Section Nine Football

By FEARLESS PHIL Section Nine football teams seem to be hoping for the best but gearing up for the worst. Hopefully the brunt of Isabel's winds and rain will have passed by the time the scheduled Friday night kickoffs take place. Just in case, we should all be ready to change plans at the last minute. Middletown athletic director Jon Jefferson has already rescheduled a Saturday night boys soccer game, originally scheduled to be played at Faller Field. The soccer match against Minisink will be held Saturday afternoon at 1 PM on the soccer team's regular field which runs parallel to Faller. "We're planning to play the Middletown-Port Jervis football game at 7:30 PM Friday night as scheduled," Jefferson said. "The only way we'll postpone that game is if school is closed for some reason or if we lose our electric. If we can't play Friday night, we'll play at 2 PM on Saturday. "We moved the boys soccer game and postponed a girls soccer game which was supposed to have been played on the football field prior to the boys game. With the possibility of a lot of rain, we didn't want to tear up the football field." The urgency to play football on Friday is two-fold. First of all, there could be a problem assigning officials for all the Saturday games. Secondly, next week is a short week. Because of the Jewish holidays, 14 games will be played next Thursday instead of on the weekend. Let's hope that Isabel slips by us with as little ruckus as possible. After all, WE HAVE FOOTBALL TO PLAY. * * * * * * * * * * * The New York State Sportswriters Association has released its first state football rankings for the season. Three of our teams have hit the top 20's in their respective classes. Monroe-Woodbury is ranked the #19 AA team. Their opponent this weekend, Schenectady is an honorable mention. Kingston is also an AA honorable mention. Next week we hope to see Newburgh somewhere on the list. Defending state champ Webster Schroeder is the #1 AA team. Cornwall is the #13 Class A team. Goshen and Wallkill are honorable mentions. Section One's Nyack, the state runnerup last year, is #1. The Class B list finds Spackenkill the #12 team. Marlboro and O'Neill are honorable mentions. The #1 B team is Harrison. None of our teams made the Classes C list. The top Class C team is Caledonia-Mumford. In Class D Chester and Millbrook are both honorable mentions. Millbrook hosts Rye Neck, another honorable mention, on Saturday. Powerful Onondaga, the defending Class C state champs and now a D school, is the #1 D team. Hancock, which whipped Eldred last week and plays Roscoe on Friday, is #12. Washingtonville coach Don Clark's old team, Newfield, is #6 in D. * * * * * * * * * * * Speaking of Coach Clark, I just discovered his excellent insight into sectional unity. What he wrote me shows the direction many of us wish Section Nine would take. "All coaches in my previous section (IV) did whatever they could do to help each other advance in the state tournament. We also had no problem helping each other out during the season. Their philosophy was that if every program in Section IV got better, we would all be battle tested when playoff or tournament games came around, and in most cases they were right. This also seems to be the philosophy in all the western sections (III, IV, V, and VI). I do not know if this thinking has any merit in the fact that these sections seem to do very well at the state level on a consistent basis." I know that Section One coaches bond at state tournament time, too, and for the same reasons Coach Clark just expressed. The worst humiliation a Section One football team can endure is to lose to a Section Nine team in the playoffs, it seems. It all begins with the coaches.

By GIB TESPU Football Guru First of all, let it be known that I didn't write the headline. I NEVER pick upsets. I just pick games that the other so-called "experts" overlook. My picks are never vanilla. They have flava. But they're not crazy like Lephare the Cyberprohet's forecasting on Syracuse.com that Middletown would beat Port Jervis. Fearless Frill limited me to two picks this week because I had made four last week when he told me to keep it to three. For once I have to admit that he was right about something. Had I stuck to three picks I would have been a perfect 3-0. But I WOULD have been 4-0 if Minisink had not gone into early offensive retirement last week. Ahead 20-0 (when all the experts said they'd lose), the Warriors were commanded by their Offensive Chief to shift into a new formation -- called the Fetal! They were whipping on Kingston and then let the Tigers get back into the game by hugging the ball for three plays before punting. Not even the mighty Tespu Voodoo could help. Tespu is a poor sport who doesn't like to lose. Anyway, let's move on to more pleasant things like VALLEY CENTRAL over Pine Bush, MARLBORO over Rondout and GOSHEN over Warwick!!! That's a 3-1 record. Seventy-five percent! Neither Pill nor any of his little pals hit that trifecta! Now for this week. I see that all the little puppet prognosticators jumped on the Marlboro bandwagon. Probably because The Great Tespu successfully picked the Dukes last week. Well, I don't ride bandwagons. Only winners. NEW PALTZ WILL BEAT MARLBORO!! Write it down, bet the ranch. Don't call it an upset because Tespu doesn't pick upsets - only winners. Only the aforementioned Cyberprophet picks New Paltz. But he probably did it by flipping a coin (I mean, Middletown beating Port Jervis?). As for my allotted second pick, there will be none. Criticizing Tespu for making four picks instead of three last week was a mistake, Phearless Fill. I'm sure this site's readers will let you know about it, too. Ta-Ta, chump.

