Every Tuesday morning at 7:20 ET Nachum Segal will present Elliot Weiselberg on JM in the AM to deliver the Yeshiva League Sports (YLS) Update. Tune in for the latest Yeshiva League Spring Sports information, as well as, the occasional update on other sports happenings in the Jewish world. The transcription for this morning’s update is below.
Thanks Nachum!
Well, Yeshiva League Sports fans, when last week’s JM in the AM Sports Update was recorded on Monday night, there was absolutely no indication of what would occur around the Metropolitan area last Tuesday. It is certainly no secret that the Corona Virus has disrupted many lives, livelihoods and community events especially having just celebrated Purim yesterday, the Yeshiva League was not, dare I say, immune to its reach. As a result, all talk of Yeshiva League basketball championships took a back seat to the news that gripped our region, and also cast a shadow over the involvement of the Yeshiva University Men’s Basketball team in the Division III Basketball tournament. As events unfolded, several games were played on both fronts. We will bring those results to you and update you on what you can expect over the coming days, straight ahead. Good morning, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.
We’ll start off in hockey where, for the first time ever, a divisional 5th seed has punched a ticket to the Championship contest. The Ramaz Rams, behind a hat trick from Senior Eddie Catton, continued their cinderella run, upsetting the West 3rd seed Kushner Cobras 5-3. The Rams scored two first period goals and although Kushner would score to cut the initial lead, Ramaz would answer back and Kushner would never close the gap beyond two the rest of the way. Up next for the Rams, a team extremely familiar with the confines of Championship Sunday, the DRS Wildcats. It was not easy for the East Champs as the 3rd seed HAFTR Hawks gave them all they could handle. DRS opened the scoring in the 2nd period with a Powerplay goal by Senior Coby Casden. The score would stay the same until just about 2 minutes to go when Hawk Senior Zach Bach launched a shot that would hit twine for the game tying goal, sending the semifinal to Overtime. After 12 minutes of no resolution, a second Overtime would commence, and shortly thereafter, the Wildcats would emerge victorious as Senior Caleb Pollan would score two minutes in for the win and the Championship berth. As to when that will happen, we will get to that in just a moment.
On the basketball front, JV and Varsity each saw one semifinal played. In JV, Frisch built a 10-point first half lead, but was not able to hold as Eastern Conference Champion DRS chipped away and eventually rolled to a 19 point, 53-34 victory. In Varsity, the Wildcats were not so lucky, falling to West 3rd seed TABC and Junior Zevi Samet’s 29 points by the score of 58-46. Neither winner is sure of whom their championship opponent will be as the other semifinals were directly affected by the closures.
As a result, the basketball championships, girls volleyball championships and the impending hockey championships have been postponed until further notice. The Yeshiva League has also released word that all Spring games leading up to the end of Sunday were suspended and the leagues will re-evaluate over the next 24 hours as to when and how those leagues may continue. The JM in the AM Sports Update will continue to monitor the situation and provide any further details as they are made available.
As mentioned before, the Corona Virus also threw uncertainty over the Yeshiva University Men’s Basketball team as they were set to participate in the Division III National Basketball Tournament. After news broke nationally of cancelled hotel accommodations, empty arenas, scheduling adjustments and post-contest venue sanitizing, the team would travel to Johns Hopkins for their first-round contest, easily dispatching of Worchester Polytechnic Institute 102-78 behind Sophomore Ryan Turell’s 41 points to advance to the Round of the 32 where they would again score 102 points, this time downing Penn State-Harrisburg 102-83. Turell’s 30 points and Senior Gabe Leifer’s triple-double helped guide the 13th ranked Maccs to Yeshiva’s first ever Sweet 16 appearance, where they will play Randolph-Macon, the #3 ranked team in Division III, this Friday. The winner will move on to face either 5th ranked Mount Union or 9th ranked Wittenberg in the Elite 8 with a ticket to the Division III Final Four on the line.
And that was your Wednesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.
