OrleansHub Sports is looking back to highlight 18 of the top stories from 2018. The 18 from 2018 series continues today with numbers 7-12. The top six stories will be featured on New Years Day.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Ugene Harrison and his Albion teammates claimed the B2 Division title.

After sharing the crown in 2017, Albion captured outright possession of the Class B2 football championship this fall posting a 5-0 record capped off by a 34-12 victory over rival Medina.

Quarterback Bryce Pritchard ran for two touchdowns and passed to Nate Moore for another and Brillance Johnson ran for a pair of scores to lead the Purple Eagles to the win over the Mustangs.

Albion went 7-0 during the regular season and upped that record to 8-0 by downing Lackawanna 34-14 in the quarterfinals of the Section VI Class B playoffs.

However, the Purple Eagles win streak and season came to a halt in the semifinals via a 28-6 loss to Cheektowaga.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Roy-Hart catcher Maddie Fry dives into home plate ahead of a tag by Medina catcher Ashley Howell during the Lady Rams run to an undefeated N-O title season.

Making it four titles in the last five years, Roy-Hart posted a perfect 12-0 record to capture the Niagara-Orleans League softball title.

The Lady Rams had also claimed the title outright in 2015 going 14-0 and had shared the crown with Akron in 2014 at 12-2 and with both Medina and Akron in 2017 at 9-3.

Roy-Hart went on to reach the Section VI Class B2 finals where the undefeated (15-0) Lady Rams dropped a narrow 9-6 decision to Eden.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Jamel Hildreth and his Hawk teammates were members of Holley’s first 8 man football team.

In order to keep the program going in light of declining participation numbers, Holley made the switch to 8 man football this fall.

The Hawks became one of four teams in Section V to make the switch from 11 to 8 man football with the others being Oakfield-Alabama/Elba, CG Finney and Marcus Whitman.

The wide open, high scoring nature of the 8 man game was evident right from Holley’s first game which saw the Hawks outlast Marcus Whitman 58-52.

The four teams played each other home and home for a six game season.

Section VI, which did not have any 8 man teams this fall, did have a meeting in late October to gauge the interest and over two dozen schools were represented including Roy- Hart.

Photo by Mike Wertman – Coach Rob Dennis and members of the N-O champion Medina High golf team.

Making a successful title defense, Medina captured the Niagara-Orleans League golf championship by posting an 11-0-1 regular season record and then taking top honors at the All-League Tournament.

A 219-256 win over runner-up Akron (10-1-1) to open the second half of the season, which avenged a season opening tie, keyed the title run for the Mustangs.

Medina’s Ian Wagner successfully repeated as N-O Tourney champion while his teammates Melanie Green and Aidan Paul finished second and fourth respectively.

Rounding out the top five finishers were Barker’s Jake Harris who placed third and Albion’s Patrick Ricker who was fifth.

Contributed Photo – The Roy-Hart/Barker/Medina club hockey team

The Roy-Hart/Barker/Medina Club Hockey team had an outstanding debut season.

The RBM icers, whose lineup also includes players from Akron, captured the Western New York Club Hockey team mixed schools division playoff championship by downing Jamestown/Southwestern/Maple Grove 4-1 in the title contest.

RBM had advanced by outlasting Dunkirk/Fredonia in a marathon semifinal series.

RBM then won three games against Long Island foes in the state championship tournament before downing Alden/Iroquois 7-2 in the semifinals. However, Jamestown avenged the sectional title loss by trimming RBM 4-2 in the state championship contest.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Albion’s Matt Kovaleski in action in the 100 Breaststroke.

Ending long droughts, Albion and Barker emerged as Niagara-Orleans League boys swim co-champions with identical 9-1 records.

The title was the first for Albion since the 2005-06 season.

It was Barker’s first title in 30 years as the Raiders only other championship came during the 1987-88 season when they shared the crown with Akron.

Barker went on to have a big six win effort at the All-League meet as Andrew Jenks doubled in the 200 Individual Medley and 100 Butterfly and Collin Webb in the 50 Freestyle and 100 Free. Jenks, Webb, Dominic Clementi  and Adam Wagner also teamed up to win both the 200 Medley and 200 Free relays.

Albion’s Matt Kovaleski won the 100 Breastroke at the All-League meet and also teamed up with Harrison Brown, Carlitos Sanchez and Sam Sanchez to win the 400 Free Relay.

The Tri County midget hockey team earned a split on the weekend defeating Monroe County 10-0 on Saturday and bowing 4-1 to Webster today.

Patrick Ricker and Matt Nielson both scored thee goals in the win over Monroe County as Jake Esposito, Chase Froman, Grant Moy and Ian McGraw each chipped in with one.

Nate Hawkes earned the shutout in goal.

Josh Gimeli then scored the lone goal for Tri County against Webster.

Tri County is now 10-1-2 in the league and 11-1-2 overall.

After shutting out Jamestown one week ago, the Roy-Hart/Barker/Medina/ Akron Club hockey team lost a tough 6-5 decision to the Southern Tier squad Saturday night at home.

RBM fell behind 1-0 in the first five minutes but came back strong, scoring three goals to take a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period.

Goals were scored by Michael Kuchey (R-H), Jason Kuchey (R-H) and Colin Dodge (R-H). Picking up assists on that series of tallies were both Kucheys, Tagen Decker (R-H) and Tom Paisley (R-H).

In the second period, Jamestown scored a power play goal, but Michael Kuchey scored again off assists from Jason Kuchey and Rhett Wagner (Medina), to go up 4-2.

The period ended tied at 4-4 though as the Lakers notched two scores.

The final period began with two scores by Jamestown Captain,  Jacob Gerace, who wound up with a hat trick on the evening.  With three seconds on the clock, Paisley scored the final goal of the game for RBM off an assist from Michael Kuchey.

Now 3-5-1, RBM faces Lancaster, a team they split with two weeks ago, next Saturday at Cornerstone Arena with a game time of 6:50 p.m.

Over the next three days OrleansHub Sports will take a look back to highlight 18 of the top stories from 2018.

The count up of the 18 from 2018 begins today with numbers 13-18. Monday will then have numbers. 7-12 with the top six on New Years Day.