Most Valuable Thoughts – New Hartford/Jamesville-Dewitt Girls Soccer 10/26

Jamesville-Dewitt 4, New Hartford 0

This game was deciding factor #1 as to what my YPY of the week would be – so I won’t rant about it too much on here. There was a game that was played. New Hartford came to town as a 7 seed with upset on the brain. With the last song on the warmup CD being “Genie In A Bottle” from Christina Aguilera before the nudity & weight gain, I didn’t know whether to expect a weird game or that we were all genies looking to be rubbed the right way… Well, it may be both, but for purposes of this post, it was the 1st one. One of the officials struck me as the gay soccer ref (YouTube it) with his pre-game stretching (now mixing those 2 just didn’t sound right). The officials wouldn’t hear the end of it. The first half had a common message – New Hartford was a game opponent, but Jamesville-Dewitt was just a faster, stronger bunch. New Hartford was able to make runs, but J-D could make extended chances. However, just using the word “chances” means nothing turned into scores. They played to a scoreless first half – but the stats were favoring J-D. The only J-D save was a Rachael Zalewski direct kick right to goalie Allison Butler’s chest. All I could hear was the parents going at the refs, the parents and kids poking fun at my jersey that read Bless Ballers on the back (if you read anything, you’d realize that means I was on a summer league team Cornelious Vines and Mookie Jones.. imbeciles), and the parents going at each other. It was a classy environment! About as classy as porn shoots in a church.

J-D exerted a bit of dominance in the 2nd half. With the parents still going at it, I didn’t know if I was at Jamesville-Dewitt or the Jerry Springer studio. Jessica Holmes reminded me that it was a soccer game when she put one through for J-D with 27:24 left, the first goal of the game. J-D continued to do the same, just being faster, stronger, and better. At the 14:08 mark, Caroline Kopp played a long ball from the back over everyone’s head to Amber Hyatt, who put one between the pipes to make it 2-0. At that point, I figured it was time to get gone for the AA football semifinals in Liverpool – but before I left, J-D made it 3-0! New Hartford just seemed deflated once the score reached 2-0. The 3rd goal was again scored by Jessica Holmes, this time at the 13:13 mark. After I left, the girl who I thought was J-D’s top player that day & just didn’t tally to that point, Maddy Devereaux, scored to complete the 4-0 romp. The hosts controlled the game and the stat sheet. In the MVT “Rudolph” stats because they’re forgotten about in the games, NH goalkeeper Kelly Bishop touched the ball 13 times while I was there, 3 being saves. J-D GK Allison Butler only saw the ball twice with the one save. New Hartford took 16 goal kicks, J-D just 2. Also, J-D outshot New Hartford 23-4, and took 5 corners to 0 for NH. After watching both Whitesboro and J-D once, I personally hope they play each other in the A final. Think those are 2 very evenly matched teams, and it’ll lead to a hell of a game!

Check our website in a few hours under Jeff’s Jabs for the YPY section! Promise you won’t want to miss.

– Jeff Mlinar

Most Valuable Thoughts – Erin O’Connor & The Battering Rams

The 2012 fall season is the season for big-time players to put up big-time numbers. Seriously. Don’t think so? Look around at every sport. Check football. Tyler Rouse is putting up numbers that we haven’t since Mike Hart (who had numbers we had never seen before). As a matter of fact, as long as they don’t make an early exit, Rouse may take some of those previously untouchable marks. Check boys soccer. Tyler Plows at Mt. Markham is putting up ridiculous numbers. Talk about when they put 7 on Sauquoit.. well, he put 7 on Sauquoit. That was a Friday evening game. They played day 2 of a back-to-back Saturday morning, and he hung 4. 11 goals in about 18 hours. Check girls soccer in Section 2. Brittany LaPlant of Queensbury just broke the school record for most career goals (72). Doesn’t sound like it’s a huge number… until I tell you she’s in 9th grade. However, none of these incredible numbers and seasons may compare to what the person I may mention the most, Erin O’Connor, is accomplishing. Now, realize that there’s a reason I mention her more than Mitt Romney mentioned the Winter Olympics and more than Obama says “uhh” before he speaks. The numbers she’s putting up are ridiculous. We’ll get to those numbers in a minute.

