Sports

By Julia Green
Following are basketball previews for area girls’ teams.

Thr Roxbury and Margaretville boys’ basketball teams have posted their first victories of the season.

By Julia Green
Margaretville Blue Devils
After graduating only one senior from last year’s squad, first-year head coach Dave Goodchild is looking to a strong core of returners to set the foundation for the Blue Devils squad this season.
“I think the biggest thing that we’ve got – there are four guys from last year, and we pretty much have all of our starters back from last year, so I think we just go on that experience,” Goodchild said.

Margaretville Central School will hold signups for its youth basketball program on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 to 9:30 a.m. at MCS. The first practice will immediately follow registration, from 9:30 to 11 a.m., and the season schedule will also be distributed.

By Julia Green
It was as if a different team had stepped off the bus on Saturday, when the Margaretville Blue Devils boys’ soccer team traveled to Chittenango to face defending champion Hamilton in the quarterfinal round of the Class D, Section IV New York State soccer tournament.
“We knew they were going to be good,” said MCS Head Coach Jeremey Marks about their opponents. “They’re the defending state champs, they had a bunch of kids back from that team, and some common opponents had played them tough, so we knew going in that they were going to be good, and we expected a tough game.”
And a tough game was what they got.

The Margaretville Blue Devils will take on Hamilton in the first round of the state tournament on Saturday, Nov. 14 at 1:15 p.m. at Chittenango High School in Chittenango, N.Y. The game will follow a match-up between Marathon and Cooperstown, which will kick off at 11 a.m.

By Julia Green
It was a battle from start to finish, when the second-seeded Margaretville Blue Devils faced top-seeded Cherry Valley-Springfield Saturday in the Section IV Class D championship game at the National Soccer Hall of Fame complex in Oneonta.
The match-up marked the first meeting of the season between the two undefeated teams; the Blue Devils entered the contest with a 16-0-1 overall record after clinching the Delaware League title and posting convincing wins over Hunter-Tannersville and Candor to advance to Saturday’s title game.

The Margaretville Blue Devils defeated top-seeded Cherry Valley-Springfield 2-1 on Saturday to claim the 2009 Section IV Class D championship title.
The Blue Devils held a 1-0 lead at halftime off an early goal by Javier Martinez, who struck again in the second half to give Margaretville a two-goal lead.

The Margaretville boys soccer team defeated Candor in the Section 4 Class D semi-final game Wednesday at the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta. Margaretville, seeded number 2 in their division, will face Cherry Valley-Springfield, the number 1 seed, in the championship game on Saturday. CV-S defeated Morris to advance. Go Blue Devils!

By Julia Green
After a week of practices, the Margaretville boys were ready and raring to go when they faced the visiting Wildcats of Hunter-Tannersville in the second round of the Section IV Class D Tournament at MCS on Saturday. The Blue Devils, who were playing their first sectional game after receiving a first-round BYE, posted a convincing 5-1 win over Hunter to advance to the semifinal round of the tournament.