First up is RICH MICHAELIS who is 24-14 (13-6 last week): Week three or "how foolish will we look this week?" What surprises are in store for us!! KINGSTON over Pine Bush--Tiger fans and players are hyped over this season. MARLBORO over New Paltz -- Dukes should get #1 seed in Div.1 CHESTER over Eldred -- new kid on the block looking good! HANCOCK over Roscoe -- could be ugly FDR over Saugerties -- one of three tossups I have. WALLKILL over Valley Central -- saw Panthers last week and I don't think they're going to let anyone in their way going into Port game. PORT JERVIS over Middletown -- Only the rivalry may keep the margin down. NEWBURGH over Warwick -- but should be a good game. CORNWALL over Wash'ville -- Nothing need be said. GOSHEN over Rondout -- with or without Mackenzie. RED HOOK over Burke -- Red Hook had two tough B opponents in first two starts. O'NEILL over Onteora -- no brainer. SPACKENKILL over Sullivan West -- too much Spartans. LIVINGSTON MANOR over Tri Valley -- interesting to see what effect week off had on the Manor. MILLBROOK over Rye Neck -- The second of my three hard ones. PINE PLAINS over Ellenville -- I think Pine Plains loved the taste of victory last week. MINISINK over Guilderland --The third hard one. Probably wrong but sticking with "our" guys. MONROE-WOODBURY over Schenectady-Enjoyed their first game at Dietz and hope to enjoy this one. Now here's Rockin' RICHIE ARNOTT who's 23-15 (12-7 last week): Week 3 of the precious few weeks for high school football has arrived and here are my ramblings: KINGSTON over Pine Bush...The Tigers pulled out a great overtime road win and should handle the Bushmen on the Dietz turf with sophomore Coleman Edmond at the QB helm. MARLBORO over New Paltz...Matt Molinelli is the key here for the Dukes vs. the Huguenots defense. This is a huge B-1 encounter so early in the season. CHESTER over Eldred...With 2 wins under its belt the Chester program acts as though it always had football. Anthony Basile should be "The Man" for the Hambletonians. HANCOCK over Roscoe...Hancock has a solid program with an explosive offense that Blue Devil QB Justin Bowers won't be able to keep up with. FDR over Saugerties...Keith McCray could be the person most responsible for ruining the Sawyers' evening. WALLKILL over Valley Central...The Panthers are back on track with Maloney and Young a tough duo. VC will need lots of Toth completions. PORT JERVIS over Middletown...The Red Raiders rebound from a week 2 loss to feel better about things by keeping the Erie Bell. NFA over Warwick...The 9AA champs are more than able to beat Warwick's shaky defense with Joe Williams running and Sean Bergin receiving. CORNWALL over Washingtonville...The Green Dragons must be on cloud nine after beating Wallkill and Port Jervis back-to-back. With Kyle Auffray running things, the Wizards defense will have all it can handle. GOSHEN over Rondout Valley...With the Spirit Trophy in the case back home the Gladiators stay on a roll to edge the Ganders in a big class A showdown. RED HOOK over Burke...The Raiders post win #1 for 2003 against the Eagles with its offense finally awakening. O'NEILL over Onteora...Raiders' QB Kyle Harris comes off a blowout victory where he scored twice and threw one for 6. Matt Zelinski looks to be a quality football player. SPACKENKILL over Sullivan West...Mike Tedesco looks to augment his 202 yard rushing tally after 2 weeks. TRI-VALLEY over Livingston Manor...George Thomas will be the main worry for coach Viglione in this contest. RYE NECK over Millbrook...Jon Shenks will have to throw his way out of this one. PINE PLAINS over Ellenville...Jason Millius comes off a big game to lead his team past Ellenville, whose offense took week 2 off and defense just wasn't into it. GUILDERLAND over Minisink Valley...The Warriors blew a 20-0 halftime advantage against Kingston and must now face a better defensive team. MONROE-WOODBURY over Schenectady... Let's root for the local team against this Section 2 team that has a player named Reggie Brown with 6 TD's after 2 weeks. Now let's turn to our top prognosticator from last week (outside the obnoxious Gib Tespu, that is) - ROB McLEAN who is now 23-15 (14-5): Just a reminder: all Warwick games this season will be live on the Net; Saturdays at 3pm on WTBQ; and on WVT Digital Channel 12 Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6pm... KINGSTON over Pine Bush: Home field gives the Tigers the nod. MARLBORO over New Paltz: Mild upset special! CHESTER over Eldred: With a name like "Hambletonians", how can you lose? HANCOCK over Roscoe: Looking like a long year for football's