Sports Weekend

Once again I am behind on my blog and editing. I should be catching up quick with a day coming up without an event. Here's a composite blog of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Friday night Gates beat Churchville in volleyball 3-0.

Saturday morning I shot a boys soccer game before the Gates football game. The soccer match put two great teams together. On this sunny morning Fairport was playing at Pittsford Mendon. Mendon ended up beating Fairport 2-0.

After the game I drove to Spencerport for their homecoming football game against Gates-Chili. Gates-Chili scored often and played great defense to win 34-0.

Finally on Sunday my long weekend finished with a long day of Chili Lions football at Memorial park.

Volleyball Gallery: CC v. GC

Soccer Gallery: Fairport v. Mendon

Football Gallery: GC v. Spencerport

Football Galleries: Chili Lions

Boys Soccer Week (con't)

Thursday I continued my week of boys soccer with a game between the Greece Athena Trojans and Churchville-Chili Saints. It was a great game that provided some interesting shots as the two teams struggled for control. Athena scored first early in the first half. Churchville came right back about a minute later and tied the game at one. The teams didn't score again as they headed into overtime and finished tied.

Nick Simone (7) plays the ball off his chest in front of a Saints defender.

Saints defenseman Brian Lang (13) keeps the ball away from the attacking Trojans.

Nick Simone (10) battles two Churchville players for the ball.

Saints Tim Randall makes a great slide tackle on Zach Sullivan (25).

Soccer Gallery: CC v. Athena

Boys Soccer Week

I am running behind of course but, Monday and Tuesday I had boys soccer games to shoot. I also will be shooting one more Thursday so it kind of feels like a total soccer week. I am finishing up the last few games shooting for Churchville-Chili, so Monday they faced Dr. Freddie Thomas and Tuesday was Gates-Chili. They beat Freddie Thomas with a marginal victory and won a tight game at Gates. Here are some shots from the first two days of the week.

The first game was at 4:30 and the sun was already getting low giving somewhat of a orange glow on the players. Here a Freddie Thomas attacker does his best imitation of Pele'.

Churchville-Chili's goalie just gets a piece of this ball as it goes off the crossbar and behind the net.

The Gates game was at 6:00 and the sun was not showing on the field once the game began. I probably have said this before but, the Spartans field is not the place to take pictures when the sun goes down. I knew I could only get to about halftime where the pictures would just be a waste of time due to the poor lighting. I quickly shot as many action pics a s possible until the ambient light was gone. Gates scored first but Churchville ended up tieing the game in the second half and taking the lead with ten minutes left for the win.

I am really starting to get some of the timing down to catch some great headers. Hopefully there will be more to come before basketball starts.

Soccer Galleries: GC v. CC

CC v. Dr. Freddie Thomas

BK, Have it Their Way

Saturday was a great day to use a small opening in my schedule to see the Bishop Kearney Kings football team. They were taking on their close neighbor the Eastridge Lancers. I didn't expect a good game, I was there to see the outstanding college prospects on the BK team. I had heard a lot about their QB, WR, TE, and RB/LB.

I was only able to stay for the first half because I had a wedding reception to go to. I did get the shots I wanted in the small amount of time I had. Here are some of those great recruits in action.

The Kings running back and linebacker Quentin Gause (32) was impressive on both sides of the ball. He is a solid running back with size that can break multiple tackles every run. On the defensive side he is all over the field creating havoc with his speed and strength. He had 19 tackles and forced a fumble in this game.

Another outstanding player on the Kings team is wide receiver Blair Roberts (5). He is tall with good speed and has a knack for grabbing the ball over any defender.

The quarterback that's job is to get Roberts the ball is senior Jake Meek (3). Not only is he great at throwing the ball but incredible at avoiding tacklers and running it himself.

On the other side of the field from Roberts is another incredible receiver Quinton Washington (1). After a short pass, Quinton tacks on another 20 yards.

Last but not least is Jerome Lewis (15), he is a D1 recruit who has already verbally commited to Virginia Tech. Lewis plays TE and is unbelievable in a small space and can create yardage that shouldn't be there. He also plays on the defensive side and gets large amount of tackles like Gause.

Football Gallery: BK v. Eastridge

Gates v. Hilton Friday Night Football

Friday night was a huge game taking place in Hilton. Hilton was taking on Gates-Chili in a recent rivalry of the last few years. Last year Hilton spoiled Gates bid for an undefeated season and the Spartans ended up getting their revenge in sectionals.

