for the Raptors.

Putting a lock on the title, the Holley Raptors downed host Lakeland 3-2 today in a girls U19 Division Rochester District Youth Soccer League game.

The Raptors improve to 8-1 (24 points) with the title clinching victory. They will close out the season against runner-up Gananda (6-1-2, 20 points) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at SUNY Brockport.

Alezya Brown had 2 goals, Olivia Krenning 1 and Abby Scanlan 2 assists to lead the offense for the Raptors.

The Raptors held a slender 1-0 lead at the half as Krenning scored off an assist from Scanlan.

Liv Eaton made a big save in goal on a 1 on 1 play at the top of the box to keep the Raptors on top at the half.

The Raptors upped the lead to 3-0 in the second half on a pair of goals by Brown.

A short corner by Scanlan to Aurora Serafin started the first scoring chance. Serafin passed the ball back to Scanlan and on a cross the Lakefront goalie the tipped the ball behind the goal. Brown then came up with a big finishing play to make it 2-0.

What proved to be the game winning tally again started with a corner by Scanlan. Lilly Lashomb then put a shot off the cross bar and Brown again came up big scoring on a header at the goal line to make it 3-0.

Lakefront did make the finish interesting by scoring twice first on a breakaway and then on a free kick.

Kendall’s girls U14 and Holley’s girls u16 teams have both captured division titles in the Rochester District Youth Soccer League.

Kendall went 11-0-1 on the season with 6 shutout victories including 4 of the last 5 games. A key win was a 7-0 victory over runner-up Penfield.

Holley went 9-1-2 after a 3-1-2 start to the season. Holley won its last 6 games including key back-to-back victories over chief challengers Penfield (3-1 and Pittsford (2-1) to ignite that clutch winning streak.

Contributed Photo – Ron Taylor

Tonight’s Kensingston Lions Club’s WNY All-Star Football Classic at Buffalo State College (7 p.m.) will have four local players on the North squad including Jarin Rhim, Iverson Poole and Greg Thompson from Medina and Jahmeek Riley from Albion.

Medina was also represented at the inaugural Football Classic in 1975 by Ron Taylor.

Taylor played for the WNY squad in that Niagara Frontier Football Classic which faced the Metro squad in the contest played on August 9 at the University of Buffalo’s old Rotary Field.

Taylor, a 6-2, 250 lb. tackle, earned All-Western New York and first team All-State honors his senior year with the Mustangs.

He went on to play collegiate football at Missouri Valley College.

Taylor also had an outstanding wrestling career at Medina. He was a two-time Section VI champion and placed second at the state championships his senior year.

Highlighting this past week’s league action at Hickory Ridge was the Tuesday Ladies Night Out league which saw a spectacular low gross round shot by Deb Wood as she carded a 35. Melissa Cotter shot a 41.

Low net was Cotter with a 29 followed by Betty Passerell, Diane Abel, Dona Hazen and Vicki Brawn all carding a 32 net.

Wood recorded two birdies and Cotter one.

Linda Chrzan and Laurie Freeman lead the standings with 78.5 points. Wood and Aleta Martin are in second with 73 points while Marcia Zambito and Margie Page are in third with 71.5 points.

The Men’s Thursday Night Traveling League had Barry Flansberg post the low gross with a 42 with Zack Burgess shooting the low net of 30. Burgess and Josh Bennett posted birdies.

Cotter and Root lead the standings with 206 points. Hanlon and Schrader are close behind in second with 204 points. Cotter and Knaak with 184 points and Foos and Stedman with 182 points round out the top four.

The Hickory Ridge Golf Association announces their next tournament, the Club Championship which will be held on Saturday, August 13. All players must be members of Hickory Ridge and the golf association. Players must have posted a minimum of 10 eighteen hole rounds posted to GHIN.

Winners will be both low gross and low net for males and females. This is a 100% handicap medal play tournament with pairings and tee times assigned by the HRGA according to handicap. Sign up in the pro shop prior to August 4.

The Central Committee of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association today approved increasing the number of classifications from five to six for the sports of boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball and girls volleyball beginning with the 2023-24 school year.

Currently the state’s five enrollment based classifications include AA, A, B, C and D.

Locally for sectionals in most sports Albion, Medina and Roy-Hart are in Class B while Holley, Kendall, Lyndonville and Barker are in Class C. Some of the exceptions include Medina is in Class C for football, field hockey and girls volleyball and Class D for lacrosse.

On Tuesday, the central Committee approved a change in the overtime policy for girls soccer bringing it more in line with the boys soccer overtime rule.

The girls game will now be comprised of two 40 minute halves. If the contest is tied at the end of regulation time there will be two 10 minute sudden victory overtime periods.

For the sectionals and state playoffs there with be two 15 minute sudden victory overtime periods. If the contest is still tied penalty kicks will be used to determine which team advances.

Jr. Wilson 1 combined a 16-4 win over Hemp House/810 Meadworks with Banes 12-5 loss to NYSCOPBA Monday evening to earn a share of the Medina Women’s Softball League regular season ‘A’ League title.

Jr. Wilson 1 and Banes share the title after finishing the regular season with identical 10-2 records. Jr. Wilson 1 downed Banes 14-3 the week before to stay in the title chase.

Jr. Wilson’s 1 scored two runs in the third inning and seven runs in the fourth in route to the win over Hemp House/810 Meadworks.

A string of walks along with timely hits in the fourth helped Jr. Wilson’s 1 keep the lead for good.

Chasity Chinn scored three runs, and was 3-3 with a double on the night. Stormi Kruger went 2-3 with a double and home run, while Sara Flansburg added a triple and Michele Crandall and Jessica Rosenbeck both had doubles for Jr. Wilson’s 1.

Alishia Foss had a triple and Cathy Schmitt a double for Hemp House/810 Meadworks which also dropped a narrow 16-13 decision to White Birch in the other portion of the doubleheader.

NYSCOPBA used a big 7 run third inning to break a 2-2 tie and key the win over Banes.

Chloe Stinson had a triple for NYSCOPBA while Sue Seefeldt, Lyndsay Chatt, Jen Masse and Grace Masse each had 2 hits for Banes.