OrchardParkSports.com

Senior quarterback Kyle Witkowski

The Orchard Park Quaker football team started its 2010 campaign with a 27-10 over visiting Lancaster. The win extends the program’s home winning streak to 26 straight games.

Senior quarterback Kyle Witkowski hit junior receiver Ben Johnson on a 38-yard touchdown pass on the team’s first drive.

“I was really surprised with how good we passed the ball,” said Johnson, who finished with seven catches for 76 yards. “I’ve never played with Kyle as a quarterback before and I thought we had pretty good chemistry.”

On Lancaster’s ensuing drive, Orchard Park’s senior defensive tackle Alex Dimitrievski suffered what is believed to be a fractured elbow. After a lengthy delay, the teams played to a 6-3 halftime score.

Witkowski scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper to give Orchard Park a 13-3 lead after three quarters.

Junior Okoya Anderson scored twice in the final quarter. First, on a 17-yard touchdown run and then again on a 55-yard interception return. Anderson finished with three sacks, a forced fumble and rushed 21 times for 135 yards.

Witkowski finished 13 of 25 passing for 140 yards and a touchdown.

Senior safety Paul Leavell leans in to make a hit on a Canisius receiver during last Saturday's scrimmage. Orchard Park hopes to extend its 25-game home winning streak tonight against Lancaster.

The last time the Orchard Park Quaker football team lost at home was back on October 15, 2004 in a 15-13 against Lancaster, according to information gathered from MaxPreps.com.

Last fall, the only regular season loss for the Quakers was a 9-7 loss at Lancaster.

It all builds up to tonight’s regular season opening grudge match between the two schools.

“Starting from the first play we have to set the tone,” said senior safety and captain Paul Leavell.

After twenty-five seasons as the head coach at Lancaster, Len Jankiewicz is coaching his last season and will have his players prepared.

“They’re a well-coached team,” said Orchard Park coach Gene Tundo, who is in his 31st season of coaching and 17th as the head coach of the varsity football team. “They’re great sports and I have a ton of respect for Lancaster as a whole program. [Jankiewicz] a good friend of mine and we’re just going to have fun and battle it out.”

Listen to the game on WGR550 tonight starting at 7 p.m. or watch it on Time Warner Cable on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 7 p.m.

Matt McCormick

Matt McCormick
Junior, Orchard Park High School
Outside Hitter – Volleyball
Guard – Basketball
Pitcher – Baseball

Birthday: December 30, 1993
Favorite TV shows: SportsNation, Scrubs, Tosh.O
Favorite tunes: “Not Afraid” by Eminem, “Remember the Name” by Fort Minor, “Dream On” by Aerosmith
Favorite movies: Miracle, More Than a Game, The Other Guys
Talent I’d like to have: Any artistic ability
Favorite sport other than what I play: Football
Favorite Orchard Park athlete: Joe Kwitek
Favorite vacation spot: San Diego, California
Heroes: J.J. Redick
I wish I could play this sport: Hockey

Senior setter Peter Brady

The Orchard Park boys volleyball team’s home match scheduled for Thursday, September 2 against Saint Francis has been moved to Wednesday, September 8. The JV match will begin at 5:30 with the varsity match to follow.

The Quakers are scheduled to play in the Clarence tournament on Saturday, September 4 starting at 8 a.m.

Senior Zach Schenk

The Orchard Park varsity football team will scrimmage at Canisius Saturday morning at 11 a.m.

According to the Buffalo News, the scrimmage will be held at Robert J. Stransky Memorial Athletic Complex in West Seneca.

The Quakers will open up the regular season by hosting Lancaster on Friday, September 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Vote for the Photo of June 2010.
The subject of the winning photo will receive a complimentary 8×10 print.
Poll closes on Thursday, August 26 at 5 p.m.

Members of Team 3 hold up the Shark after defeating Slick Willies to win the Armenia Cup. Pictured from left to right: Dave Seidler, Phil Piper, Mike Lovering (holding Shaq Diesel the rabbit), Mark Tedeschi, Glenn Butera, Pat Mud, Joe Armenia, Jesse Mang, Jon Selig.

Team 3 won the 2010 Armenia Cup at the No Gimmicks Ultimate Frisbee championship Sunday afternoon. Played at Birdsong Parkway, Team 3 won convincingly over the Slick Willies, 13-7.

Team 3 defeated Young Life, the league’s top team during the regular season, in the semi-final, 13-10.

Slick Willies upset Ice Cream Sandwiches, 13-7, in the other semi-final.

League Commissioner Joe Armenia

The semi-finals and championship of the No Gimmicks Ultimate Frisbee league will be played on Sunday, August 15 at Birdsong Parkway beginning at 1 p.m. Team 3 will play the league’s top team Young Life while the Slick Willies will play the Ice Cream Sandwiches. The championship will immediately follow.

At last weekend’s quarterfinals, Knife At a Gun Fight held off last year’s champs Slick Willies, 13-10. Despite the win, Knife At a Gun Fight will not be participating in this Sunday’s semi-finals citing difficulties in fielding a team. The Slick Willies have moved on in their place.

In the other playoff quarter-final, Team 3 defeated Suck My Disc, 13-7. League commissioner and Captain of Team 3 Joe Armenia helped his team to a 7-6 halftime lead before going a 6-1 second half run to win.

The 2010 Armenia Cup playoffs begin Sunday at Birdsong Parkway.

The first week of playoffs in the No Gimmicks Ultimate Frisbee League will begin Sunday, August 8 at Birdsong Parkway. Both games will begin at 1 p.m.