Let’s not forget what the team is accomplishing. After being #1 in the state all season, a loss to Poland has dropped them to #9 (what I think is too far losing 2-1 to a fellow top 10 team after you beat them 6-1, but that’s just me). I mentioned it in the previous MVT about Cooperstown comparing it to Bishop Grimes/MPH. Yeah, MPH just beat Grimes 2-1 too – that doesn’t mean that I see it happening again. They’re 14-2, outscoring opponents by a ridiculous 89-8. They’ve hung at least 9 on opponents 5 times (9 4 times, 11 once) and GK Megan Will and a defense spearheaded by Melanie Carlson have contributed to 9 shutouts this regular season. Besides the loss to Poland, their only other loss is a 2-1 in extra time to Holland Patent on a PK scored off a penalty that I will never agree with. Holland Patent is the #6 seed in a particularly strong Class B. The futures have done well for Remsen. Joleen Marfone & Lizzy Swasey among others have made key contributions. We talk so much about Erin without giving deserved credit to twin sister Ashley. For as many times as I’ve seen Erin score, I’ve seen Ashley play stellar balls through the D to give goal-scoring opportunities to Erin and others, and if no one’s on Ash, she can do it herself. Ashley is the best player on the vast majority of Class C & D teams. Erin’s got the team around her, and people forget that in the hoopla. However, there’s a reason Erin gets crazy shine. She earns the talk. Number time!

She’s scored so many goals this year, she forgot how many it was. She thought 50 – it apparently was 53. 3 goals may sound like a bit of a difference to forget, but to her, that’s a good half and a slightly below average game (about a 3.3 per game average). She’s had 10 games with at least a hat trick, 4 with at least 5, season high being 6… twice. Against Old Forge last week and Notre Dame early in the season. 53 in a season ties her for 6th in NYSPHSAA history for most goals in a season with Sarah Jones, a fellow upstate NY Class D player of the past, just across the Section 2 border in Ripepi’s country, St. Johnsville. That was in 2000. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Erin will score again this season. There’s only one time Section 3 has ever had someone score like this in a season – that was Courtney Spencer of Westhill, who put 59 through in 1999. By the way, Spencer led the section in scoring 3 straight years, 1st team all-state in Class B three times, state player of the year senior year, 3 state titles, starting in 8th grade, and she went on to play (and play a lot) at Syracuse University. Not bad company. She’s just a dozen goals away from tying the all-time record holder, Nicole Roberts of Tamarac. Info on her? Well, she did it back when I was born in ’91. Who cares about college for her? She went on to play in the WUSA, the first US women’s professional soccer league to play all players, and she made the USA women’s B team. If Remsen makes the run in the postseason that they’re expected to make, and Erin does what Erin’s been doing, a dozen goals is right in her wheelhouse. If my math is correct, she should now be at 172 career goals (damn homie). That puts her at #9 on that list, just passing miss WUSA Roberts. With 2 goals, she’ll make it to #7, passing Roberts’ high school teammate Meghan Wurster (whose name is all over the record books at the University of New England, a D3 program that was an NAIA at that point) and Stamford’s Mary Velan (who went on to Oneonta near her home, was a 4-time D3 All-American that graduated the school record-holder in points (169), goals (71), and assists (27), and continued her soccer professionally for Sky Blue FC, which at the time boasted the names Christie Rampone, Heather O’Reilly, Natasha Kai, and Kacey White). Reasonably, I feel that Erin could potentially challenge for the #5 spot, 16 goals away, and maybe even the #4 spot a goal ahead. If she does, that would give her the state record for most goals in a season by a few. By the way, the NYSPHSAA record-holder in career goals, Kaitlin Robbins, an ’07 grad of IHC, played at Syracuse too. See what kind of company Erin’s in? The Soda Fountain is damn good, but it’s no longer the main reason to find yourself in Remsen, because Erin O’Connor and the Remsen Rams are damn good too. In a couple weeks, I hope to be talking about a new #1 in the NYSPHSAA record books!

– jeff Mlinar

Most Valuable Thoughts – Redskins Revival

Wow.

Not sure anyone saw it coming besides the people in the locker room. I’m talking about the Redskins – not the football team in DC, but the girls fútbol team in Cooperstown. The 1st half of the season I think they would even call abysmal; however, for as rough as the 1st half was, the 2nd half has been even more in the complete opposite direction. I might be a young guy, barely enough to purchase alcohol legally, but I’ve seen my share of sports at all levels. I’ve also had the conversation with Jon Rathbun, sports editor of the Little Falls Times & Herkimer Telegram, who’s been here for 20 years, and we both agree: we don’t remember a team ever having such a drastic turnaround to their season without loads of injured players coming back. Cooperstown’s had none of that really – just some good old-fashioned winning.

