Schuylerville football coach John Bowen poses with a 100 win ball alongside his family. Photo via the Schuylerville Central School District.
SCHUYLERVILLE — Schuylerville Varsity Football Head Coach John Bowen was honored for his 100th Schuylerville win during the homecoming game last Friday.
During Coach Bowen’s tenure, the Black Horses won four sectional championships, including three in a row from 2019 to 2021. During those years, the teams won 29 out of 31 games. Coach Bowen has also led Schuylerville to three state finals in 2015, 2019, and 2021.
He was presented with a 100th win ball by Superintendent Dr. Ryan Sherman and High School Principal James Ducharme, and accompanied by his family on the field.
25-year-old Ari Berliner from the Jason Morris Judo Center in Glenville won a 66 kg bronze medal at the Podgorica European Cup in Montenegro last month. He finished 6-1 on the day. Berliner is currently ranked #55 in the world at 66 kg. Photo provided by Jason Morris.
Skidmore’s Ella Stone scored the game-winning goal against Rensselaer on Saturday to keep the Thoroughbreds undefeated on the year. Photo by Matt Milless/Skidmore Athletics.
Blue Streaks Destroy Albany in Thursday Night Football
The Saratoga Springs varsity football team beat Albany on Thursday night, 29 to 0. The Blue Streaks wasted no time, scoring 13 points right out of the gate. In the second quarter, they added another touchdown to make the score 22-0 at the half. They added one more TD in the final quarter for good measure, sealing Albany’s fate. Saratoga is now 5-1 on the season and 4-1 (3rd place) in Section 2 AA. They’ll be back under the Friday night lights on October 18 in an away game against Guilderland.
Schuylerville Soccer Notches Two More Shutouts
The Schuylerville Black Horses earned two more shutouts on Friday and Saturday after defeating Gloversville 3-0 and Greenwich 4-0. Against Gloversville, the Horses scored all three of their goals in the second half. Cayden Morris and Brady Baker both scored their first career goals. Nate Lanfear also scored while Alex Renner picked up 2 assists. Against Greenwich, Asher Harrison recorded his 8th shutout of the year while Alex Renner, Colden Harrison, Matt Delassio, and Nate Lanfear each scored one goal apiece.
Blue Streaks Beat Ballston in Girls Soccer Match
The Saratoga Springs girls varsity soccer squad beat Ballston Spa 2 to 1 last Saturday at home. For the Blue Streaks, Emma Murray scored in the first half off an assist from Keegan Reinhart and Lucia DeVito. In the second half, Maggie Zito scored the Scotties’ lone goal before Murray again found the net only 30 seconds later to give Saratoga the win. The Blue Streaks improved to 10-2-1 overall on the season and 7-2-1 in their league.
Saratoga Field Hockey Beats Shen in Overtime
The Saratoga Springs varsity field hockey team defeated Shenendehowa 1-0 in overtime on Monday. Emilia Hall had the winning score for the Blue Streaks. The team improved to 7-5 on the season and have two more games scheduled against Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Shaker on October 16 and 18, respectively.
Skidmore Women’s Soccer Team Remains Undefeated
Skidmore Senior Ella Stone played hero on senior day, scoring the go-ahead goal to lead the women’s soccer team to a 1-0 shutout victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday afternoon. The victory continued the Thoroughbreds’ undefeated season. They now stand at 8-0 on the year. Following the game, the program honored its 2024 senior class of Stone, Chloe Binder, Ashley Downes, Liz Foley, Kyra Russman-Araya, and Abby Sturim. Skidmore will next continue its three-game home stand on Friday by hosting the Rochester Institute of Technology for the annual Stable Game at 4 p.m.
Skidmore Tennis Teams Wrap Up Fall Season
The Skidmore College women’s tennis team completed its fall season last weekend with three days of action at the Middlebury Panther Challenge. Against Trinity, the teams of Coco Prokop/Juliette Ceas and Mia Sarzynska/Katelyn Corpuz had wins with scores of 6-2 and 6-1, respectively. The Thoroughbreds will return to competition in February with the start of dual season.
The men’s tennis team also wrapped up its season with a pair of doubles quarterfinals and singles consolation matches on day two of the Skidmore Open on Sunday. Sophomore Adel Aissaoui won the Adirondack consolation bracket after defeating Golan Geoff of Bowdoin 6-2, 6-4 in the Semifinals, before then being awarded the finals win over Wesleyan’s Jex Frankel due to his opponent forfeiting the round. The men’s team will next be on the courts in the spring for the dual season.
Hip 301 topped all sales at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall event, coming in at $230,000. Photo via Fasig-Tipton.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Sale netted nearly $4 million on Tuesday at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga Springs. 146 horses were sold in total, with first-crop weanling sires accounting for seven of the top eight sales.
