Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Iyla Lilleby

Six Niagara-Orleans League players have earned spots on the Coaches All Western New York Field Hockey squad.

N-O champion Akron has placed senior midfielder Jenelle Kieffer and junior midfielder Madison Brege on the first team.

The Lady Tigers are also represented on the second team by senior defender Emerson Polkowski and junior attacker Lacey Berghorn.

Berghorn scored a league high 40 goals, Kieffer 15 and Brege 7.

Barker junior defender Ashlin Cole was also named to the second team.

Medina sophomore attacker Iyla Lilleby received Honorable Mention.

Lilleby led the Mustangs with  23 goals and 8 assists on the season

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – It was a most memorable November afternoon as Medina romped in a snowstorm at Highmark Stadium to down Fredonia 58-6 in the Section VI Class C title game. The snow came down heaviest in the first half as shown here with quarterback Xander Payne handing off to Noah Skinner as Chris Johnson blocks. Thriving in the snow the Mustangs jumped out to a commanding 32-0 lead in the first half and never looked back. Greg Thompson scored four touchdowns, Payne three and Skinner one to lead the Mustangs attack.

On the local sports scene 2021 proved to be the Year of the Mustang as Medina put together a remarkable run capturing both league and sectional titles in football, basketball and baseball.

On The Gridiron

After having the fall 2020 football season wiped out by Covid 19 restrictions, the Mustangs more than made up for it in 2021 by winning the C North Division and Section VI Class C championships during both the state’s first ever spring football season and the regular fall campaign compiling an outstanding 17-1 overall record.

Medina’s Brian Fry, shown here stiff arming a Southwestern defender scored three touchdowns as the Mustangs downed the Trojans 21-13 at Vets Park in the spring Section VI Class C title contest.

The spring season saw Medina go 4-0 to win the C North Division and then post two playoff wins at Vets Park to claim the team’s first sectional title since 1988.

In the sectionals Medina romped past Eden 54-6 in the semifinals and then trimmed Southwestern 21-13 in the title contest.

Keeping the momentum, the Mustangs went on to post a school record 11-1 in the fall including a 5-0 mark to repeat as C North Division champions.

The regular season was highlighted by a narrow 30-28 win over rival Albion before an overflow Homecoming crowd at Vets Park. It was the resumption of the century plus old rivalry which had been interrupted in 2020 by the Covid 19 restrictions. The special evening also included a reunion of the 1980 football team which captured Medina’s first sectional championship.

The Mustangs then made a successful Section VI Class C title defense by downing Eden 30-14 in the quarterfinals, Lackawanna 32-0 in the semis and then Fredonia 58-6 in a most memorable title contest which was played in a snowstorm at Highmark Stadium.

That win earned Medina its first ever berth in the state playoffs which saw the Mustangs drop a narrow 26-24 decision to East Rochester/Gananda in the Far West Regional at Williamsville South High School.

On The Court
Compiling an 11-1 record, Medina captured the N-O championship for the fifth time in the last six years.

The Mustangs then ended a 50 year sectional title drought by claiming the Class B2 crown with a 68-57 home court win over Lackawanna in the championship game as Brian Fry scored 22 and Tyler Chinn 19.

Medina’s Tyler Chinn drives to the basket against a Lackawanna defender during the Mustangs Section VI Class B2 68-57 title win over the visiting Steelers. .

It was the first sectional title since the 1970-71 season for Medina which advanced to the finals with home court wins over Alden 68-48 in the quarterfinals and N-O rival Newfane 64-55 in the semifinals.

On The Diamond

After having the entire spring 2020 season wiped out by Covid 19 restrictions, Medina picked right up where it left off in 2019 when the Mustangs captured N-O League and Section VI titles and advanced to the state semifinals.

This past spring the Mustangs posted a perfect 12-0 record to retain the N-O title.

The Mustangs kept rolling by scoring three straight wins at Vets Park to claim the Section VI Class B2 title downing Southwestern 10-0 in the quarterfinals, Akron 7-3 in the semis and Roy-Hart 7-0 in the finals. Zach Fike hurled a two hitter with 10 strikeouts and AJ Seefeldt hit a big three-run triple and Fry an RBI triple to highlight the Mustangs title win.

Because of Covid 19 restrictions the regional and state playoffs were cancelled so the sectional class tourney was as far as teams could go.

Also in 2021
– The Medina High Unified Bowling team captured a fourth straight sectional title.

– Medina’s Dominick Callara earned a Section VI wrestling title.

– Former longtime Medina High football Coach John “Pinky” Loughlin, who passed away in 2012, was inducted into the Section VI Hall of Fame.