If I remember correctly, they had 1 win last year, and when I saw them in their scrimmage at Herkimer late August, it didn’t look like the forecast would be much different. They started off the season dropping their first 5 games, and were 1-6 in their first 7 games. What an unbiased person said about their game at Mohawk (which made them 1-6) in late September: “It was 3-0, but the way it looked, it should’ve been 10-0”. Then, I don’t know what happened, but something clicked. They hammered Little Falls on my father’s birthday (RIP) September 27, and it was off to the races from there. Cooperstown has went on a borderline magical run through the 2nd half of the season when you compare it to the last.. say, season and a half. How?

I’m going to guess that they started believing in themselves. It’s not like they didn’t have the ability to win – I saw a group of athletes late-August that couldn’t get it together, didn’t look like they were on the same page. With what’s going on now, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s changed. A LOT. They went from getting waxed by Mohawk to beating New Hartford & tying Sauquoit (along with winning in PKs) just over 3 weeks later. Here are the numbers:

1st 7 games – 1-6, scoring 10 goals and giving up 24. One win against Mt. Markham, 2-1 in OT.

Last 9 games – 7-1-1, scoring 18 goals and giving up 12. One loss to Sauquoit, 3-0, without 4 starters for unspecified disciplinary crap. Got em back for the game against them later in the week, played them to a scoreless draw. By the way, they’re the #1 in C1. Cooperstown is the #9 in C2.

They seem to have mastered the art of the 1-goal game. They’ve played 8 of them, and are 7-1 in those 8 games. The lone loss was to Waterville back in mid-September, their 3rd game of the year and 1st 1-goal game. Simple math shows they’re on a 7 game winning streak in 1 goal games. These games have been as low as 1-0 (New Hartford, Mt. Markham), and as high as 5-4 (Morrisville). That shows that a team has poise. The players know how to manage the game, the coach knows how to manage the game, and the keeper makes stops when they need to. They don’t just give up either. Take that Morrisville game, for example. Cooperstown was up 3-1 at one point, and Mo’ville gave ’em 3 straight to take a 4-3 lead. As a team, when the opponent takes it to you like that, most people just back down and can’t take it. What happened? Maggie Hall comes back and ties it up for Coop, and Jordian Siver puts it away with the go-ahead goal in the last 10 minutes. They were also down 2-1 to Waterville at halftime, controlled the 2nd and won 3-2. That shows you the kind of heart they have.

There’s a number of girls on the field who have been instrumental in this turnaround. Let’s, again, take it by the numbers. What I like about Cooperstown is that they have players, and we know who their best players are, but they’re well-balanced enough that if you key in on them too much, they’re showing that others can do the job. In this 7-1-1 swing, Maggie Hall has hit the back of the net 6 times and dished out 5 assists, some on corners that Coach Pindar has raved about to local reporters. 1 of those 6 goals was the lone goal against New Hartford – a PK. Julie Dykstra has done her part, scoring 5 goals & dropping a dime along the way. Lexi Bloomfield has scored and dropped a couple dimes, but she also did something that doesn’t show in those numbers: made what proved to be the game-winning PK against Sauquoit, a shootout that Cooperstown won 3-1. Jordian Siver has scored a pair of goals, including the aforementioned winner. Sarah Jane Morosko scored a pair of goals in the streak starter, a 3-0 W over Little Falls. Let’s not forget about the one who doesn’t get to celebrate like a chicken with their head cut off after scoring or making a killer assist – she gets to punt the ball away after making a big-time save. Katie Kleban has done some very good things in between the pipes. I mean, they gave up 24 goals in the first 7 games. They’ve given up 12 in the last 9. Need any other numbers? Out of the saves she’s made, a big-time one has to be against Sauquoit to preserve the scoreless draw. She was called upon to stop a PK in regulation – which she did. Not the easiest thing to do in the world, mind you. The D has shored up, and Kleban has turned into the Coop version of the human goal-eraser at times.