The biggest sale was Hip 301, a filly from the first crop of record-setting Haskell S. (G1) winner Cyberknife, which sold for $230,000. The dark bay or brown filly was consigned by Gracie Bloodstock, agent for Waldorf Farm. Out of the winning D’wildcat mare D’fashion, hip 301 is a half-sibling to five winners, including graded stakes placed multiple stakes winner Strategic Dreams (Archarcharch). The filly was bred in New York by Dr. Jerry Bilinski.
Other top sales included:
° Hip 252, a filly by Good Magic out of Ardara, sold for $180,000 to No Money No Honey from the consignment of Vinery Sales, agent. The bay filly is a half-sister to six winners, including multiple Grade 2 winner Miss Marissa (He’s Had Enough). Hip 252 was bred in New York by Mill Creek Farm & Fortune Farm.
° Hip 125, a filly from the first crop of Preakness S. (G1) winner Early Voting, sold for $150,000 to Mandalay Stables from the consignment of Sequel New York, agent. The bay filly is out of the winning Ghostzapper mare Owl Moon, dam of four winners including stakes placed Blue Strike (Smart Strike) and hails from the immediate family of Grade 1 winner Stormy Lucy. Hip 125 was bred in New York by Sequel Thoroughbreds & Tuscany Bloodstock.
° Hip 6, a colt from the first crop of multiple Grade 1 stakes winner Jack Christopher, sold for $140,000 to Mad Dog from the consignment of The New Hill Farm. The chestnut colt is out of stakes winner and 100% winner-producer Fairway Road, whose six winners include graded stakes winner Just Grazed Me (Grazen). Hip 6 was bred in New York by The New Hill Farm.
° Hip 28, a filly from the first crop of champion Corniche out of Happy As You Go, sold for $137,000 to Mad Dog from the consignment of The New Hill Farm. The bay filly is the first foal out of her multiple stakes winning dam, from the immediate family of Grade 1 winning millionaire Boisterous. Hip 28 was bred in New York by The New Hill Farm.
The average sale price was about $27,000 and the median sale price was $15,000.
Schuylerville varsity golfers Alex DeGregory, Adam DeGregory, Kadin Converse, Ryken Riper, and Jackson Dunbar pose alongside Coach Matthew Steinfort. Photo via Section 2 Athletics.
SCHUYLERVILLE — The Schuylerville boys varsity golf team won its second-straight Section 2 Class C/D championship on Tuesday at the Fairways of Halfmoon, finishing two strokes ahead of both Mechanicville and Vorheesville.
The title-winning team included Alex DeGregory, Adam DeGregory, Kadin Converse, Ryken Riper, and Jackson Dunbar.
The Black Horses finished at plus-37, narrowly beating plus-39 Mechanicville and Voorheesville. Riper shot an 80, Converse an 86, and Adam DeGregory an 87. All three scores were good enough to allow the golfers to advance to the ABCD qualifier on Monday, October 21. Alex DeGregory added a 96.
The victory made Schuylerville back-to-back champs after their 2023 title. They’ve now captured three of the last four Section 2 Class C/D championships.
Saratoga Central Catholic girls soccer coaches Brian Venn and Tony Nucera pose alongside the team prior to their “pink” game against Mekeel Christian Academy on Monday afternoon. Photo by Super Source Media.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Perhaps it’s fitting that the Saratoga Central Catholic girls soccer team is called the Saints; it’s a small miracle that the team exists in the first place.
While other Spa Catholic sports have modified, junior varsity, and varsity teams, the girls soccer program has been struggling just to put together one varsity team, Coach Brian Venn said.
“Sometimes we don’t have enough for a full roster,” Venn said. “Our first couple of games this year, we didn’t have enough subs, so we were sometimes playing shorthanded.”
Despite the team struggling to recruit enough players to take the field, they’ve managed to win 7 games this season and have a realistic shot at finishing with a .500 winning percentage. And some of the Saints’ notable on-field contributors include several girls who had never even played organized soccer before.
“Word of mouth is powerful, especially for kids that have never played before,” Venn said. “Having their friends say, ‘don’t be nervous, don’t have anxiety, just come out and have fun.’”
One senior, Emily Sylvain, decided to sign up for soccer despite not having much experience on the field. At the Saints’ October 14 game against Mekeel Christian Academy, she was the squad’s starting striker.
But Sylvain isn’t the Saints’ only success story. Senior captain Sydney Caracci is one of the team’s leaders in both goals and assists. Sophomore captain Addison Quail leads the team in assists and is credited with helping first-year players. Senior Grace Venn, a second-year captain, solidifies the middle and right sides of the team’s defense, while also offering guidance to younger players. And juniors Ava Brown and Allison Fuller are poised to become standouts next year as the team continues to grow, Venn said.
