Monday, November 23, 2009

Here at Rally, we're always in favor of fairness. In Monday's Inquirer, I wrote a column that expressed disappointment over the ending in Saturday's PIAA Class AAA boys' soccer state championship game. Father Judge, of course, tied Central Dauphin and both were awarded co-championships instead of the game being decided by penalties.

As I said in the column, this is a practice that the PIAA has followed forever, for a few reasons. I reached out to Hal Heffelfinger, the District 1 chairperson for soccer, to get a better sense of the reasoning behind the rules.

Heffelfinger is also the former boys' soccer coach at Neshaminy and in 1994, his team was crowned co-champs with Bethel Park. Hal sent me a detailed e-mail I wanted to share with everyone:

Not only was it a good day for District One and District Twelve, but it was a good day for soccer in its purest sense. Considering the France/Ireland fiasco with the Thierry Henry double handball assist on France's goal in a World Cup qualifier and FIFA condoning the offense by standing by a poor no call by the linesmen and/or the referee, I was glad to see great soccer played by outstanding high school athletes.
 
The decision goes back to the 1982 PIAA state championship game between Neshaminy and Fleetwood that went to nine and a half OTs. We were in the tenth overtime in misty rain and on a cold day that was reaching darkness when PIAA officials said that the tenth OT would be the last and a decision would have to be made as to replaying or continuing play at another time and day. The rest was history, because we were fortunate enough to get the winning goal about two minutes into the tenth OT. The next year the final between Trinity and, I believe, Bethlehem Freedom was into the sixteenth OT and the officials decided to declare co-champions. To the best of my knowledge, their reasoning was and is that both teams deserve a piece of the gold because they have not only battled for so long in the final game but they also have come through a grueling four weeks of district and inter-district play and to put the weight of a state championship on the shoulders and psyche of a young goalkeeper or a young PK taker would not be fair to them or to the other participants who had worked so hard and so long. Also, there was the problem of replaying the game from the beginning or from the time that the game was stopped, where it would be played, and the travel involving the two teams. At the time, the semi-final and final games were played on a Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University. 
 
I know at the time the game ends it is a bitter taste in both teams' and fans' mouths, especially since we are a winner and loser type of society. My boys felt the same way in 1994, but they soon forgot about that taste when they were met at the turnpike interchange by the caravan of firetrucks and cars for the trip back to the high school.
 
What are your thoughts on the PIAA rules? 
Posted by Matt Gelb @ 5:49 PM  Permalink | File Under: Boys | | PA | | Soccer | 1 comment
Mentioned: Father Judge
Monday, November 23, 2009

Softball pitcher Krysti Maronski today became the first athlete from Gloucester County Institute of Technology to sign a national letter of intent with a Division I program.

Maronski, a senior, signed with Rider University in a ceremony in the school's media center.

Maronski has been the driving force in the Cheetahs' stunning emergence as a softball power.

Maronski is a career .488 hitter with 106 hits in three seasons. She has a 36-17 pitching record in three seasons, with a 1.43 ERA and 498 strikeouts in 351 innings.

Maronski has led GCIT to the sectional finals in softball in each of the last two seasons. The Cheetahs lost to Pennsville in the S.J. Group 1 finals in 2008 and lost a 1-0 game to Overbrook in the S.J. Group 2 finals in 2009.

Maronski also led GCIT to the championship of the Tri-County Conference's Diamond Division in 2009. That division includes perenniel powers Pennsville and Gloucester Catholic.

-- Phil Anastasia

 

Posted by @ 4:16 PM  Permalink | File Under: Girls | | NJ | Post a comment
Mentioned: Gloucester County Tech
Monday, November 23, 2009

The Cape Atlantic League girls’ and boys’ all-star soccer game that was supposed to be tonight at St. Augustine has been cancelled. School officials at St. Augustine said that there does not expect to be a makeup date.

The inclement weather caused the cancellation.

 
Posted by Marc Narducci @ 1:09 PM  Permalink | File Under: Boys | | Girls | | NJ | | Soccer | 1 comment
Monday, November 23, 2009

There will be two public school SJ football championships played on Friday Dec. 4 and two more on Saturday Dec. 5. The dates were set today although the time of the Group 1 final is still uncertain.

Here are the matchups.

 

Group 4: Egg Harbor Township (10-0) at Cherokee (10-0), 1 p.m Saturday Dec. 5.