Now the real season begins. I’ve always said there are two seasons that matter in high school sports – the postseason and the offseason. The postseason is here. They have a ways to climb still, being the #9 seed in C2. They get to travel to Waterville Tuesday (which is now considered today officially) at 6:00. They’ve split 1-goal games with their division rivals. If they keep it going and win there, their reward is to take a bus to East Syracuse and play Bishop Grimes. I’ve said since I watched Grimes play (and dismantle) another strong C in MPH that they’re far and away the best girls soccer team in Section 3 Class C. MPH beat them Friday 2-1 – Poland beat Remsen by that score, too. Doesn’t think I mean it’s gonna happen again. But wait, not so fast. I don’t care how good a team is, I don’t think anyone wants to run into Cooperstown right now. Ask Class A New Hartford, who has a home game to start off the sectional season. Ask #1 in C1 and #16 in the state Sauquoit. I’ve had Grimes as a big favorite in Class C all year (they may be #14 in the state, but there aren’t 14 in C better). I won’t change on that now. Don’t worry, Cooperstown knows they’re good, and they know they’re potentially playing in the Cobra pit. Don’t count them out, because they’re giving themselves the chance against everyone that no one else would give them. And as a matter of fact, don’t bother them. They’re out right now. They’re too busy winning.

– Jeff Mlinar

9/24 Section 2 Recap

Let’s go!

Boys soccer: Thomas Seeberger gets the lone goal, Andrew Rollis gets the shutout as Loudonville Christian beats Waterford 1-0. Mike Reger records a shutout for Berlin in their 2-0 W over Heatly. Joey Stier scores the lone goal in the game for Germantown, and they beat the good ol’ Thunder Chicken of Doane Stuart 1-0. Guilderland gets all 3 of their goals in the first half, 2 from James Mesiti in their 3-0 victory over Averill Park. Kedrick Weeden gets the SO. Columbia and Colonie can’t decide a winner – 2-2 draw. Nisky gets all 3 of theirs in the 2nd half and get by Saratoga 3-0. Matt Henning saw the back of the net twice for Bethlehem in their 3-0 W over Mohon. Phillip Barrett scores the lone goal for Shen, and Danny Juers gets the shutout; 1-0 final over Shaker. Burnt Hills & Ballston Spa also can’t find a winner, 1-1 final. Keeping with the shutout theme, Chatham gets a goal apiece from Williams Lezama and Rowan Meadowstreet and they defeat Catskill 2-0. Marcel Dupuis scores the only goal of the game, Matthew Snow gets the shutout for Greenville – 1-0 over Hudson. Kenny Aderounmu scores the lone goal for Mekeel in their 1-0 win over Fort Plain. Brad VanNostrand scored in OT to get a 1-0 W for Northville over Canajoharie. Tim Monette got the extended time shutout. Galway gets all 3 of their goals in the 1st half, and they beat Sharon Springs 3-0. Mayfield puts 5 through in the 1st half, end up winning 8-1 over St. Johnsville (hey, finally not a shutout!). Dylan Toscano had a solid 4 goals and an assist for the winners. Finally, La Salle also gets a shutout and 3 goals in the 2nd half, which propelled them to a 3-0 W over CCHS. Eric Backstrom gets the shutout. If you’re counting, that’s 16 games in Section 2 today, and 13 shutouts. Damn, goalies and defenses are going in!

Time for girls soccer. Mount Anthony Union gets 2 goals from Makayla Farrara in their 4-1 W over Emma Willard. 4 score for Hoosic Valley in their 4-0 W over Cambridge – Samantha Carlo credited with 3 saves in the shutout. In our Jiffy “No Lube” Beatdown of the Night, Scotia-Glenville.. ahem, squeaks by Hudson Falls 9-0. 6 players scored, led by a Sophie Constantino hat trick. Brooke Creech got a whopping 1 save for the shutout. Jordyn Rousselle scored twice for Schuylerville in their 3-1 W over Tamarac. Lot of 1-0 games: Abby Seymour scores for Bethlehem & Katie Nickles gets the shutout in theirs over Mohon, Alexis Eddy scores & Courtney Yule gets the shutout for Colonie in theirs over Columbia, and Kristen Connors scores the lone goal with a Makayla Foley shutout for Shen in theirs over Shaker. Shutout goes to Kristen Hartlage as Nisky scores a pair in the 2^nd half, 2-0 final over Saratoga. What do you know, another shutout! This one goes to Megan Hagadorn and Middleburgh, 2-0 winners over Schoharie. Let’s just keep the shutouts rolling: Florie Comley gets one & Morgan Burchhardt scores for Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, 1-0 W over Ballston Spa. Couple 8-0 games here; Mechanicville gets one over Cohoes behind 2 goals apiece from Sarah Meisel (w/ 2 assists), Mikayla Gowett, and Katelyn Pingelski, along with a Kim Thompson SO, and Queensbury gets all 8 in the 1^st half in theirs over Gloversville; Brittany LaPlant put in some work, with 4 goals and an assist and Sarah O’Brien only needs to get 2 saves for the shutout. Mekeel gets a hat trick & a dime from Macie Holmes in their 4-0 W over Fort Plain; Emily Taplin in goal for the SO. Canjo over Northville 3-0 – all 3 in the 1^st half, Jenelle Dillenbeck 2 of them, and Lauren Balfe gets the shutout. Kelly Phillips makes the Mexican soccer announcers yell GOLLLLLLL twice in Galway’s 4-0 W over Sharon Springs. Grace Delurey & Jordyn Haynes each score twice for Hoosick Falls in their 4-0 W over Stillwater, and finally, not a shutout!!!!! Broadalbin-Perth gets a pair of hat tricks, one from Katie Herba (w/ an assist hat trick on the side) and the other from Kylie Gifford in their 7-1 W over Johnstown. Again, if you’re counting, 17 games; 14 shutouts. Total between boys & girls soccer – 33 games, 27 shutouts. That’s a striking percentage for the lack of striking the losing teams were doing! We’ll chalk it up to good D.

