Good morning, subscribers. 🏆 It’s Friday, Nov. 14. Between football, boys and girls soccer, field hockey, and volleyball, there are a total of 182 New York teams still playing in the postseason.

Rye is the only high school in the state with four teams still alive. Football plays a section championship game tonight. Volleyball and boys and girls soccer all resume state tournament play Saturday.

It’s rare to even have two teams still playing at this point (just 26 schools in the entire state). The only others with three teams left are Fairport (near Rochester) and Garden City (on Long Island).

Rye stands alone with four. Each has legitimate hopes of ending the fall with a state championship, but extending the season into mid-November is already an incredible accomplishment.

Let’s go “Between the Lines” to preview this weekend’s state tournament action, plus one last section championship game that will produce the eventual state title favorite in football.

“Between the Lines” is curated by sports editor Chris Marshall.

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Gridiron Preview: A 1 vs. 1 Section Championship

Calling tonight’s inevitable Rye-Somers section championship a 1 vs. 2 matchup wouldn’t do it justice. The game is more like a 1A vs. 1B, or, as the official Section 1 playoff bracket puts it, “1N vs. 1S.”

Rye, the No. 1 seed in Section 1’s South region, is 10-0. Somers, the No. 1 seed in the North, is 8-2 and looking to win a fourth consecutive state championship.

The two teams met in the second game of the regular season, a 17-7 Rye win Sept. 12 at Nugent Stadium, and both have played nearly flawless football since. Somers won eight straight games after starting the season 0-2. Rye has scored 35-plus points in every game since beating the Tuskers in a defensive slugfest.

It’s the matchup everyone has come to expect. The only shame is just one of these teams can advance to the state tournament, where they’ll immediately become the prohibitive Class A favorites.

Somers has been the kryptonite for a Rye team that’s soared against all other opponents. The Garnets have won 30 of their past 31 games, the only loss coming against the Tuskers in last year’s section title game. In 2023, both teams won state titles, Somers in Class A and Rye in Class B. In 2021 and 2022, Rye won nine games before season-ending playoff losses against the Tuskers.

But as comic book fans will tell you, kryptonite is never Superman’s undoing, just a recurring obstacle to overcome. Rye’s head-to-head victory earlier this year snapped Somers’ 45-game win streak against Section 1 competition. Senior quarterback Carson Miller threw two second-half touchdown passes to turn a 3-0 halftime lead into a double-digit win, ending Rye’s four-game skid in the series and providing a possible blueprint to turn the tables on the Tuskers this postseason.

The section championship kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at Mahopac. The neutral location is closer to Somers, which could provide an added home-field advantage for the Tuskers. Rye fans looking to help level the playing field can buy tickets for $9.40 here.

Weather Report: The Weather Channel forecast for kickoff Friday night in Mahopac is 38 degrees with partly cloudy skies. ☁️

Check out the weekend weather forecast for Rye here.

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🏐 After capturing the program’s first section title in commanding fashion, the Rye volleyball team carried its dominance into the state tournament.

The Garnets have won 15 of their 16 sets this postseason, picking up their fourth sweep Tuesday to advance to the Class A state quarterfinals.

Coach Geri Jones has continued to shake up her lineup, playing Katie Hillis at outside hitter after she scored the game-winning point in the section championship. In the sweep of Port Jervis, the sophomore contributed five kills, five digs, and one assist for what Jones called “an amazing game, both offensively and defensively.”

Senior Valeria Medina had the game-winner Tuesday, including seven kills, 15 digs, and an ace serve to help the Garnets (19-4) advance with a ninth win in their past 10 matches.

— By Ariana Ottrando

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Performer of the Week: Kasen Scarperi 🎩🪄

⚽ Congrats to Kasen Scarperi — winner of the Sportech Performer of the Week.

The junior midfielder doesn’t wait long to set the tone for Rye’s boys soccer team. In four of the past five games, Scarperi has put the Garnets on the board with a goal in the opening 10 minutes.

After a hat trick in last Saturday’s state quarterfinal rout of John Glenn, Scarperi now has nine total goals in six postseason games.

The offensive outburst propelled Rye to three consecutive 5-0 wins and a spot in this weekend’s Class A state semifinals. The Garnets (18-1-3) travel to Middletown riding an 18-game unbeaten streak, with their only loss this season coming more than two months ago on Sept. 10.

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⚽ For the third year in a row, the Rye girls soccer team is in the state semifinals.

A 2-0 shutout of Section 11 champion Sayville last Saturday put the Garnets in position to win their first state championship since 2023 this weekend.

After a scoreless, back-and-forth first half in the quarterfinals, sophomore Hannah Jachman headed in the all-important first goal with 26 minutes left, and just like that, the tide began to turn. With 13 minutes left, junior Charlotte Keenan went top shelf off of a corner kick by freshman Harkin Brown, and that, as they say, was that.

Rye remains unbeaten at 20-0-3, allowing just six goals all season, thanks to senior keeper Tessa Labovitz and a stout back line.  

— By Steven Kearney

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