Group 3: Timber Creek (8-2) at Hammonton (9-1), 7 p.m. Friday Dec. 4.

Group 2: Haddonfield (9-1) at Delsea (10-0), 7 p.m. Friday Dec. 4

Group 1 Paulsboro (9-1) at Woodbury (9-1), Saturday Dec. 5 Time TBA.

 The NJSIAA assigns all the games to be played on Saturday at 1 p.m. unless both schools agree to move it to Friday evening.
Posted by Marc Narducci @ 12:07 PM  Permalink | File Under: Football | | NJ | Post a comment
Monday, November 23, 2009

Before the Tournament of Champions final Sunday I was speaking with Shore Regional field hockey coach Nancy Williams at TR East when I mentioned that Oak Knoll, a Group 1 team, had defeated Eastern, a Group 4 team, in aTournament of Champions semifinal in 2007.

Shore is a Group 1 school, I noted, so the Blue Devils had a chance against bigger Eastern.

Williams dismissed the notion by saying that Oak Knoll is a private school that draws athletes from all over the country.

Then I looked in the NJSIAA booklet and saw that Shore had recently defeated Oak Knoll, 2-0, in the North 2 Group 1 championship game.

However, the Blue Devils didn't get by the vaunted Vikings. eastern won, 8-2.

 

Posted by @ 9:30 AM  Permalink | File Under: Field hockey | | Girls | | NJ | Post a comment
Mentioned: Eastern | Eastern
Sunday, November 22, 2009
By Rick O'Brien
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
      
Here is next weekend's football playoff schedule:

 

Friday

PIAA District 1 Class AAAA Semifinals

Avon Grove (11-1) at North Penn (12-0), 7:30 p.m.

Downingtown East (10-2) at Ridley (11-1), 7 p.m.

 

PIAA Class AA First Round

West Catholic (10-2) vs. Dunmore (12-0), at Palisades High in Kintnersville, 7 p.m.

 

Saturday

PIAA District 12 Class AAAA Final

La Salle (10-1) vs. George Washington (8-2), at Northeast, 12 p.m.

 

PIAA District 1 Class AAA Final

Interboro (12-0) vs. Pottsgrove (12-0), at Coatesville, 7 p.m.


PIAA Class A First Round

St. Pius X (8-4) vs. Tri-Valley (8-4), at Williams Valley High in Tower City, 7 p.m. 

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Eastern defeated Shore Regional in the field hockey Tournament of Champions final, 8-2.

Eastern center forward Kelsey Mitchell scored a pair of goals to end her high school career with 69 and 171 goals in a season and career, respectively.

Mitchell tied the single-season scoring record held by Michelle Vizzuso of West Essex since 1994.

Posted by @ 4:28 PM  Permalink | File Under: Field hockey | | Girls | | NJ | Post a comment
Mentioned: Eastern | Eastern
Sunday, November 22, 2009

Here are links to the playoff brackets for the local football tournaments:

--To the District 1 football brackets:

http://district-one.net/football.asp

--To the PIAA football bracket page:

http://www.piaa.org/news/details.aspx?ID=1797

--To the NJSIAA football bracket page:

http://www.njsiaa.org/SPORTS/Football.aspx

Posted by gary miles @ 3:51 PM  Permalink | File Under: Boys | | Football | | NJ | | PA | Post a comment
Sunday, November 22, 2009

After Palmyra and Jonathan Dayton ended the state Group 1 boys championship soccer game in a scoreless tie Saturday, I sensed a feeling of relief by both teams.

No player or coach was complaining about not winning. They seemed to be content with a tie by two teams that worked hard against each other for 100 minutes of play.

And that was understandable, since neither the Panthers nor the Bulldogs had ever won a state crown.

However, Palmyra did leave with the trophy after winning a coin flip to decide who would take it home.

That made Palmyra feel a lot better.

 

 

 

Posted by @ 7:21 AM  Permalink | File Under: Boys | | NJ | | Soccer | Post a comment
Mentioned: Palmyra
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Read all the game stories on RALLY as four local teams sweep to state soccer titles.
Posted by gary miles @ 11:56 PM  Permalink | File Under: Boys | | Girls | | PA | | Soccer | Post a comment
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About Rally Blog Team
The Rally blog is written by high schools sports journalists at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.