tiniest school. FDR over Saugerties: Somebody's gotta win. WALLKILL over Valley Central: The Panthers get back in the groove. PORT JERVIS over Middletown: Oooo! I can't watch! WARWICK over NFA: Call me a homer (D'oh!), but the Cats need a win, and Newburgh's looking flat of late. CORNWALL over Washingtonville: Who's crazy now...?! Go Dragons! RONDOUT VALLEY over Goshen: The new keepers of the Spirit Trophy run into harsh reality. BURKE CATHOLIC over Red Hook: First...win...ever! O'NEILL over Onteora: Is O'Neill the best team you've never heard of? SPACKENKILL over Sullivan West: Say it with me now: Spackenkill! Spackenkill! Spack--ahem, sorry. TRI-VALLEY over Livingston Manor: LM's happy they can just field a team! RYE NECK over Millbrook: "Yes, sir, we have the roast Rye Neck with vodka sauce and fresh garden vegetables! At popular prices!" ELLENVILLE over Pine Plains: Uh... GUILDERLAND and SCHENECTADY over Minisink Valley and Monroe-Woodbury: In straight sets. Here's what MIKE ZUMMO has to say (13-6 last week): KINGSTON over Pine Bush: Pine Bush coach Marsh Canosais hoping his team can give the Tigers "fits" on theirhome field. Expect the reverse. MARLBORO over New Paltz: The Iron Dukes feel it.There's something special going on here this season. CHESTER over Eldred: Sounds good. ROSCOE over Hancock: Roscoe should get their first win this week. FDR over Saugerties: This one could go either way but the newcomers should take this one. WALLKILL over Valley Central: Wallkill's coming off a rout of their neighbors to the north and the Vikings squeaked by Pine Bush. But Valley Central still makes too many mistakes to be in this game. PORT JERVIS over Middletown: Was there any doubt? NEWBURGH over Warwick: Joe Williams got himself into gear with nearly 200 yards rushing last week. Newburgh still needs another dependable receiver opposite Bergin. CORNWALL over Washingtonville. Can anyone stop Cornwall right now? RONDOUT VALLEY over Goshen: The Ganders should be looking to put last week's loss behind them. They'll do it by handing Goshen their first loss. RED HOOK over Burke Catholic: Experience takes this one. O'NEILL over Onteora: I suppose. SPACKENKILL over Sullivan West: should be a tight Class B game. TRI-VALLEY over Livingston Manor: Manor may be a little more rested but they haven't seen real-game action in two weeks. MILLBROOK over Rye Neck: Looking for a small upset. PINE PLAINS over Ellenville: Pine Plains is looking to ride the momentum from last week's emotional win over Tri-Valley. GUILDERLAND over Minisink Valley: After blowing the lead against Kingston last week, the Warriors won't be able to hold off this Section 2 team. MONROE-WOODBURY over Schenectady: The Matt Stack train needs to keep on rolling for this to happen though. Now for the FEARLESS ONE who is 24-14 (13-6): KINGSTON over Pine Bush -- The hardest thing for the Tigers in this game will be getting used to being ahead ... seriously, Kingston showed last week that it could play offense without Downey while its second half blitzing defense swarmed like killer bees. MARLBORO over New Paltz -- This big B-1 matchup is almost too close to pick. Marlboro seems to have a little better balance. A great game to go see. CHESTER over Eldred -- All class D games will be critical to the participants. Chester doesn't have the long road trip and will thrill its hometown where football has become a big deal. HANCOCK over Roscoe -- Section Four's Hancock makes it 3-0. FDR over Saugerties -- The Sawyers gave Washingtonville a decent game last week, so this shouldn't be a romp. The Presidents get their first win in Section Nine. WALLKILL over Valley Central -- The Panthers are on a mission. PORT JERVIS over Middletown -- The Raiders will ring the Bell for the seventh straight time. NEWBURGH over Warwick -- The Wildcats go to 0-3? NFA ready for a big breakout performance against a team that it beat twice last year in close battles. CORNWALL over Washingtonville -- The starting offensive and defensive units for the Dragons are second to none in the section right now. Only injuries can slow them down. GOSHEN over Rondout Valley -- Goshen go to 3-0? Without their do-it-all field general Doug Mackenzie, the Ganders are in trouble here against the renewed Gladiators who can hammer the middle and sweep the flanks. Goshen nestles into second place in Class A. RED HOOK over Burke Catholic -- Burke is no pushover, but the Raiders are primed for their first win of '03. O'NEILL over Onteora -- O'Neill is getting ready for next Thursday's showdown at Marlboro. SPACKENKILL over Sullivan West -- The 'Dogs won't be pushovers, but