Movers, shakers and headline makers

First-week action produces outstanding efforts from Sullivan West and Eldred

Millbrook 8, Tri-Valley 7

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — From the opening whistle of the first game, Eldred and Sullivan West athletes jumped into action full bore, dispelling any notion about slipping slowly into the young season and saving intensity for later.

Nothing doing.

Eldred’s girls soccer team garnered an opening day 2-1 win over Monticello in the Tri-Valley tournament with a pair of goals from tourney All-team member Heather Ouellette. Tri-Valley’s band of veteran returnees brought the Yellow Jackets back to earth with a 7-0 win in the championship match. Eldred’s Kim Elvin and Lauren Hazen were named to the All-Tournament team along with Tri-Valley’s Jakki Pugh (MVP), Skylar Musa, Monticello’s Annie Purcell and Taylor Reardon. Laurie Schoonmaker won the Sportsmanship Award.

Eldred 56, Tri-Valley 3

Eldred trounced Tri-Valley 56-3 in their football opener, a game played at Brookwood Camp since Eldred’s field is under reconstruction this season. Dominant in every phase, the Yellow Jackets were paced by Ian Halloran (see First of the Last on this page) and Jordan Tice, who tallied 8/88 yards with a pair of touchdowns. Dylan Kulik led the defensive charge with eight tackles. Shaun Berger had five tackles and four sacks. Buck Hallock had four tackles to help pace Eldred’s crushing defense, which will be more soundly tested by LMR at Roscoe on September 11.

Pup Power: Young Bulldog booters burst out to a 2-0 start to their season

To say that Sullivan West’s boys soccer team is young and missing tested impact players would be an understatement. That said, they turned their kind of intensity and grit, which their coach Debbie Owen described as one of their early-season assets, into a pair of non-league wins against Class A teams.

First, they overcame an early goal by Port Jervis with a pair of ringers from Alex Lander to take a 2-1 win in their season opener. Instead of playing defensively once they got the lead, they kept on the attack and kept the ball out of their defensive third of the field.

Then on September 4, they prevailed with a 2-1 win over Monticello. Getting the first score from Lucas Bauer, the Bulldog “pups” took the early lead, but Montie veteran Jason Pabon tied it up by beating keeper Austin Sauer. Late in the game, Richard Lander was afforded a direct kick that found an unmarked Chris Ellison for what would become the game-winning score. Sauer recorded 10 saves, while Monticello’s acrobatic keeper, Trevor Goldstein, had four. A shot of Goldstein flying through the air horizontally can be seen in the Hot Shots gallery on www.sportsin sightsny.com.

Sullivan West 49, Deposit 20

Dominant Dawgs demolish Deposit in grid opener

The visiting Deposit Lumbjacks from Section Four learned quickly about rabid Dawgs as Sullivan West needed just four plays on its opening drive to unleash Artie Norden for a 17-yard TD to take the 7-0 lead, with his PAT that set the tone on September 4. Norden had an interception that should have led to a second early score, but the Dawgs punted and poor coverage allowed a 55-yard return for Deposit’s Darin Wignall.

One return deserves another, so Sullivan West’s Latti Rabii took the kickoff 79 yards. Norden’s kick made it 14-6 with 4:56 to go in the first quarter. The defense began to stiffen and the Bulldogs added to their lead with an 11-yard romp by Chris Murphy to make it 20-6. The PAT went wide.

Deposit scored first in the second quarter on a 75-yard return by Wignell to make it 20-12. A pass on the conversion succeeded in closing the gap to 20-14.

A hard hit by Mike Schmidt led to a fumble recovery by Mark Schwartz. This fueled a short drive that ended with a half-yard TD run by QB Ryan Alsdorf. Austin Erlwein ran the two-point conversion in and the Dawgs led 28-14. With 1:49 left in the half, Alsdorf scored again, this time on a 23-yard jaunt. Norden’s PAT spotted the Dawgs to a 35-14 halftime lead.

Deposit got is final points at 10:05 of the third quarter on a 35-yard TD pass to Davidson Libke but the Dawgs weren’t done by any means. A safety scored by Mark Tesseyman made it 37-20 and with less than two seconds left in the third quarter, Ryan Alsdorf strode in from the nine-yard line to make it 43-20. The PAT failed but the Dawgs managed another TD on a 52-yard run by Rabii with 8:29 remaining in the game.

Sullivan West hosts league rival Liberty under the lights on September 12. Liberty lost its opener 16-0 at Delhi.