This weekend’s state regional games bring the annual reality check for Section Nine and its champions. Since 1993 when the complete state tournament began, SNF has had but 16 squads make it to the state semis. That’s a success rate of less than 21%  - and that includes the byes in Class AA! With one of the smallest sections in the state in terms of teams, it hasn’t helped us to open up against the best of large Section One whose teams qualify only after a rugged three-week round of eliminations. Now I don’t state these facts as an alibi but offer them as a challenge. Frankly, with the 21^st Century exception of Class AA, it’s time to realize that winning a sectional title has mostly been good for local bragging rights only.

Monroe-Woodbury has been our shining star with its 5 trips to the semis and beyond (4 to Syracuse with one state title). Of course Rondout Valley’s lone trip beyond sectionals in 2000 landed the Ganders a state championship and let the rest of the state know we existed. Wallkill (2004) and Cornwall (2006) also went to state title games but were defeated. And those are our highlights. Meanwhile Delaware Valley (before merger when it morphed into Sullivan West), Highland and Newburgh each made it to two state semis. Kingston and Port Jervis each earned one semi berth.

That background dispensed with, let’s take a brief look at the best of Section One, our champs’ opponents for this weekend’s round of regional action (also know as the Hudson Valley state quarterfinals) plus our champs as well.

CLASS AA: Monroe-Woodbury (10-0) v. New Rochelle (9-0) - Saturday, 7:30 pm at Dietz Stadium.

Last week New Rochelle defeated North Rockland, 38-0, to set up its fifth state tournament showdown in six years with M-W. With the Crusaders ranked #1 in the state by the New York State Sportswritwers Association and New Rochelle #2, all eyes will be on this game. M-W has won the last three meetings by a total margin of 15 points.

Although the Huguenot offense has averaged 32.7 points per game this season, its real strength is its defense which has allowed only five touchdowns. The New Ro ‘D’ is again led by ILB Lou DiRienzo, the coach’s son. Up front tackle Quinton Witherspoon may be the best DL in Section One. Meanwhile the secondary is excellent with Xavier Walker, Jonny McGhee, Lewis Edney and Jordan Lucas patrolling the deep.

New Ro has several two-way performers which includes Edney, the quarterback who took over the starting role from last year's starter, McGhee, at the beginning of this season. Meanwhile Walker is a dangerous RB.

Last year at this time Dan Scalo’s torn labrum had taken away MW’s passing game almost entirely. Scalo’s healthy now which is great news for Pat D’Aliso because the Cru will want to come out and present a balanced attack. Still they’ll look first for linemen Cody Villman, Tim Grupp and Josh Skowronski to open the left side so Scalo, Trevor Officer and Ryan Spelman can establish MW’s strong ground game which makes Scalo’s passes to Pat Laird and others more effective against the NR secondary.

Bernie Connolly’s defense, led by safety Ryan Morgan, will look to repeat its tenacious effort of last year when it limited New Ro to just seven points. Jared McFarlin is expected to play this week, thus hopefully sparing Scalo from double-duty.

FOLLOW UP: The late start to last Saturday's MW-Warwick game was caused by a faulty fan belt in the MW High School auditorium.  The resulting smoke set off the fire alarm and forced officials to clear the building and wait for the fire marshall.  It took about 45 minutes before the team could re-enter the school which put the Crusaders about a half hour behind schedule, according to athletic director George St. Lawrence, who added: "I don't think it affected the players that much, but it made Pat (D'Aliso) nervous."

By PHIL DUSENBURY

Rian White is an outstanding, record-smashing high school quarterback. No doubt. His main partner in crime, John Babin, is a fabulous athlete who just happens to set records himself while playing wide receiver. But Dan Scalo remains, simply put, “Da Man.”

We’ll get back to the Warwick duo in a moment, but we’ve got to start this column with Dan the Man who pulled a slightly out-of-sync Monroe-Woodbury team through a few uncharacteristically shaky moments Saturday night and led it to another Class AA title over James Sciarra’s firecracker-hot Warwick team.

Football teams depend on routine. Coaches, especially a top-shelf veteran like Pat D’Aliso, plot their practice schedules carefully with each minute accounted for. Just ask his assistants. Game-day schedules are no exception. But one thing that isn’t factored in is a fire, like the one at the Monroe-Woodbury school last Saturday that caused the Crusaders to arrive late at Faller Field.