Spackenkill seems destined for another B crown showdown. LIVINGSTON MANOR over Tri-Valley -- George Thomas got cheated out of a game last week so he's ansy to score some TDs and make a bunch of hard tackles. MILLBROOK over Rye Neck -- The Blazers pull off a minor upset here, trying to revert to their success of 2001. Should be a good game. ELLENVILLE over Pine Plains -- Another mild upset. The Devils have the home field advantage. MINISINK VALLEY over Guilderland -- Chalk up one for Section Nine. An upset? Maybe. But it won't happen if Minisink shuts down its passing attack like it did in the second half against Kingston last week. MV's Bryan Freeman (6-3, 220) is one of the top QBs in the section. MONROE-WOODBURY over Schenectady -- They aren't called the Crusaders for nothing! M-W wins its eighth straight in a big victory for the section as well as the Crusaders.

By FEARLESS PHIL Despite rumor to the contrary, it is not quite the oldest rivalry in the country, state nor even the county (Goshen and Warwick have that distinction in the county). Still the Port-Middletown series deserves its legendary status and continues to stir up old embers in both communities. Thanks to the research and persistence of the late John Nania of Middletown, the matchup has been officially recognized as the country's longest running high school football rivalry. The teams have played each other 124 times with Middletown holding a 67-50-7 edge. After losing for eight consecutive seasons (Middletown's longest streak in the series), Port has now won the last six meetings. PJ's longest winning streak was nine (1974-82). The squads played twice in 1897 but not again until 1903. Back then Middletown did not consider Port to be competitive enough to play with the big boys. But the two schools renewed the tussle, and the teams have met every year since then, except for 1970 when PJ left the DUSO to compete in the larger OCL. That streak of playing for 67 consecutive years was listed as a national record. John Nania's efforts in securing a place in the record books sent other high school football historians combing through old newspapers. Because of the community uproars to restore the series, the two teams next met as non-league foes until Middletown also joined the OCL. In 1953 (interestingly, the year the OCL football league was born), the Erie Railroad bell was taken off a retired steam engine and presented to the two teams as a perpetual trophy to be housed by each year's winning squad. Of course in the "old days," visiting spectators would take the train to see Port and Middletown play. The two rivals (as well as Newburgh and Kingston, Warwick and Goshen, Highland Falls and Cornwall) had traditionally met on Thanksgiving mornings. The last of the "Turkey Day Classics" between Port and Middletown was in 1969, and it was indeed a memorable one. With the score knotted at 14 and time having expired, the Red Raiders were awarded one more play because of a dead ball, personal foul against Middletown. Port Quarterback Earl Sheard then connected with Randy Sienkiew on a 20-yard TD pass, perhaps the most famous score in a rivalry filled with great moments! Ex-Raider coach Joe Viglione, who has won more games than any other coach in Section Nine, laments the loss of the Thanksgiving Day game. "I walked over to Glennette Field last Thanksgiving morning," Vig mused aloud a few years back. "There was a light rain. You could hear it in the leaves. But nobody else was there. What a loss. Something important was taken away from both communities when they stopped playing on Thanksgiving. "Folks can talk all they want. But unless they've been on the sidelines and participated in THAT game, they just don't know the feeling." Last year THAT game featured the reopening of Glennette Field at the current Port Jervis Middle School. After 83 consecutive seasons with Glennette as Port's home field, the old bleachers had been condemned. So that wonderful streak of Port's playing its home games in one stadium had been brought to an end. This Friday they'll play at Faller Field, Middletown's home for the last couple of decades. Middletown's old Wilson Field is now a grassy patch near a Dolson Avenue min-mall. The older Mulberry Street Field is a car lot. But if you go there and catch a rare quiet moment, you can still hear the cheering. Port will again be heavily favored in this one as phantoms of games past rise up from the mist of the Neversink and ride an old ghost train to Middletown. Apparitions in blue and white will be there to meet their old foes who eventually became lifetime friends. Tradition.

