FROM PRESS ROW: THIS WEEK'S ATHLETES OF THE WEEK, UNSUNG HEROES AND BREAKOUT STARS (2021-10-12)

It was another successful week for area sports teams, and it’s time to recognize some of the highlights from last week.

We will once again recognize an athlete of the week, an unsung hero of the week and a breakout performer of the week.

Let’s start with the Athletes of the week.

JOEY MUCCI, HORSEHEADS, BOYS’ SOCCER:
The Horseheads boys’ soccer team has won five straight games, including a perfect 3-0 week last week.

It was a fairly balanced week, and any number of players could be considered for this honor. Jimmy Haberstroh had two goals in the win over Corning, Ahmed Souid scored against both Ithaca and Corning and had an assist against Margaretville and Seth Wilsoncroft had a spectacular header goal against Margaretville and added an assist against Corning.

But, in the end it was Mucci that earns the honor after having a week where he did a little bit of everything.

He had a big role in the Corning win. He was fighting in front of the net and caused Corning to get called for a handball trying to defend him, which set up the team’s first goal. He then fed Haberstroh a through ball to lead him to a breakaway goal to ice the game.

Mucci also had an assist on the first goal in the win over Margaretville.

All week long Mucci was a force in the middle, helping to orchestrate the Horseheads offense.

SARAH LAWSON, CORNING XC
There were 792 runners in Manhattan for Eastern States. The best of the best from throughout the Eastern portion of the United States, with runners there from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Connecticut.

Out of those 792 runners, Lawson finished sixth for the Hawks on Saturday, helping Corning finish third as a team out of 108 teams at the invitational.

All season long Lawson has been one of the best runners in the state, and on Saturday she got a chance to show she is also one of the best runners in the entire Northeast.

UNSUNG HEROES
BEN MASSENGALE, HORSEHEADS, FOOTBALL:
Finding a good kicker at the high school level is never easy.

There are a lot of teams who go for two all the time, because they don’t have someone who can reliably hit an extra point.

But, all season long Horseheads has had that reliable kicker in Ben Massengale.

On Friday night he showed just how good he was. He was 6-for-6 kicking extra points (the team did miss one extra point but it was on a bad snap where Massengale never got an attempt to kick it).

He already has a game-winning field goal earlier this year.

Massengale’s consistency allows the Blue Raiders to go for one after nearly every touchdown, knowing that they can trust they will be adding one point to the scoreboard.

TAYLOR HURD, CORNING GIRLS’ SOCCER:
TwIce last week the Corning girls won games 1-0 in overtime.

They started the week beating Elmira 1-0 and then with just a minute left in overtime beat Ithaca by the same score.

In those two games Hurd had 16 saves, including a spectacular save in overtime against Elmira to help the Hawks get the win.

Corning won five games in 11 days to win the STAC West title, and Hurd had shutouts in all five of those games.

On Monday the Hawks played Elmira in a downpour so bad you could barely see across the field, and despite the conditions, Hurd came up big and didn’t allow anything in goal.

BREAKOUT STARS
SADIE BERES, CORNING XC
With 792 runners at Eastern States, the Corning sophomore finished 89th overall.

Beres wound up as the third highest Corning finisher in the meet, which featured teams from throughout the Northeast Eastern part of the country.

With Beres as the team’s third runner, the Hawks finished third overall in the meet out of over 100 teams.

DESHON COOK, EDISON
Ok, we will change things up from the plan we came up with last week for breakout stars.

The plan had been for this to be athletes sophomores or younger who breakout with big performances.

But, sometimes older kids can breakout as well. So, going forward we are going to say it can be any athlete who breaks out with a huge performance. We will lean toward underclassmen, but sometimes older players can have breakout nights as well.

Cook is a junior for the Spartans and on Saturday he had a huge game in a loss to Moravia.

The Edison junior ran for 155 yards and a touchdown in the game. He bulled his way through and past people. Among his big plays in the game was a 50-yard touchdown run.