The game really looked like the Cadets should run away with this one, as the previous games this season they showed off their high powered offense. Gates stood their ground and scored first with a TD run. Here Levester Tucker (28) is tackled up high by a Cadet defender.

Hilton struck back before the second half with a TD of their own with the ground game. Michael Ingoglia (23) runs out of the reach of GC's defense.

I expected a lot of passing from the Cadets, who are led by their senior QB Duell Smith (10). The Spartans kept Smith from completing long passes and did a great job adjusting to their speedy WR's.

Hilton's defense also kept Gates powerful running backs from advancing too deep into their territory. Regulation time ended with the teams tied 7-7. In overtime, the teams traded TD's back and forth for three OT's.

The game ended in the third overtime when Hilton made their extra point and Gates went for two and the win. The snap was fumbled and GC lost 27-26 in a tough fight to the end. One of the best high school football games I have seen.

Football Gallery: GC v. Hilton

Girls Tennis at Gates

Shot my first tennis of the year on Thursday. Gates was matched up against the Brockport Blue Devils. I had to hustle around because all courts were being used at once, both singles and doubles. The reason I had to hurry was because I try to shoot each participant but, if I take too long, a match may end and I will be unable to shoot that player. I usually try and get a few good clicks and keep moving to the next court.

One of the Brockport singles player keeps her eye on the ball for a fierce return.

This Spartan returns a serve with some spin.

A Blue Devil doubles player focuses on the ball as it comes her way.

Some of the girls wore sunglasses to keep the harsh sunlight from bothering them when it peeked out of the clouds.

Girls Tennis Gallery: GC v. Brockport

GC Girls Volleyball

Just a quick entry to show some photos of my first girls volleyball of the season. Gates-Chili faced off against the Brockport Blue Devils on Tuesday and Hilton on Thursday. Tuesday was only a 3 game match as Brockport defeated the Spartans 3 games to 0. I tryed a few angles at the game and found out that I am a little rusty since last year. My volleyball eye has left and it may take some time to get it back. I planned on shooting another game right away. The second game was against the Hilton Cadets and like before GC lost 3-0. They did show a bit more promise in these matches and looked much better than the previous match.

Here are some of the shots I took from these two matches...

I like to arrive early to get some close-ups of the players and some of their drills. Here the girls line up as the coach sets them up to bump it back. I used the 300mm as I sat on the gym floor.

Jump serves can create some great shots even though there may be some motion blur do to the low lighting in gyms. I liked this shot as a Brockport player prepares to jump before her serve. I was on the floor for this shot and used a 70-200mm lens.

I then took a different angle by moving up to the second floor track. Here I could get just above the net shots and faces because they were looking straight below me. One of the Gates girls serves as it looks like she is aiming towards me.

This angle is great for net battles whether it is a player spiking the ball or blocking like in this shot.

I also brought a 85mm lens that works well in low light for some group shots. I liked this photo as the Hilton Cadets celebrate an ace.

Volleyball Galleries: GC v. Brockport/Hilton

Rush-Henrietta Football at Fairport

I shot a Saurday game for MaxPreps at Fairport where thay played the Rush-Henrietta Royal Comets. The Red Raiders knew that RH had a great offense and hoped some of their solid defenders can limit the scoring.

The Royal Comets proved they had a potent offense when they scored early and often. Clay Harris (32) was definitely the player of the game with 20 carries for 114 yards and 2 TD's on the ground. He also had a 95 yd punt return for a TD.

Here Robbie Williamson (5) tries to hold back RH's powerful offense.

Ashton Broyld (5) and RH team was too much for the Red Raiders as the Royal Comets put up 40 points. Broyld was 14-21 with 207 yards passing and also had a short goal line TD.

Meanwhile Fairport's offense was lackluster at best, RH held the Red Raiders to 6 points. Here two RH defenders take down Fairport's Jesse DeRose (4).

I think Fairport thought they needed some much needed gatorade to get back into the game.

But the electrolytes did not help because the Royal Comets had a strategy of raising their coaches higher than anybody else. This is their eye in the sky...

The end score was RH 40, Fairport 6.

Check out the Football Gallery: RH v. Fairport

Yellow Cards First, Tackle Later

Friday night was a busy night for me. I had a bunch of photos to edit from the previous night and wanted to shoot two Gates-Chili games that night. I knew it was going to create a busy weekend of editing but, I shot them anyways.