Hope you enjoyed! Leave us some comments, follow us/like us, let us know how we can improve!

–  Jeff

MVT Game of the Night 9/17: Herkimer/Mohawk Girls Soccer

I precede the first Game of the Night article with this: I (Jeff) and Rob alike get paid to work at Herkimer games. Even though we’re both Herkimer graduates, I would say that he doesn’t have a bias, and I sure as hell don’t have one, either. That being said, since they pay us, a lot of “games of the night” will be Herkimer games. Why? I’m getting paid. I would’ve liked Herkimer-Mohawk anyway though – always a fun game and a rather friendly rivalry (although the girls seem to get more into it against them than the boys do). Let’s get to the game, shall we? The best way to explain it is that Herkimer’s play was like the temperature. Early in the game, it was hot, and cooled off quickly as the game went on, to the point that it was just plain cold in the late stages. One thing was true the whole way: Herkimer wasn’t getting chances. They possessed the ball a great deal, perhaps even 80% of the time throughout the first half. They connected not 5, not 6, not 7 passes in the attacking half. Unfortunately for them, like Lebron’s speech in the haters’ minds, they weren’t going anywhere. It was scoreless at the end of the 1st half, with Mohawk goalie Alicia Ceneviva not being tested… at all. No shots on goal over the first 40 minutes, and Herkimer goalie Chelsea Jory made 2 saves, both of them on soft shots that she didn’t have to take a step for. The best scoring chance occurred with 30 seconds left, when Megan deMayo of Mohawk put a direct kick from 25 yards out just a few inches over the post. The action picked up in the 2nd half (a little, at least). It was still mainly a competition played between the 18’s, but action started to move, and Mohawk started to become a bit crisper in play. That being said, Herkimer was the first to strike. After Ceneviva finally had to make a save (her only one, with around 20 minutes left in regulation) off the foot of Lillie Williams, Herkimer started to control for a slight time again. This time, they made the most of it. Off of a throw-in, Williams struck from around the 18 far on the right side, just a few yards from the endline, with a beauty in the general area of far post. Not much a goalie can do about that one. Now 1-0 with 16:54 left, Herk looked poised to take control… or not. Mohawk responded to this by becoming the aggressor and caught Herkimer on their heels, and in this time was where I thought the game was won for Mohawk. It’s easy to get down after giving up a goal like that, and that goal may turn into 2. They put the pressure on Herk, and although they didn’t immediately score, it changed the momentum back ever-so-slightly. After they made the Herk defense uncomfortable for a couple minutes, the equalizer happened. A Lady Mohican sent a cross in, and Jory came through to snag it out of the air. However, she mishandled it and it became a loose ball. The jury is out as to whether contact with the goalie was made… A few people complained that there was some made, but from our vantage point, didn’t look like much, if any. Anyway, soccer turned into pinball for a few seconds, and Nicole Wren came up on the other end of it, and proceeded to tap it in with 8:03 left. Mohawk challenged again in the last minute (this is becoming a theme, isn’t it?) and Jory came through with a save to preserve the draw for extra time. In girls soccer, you get a full 20 minutes to determine a winner, and they needed nearly all of it. Herkimer came out and controlled possession for a good portion of the first extra time – but just like before, nothing productive. No shots on goal. Skip to the 2nd extra time, still knotted at 1. Mohawk began to control possession themselves, but over the last couple minutes, the ball remained on Herkimer’s end. It looked like if anyone would score, it’d be the team in green. Another fun game of pinball ensued with about 35 seconds left after a Caitlyn Roorda corner, and the ball was finally cleared in the direction favorable for Mohawk. Noel Newkirk ran it down, and there was a whole lot of pasture land ahead of her. Over half of a soccer field, and one defender + Jory to beat. She got a step on the defender and it became a 1 on 1 to determine the game. Newkirk put it on goal, and Jory made the right decision and appeared to have the position for the save. However, the ball somehow found a way underneath/through the arms/somehow past the goalie, and it trickled into the back of the net with 0:14 showing on the clock. Herkimer, of course, couldn’t get anything going in that amount of time, so the Newkirk goal proved to be the winner in a 2-1 Mohawk victory. Alicia Ceneviva only needed to make 1 save, but did a good job in goal doing the things that aren’t along with getting saves: organizing the D, getting the ball cleared quickly, running down the loose ball that could become dangerous before she actually had to make a save on goal. Jory finished with 6 saves, and her save percentage for the season is now in the 82-83% range. These teams were no stranger of 100 minute soccer already: Herkimer already played 20 extra in the Mt. Markham tournament against Adirondack, and at Dolgeville as well. Mohawk went to extra time against Oriskany in the WCV tournament, and again against Little Falls. Mohawk improves to 3-1-2 overall and 2-0-1 in the league. With the loss, Herkimer drops to 2-2-1 overall and 1-2 in the league. Herkimer will be tested again on Wednesday when Little Falls, who as mentioned, tied this Mohawk team and just narrowly lost to WCV, comes to town.