Pushing back kickoff time a half hour didn’t help Warwick either since the Wildcats, like the Crusaders, were zeroed in on a 7 pm kickoff. But Warwick at least had a longer warmup time than expected while the late-arriving Monroe-Woodbury players scurried out onto the artificial turf late. One MW player reportedly didn’t have his helmet because he couldn’t get to his school locker which had temporarily housed his lid.

Warwick’s Dan Marggraff returned the opening kickoff 40 yards to set up an 8-play, 55-yard scoring drive as White performed his magic. Bang! 7-0. The challenger had punched the still unsettled champion in the nose.

Then after a deliberately short kickoff, out came General Scalo who took the initial snap and promptly ran for a first down, and all suddenly seemed normal in Crusader-land. But a subsequent holding call later nullified another first down. So Scalo went to the air and connected with 6’4 wide receiver Jared McFarlin who made the catch but twisted his already sore ankle and had to leave the game.

Three plays and a delay of game penalty later, the Cru faced a first and 15 at the Wildcat 18. A 12-yard Scalo to Pat Laird pass made it fourth and three at the six, and the Warwick defense was on red alert. But Scalo and his O-line executed perfectly and the QB rumbled for a first down at the one. Then soph RB Ryan Spelman scored and Laird’s kick tied the game at 7.

McFarlin was also a starting defensive back. Without him in the game and with White, Babin, Sam Careccia, et al on the attack, Monroe-Woodbury had a big hole in its defensive secondary. So out trotted Dan the Man to join the defense in its moment of need. His big 7.5 tackles eventually earned him the game’s most outstanding defensive player award.

Scalo continued to do his offensive thing in the spread. In the second quarter he took his team on a 13 play, 74-yard drive for a 14-7 halftime lead. After intermission he started the action off with a 41-yard TD bomb to Laird. On MW’s next possession, a 75-yard Scalo-to-Laird hookup set up Trevor Officer’s second TD of the night. The Crusaders were cruising, 28-7, with 6:21 left in the third.

Warwick didn’t surrender - did you think they would? White threw six consecutive completions that covered 80 yards to make it 28-14. But MW answered right back. On third and eight at the Wildcat 29, Scalo found a wide open John O’Brien near the goal line - a sure TD. But the on-target toss was dropped and the drive ended. The worm had now turned (for a while at least).

White soon followed with a 37-yard TD pass to Nick Race as Laird gambled to knock the pass down and just missed tipping the ball. 28-21. Scalo answered with another perfectly thrown pass that would have been a six-pointer, but that was dropped by the usually glue-fingered Laird. So White got busy again and threw a 31-yard TD pass to Babin which gave White his record-breaking 31^st TD pass of the season. The PAT sailed wide right, however, leaving the score 28-27 in MW’s favor and everyone on the edge of his seat.

True grit time. Officer’s 33-yard kickoff return put the Cru at the Warwick 49. On third and five Scalo again saw a wide-open Laird drop another perfect and deep pass. Scalo wasn’t sulking, however. “The Man” calmly took the snap on fourth down and swivel-hipped his way to the 31 on a quarterback draw play. Two plays later a block in the back offset a Scalo gainer. Then on fourth and nine at the 30, Scalo went to the sideline to convince his coach to let him throw the ball.

The QB couldn’t look for his tight end, Kareem Edwards, because he had left the game early with an injury. So Scalo again looked for his buddy Laird, who had just gone through a rough six and a half minutes after playing so brilliantly all season. Scalo coolly lofted a pass that was just enough behind Laird to allow the receiver to break away from his defender, niftily step back to snag the ball just inside the five, and bolt over the goal line for the huge score.

The drops didn’t help Scalo’s passing stats, but I doubt that he cared. A four-year varsity player and three-year starting quarterback, he didn’t get rattled. When they needed him the most, the all-state quarterback picked up his pals on both sides of the ball. That’s why through wind, rain, fire, injuries and drops, he’s “Da Man.”

NUMBER CRUNCHING

Scalo is now #5 on the list of the section’s all-time career rushers with 5,134 yards as his title game performance moved him ahead of former MW standout Matt Stack. In career passing yardage he’s #4 with 3,423 yards. In 2007 he scored 29 TD to place him #5 in TD scored in a single season.

Now he’d love nothing more than to give his coach, Pat D’Aliso, his 200^th career coaching victory this Saturday night when the state ranked #1 Crusaders face the Section One kings and #2 state-ranked Huguenots from New Rochelle - again.