Zach Fike delivers a pitch during Medina’s 7-0 win over Roy-Hart in the Section VI Class B2 title contest at Vets Park.

– The Medina Ponys youth football team won a Niagara Orleans Football Association (NOFA) playoff title by downing Roy-Hart/Barker 25-6.

– The Medina Rotary Club hosted the first local Pickleball Tournament on the Medina High tennis courts.

– The Niagara-Orleans American Legion baseball team, whose lineup included several local players (Fry, Seefeldt and Chris Goyette from Medina and Tom Russo from Roy-Hart) captured the Buffalo District Legion playoff championship. The N-O downed Jurek Post 5-1 in the title deciding contest.

– On the links at Shelridge. Ian Wagner and Jake Harris teamed up to win the Shelridge Open and James Tee captured the Shelridge Club championship.

– In Medina Women’s Softball League playoff action, Jr. Wilson downed Banes 15-2 to win the ‘A’ Division playoffs.

Photo by Tom Rivers – The Albion boys track team went undefeated to repeat as Niagara-Orleans League champions.

The boys track team carried the championship banner for Albion High during Niagara-Orleans League competition this past year.

The Purple Eagles captured a second straight N-O title with a 6-0 record in dual meet competition and then took first place honors in 10 events at the annual N-O All-League track meet.

Contributed Photo – Bills Fan of the Year Geno Allport with his son Tre.

Chris Shabazz was a triple winner in the Long Jump. High Jump and Triple Jump and Dominic DiGiulio doubled in the Shotput and Discus to lead the Purple Eagles parade of N-O All-League champions which also included Reuben Rivers (3200), Tony Freeman (400 Hurdles) and Alex Zaczek (Pole Vault) as well as the 400 Relay (Freeman, Shabazz, Auston Johnson and Ozzie Matos) and 1600 Relay (Matos, Freeman, Jr. Morales and Shkwe Riley) teams.

Shabazz went on to win the High Jump and place second in the Triple Jump at the Section VI meet.

Sandstone ruled in youth baseball capturing both the Albion Midget League 12U and 10U division championships.

Sandstone downed Rotary 5-0 in the 12U playoff championship game as Omer Fugate pitched a one hitter with 14 strikeouts.

In the 10U title contest Sandstone nipped Barre 4-3 as a double by Garrett Smith in the fourth inning plated what proved to be the winning run.

Albion’s Geno Allport, whose family has had season tickets since 1974, was honored by the Buffalo Bills as Bills Fan of the Year. Allport has been a long time supporter of the Albion Youth football program serving first as a coach and now as commissioner.

Saturday will spotlight Medina in 2021.

Building up a commanding 40-11 half-time advantage, Batavia went on to defeat Roy-Hart 65-24 in the Large School Division consolation game of the Batavia Lions Club Tournament held at Genesee Community College this afternoon.

Jamel Johnson Jr. scored 12, Nate Beyer 7, Bryan Baes 3 and Brandin Masters 2 for Roy-Hart which was playing without three starters for the second game in a row because of vacations.

The Rams, which trailed the Blue Devils 53-19 after three quarters, are now 1-4.

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Helping lead Roy-Hart to Niagara-Orleans League boys and girls soccer titles were N-O Players of the Year Peter Martillotta and Kara Choate.

Roy-Hart enjoyed a big four championship year in Niagara-Orleans League competition in 2021.

The Lady Rams soccer team captured a second straight N-O title going 7-1 and went on to claim the team’s first ever Section VI championship. Roy-Hart shared the Class B2 title with Fredonia after the teams battled to a 1-1 tie in double overtime. However, the Lady Rams advanced to the Section VI Class B state qualifier by besting Fredonia 4-2 on penalty kicks. Lew-Port topped R-H 5-1 in the state qualifier contest.

The Roy-Hart boys soccer squad likewise claimed a second straight N-O title by posting a 9-1 record. The Rams went on to reach the Section VI Class B2 finals where the Rams were trimmed 2-0 by Lackawanna.

The Roy-Hart volleyball team posted a perfect 10-0 record to capture the N-O championship for the first time since 2009.

The R-H boys swim team captured a second straight N-O title with a 10-0 record. It was the 13th N-O title in the last 15 years for the Channel Cats.

The year also saw the debut of the new Roy-Hart/Barker/Lyndonville Silverbacks football team.

And it certainly was a most interesting first year for the Silverbacks which played 8 man football during the state’s first ever spring football season and then 11 man in the fall. The team had been slated to debut during the fall of 2020 but that season was postponed until this past spring by Covid 19 restrictions.

The Silverbacks first 8 man win came over South Seneca 20-6 and their first 11 man victory was over Lake Shore 28-12.

