SOAC Championships: Peekskill-Cortlandt Daily Sports Digest March 22

Welcome to Patch's daily snapshot of sports in Peekskill and Cortlandt.

SOAC Hoop Championships

We thank the Shrub Oak Athletic Club for the below submissions:

Congratulations to the following Basketball Teams & Coaches for Winning their Divisions:

Sophomore Girls: Priore Eliectric - coached by Kathleen & Kevin Cahill
Junior Girls: CBK Engineering - coached by Mike Daly
Senior Girls: All Star Air Quality - coached by Mark Velzy
Freshman Boys: Journey's Travel - coached by Alan Cohen, Alex Cohen & Matt de Marte
Sophomore Boys: JC Info Tech Services, Inc. - coached by Steve Fallo
Junior Boys: Rick Kast Carpentry, Inc. - coached by Kenny Petriccione & Chris Harrison
Senior Boys: Hellman Electric- coached by John Eremita

Leading by Example

The below was written by Alan Cohen:

Alex Cohen and Matt de Marte are Lakeland High School Sophmores that were on the JV basketball team. It was a tough season for JV but certainly a good learning experience for both Alex and Matt which helped them to funnel their competitiveness and coaching skills towards a group of 8 young men who were drafted randomly from an SOAC pool of talent. 

Alex and Matt had no siblings on the team but were strictly interested in helping a group of young men (9, 10, 11 years old) to improve their basketball skills with the ultimate goal of winning a championship. They took a very serious approach towards the team and made sure that this was understood. Matt dressed in a suit and Alex, with the closest outfit he had to one, for every game. It seemed like the old Lou Carnesseca ‘magic sweater’ was working for Matt and Alex. 

From the beginning of the season, they taught the players the importance of playing as a team and that no one player can take them to the championship.  Many of the teams they faced along the way had one dominant player.  The focus for this team was to shut down the top player and work together to find success as a group.

And success is what they found. Though being a #6 seed in the playoffs, that just motivated the team even more because they brought the attitude that they could win it all.  The vocal leaders on the team helped to pull up players that may have struggled at any particular time.   

Leadership, teamwork, desire, and just coming to play brought the team the championship in a hard fought neck and neck battle where big shots were being drained by both sides in the fourth quarter. 

As Alex’s father, I take pride in the positive attitude and leadership that Alex and Matt provided to make a memorable experience for all the young men.  The example was set for future young coaches in SOAC.

Eremita holds off a late Zebzda run, secures 11-12 SOAC Boy's Senior Championship

In a much anticipated rematch from an earlier contest, team Hellman Electric (Eremita) lead by Dan Eremita  with 15 points, defeated Westchester County PBA (Zebzda) by the score of 51-44.

Team Eremita the number one overall seed,  jumped out to an early 12-10 lead due in large part to Nick Mariani. Mariani scored nine of his thirteen points in the first quarter, and dominated the glass consistently securing both offensive and defensive rebounds.

In the second quarter head coach John Eremita decided to shake things up and go to a full court press that baffled team Zebzda. Eremita was able to consistently force turnovers and as a result, was able to hold Zebzda to just seven points in the second quarter and only seventeen for the first half. Behind their strong efforts on the glass and the foul line team Eremita was able to enjoy a 24-17 advantage at the half.

In the third quarter Eremita tried to challenge Zebzdas' zone and more specifically big men Drew Cregan and Mike McMahon. With McMahon(14 points)  and Cregan both playing with four fouls, Eremita  continued their domination of the paint as well as the scoreboard outscoring Zebzda 13-11 in the third and 37-28 at the end of three quarters.

In the fourth quarter team Zebzda on the backs of great defensive intensity and a few timely baskets cut the Eremita lead to just three points with three minutes to play. Feeling that the game was starting to shift, John Eremita called a timeout. Following the timeout, team Eremita was able to re-gain control of the game, and held on for a 51-44 victory.   

Sports Digest Weekly Poll

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On tap today:

,  and :

No games scheduled.

Source: http://sportspakdb.lhric.org

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