This will be the fifth time in the last six years that these two have met in the Class AA regional. MW has won the last three years by a combined margin of just 20 points, so this meeting figures to be another close one with not a whole lot of scoring.

White’s high school career is over and he finishes with 4,089 passing yards in just two seasons. That’s good enough for the #3 spot. Meanwhile four-year starter Aaron Kilner of O’Neill will be playing in this weekend’s Class B regional against Nanuet. Kilner’s 4,324 career passing yards put him at #2 on the list. The #1 slot belongs to Kingston’s Scott Ricketson (1996-8) who threw for 4,680 stripes.

Here are some more of White’s accomplishments. At 160 x 255 x 2,373 yards, he’s #3 in yards passing for a single season. In going 24 x 37 x 329 in last Saturday‘s game, he placed himself #3 in most yards passing in a single game. While his three TD tosses made him #1 in the most TD passes in a season (31), he also became #2 in career TD passes with 50, placing him two TDs behind Ricketson. Finally, earlier in the season he threw six TD passes in a single game to make him #1 in that category.

One number that can’t be crunched, however, is the size of Rian White’s heart. The Warwick roster lists him as 5-10, 170 pounds. He plays like 6‘, 180 pounds - and that‘s a very quick 6‘, 180; but he’s probably more like 5-9, 160.

White was augmented by an outstanding receiving corps led by senior John Babin (6-2, 210) who now holds the #1 spot in six receiving categories: TD receptions (Career) - 27; TD receptions (Season) - 19; Career Receptions - 138; Receptions (Season) - 80; Receptions (Game) - 13; and Receiving Yards (Season) -1,211. Babin, who’s blessed with great hands, good size, speed and know-how, will be playing ball somewhere next year. Meanwhile teammate and slick WR Sam Careccia should get credit for keeping opponents from habitually double-teaming Babin.

MW’s Patrick “Packy” Laird has had a great season, too, one that has placed him in the record book as well. Last Saturday his 179 receiving yards placed him #2 in that category behind Port Jervis’s Pat Starzan, who had chalked up the most receiving yards in a single game (182) in 1990.

Laird is also a kicker. He moved up into the #2 spot behind his former teammate, Jamie Boyle, in Most Successful PAT Kicks in a season. Laird’s total of 62 (out of 64 attempts) is now just two away from tying his tutor. In the Most Consecutive Successful PAT Kicks category, Laird ran a streak of 42 earlier in the season to make him #3. Monroe-Woodbury holds five of the top seven slots in that category, incidentally.

Is that enough numbers for now? It sure is for me. This 2009 class of record-setters has kept me busy. And I know there are a lot more records out there that haven‘t yet made the little sectional record book I‘ve started on this site. It just takes a few more motivated folks who are willing to do a little research. If you’re a history or English teacher, as I once was, you might find such an assignment capable of motivating a few sports-minded students who haven’t been fond of library work into doing some primary research.

Heck, I was once that kid.

EXTRA POINTS: MSG will be doing a delayed cablecast of the Monroe-Woodbury - New Rochelle game that will start airing on Sunday ... The officiating crews this weekend will not be split crews as they were last year to no one’s content. Section Nine crews will work at Dietz while Section One will supply the crews in White Plains. We’ll see how all that works out. The officials certainly prefer it this way … The word is that Rondout Valley with its drop in student population will be playing in Class B next year. Bringing Class A back up to six teams will be Monticello which returns to varsity play for the first time in over 70 years. Matt Buddenhagen has had the Montie jayvees beating everyone They were 9-0 this past season. Buddenhagen is the former Cornwall head coach who also assisted at Warwick, Goshen and Sullivan West. In 2006 Buddenhagen’s Cornwall team went to the Carrier Dome where it was defeated by Corning East in the Class A state championship game.

MIDDLETOWN – Dan Scalo and big plays go together - whether dashing for a first down on a 4^th-and-2 on his team’s first drive of the game, finding seven yards to maintain possession in the 4^th quarter when Monroe-Woodbury leads by a single point, or connecting with Packy Laird on a 35-yard TD pass on 4^th-and-9. Do you prefer defense? How about Defensive Player of the Game Dan Scalo with his 7.5 tackles to help control parts of the Warwick passing attack?

Scalo’s versatile performance along with two touchdowns apiece by Trevor Officer and Patrick Laird earned the Crusaders a 35-27 victory over Warwick and a sixth consecutive Class AA championship at Faller Field Saturday night. The Crusaders have now won a record eight AA crowns since the classification came into existence in 1996.

