Girls varsity basketball

The girls’ varsity basketball team played only one game this past week and that was a non-league game at Little Falls last Tuesday, Dec. 13. Much like their opening game at Adirondack, they were matched up against a much larger school and much larger team. Little Falls had two girls that were much taller than our center and with a decided weight advantage. As you might expect, Little Falls had no trouble with their opponent and won the game easily.  

What some people do not understand is that when you compete in a major sport, and there is no sport more major than basketball, small schools simply do not defeat the larger schools unless they have a very unusual team. Ask New York Mills. The Mills recently played a class B school and were defeated soundly even though they are considered one of the top D schools in the state.  

Getting defeated so soundly does not help the girls’ morale, but they can learn fast as to what it takes to compete on a varsity level. Hopefully, they do not hang their heads, but respond by playing more aggressively and with some improved play.

The team did do some good things. Katie Connell led the team in scoring with 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting. Haley Josephson scored six points, had three steals and five rebounds as she progresses slowly from knee surgery. It will take time but she is determined to get back to her old ways. Mercedes Rice only scored two points but that is not where she shines. Rice, only a ninth grader, has a great ability to get good position on the boards to gather in rebounds and the team is depending on just that from her. Rice led the team with 10 rebounds against some very large girls.  

The team will be playing their first home game of the year this week with a game against Westmoreland on Thursday, Dec. 22.  The tip off will be at 6 p.m. Here is the chance to cheer on these girls which may be just the boost they need to garner a victory.  

Girls varsity volleyball

The girls’ varsity volleyball team played two very competitive matches this past week against league rivals, New York Mills and Remsen.  

Monday, Dec. 12, the team hosted New York MIlls with both teams hungry to get their first win of the season. The match went to all five sets with Old Forge getting its first victory of the season by the scores of 25-23, 23-25, 25-23, 17-25 and 25-20.

The match was an exciting match and the Old Forge junior varsity also won, it created a rare sweep of New York Mills at every team level.  Earlier in the season, our two modified volleyball teams both defeated the Mills on our floor.  

Individually, the team got good play from Jessica Menges who had three aces, 18 kills, four assists and four digs; Daria Orekhov had five aces, one kill, 27 assists and four digs; Alex Levi had four aces, six kills and three digs and Sarah Branch had three aces, three kills and four digs.  

Friday, Dec. 16, playing at home again, the team got into another wild match, this time with the Remsen Rams. Unfortunately for the local team, Remsen pulled out the victory in five sets, winning the game deciding fifth set, 25-23.  

Old Forge started slowly, losing the first two sets, 25-20 and 25-19. Ultimately, that was their undoing. They came back strong and won the next two sets 25-21 and 25-20, setting up the fifth and last set of the match. It just was not to be for Old Forge as the Rams recorded their first victory of the year.  

Menges had three aces, 11 kills and three digs; Orekhov had three aces, one kill, 18 assists and one dig; Levi had six aces, three kills and three digs and Mallory Kleps had one ace, one kill and one dig.  

Girls junior varsity volleyball

The girls junior varsity volleyball team recorded a victory over New York Mills last Monday, Dec. 12. They won the first two sets, 25-19 and 25-20 to make quick work of the MIlls.  

Shelby Egnaczyk had an outstanding night with her serving. Egnaczyk got all 21 serves into play and recorded 10 aces. The entire team served well with Sara Carnell, Kennedy Scott and Lexie LaFountain all recording aces.  

On Friday, Dec. 16, they lost to the Remsen Rams, two games to one. No individual stats were available at the time of this writing.  

Boys varsity basketball

The boys varsity basketball team played two league games this past week against Oriskany and Poland.  

Wednesday, Dec. 14, they hosted a strong Oriskany team, the only team in the league that most experts feel have a chance to defeat New York Mills. After seeing them play, they are good but I seriously doubt that they can dethrone the Mills.  

After a slow start, Oriskany caught fire in the second period and built a large lead by halftime and coasted to an easy victory over the outmanned Old Forge team. Watching the team play without the injured Sam Waterbury, showed just how much they depend on him. It is not just his scoring but more importantly, it is his leadership on the court that makes him so valuable to the team. Coach Nate Smith used a couple of players in his spot neither having played that position, which proved that they were not ready to direct the team.

Greg Hunkins led the team with 10 points followed by Kenny Pastore with five, Dakota Earl and Calvin Risley each had four points and Ethan Kress had three points.  

Friday, Dec. 16, they played another league game at Poland. Again, they had trouble at the point guard position and with injuries mounting, they played most of the second half with only five players available. They lost the game 61-45 with 21 points being scored in the last period mainly against Poland’s second unit. The good thing is that they never gave up and showed signs of future good play. Again, Hunkins was the high scorer with 15 points. Risley also scored in double figures with 13. Parker Clemans has a good game and came up with seven points followed by Pastore with six and Earl and Kress each getting two points.  

In their last week before the Christmas break, they have home games against Remsen on Monday, Dec. 19 and a home game against New York Mills on Wednesday, Dec. 21.  Both games start at 6 p.m. and both are league games.  

Boys junior varsity basketball

The boys’ junior varsity basketball team hosted Oriskany on Wednesday, Dec. 14 with Oriskany getting the victory, 53-35.  

The Old Forge team seemed nervous in their first start at home, but they hung in to give Oriskany a good game after a very slow start. Dane Daiker led the team with 10 points followed closely by Cameron Lenci with nine.  Other scorers were Andy Slegaitis with six points, Tyler McGough who never played organized basketball before this year, had five points, Will Johnson had three points and Tom Lindsay had two points.  

Friday, Dec. 16, they could not get going offensively in the first half against Poland and the game, for all intents and purposes, was over by the half. However, the kids never quit playing hard and played much better in the second half. Coach, Andy Kalil, was very happy that his team refused to give up and kept playing hard. Will Johnson had six points to lead the team with three players, Daiker, Lenci and Slegaitis each scoring four points.

Indoor track

Three Town of Webb students, all seniors, who are strong members of the fine spring track team, took part in an indoor track meet held at Sanford Field House on the campus of Colgate University this past Friday, Dec. 16.  The event was the MVITA Relays and all three boys took part in only field events. Lack of numbers prevented them to enter any running relay and in the field events two athletes counted for places.  

Having had no competition since last spring, it was thought that the boys would struggle, especially since they were representing the only Class D school in the competition. In fact, they competed against all much larger schools up to and including Class AA.

The three athletes, Trevor Godemann, Kevin Kress and Connor Rockhill, all competed and competed very well. They have had little or no chance to practice their events but they came out with outstanding performances. In the high jump, Kress and Rockhill competed as a team and both cleared 6’ and easily won the event. Individually, they came in second and third with a high jumper from Oneida clearing 6’3” to capture first place. In the pole vault, Rockhill tied for first place with an 11’ 6” vault. Considering that he could not get any practice for that event, that was a fine vault. Rockhill teamed up with Kress and together they tied for second place.  

In this meet, an athlete could only enter two events. Godemann had to do his events alone which made it very unlikely for him to capture a place but he needed to compete against some good athletes. Godemann took part in the long and triple jumps. All he did was to capture first place in both events. Godemann’s 18’ 11 1/2” long jump won that event and he came back with a jump of 40’ 11” in the triple to win that event.  Competing against the teams, he actually placed sixth in the triple to give his team one point.  

Ten schools had teams competing at the meet with Old Forge placing eighth. Not surprisingly, RFA won the meet. If these boys continue to improve over the course of the indoor season, new school records could be broken when they report to the spring season. This takes a lot of work and they must work hard if they have their thoughts on more records.