The biggest success story, however, may be Coach Venn and Co-Coach Tony Nucera’s determined efforts to revitalize the school’s soccer program.
“[The goal] is to make Spa Catholic a destination for soccer, not only girls, but boys as well,” Venn said. “I think a lot of our planning is going to have to do with creating a smaller pipeline where we can look at some of the other, not only diocese schools, but also public schools, and make it more appealing if your daughter or son is playing soccer to come to Spa Catholic. Up until this year, we really haven’t had the momentum to make it a soccer destination and that’ll take four or five years, I’m sure.”
In the meantime, the Saints are focused on winning their final game of the season. If they do, they’ll enter the postseason as a third or fourth seed, something the team hasn’t done in nearly a decade.
It would be just another small, unexpected miracle for the Saints.
The Skidmore College field hockey team beat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute last weekend in a 4-0 shutout. Photo by Matt Milless/Skidmore Athletics.
Saratoga Soccer Squad Beats Guilderland
The Saratoga Springs varsity girls soccer team beat Guilderland 2-1 on Tuesday. Keegan Reinhart scored a goal around the 22-minute mark in the second half for the Blue Streaks, and Ava Goodman added another goal about 11 minutes later off an assist from Keegan Reinhart. Goalkeeper Olivia Goodman had 4 saves in the contest. The team is now 8-2-1 overall on the season.
Saratoga Field Hockey Victorious
The Saratoga Springs varsity field hockey team beat Columbia 4-0 on Monday to improve to 5-4 overall on the season. Mia Khazin scored three times and Olivia Nicoll scored once. The Blue Streaks will next travel to Shenendehowa for a late afternoon matchup on October 9.
Spa Catholic Girls Soccer Team Beats Salem
On Tuesday, the Saratoga Central Catholic girls varsity soccer team defeated Salem, 4 to 2, at home. Addison Quail scored two goals in the first half, both off assists from Grace Schaefer. In the second half, Schaefer scored a goal of her own before Sydney Caracci secured the final point. The Saints improved to 5-6 overall on the season.
Spa Catholic Girls Golf Team Falls Short
Saratoga Central Catholic’s girls’ golf team narrowly lost to Broadalbin-Perth last Friday, 153 to 150, at Pioneer Hills Golf Course. For the Saints, Aila Cartier shot 43 and was a medalist.
Lily Norton shot 50 and Eva Nucera notched a 60.
Skidmore Women’s Soccer Team Undefeated
The Skidmore College women’s soccer team’s undefeated streak continued Saturday afternoon, when the squad scored a 2-1 conference road victory over Vassar College. Sophomore star Abby Lewis struck twice in the first half to guide the Thoroughbreds past a Brewers team that managed to outshoot them by an 18-to-11 margin. Despite the shot disparity, Skidmore goalie Avery Rogers and the Thoroughbreds backline blanketed the home team by allowing just four shots on goal and making key defensive saves late that prevented the match from ending in a draw. Skidmore will next enter a three-game conference home stand starting October 12.
Skidmore Athletes Rack Up Liberty League Awards
The Skidmore men’s tennis team picked up a pair of weekly Liberty League awards last week. Griffin Biernat was named the Liberty League Singles Performer of the Week, and the duo of Fletcher King and Nika Mori was selected as the Liberty League Doubles Team of the Week. Additionally, four Skidmore student-athletes from four different teams were recognized on the Honor Roll: Gillian Maher, Natalie Pedersen, Abby Lewis, and Will Devall.
Skidmore Field Hockey Team Earns Shutout W
The Skidmore College field hockey team shut out Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 4-0, for a first conference victory on Saturday afternoon. The Thoroughbreds’ offense made up for a recent scoring drought by scoring the third most goals in a single game all season after outshooting the Engineers by a 20-to-9 margin and holding an 11-to-8 penalty corners advantage. Skidmore has now also won 20 of the last 23 matchups against RPI in the series history.
Members of the Saratoga Springs varsity field hockey team pose during Senior Night celebrations at a Monday game against Columbia. Photo via Saratoga Field Hockey X account.
Pinball machines at the Saratoga Silverball Show in 2023. Photo provided by Lonnie Linen.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — When Lonnie Linen was only a teenager, his father died in a car accident. Linen felt lost, unsure of what to do in life. But his father left something behind that would awaken a lifelong passion.
“[My] dad had some slot machines in his house,” Linen said, “and so I took them and I renovated the basement and I made a game room. I was like, I’ll put dad’s slot machines there so I always see them and think of him.”