In addition, the year also saw former wrestling Coach Dick Lang get inducted into the Rams Wall of Fame.

Friday will spotlight Albion in 2021.

Helping Roy-Hart claim league boys swimming and volleyball titles were N-O Players of the Year Carter Green, left, and Samantha Albright, right. She is shown making a return with Allison Dent who is at left.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Zach Barrett hit the game winner at the buzzer for Kendall.

A three at the buzzer by Zach Barrett earned Kendall a narrow 49-46 win at Perry in a non league boys basketball game this evening.

Barrett’s clutch three came after Perry had tied the game at 46-46 on a layup by Bryce Tallman with 20 seconds to go.

Barrett had a total of 8 points, including two threes, in the decisive final period which also featured a key three by Jacek Kwiatkowski early in the stanza to rally Kendall to within one at 40-39. Barrett’s first three put Kendall up 43-42 and the Eagles never trailed after that.

Trailing 24-19 at the half, Perry used an 18-12 third period scoring edge to rally into a 37-36 lead at the three-quarter mark. Tallman scored 11 of his game high 19 points in the stanza for the Yellowjackets.

Braxton Zarpentine led Kendall in scoring on the evening with 12 as Barrett added 10, Louie Conte 9, Kwiatkowski 7, Devin Edick 6 and Jeffrey Pratt 5.

Barrett and Conte both grabbed off 10 rebounds, Pratt 9 and Zarpentine 8.

Kendall improves to 3-3 and Perry slips to 2-6.

Contributed Photo – The Lyndonville wrestling squad went 8-1 to place second at the two day Bolivar-Richburg Duals Tournament.

Going 8-1 over a busy two days, Lyndonville placed second at the 10 team Bolivar-Richburg Duals Wrestling Tournament which concluded this afternoon.

The Tigers only loss was a 41-30 decision to Bolivar-Richburg which is ranked No. 3 in the state.

Lyndonville’s wins were 70-6 over Franklinville, 59-15 over Campbell-Savona, 48-24 over Alfred-Almond, 64-13 over Arkport, 57-18 over Olean, 47-15 over Bath, 42-36 over Maple Grove and 47-22 over Hornell which is ranked No. 22 in the state.

Maddox Stirk, Payton Grabowski and Sam Doolan all went 8-1 over the two days for the Tigers as Sebastian Temich, Noaf Neff, Ty Holmes, Shayne Nickerson and Christian Garver all went 7-2.

Medina had a pair of individual weight class champions at the Akron Varsity Wrestling Tournament today.

Dominick Callara, who earned the Most Valuable Wrestler Award, won at 102 and Gavin Ciarfella at 132 for the Mustangs.

Callara, who went 3-0 on the day, pinned Carmine Calimeri of Southwestern in 1:57 in the finals.

Ciarfella, who was 4-0 including three pins, scored a fall of 3:12 over Wyatt Brygmn of Attica/Batavia in his title match.

Zach Hill of Roy-Hart/Barker finished second at 189 and Alex Hafner of Albion placed third at 152.

Medina also had a pair of champions at Tuesday’s Akron JV Tournament in Reece Senske at 102 and Conor Crandall at 160.

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Lyndonville’s Karlee Rounds puts up a shot against Medina defenders Rylee VanNostrand (3) and Chloe Anelli during the Lady Tigers win over the host Mustangs this afternoon.

Getting point production from 10 players, Lyndonville rolled to a 69-35 win over host Medina in a non league girls basketball game this afternoon.

Karlee Rounds scored a game high 17 to lead Lyndonville’s parade of point getters as Lorelei Dillenbeck added 11, Ella Lewis 9, Addison Dillenbeck 8, Ashlee Stephens 6, Haley Shaffer and Peyton McDonald 5, Gracie Johnson 4 and Morgan Austin and Shelby Boring 2.

Rylee VanNostrand led Medina with 11 as Stella Poler had 8, Lily Carpenter 7, Tatyana Baity 4, Dani Williams and Phallon Rivera 2 and Iyla Lilleby 1.

Fastbreaking at every opportunity, Lyndonville raced out to commanding leads of 26-9 after one quarter and 47-14 at the half.

Rounds scored 9 in the first quarter and 8 in the second while Lorelei Dillenbeck netted 8 in the first and Lewis and Stephens 4 each in the second.

Lyndonville led by 46, 64-18, at the three-quarter mark as Johnson, Lorelei Dillenbeck and Shaffer all hit threes in the third period with the Shaffer’s coming at the buzzer.

Lyndonville improves to 5-1 and Medina slips to 0-3.

Medina’s Rylee VanNostrand goes up for a shot as Lorelei Dillenbeck moves in for Lyndonville.