OSWEGO, NY — On Friday, September 4th, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association released a lengthy document containing plans and guidelines for the 2020-21 sports season. The Return to Interscholastic Athletics resource was put together by staff of the association to give member schools aid on how sports should be handled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NYSPHSAA worded with the New York State Department of Health to classify sports into three different categories, Low Risk, Moderate Risk, and High Risk. Each fall sport received a category based on the ability to social distance and the ability to avoid touching shared experiment during play.
With the prior announcement that the fall sports season would begin on September 21st, school districts now know what sports will be permitted to compete compared to just practicing. The Low and Moderate Risk sports of Cross-Country, Field Hockey, Golf, Gymnastics, Soccer, Girls Swimming & Diving, Girls Tennis will be permitted to begin play inside their section or league until October 19th. After that date, schools will be allowed to compete beyond their section. The High Risk sports of Cheerleading, Football, and Volleyball will be permitted to practice. However, teams will not be able to compete against other schools till approved by the NYSDOH, or after December 31st. There will be no regional/state championships for the fall sports season.
A few weeks prior, the NYSPHSAA announced that the Winter sports season will be pushed back to November 30th, previously November 16th. This change gave the fall sports season two extra weeks to account for the push back of that season. March 15th is now the official start date for Spring Sports. Both winter and spring still have State Championships scheduled, which may be subject to change.
The association has also determined that school districts can determine if junior varsity or modified teams will be allowed to participate in the 2020-21 season. WTOP 10 will continue to provide coverage on the ever-evolving high school sports situation.
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Lakers baseball takes cares of business in weekend sweep
NEW PALTZ, NY – The Oswego Lakers baseball team travelled to New Paltz, N.Y this weekend to play the New Paltz Hawks in a weekend series. The series started friday where the series started slow with both teams unable to score a run in the first two innings. Oswego the broke things open when in the top of the third inning the Lakers scored four runs. The inning started off with the Hawks walking Brian Brezosky. The Hawks then matched the Lakers in the bottom of the third inning with four runs of their own. The offensive prowess continued when Tishawn Featherstone hit a homerun in the top of the fourth, bringing in two runs for the Lakers and giving them the lead again.A single to left field by Blake VanDreason gave the Lakers a third run in the fourth inning, bringing in Parliment for his second score of the game. The offensive showing kept coming as New Paltz earned five runs in the bottom of the fourth and took a two run lead over the Lakers. Both teams then went quiet for four innings until Oswego scored 7 runs in the top of the eighth inning behind a home run by Jelani Hamer tying the game at 10. Later in the inning, McCarthy hit a double to right field, bringing in two runners and the last run of the game would come from a sacrifice fly by Drew, which brought in Anthony Barone and gave the Lakers a 14-10 lead. The Lakers would shut out the Hawks for the rest of the game and win the game 14-10. Hamer led the Lakers at the plate, going four for six at-bat, earning three RBIs, scoring two runs, and hitting one home run.
The Lakers then moved to saturday where they had a doubleheader against the Hawks. In the first inning, the Hawks struggled on the mound walking three batters to give Oswego bases loaded with just one out. Owen Parliment was at bat with one out and bases loaded, Parliament theb hit a grand slam to put the Lakers up 4-0 early. In the top of the third, Parliment would come up to bat again with a runner on first. He would continue his big day hitting his second home run of the day giving the Lakers a six run lead. In the same inning Frank Levanti would double to third base bringing in another run for the Lakers. Jelani Hamer would continue his weekend giving Oswego a nine run lead with a sacrifice fly out to center field, Levanti was brought in by Hamer. In the same inning t he Hawks walked Levanti with the bases loaded which earned a run for Oswego, bringing in Parliment. Oswego had a ten run lead going into the fifth inning.
Oswego didn’t score again until the top of the seventh inning. Bringing in two RBIs off a single to left field was none other than Parliment. New Paltz could not get anything on the board as Oswego held on to get the 12-0 shutout victory over the Hawks in game one. Kieran Finnegan received the victory on the mound, recording seven strikeouts in five innings. Sean Clifford came in to replace Finnegan and recorded three strikeouts in two innings. Parliament led the Lakers at the plate, going four for four on the day, hitting two home runs, earning eight RBIs, and scoring three runs as they head into game 2
It was the same theme for the Lakers in game two, jumping out to a commanding ten run lead in the first inning. Hamer hit a two-run home run to open up the scoring for Oswego, bringing in Brezosky. A double by Parliment set the Lakers up to score with runners on second and third. Jacob Levine earned two RBIs off a single to left field, giving the Lakers a four run lead. With runners on first and third, Greg Carullo singled to left field, bringing in another runner for Oswego. Sam Allen gave the Lakers a six run lead with a single to center field, bringing in CJ Mccarthy. Oswego jumped out to an eight run t lead in the first off a single by Brezosky, bringing in two runners. The Hawks then walked in two and gained a ten run lead. The Hawks scored two runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning, cutting the Laker lead to eight.
