Week in review

Triumphs, upsets and rankings

Eldred boys cross-country team stuns county’s bigger schools; girls soccer feats take center stage; local football teams show mixed results

By RICHARD A. ROSS

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — Cool fall days are perfect for running, football and soccer and all three sports produced their share of surprises and emotional banter this week. In cross-country, Eldred vanquished Liberty, Monticello, Sullivan West and Tri-Valley in the boys race won by Monticello’s Dave Wilbur only a week after this writer penned a diatribe about how unfair the schedule was for Eldred, which never runs against foes its own size. Tri-Valley’s girls evened the score with Sullivan West, whose Rianne Erlwein was the individual race winner. The division race on October 13 will decide who will hold this fall’s first bragging rights.

Girls soccer rose to prominence with Sullivan West and Liberty recording impressive league wins over Orange County foes James I. O’Neill and John S. Burke Catholic respectively. The Lady Indians waited 11 years to beat Burke. Tri-Valley hoped to beat league rival S.S. Seward under the lights at home but fell 2-0.

Football’s aura never fades. In the biggest match up of the week, undefeated Sullivan West and Ellenville clashed on September 25 on the Blue Devils’ turf. It was a rematch of last year’s championship game won 34-20 by Ellenville.

This time out, four Sullivan West turnovers spelled disaster for the visiting Dawgs, who fell 22-12. The teams may well meet again in the playoffs in late October or early November. Rankings talk filled the airwaves prior to the anticipated encounter. Max Preps had listed Sullivan West as the fifth-ranked team in Section Nine, while The New York State Sportswriters Association had them as 12th in the state among Class C teams with Ellenville 17th. All of that will now be modified.

The Dawgs hope to change the tone as they host winless Pine Plains on homecoming weekend on October 3. Eldred stayed perfect at 4-0, smashing Spackenkill and rolling up over 400 yards of total offense for the fourth straight week. Eldred travels to Onteora to try to extend its streak to five.

Liberty got in the win column with a big 41-6 league victory at Tri-Valley. Both teams continue, along with Spackenkill, Millbrook and Pine Plains, to vie for probably two remaining playoff spots if Sullivan West and Ellenville continue to hold serve throughout the remaining weeks. Both behemoths have played the toughest parts of their schedule.

For details and photos of these encounters, visit sportsinsightsny.com.