Here are the Week One contests:

Slick Willies (3rd place) vs. Knife At a Gun Fight (6th place)
Suck My Disc (4th place) vs. Team 3 (5th place)

Sunday, August 15
Young Life (1st) vs. winner of Suck My Disc/Team 3
Ice Cream Sandwiches (2nd) vs. winner of Slick Willies/Knife At a Gun Fight

Armenia Cup Championship to follow semi-finals.

Meghan Manley

At last weekend’s U.S. Junior Olympic Track & Field meet in Sacramento, California, Orchard Park’s Meghan Manley ran a personal-best of two minutes and 17.05 seconds in the 800-meter dash.

Previously, at the U.S. Junior Olympic Track & Field regional meet in New Jersey, Manley ran the 800-meter dash in two minutes and 18 seconds which qualified her to advance to the 44th USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships in Sacramento.

Orchard Park Alumni John Klanac (2006), Pete Freyer (2006) and Tom Comfort (2009) helped the Western region capture the gold medal at this year’s Empire State Games held in Buffalo.

Pitcher John Catanzaro (right) and second baseman Jason Radwan collide while trying to make a play in Friday evening's loss to the Pignataro's Tax Men.

Nothing went right for the Orchard Park Sox Friday evening. As the top seed in the preliminary tournament to decide the fifth team in AAA Muny to advance to the National Amateur Baseball Federation (NABF) regional tournament, the Sox unexpectedly lost to Pignataro’s, 8-2.

The Sox allowed three runs to the Tax Men in the top of the first inning, but came back in the bottom of the frame with two of their own. The Sox did not score again as they mustered just one hit in the remaining six innings.

“Our team has been like that all year long,” Sox manager Shawn Gavigan said after the loss. “When we get down early it seems like we can never recover. We always have to get up in the game.”

Sox pitchers allowed of total of thirteen hits in the loss. Jeff Pierce had two of Orchard Park’s four hits.

Orchard Park finishes the season with an overall record of 17 wins and twelve losses.

Pignataro’s will play Grand Island Dugout tonight (8:45 p.m.) at the Amherst Center to determine who will advance to the NABF regional tournament.

Joe Haak and the OP Sox need two more wins to qualify for the NABF regional tournament.

While the top four teams in AAA Muny sit home this weekend after earning automatic bids to the National Amateur Baseball Federation regional tournament to be held in Buffalo August 5-8, the Orchard Park Sox are trying to earn the fifth and final spot by winning the preliminary tournament between the league’s remaining eight teams.

In the opening round, Orchard Park took a 5-0 lead over Kandefer’s Wednesday evening at Green Lake before the game was postponed due to rain. On Thursday, the game was moved over to Orchard Park High School where Kandefer’s threatened with two runs in the top of the sixth inning. The Sox came back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning and went on to win, 7-2.

Catcher John Cicero went 3-for-3 with a walk and two runs while Marty Foit had two hits including a triple. Joe Haak added two hits. Ron Pierce of Newfane earned the win on the mound relieving Jeremy Dracup, who pitched 3 2/3 innings before leaving the game early with an injury.

Orchard Park is hoping it will have little trouble winning the preliminary tournament since they have fared quite well this season against AAA Muny’s lower-seeded teams. Including the most recent win against Kandefer’s, the Sox have earned a 15-4 mark against the seven teams below them in the standings. Only the Swingers had a winning record (2-0) against the Sox this season.

Cicero likes his team’s chances of winning the preliminary tournament.

“I think it will come down to pitching and experience,” he said after Thursday’s win. “We have a core of veterans who have played in these types of games before and can come through in pressure situations.”

Orchard Park will play Pignataro’s on Friday, July 30 at the Amherst Center. Game time is set for 6 p.m. The Sox won both regular season contests against the Tax Men. Rohn Pierce will get the start on the mound for Orchard Park.

The other semi-final will feature Swingers and Grand Island Dugout to be played at 8:45 p.m.

Each win is worth two points. A bonus point is awarded to the winning team if they prevent the losing team from scoring 10 goals. If the losing team scores 10 or more goals, they earn the bonus point.

Brittany Bonetto, a 2004 graduate of Orchard Park High School, played center field for the Western softball team that won the gold medal.

The Western softball team won gold by defeating Long Island, 3-0. Ashley Bonetto, Brittany Bonetto and Nicole Sabuda are three Orchard Park players representing the Western region.

John Klanac

After dropping its first two matches in pool play, the Western mens open volleyball team won every match for rest of the tournament and took gold by defeating Adirondack late Saturday night, 25-21, 25-22, 25-14.

“We’re a pretty confident team,” Orchard Park’s John Klanac said after the match. “We wanted to go out and perform.”

For complete results of the Empire State Games visit EmpireStateGames.org.

Orchard Park Sox

The Orchard Park Sox of the AAA Muny baseball league has been sent back into fifth place after an official ruling by the league that awarded Kenmore two wins.

League officials upheld Kenmore’s protest that Lancaster used ineligible players during a doubleheader on Friday, July 16.

Lancaster won both contests, but those victories have been vacated and given to Kenmore.

As a result, the Sox are now back in fifth place with a 15-11 record while Kenmore (15-10) moves into the fourth place. The top four teams in AAA Muny receive an automatic bid the NABF regional tournament. The league’s remaining eight teams play in a preliminary single elimination tournament to determined the fifth team to advance to the regional.

Read the full story at Swingers Baseball.

The Sox must win their last regular season game  scheduled against The Aud on Sunday at Green Lake (1 p.m. start). Kenmore has two games left and must lose both as they have the tiebreaker after beating the Sox in both regular season contests.