In the top of the second, Oswego earned just one run, coming from a wild pitch by the Hawks. New Paltz scored two runs in the bottom of the second, making the score 11 to 4. In the next inning, the Lakers added four more runs. The Hawks earned three more runs in the bottom of the fourth, giving them seven runs through four and Oswego scored their final run in the top of the sixth inning, with Featherstone scoring an unearned run from an error by New Paltz. The Hawks continued to climb back into the game, with a pair of runs earned in the bottom of the sixth inning, and one run in the bottom of the seventh. The Hawks trailed by six with two innings left. New Paltz scored their final run in the bottom of the eighth inning, falling to the Lakers by five. The final score was 16 Oswego, 11 New Paltz. Anthony Van Fossen got the win on the mound for game two, recording one strikeout in one inning. Six other pitchers saw the mound in game two, combining for a total of six strikeouts. Three Lakers tied with two hits each to lead Oswego at the plate. Those players were Brezosky, McCarthy, and Carullo. Brezosky earned two RBIs and one run, McCarthy earned one RBI and three runs, and Carullo earned one RBI and one run.
Oswego moves to .500 at 11-11 and will stay on the road and take on the University of Rochester on Wednesday, April 12th.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY OSWEGO ATHLETICS
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Dan Doolan and the Oswego State Men’s Lacrosse Team
Dan Doolan is a graduate student on the men’s lacrosse team. His senior season was canceled due to COVID-19 and he is the only one of the 15 seniors from the 2020 team to return this year. Spring student-athletes last year were granted an extra year of eligibility and Doolan, who was already planning on coming back for grad school will get to play another season of men’s lacrosse.
Dan Doolan has come a long way since his freshman year at Oswego, as a freshman, he had five points. In his junior year, he would change that to 31 points which included 22 goals. Doolan will be stepping into a leadership role this year as a great example of both grinding to develop as a player, as well as being the eldest member of the team. Head Coach Drew Bezek has high praise for this special member of his first recruiting class.
“It’s exciting to have somebody on the field that younger guys can look at his development, and understand that sometimes there’s a process to get where you want to be.” Bezek said.
Doolan is currently taking classes to get his MBA and plans to graduate in June. For the rest of the semester, he will get to experience the grind of balancing sport and school, which was taken away from so many student-athletes in the past year. The Oswego State Men’s Lacrosse team kick off their 2021 season Friday, April 2nd, on the road in Brockport.
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Oswego State men’s hockey splits weekend in Buffalo
OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Oswego State men’s hockey team went on the road this past weekend to finish the regular season. The Lakers finish the 2021-22 season with an overall record of 17-6-1 and a conference record of 12-3-1. Oswego State fell to SUNY Fredonia Friday night with a final score of 4-5 but bounced back on Saturday with a shutout victory against Buffalo State. The 3-0 win secured second place in the SUNYAC standings and gives the group a home playoff game in the semifinals round.
On Friday, Oswego State traveled past Buffalo down Interstate 90 to faceoff against the Blue Devils of SUNY Fredonia. The Fredonia squad was red hot coming into the matchup after beating the number one team in the conference, SUNY Geneseo, in a middle of the week contest. The Blue Devils would get the first two before forward Tommy Cahill got the first Oswego State goal on the powerplay in the second period. He would have another in the final stanza of the game to continue his points streak. Jackson Arcan would snag an even strength goal in the beginning of the third period to get the Lakers closer to the Blue Devils. Oswego State would score two in the final three minutes but were unable to find the tying goal before time expired. Steven Kozikowski would get pulled and Eric Green would finish the game between the pipes for the Lakers.
The following evening, Green would get the start in net for Oswego State. The team would shutout the Bengals on their alumni night. The 3-0 victory would feature goals from forwards Travis Broughman, Alex DiCarlo, and Rocco Andreacchi. The Lakerds scored two powerplay goals in the final minute to put the game away. The Bengals were able to keep the game at 1-0 for most of the contest thanks to netminding and solid defense.
Oswego State men’s hockey will take a week off prior to their Wednesday night contest against the highest remaining seed after the quarter-finals. The Lakers will host a semifinal game on Wednesday, March 2nd on home ice in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena. The quarterfinal round of the SUNYAC playoffs will be played this Saturday. WTOP 10 will have coverage thirty minutes prior to puck drop next Wednesday as the Lakers chase another conference championship. The student run television station will continue to provide coverage of the team as the group heads into the post season. Follow WTOP 10 Sports on twitter @WTOP10Sports!
Image Provided By Oswego State Athletics (@OswegoAthletics)