First game was girls soccer as GC faced off against the Greece Arcadia Titans. It was my first girls soccer of the high school season and it was a very physical game. There were 3 yellow cards given out during the game and this unsuspecting Arcadia player received the only red card of the match. It must of been something she said because their was no real hard contact before the referee blew the whistle.

I liked this shot as the lady Spartans celebrated after they scored their only goal. Brianna Szczepanski (22) celebrates with a teammate as the Titan player can't bear to watch.

Once the cards were out and over with, Greece kept control of the ball and scoring to win 4-1. Here junior Blythe Sheridan (11) keeps her eyes on the ball before controlling the kick.

The second game Friday night was GC football at the stadium facing off against Churchville-Chili. The battle for Chili brings a certain vibe to the crowd because these two schools are so close to each other. The Spartans were prepared and ready to play hard after a tough loss last week. They wanted to show that they still are in contention to defend last years championship.

Gates always comes onto the field as one and here they prepare to run into the middle of the field.

The Spartans stadium is very poorly lit for night games. GC may have a new gym and pool but, new lights should now be on the short list. Poor lighting is a sports photographer's nightmare, so I decided to use some off camera flash. I super-clamped my flash to the bottom of the monopod and ran the cord along it up to the hotshoe. This method limited the red eye results as you can see in this shot of Eli Thomas (32) receiving the hand-off .

Thomas had a great game, showing his power that he had last year. He dragged defenders down field all night. Gates other two backs were big on the ground too. Here Levester Tucker (28) points to the sky after a short run for a TD.

GC ended up beating Churchville 34-13, as Gates proved that they are still a power in Monroe County football.

Check out the Soccer Gallery: Arcadia v. GC

Check out the Football Gallery: CC v. GC

Start with Swimming, Finish with Soccer

I am behind on my days because my weekends are busy in the fall. I may miss a few events on the blog but I will do my best to keep this updated.

Thursday I started with Gates-Chili Girls swimming at GC against the Mercy Monarchs. I tryed a few angles but it is very hard to shoot with limited space even in a brand new facility like Gates-Chili. Also, lighting is very difficult, someday I will sneak some strobes in. Anyways heres some of my favorites.

I like the reflection of the red numbers from the scoreboard in this shot. I took one last year that was similar.

I left the pool early to head over to Churchville-Chili, where the boys soccer team was taking on the Spencerport Rangers. Both of these teams have high hopes for this year and have some great players. After the first half was complete the teams were tied 1-1. Spencerport took the lead midway through the second half and even avoided a Saints attempt on a penalty kick late to win 2-1.

When the teams were warming up I took the opportunity to shoot the back up goalies because they usually don't see much game time without a blowout or injury. I really liked the height on this grab by the backup Rangers goalie.

Not only did I get a great goalie shot before the game but during too. The starting goalie for Spencerport made a leap towards me for a Saints shot. I happened to catch him in midair with both hands snagging the ball. You may say, well how do I know it wasn't during practice. If you look carefully on the left you can see the elbow of a Saints player waiting for a rebound.

The hard work and effort these two teams left on the field provided some great photos. This last photo shows a Churchville attacker being blocked by a Spencerport defender.

Check out the Swimming Gallery: Mercy v. Gates-Chili

Check out the Soccer Gallery: Spencerport v. CC

Looking for a Goal

First game for the Field Hockey team of Gates-Chili felt a little like last year. The Spartans faced off against the Webster Schroeder Warriors at Gates-Chili's stadium. I was hopeing to see some real improvement from last years team but it seems there is still some work to do. Many lady Spartans return to the varsity team but the competition is still a little too strong for Gates to score. A win may be too much to ask for this year but hopefully a few goals are in the works. Good luck Spartans and I hope to be there for that victory.

Schroeder kept the ball on the Spartans side of the field for most of the game. Here a Gates player blocks the pass of a Warrior attacker.

Jasjeet Dhaliwal (9) hits a rocket away from GC's goal after a whistle.

Claire Barnwell (4) seemed to be on the field the whole game working hard to keep the Warriors from scoring.

The Spartans goalkeeper Jasleen Dhaliwal (51) had a difficult time with the constant flurry of shots from the Schroeder attackers.

Webster defeated Gates 7-0.

Check out the Gallery: Schroeder v. Gates-Chili