Lockport star section b 11 09 2014

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Sports & Entertainment

EAST AURORA ENDS SEASON FOR WILSON Lockport Star / Saturday, November 08, 2014

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SECTION B

BARKER BEING BARKER Lady Raiders win seventh-straight Class C title

JEFFREY T. BARNES

Gabby Clare (12) scored her 17th goal of the season early in the second half and Madison Greenwald notched the game-winning tally a few minutes later to help Barker to a 2-1 victory in the Class C field hockey finals Nov. 5 at Amherst. By Nick Sabato SPORTS REPORTER

The dynasty continues. Barker’s field hockey

dominance continued on Wednesday night (Nov. 5) as it took down Akron, 2-1, to win its seventh consecutive Section VI Class C championship.

This win didn’t come easy, however, as the Lady Raiders were facing a team that they had already beaten twice and it’s always tough to beat

a team three times in a season. Barker got this title by doing something that it hasn’t had to do all season in overcoming a halftime

deficit, but that’s exactly what the Lady Raiders did. “I told them at halftime, ‘don’t put your heads down,’” said Barker senior Melissa Grosshans.

“I said, ’There are 30 minutes left. That’s a ton of time to score. Anything can happen.’” Even though the Lady Raiders controlled time of possession for most of the game, it was apparent early that Akron was completely aware of what Barker wanted to do. The Tigers caught a break early as a defender fell down just as Sarah Schultz found she was one-on-one with Barker goalkeeper Caitlyn Mason. Schultz found the back of the net for the eighth time this year to give Akron the early lead. “They knew what we were going to do,” said Grosshans. “We prepared ourselves in the second half to get around, change up what we were doing to get the ball through to finally score that goal.” Earlier in the year, Barker head coach Jeff Costello said that his team was built to play on turf, and that was evident for much of the game. Barker controlled time of possession even while trailing, as Grosshans and leading scorer Gabby Clare were able to weave through defenders almost at ease. The smooth surface of the Amherst High School turf allowed them to showcase their ballhandling skills. “I thought in the first half, Gabby and Melissa especially, did a really job for us on that right side,” said Costello. “They had our insideoutside passing game going early. They were moving the ball well together; we just didn’t have a whole lot of support with them.

See “Champs” on page B3

Lang wins Class A Starpoint soccer takes Section VI Class A2 championship individual XC crown By Nick Sabato SPORTS REPORTER

Success is not new to Lockport senior Abbie Lang. She is the four-time Niagara Frontier League cross country champion, but a sectional title had evaded her throughout her career. That is until now. Lang was able to take home the Section VI Class A individual championship last Friday (Oct. 31). “It was weird because when I finished it didn’t hit me that I won,” said Lang. “It still really hasn’t hit me yet because when I was running in seventh grade I never thought that I would be able to do that. Just to do it is crazy to even believe.”

There may not have been a better way for a senior to cap off her final year, winning back-to-back meets before the state meet. That is especially true since Lang had not won an invitational prior to the NFL championship meet, so to not only win sectionals, but to do so with a personal-best time of 18:45 is even more special. “We were training harder than I ever have before for this season,” said Lang. “So I was really hoping at the end, where we started tapering off, that I would start running a lot faster and it would pay off. It really did with these past few meets.” When someone has so much individual success over the course of their careers, it can get frustrating to go nearly an entire season and not win a race.

See “Lang” on page B3

By Nick Sabato SPORTS REPORTER

It was a whirlwind three days for Starpoint as tears of jubilation turned into tears of sadness just like that. At the beginning of the year, Starpoint head coach Scott Bindemann did not set goals, he set expectations, and they did so by winning the Class A2 sectional championship on Thursday (Oct. 30) with a 3-1 victory over Lewiston-Porter. After the win, Bindemann was thrilled to win the first sectional title in school history, but he knew there was still another game to play to meet the expectations of winning Class A. “It feels great,” said Bindemann. “They really did an

JEFFREY T. BARNES

Members of the Starpoint boys soccer team celebrate their Section VI Class A2 championship victory on Oct. 30. The Spartans’ season came to an end when they lost in the Class A crossover game on Nov. 1. outstanding job. These guys, all season long, have done everything that they needed to do to get to this point and there is still one more game.

There is still the A1 and A2 crossover game which is the section game. Our goal was that and so far it’s going as planned. We have to work

at practice tomorrow and come out on Saturday.”

See “Soccer” on page B3


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