Heading out to cover the Golden Horde's run at a state title

 

the Horde start action at 5p.m. and games usually last about two hours, plus a two-hour car ride

Yippee

 

Going to be a cold one, hope that doesn't affect play

 

also

 

The Granville Hook & Ladder fire company are planning a spaghetti dinner fundraiser at Bernardo's with the typical seatings at

5 p.m.  6:15 and 7 p.m. $5 to eat in and $6 to take out

the guys forgot to get word to the paper  or weekender so spread the word

they're raising money to replace an aging fire truck

the big one

the only ladder truck in Granville

get out and show them your support

Posted by Matthew Rice at 06:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Soccer finale

 

Might be a soccer game

girls vs boys

varsity teams. With the weather

absolutely freezing

outside and

rain-snowing

I'm not sure if this one will still take place.

I'll post again if I hear anything.

But is was supposed to be after school about regular game time. Sounds like a fun way to end the season.

 

 

Posted by Matthew Rice at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

 

The game against Lake George, here, has been moved to 2:30 p.m. Saturday

Posted by Matthew Rice at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sports stuff

 

Tough loss for the girls soccer team, 10-0 to Ravena the 2-seed Class B, Ouch.

I give them credit for taking the shot, but shows theres still a long way for the Granville Futbol programs to go - Keep plugging folks, believe it or not it will be nice to look back and say 'I kept this program going' when they hoist a banner some time in the future.

As a Corinth alum from back in the day when getting rid of the football team seemed like a good cost-cutting measure, I have to admit to some pride at the fact that our really bad(3 wins in as many years of football) kept the sport alive at the school.

Call me - what? An optimist, I guess because I think losing at sports builds at least as much character any winning streak. That said I'd had loved to build a little less character back in school.

 Field hockey.

Granville waits as Lake George puts up big numbers on Coxsakie-Athens (pardon the spelling on that one, sure it's wrong). The fourth seed is coming in with some momentum so the Horde need to watch out after a LONG layoff without playing a meaningful game.

The Horde came to a rolling boil about this time last year and will need to be able to jump right into it Saturday to keep the train rolling. I still like thier chances, but I'm not much for predicting...

 

Oh yeah,

In response to a poster, I don't read many, if any, other blogs. Whoops, take that back. I look at the sports blogs of the writers over at the Post Star often. They're looking big picture so I use them to keep up to date on movings around the rest of the league in the non-Granville events.

Other than those, nothing. I've looked at blogs from a lot of sources, but don't go back. Usually they're a lot of "insider basball" to coin a phrase and I think ANYONE can post one, so you've often got to wonder what they really know - this one included. You'll see journaism in the paper and - what? scraps, I guess, here.   

Posted by Matthew Rice at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

football

Too bad for Granville but it was one of those games that you watched slip away and there was no obvious answer why. So the Horde fall to Corinth.

That loss gets Granville into a faceoff with Voorheesville, a team that bopped them out of the playoffs two years ago in the first round.

Bad magic there with a kicker coming into the game as time ran out to kick a game-winner.

A two-sport athlete by-the-by who only go to the game in time from another sectional contest in futbol because that game didn't go into overtime.

There are no Horde players left from that team, but I'll bet the coaches still remember.

The next week might provide Granville with a chance to avenge one of their losses from last season.

Granville was the first win in Hoosic Valley football history as their program broke into the win column against the Horde's 0-9 team.

HV has no home field so they would end up here, potentially setting up two Saturday games in a row to close things out for Granville.

4 and 5 would be a good turnaround after last year and sets the team up well to make a run at an even better record in the 2009 season.

Posted by Matthew Rice at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is beginning to feel a lot like Fall out there -yuck

Since i've started playing golf I have less and less patience for the cold weather. What helped to warm it up for everyone last week were the traditional, I think four years running can be called a tradition, games under the lights. Depsite bone-chilling temps lots of fans got out to support the Horde teams. Good hard play all around, even when a win wasn't the end result.

Many memories from a great, but tiring, week. Here's a poorly planned awards ceremony for the games:

Coldest night:

field hockey. I went home, turned on the heat for the first time and still piled on the blankets. A thrilling overtime game helped to take the edge off, but when the adrenaline wore off COLD, COLD, COLD.

Loudest crowd:

boys soccer, Fired up for the first night under the lights the Horde fatihful were in full throat. I think that's what gave me goose bumps, although it could have been the temps - Brrrrrr.

Coolest ending to a game:

Tough call but the edge goes to the monsoon that washed out the second half of the girls soccer team. Lightening, wind and then lots of rain. Wet and cold the girls still celebrated - under the overhang at the Price Chopper Plaza. I got a fun shot of the teams doing the traditional line up hand shake/slap in the parking lot across from the fields.

Best electronics:

The scoreboard that was at the soccer games was AWESOME. You could see it from everywhere on the field and it was a true luxury to know how much time was left on the field. Superintendent Dan Teplesky said that was the type of board the district was looking at. What a REd Sox fan might call 'Wicked Awesome.'

Most dissappointing:

The football team's loss to Hoosick Falls. A game it looked like they could have won - what a bummer. Their coach said afterwards his players had a lot of respect for the Granville team, they should, the Horde took them to the wall that night.

Biggest win:

No Bout A Doubt It, the field hockey team took control of a large part of controlling thier own destiny in the playoffs. Many important things about the win including a share of the league title and potentially setting up the Horde in a bracket opposite the Witches for the sectionals, avenging a loss... Biggest in my mind is the psychological advantage of knocking off a team that had not lost in the league and already beat them once. You can't tell me that won't factor into a team's thinking as they face off again and that time it could be for some kind of title.

 

Posted by Matthew Rice at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Been busy working up to a vacation so I haven't been posting

 

If you missed it Thursday night you missed the one everybody will tell you "You shoulda been there" a real down to the wire nail biter against Greenwich

two evenly matched teams duking/dooking it out GREAT STUFF

Football tonight

I'm looking for Granville to shock the world, no one should be looking past this Horde team

but

the 3-1 Panthers are just the team to do that

Granville must - score first, make the other guys play catch up

which goes hand in hand with playing hard from the start, this is not a team to come back on

- thwart the big play

-hit em hard and often

The same team that took it to Mechanicville last weekend can and will beat the team from Hoosick Falls

 

Posted by Matthew Rice at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)