Coach Pat D’Aliso’s crew needed just about everything to get this one done as Rian White and the Wildcats clawed for a late game upset.

Early on, though, White dove into the end zone nearest Middletown High School for a 12-yard touchdown to wrap up an eight-play, 55-yard scoring drive. Mike Grace converted the PAT to give the Wildcats a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.

The Cru answered back by going 58 yards on 12 plays. A pass interference call against Warwick enhanced the effort to the Wildcat 27, as Scalo’s first fourth down conversion would soon set up a first down at the 13. Five plays later, sophomore Ryan Spelman crashed through for a 1-yard score. Laird kicked for a 7-7 tie.

In the second quarter, Warwick began on their own 19 and two Nick Race receptions of 13 and 20 yards pushed the pigskin to the MW 29. White took a hard hit on the ensuing run and defensive tackle Pierre Saloman recovered the fumble for the Crusaders at the 26.

Scalo and Officer handled all but 16 of the yards needed to score with 54 ticks on the clock before halftime through steady ground gains. Laird’s catch marked the exception but Officer ran the final five to put Monroe-Woodbury up 14-7 after the Laird extra point.

The Crusaders appeared to have run away with this game at the 6:21 juncture of the third stanza. Officer returned the second-half kickoff 46 yards and Laird hauled in a 41-yard Scalo aerial to make the score 21-7 after Laird’s kick.

Then MW got the ball again to embark on a five-play, 82 yard journey that culminated with an Officer 2-yard score. Laird made it 28-7.

The Wildcats had nothing to lose at this point and got their game going. White brought the offense out at the 20 and completed six passes, four to John Babin. The last Babin reception went for an 18-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 28-13 with the missed PAT.

Two possessions later, Babin took in a 16-yard pass to transport the football to the Crusader 37. Race covered the leftover space this time with a catch-and-speed away touchdown. Babin made a two-point catch in the end zone and Warwick had fought back to within 28-21 with 9:28 remaining in the game.

The Wildcats held and Laird punted them back to their 36. A pass interference call against MW moved the ball to the Crusader 42. Two Babin catches got a first down at the 31 before White found him again on the next play for a scoring pass. This gave the senior QB the all-time single season record for touchdown passes in Section Nine with 31. The crucial extra point missed, however, and MW still had a 28-27 lead with 5:25 left.

Officer returned the ensuing kickoff to the Wildcat 49. Scalo sustained the series to where he had the 4^th-and-9 from Warwick’s 30. Then, in one of the biggest crunch-time plays you’ll see, the standout senior fired one to Laird for six points. The reception gave Laird the sectional record for the most receiving yards in a single game: 179. The senior, headed for West Point after graduation, converted for the 35-27 margin.

Warwick had 2:51 to work with and took over on their own 18. White completed a pass to Babin at the 30 and subsequently hit Sam Careccia on a big 4^th-and-6 play to the MW 45. After an incompletion, however, MW junior Matt Hefter intercepted a White pass to send the Crusaders into the state tournament.

Scalo rushed for 122 yards on 26 carries and passed to the tune of 187 yards to go with his two TD passes. These numbers just can’t portray the kind of clutch performance he gave on a night where the Crusaders’ 50-game winning streak against Section Nine opponents was seriously threatened in the final minutes. It also gave Coach D’Aliso career victory # 199.

Officer ran his season total to 16 touchdowns finished with 33 yards on the ground. Spelman, who had started for Officer, gained 17.

Laird was also quite a force in this game, making six receptions for his 179 yards plus successfully booting all five extra points. Laird has made 62-of-64 this season.

8-2 Warwick had quite an offensive season, perhaps the best in a program that goes back to 1896. Offensive MVP White completed 24-of-37 passes in this contest to chalk up 329 yards, the third highest game total in Section Nine history. He finishes up the season with 2,373 passing yards. His two-year docket totals 4,089 and 50 touchdown passes through the friendly skies.

Comrade Babin caught 12 passes for 149 yards on the night. He collected two TD catches to increase his SNF record season total to 19. The career slate rests at a remarkable 27 – another sectional all-time high.

10-0 Monroe-Woodbury completes another perfect season against Section Nine opponents and advances to take on the Section One winner between New Rochelle vs. North Rockland next Saturday at Dietz Stadium.

--- RICH ARNOTT