By FEARLESS PHIL It looks like the changing of the guard may take place in Class A, at least for this season. Cornwall crushed Port Jervis after slipping by Wallkill. The Green Dragons are sitting prettily atop the conference having already defeated the two preseason favorites. Folks are used to penciling in Port as one of the Class A finalists long before the season begins. Now the erasers may have to come out. Wallkill looks to be stronger than the Raiders; at least that's the way it now looks. Wallkill and PJ will square off the final week of the regular season. Then there's still Goshen which cannot be overlooked. Last week the Gladiators jumped out to a 21-0 lead and then held on to beat Warwick, 21-14. We also can't overlook Rondout Valley. But if Doug Mackenzie's injured knee sidelines him for long, the Ganders' hopes of repeating are slim to none. The Rondout RB hopes to be out "for only a week or two," but the results of today's MRI may tell a different story. A lot of football folks believe that Doug Mackenzie IS the Rondout team this year. Doug's injury came at the end of a 37-yard run on the first play of the fourth when a Marlboro tackler threw a shoulder into the side of his knee to bring him down. Mackenzie hobbled to the sideline but somehow returned three plays later. He carried the ball 13 more times until the pain caused him to call it quits after he made a big one-handed endzone interception in the first overtime. Port Jervis also lost starting offensive guard David Thompson who injured his knee playing defense on Cornwall's opening drive. He definitely won't play against Middletown in the Erie Bell game this Friday. PJ is awaiting test results there, too. Meanwhile Middletown, already depleted by academic ineligibility, is also hobbled. Starting center/linebacker Tim Moore broke a toe on Saturday but says he will play against Port. The Middies' top defensive lineman, Rasan Brown, has a sore hip and gimpy knee; but he's determined to play as well. I don't intend to use this site as an injury update center because: (1) I don't know even a fraction of who hurts, and (2) most coaches want control over releasing such information. I just want to emphasize that there already seems to be an inordinate amount of significant injuries to start the '03 campaign. Now back on track. One last word about Class A's mighty Dragons. If you notice, they have a new and very good TE/DE. He's senior Steve Wallace, 6-3 and 220, who transfered in from Don Bosco Prep, a New Jersey powerhouse. In AA-1 Monroe-Woodbury won its seventh consecutive. If option QB Matt Stack survives the beating he gets every game, the Crusaders just might snag the AA crown. He reportedly only played one quarter against FDR last week... Defending champ Newburgh hasn't hit its stride yet. The 'Backs have a lot of talent and should meet M-W for the title (one more time). How about Kingston? Man, they're scrappy and know how to come from behind. Losing Andrew Downey will really hurt the Tigers, however. Not only an excellent passer, he is also a solid end on defense. In AA-2 by the time Warwick gets into its league schedule, it will most likely be winless. The 'Cats entertain NFA this Friday. Still Warwick stands as the favorite to win their conference with Minisink and perhaps Washingtonville in pursuit. B-1 New Paltz got shellacked by angry Wallkill. The defending B champ Hugies will battle O'Neill and Marlboro in a ferocious battle for the crown there. Meanwhile Spackenkill should repeat in B-2 with Highland garbbing the second slot. Spackenkill will take on Sully West Saturday. Highland will receive a forfeit from Liberty. Pine Plains surprised us all by beating Tri-Valley in the matchup between the section's only two C teams. The title game should at least be close. Class D is wide open. Livingston Manor will not dominate as it did last year. Millbrook, Chester and Eldred are ready to join the faceoff for the title. Roscoe is the only question mark right now. That's how it looks to me now. Stay tuned. YELLOW FLAGS: I sometimes wonder about all of these games at Dietz Stadium. I know it's a somewhere-close-to-halfway point between Section Two and most Section Nine schools. (It's a million miles away from most of Section One which also sends teams there.) I know the coaches want to have their kids play where the sectionals, regionals and state semi's will be held. I know the kids like to experience the artificial turf. But where are the fans? Somebody should consider them. Isn't playing at one team's home stadium more exciting than trekking off to Kingston? It's certainly far more accommodating to the fans. A two year home and away arrangement makes it fair. Dietz is home for the Kingston Tiger fans. But to the rest of the loyalists, that stadium is cold and impersonal. Let the fans in football crazy towns like Port Jervis and Amsterdam see their teams play in their own stadiums. Anyone from Amsterdam willing to drive all the way to Dietz will be just as likely to drive all the way to Port and vice-versa... I'll flag myself for using the expression "catbird seat" twice in my appearance with Tony Morino. Who do I think I am? Red Barber? Yikes. Let's not go to the video tape.