Jerry Sullivan

By Jerry Sullivan West Seneca was expected to breeze against a Lancaster team it had beaten twice by 23 points in the regular season. But when the Legends went on an 8-0 run to get within seven after the third quarter, there was suddenly doubt. “I was definitely a little nervous,” said Jayden Ecker, West Seneca’s fine senior point guard. “I knew I had to come out on top, not just me but all my teammates. We turned it on. We knew it had to get done and we got it done.” They wasted no time,...

You might say Chris Juergens was dressed for success at Thursday night’s Class AA sectional boys final at Buffalo State. Juergens, North Tonawanda’s 26-year-old head coach, wore his wedding suit to the proceedings. “I’m joking with the kids and student section because this is the suit I got married in,” Juergens said. “I said if I lost, I’m getting divorced.” Well, his marriage carries on, along with his team’s surprising postseason. The seventh-seeded Lumberjacks concluded their underdog run...

Late in Thursday night’s Class A1 sectional final, with matters safely in hand, Grand Island head coach Chris Simpson stopped to look up into the crowd at Buffalo State and told himself, ‘Oh, so this is what it feels like.’ Simpson had waited a long time to experience that rush. He hadn’t been part of a sectional champ since his days as an assistant at LaSalle in 1995. He has been coaching for 28 years at Grand Island, which hadn’t won a sectional since 1992. But the Vikings left no doubt in...