You Played Yourself Week 2

Now, the whole “You Played Yourself” concept might be new to you. I’ll make it simple. Ever watched the NFL on ESPN where they have the “C’mon Man” segment, putting everyone on blast that did something stupid? Yeah, this is about in line with that. We take one thing per week and shred it to pieces. Week 1 was the VVS soccer program: if you want to read that, like our FB page and read away. This week (and we may come under fire for this, but screw it) is Mohawk administration. I get it. Approximately 4-5 years ago, you were looking at your outdoor athletic fields thinking to yourselves, “Is this a football field or a mudpit? Is this a soccer field or a sandbox that houses pigeons?” and you wanted to keep up with the Herkimers, Ilions, and Frankforts. I understand. But whoever did the number-crunching for that whole thing.. remind me to not let them do my taxes. Good thing I’ll be a tax accountant so I’ll do my own anyway. Seriously though, wasn’t there a red flag saying “Hey, if we go through with this 11 million dollar project, a solid chunk of it being on an athletic field, we’ll be 7 digits in debt”? No? The field itself is a pretty nice field, but facility wise, the only thing Herkimer/Ilion doesn’t have it beat at is the scoreboard… oh wait, that wonderful, beautiful scoreboard that you can only see the back of when you’re approaching the field. See, most places have the scoreboard facing in a fan-friendly direction where you can see time/score as you’re entering the facility. Nope, not Mohawk. Gotta be seated and at damn near midfield to see anything. Just a convenience issue, but for what I do, that convenience goes a long way. Next, can’t ya be a little more friendly with your parking? There’s room for about 150 cars if you use it right, but nope, not Mohawk. 90 cars can fit, and that’s it. I showed up to their home football game against West Canada and had to park a 7 minute walk away on the other side of Route 28. There were maybe 500 people at the game. There was better parking at Ilion/Herkimer when there were probably over 2,000 there. Now that everyone’s funds are dry and Mohawk is 7 digits in debt, Herkimer, Mohawk, and Ilion on the verge of a merge (ha, what a poet). Guess who’s field they’ll be using for outdoor varsity contests?.. Not Mohawk’s. So basically, this is what happened. You spent multi-millions.. on a practice field. Modified field at best next year. It’s not the schoolkids’ fault: I know they want a place to play, and it’s a nice upgrade from what it was, but couldn’t you be a little more fruitful with your money than running your asses into the ground for a field that won’t be getting game use after this year? Mohawk kids are cool, but Mohawk administration… you played yourself.