The touching homage to his late father sparked an idea in Linen: what if he got a pinball machine to add to his collection?
“I found a machine,” Linen said, “it was like a $150. It was falling apart. It was all rotten. The cabinet was all water damaged. It was held together by three-inch lag screws. It was beat.”
At the time, Linen worked at the now-closed RadioShack on Ballston Avenue in Saratoga Springs. He hauled his new prize to work and his boss allowed him to keep the machine in the store for a while.
“My buddy at the time, Ed, was like ‘I hope you have space. It’s never just one. They will multiply.’ I was like, dude I am a broke college kid. I have nothing. And he was like, ‘you’ll find a way.’ Sure enough, he was right. Now I have 60 of them.”
Linen’s sizable collection includes the 1980s medieval fantasy-themed “Sorcerer,” the rare “Deadly Weapon,” the classic “Fish Tales,” “Spectra IV” (a square-shaped cocktail game that spins around), “Caveman” (a pinball machine with a video game inside it), and the ultra-rare “Safety Zone.”
One machine that Linen hopes to add to his lineup is a 1948 “Saratoga,” manufactured by Williams. The game’s backglass features artwork of dressed-up ladies during Saratoga’s Gilded Age, sauntering through a garden outside a grand hotel. “Saratoga” was the first machine to feature thumper bumpers or pop bumpers, which used a metal ring to repel the ball. In other words, Saratoga already has its own unique place in pinball history.
Now, Linen hopes to make Saratoga a pinball capital by opening an interactive museum that would host his collection and allow visitors to play the silver ball. Considering the Saratoga area is already home to one-of-a-kind museums such as the X-Files Preservation Collection (which features an X-Files pinball machine) and the National Bottle Museum, perhaps a pinball museum would fit right in.
Because Linen has been collecting and repairing machines for nearly a decade, the proposed museum’s maintenance would be handled by him and a few other local techs. As the organizer of the annual Saratoga Silverball Show, as well as the Saratoga Pinball League (hosted on Sunday afternoons at the Wow! Arcade in the Wilton Mall), Linen also has the requisite experience running pinball events.
Linen said he hopes the museum would capture a “joyful essence” that he finds lacking at many entertainment centers and arcades around the country.
“Trying to run a business and make money gets in the way of our mission: to bring the retro nostalgic joy back to older generations, and give future generations a chance to experience it firsthand,” Linen said. “My focus, and the mission of Saratoga Silverball/Saratoga Pinball Museum is to get people into pinball and build a scene in upstate New York.”
Linen is currently trying to raise $7,500 to cover the museum’s initial legal and startup fees.
To learn more about the museum or to make a donation, visit www.gofundme.com/f/help-launch-the-saratoga-pinball-museum
An advertisement for the Williams “Saratoga” pinball machine, circa 1948. Image via the Internet Pinball Machine Database.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Elise Stefanik joined Congressmen Pete Stauber (R-MN), Bill Keating (D-MA), and Mike Quigley (D-IL), in introducing the bipartisan Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act. The legislation would award three Congressional Gold Medals to members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team in recognition of their 1980 Olympic Winter Games victory against the Soviet Union’s hockey team.
“It is an honor to represent Lake Placid where our 1980 United States Olympic Hockey Team taught our nation how to believe in miracles when they defeated the dominant Soviet Union hockey team during the Cold War,” said Congresswoman Stefanik in a statement. “Our North Country community is proud to be home of this historic and inspiring event and as we work to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” this legislation honors our Olympic victors for their legendary achievement.”
“We at the National Hockey League enthusiastically support the introduction of the Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act and look forward to its passage in Congress and eventual signing by the President,” said National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman.
The three Congressional Gold Medals will be given to three different locations: the Lake Placid Olympic Center in Lake Placid, New York; the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, Minnesota; and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Kellen Dean, a Saratoga Springs High School alum, is seen just moments after winning his first individual golf title at the collegiate level. Photo via Xavier University.
NEWTON, KANSAS — Saratoga Springs High School graduate Kellen Dean, now a freshman at Xavier University, captured his first men’s golf tournament individual title at the Grier Jones Shocker Invitational earlier this week. The title secured Dean a sponsor’s exemption into the Korn Ferry Tour’s Wichita Open in June.
Dean finished with a score of -7 (209), shooting rounds of 73, 66, and 70. On the par 3s, he averaged 2.75. His standout performance helped Xavier’s team score a +5 (869), placing them tied for third overall.
When interviewed by Saratoga TODAY in May, Dean said one of his top goals was “for my golf game to be sharp heading into my freshman year in college at Xavier University, and to be able to make an instant impact for the team.”
