Carthage’s Fombo Azah runs through a cluster of his teammates while carrying the ball during a drill in Tuesday’s practice at Carthage High School. The Comets’ defense has held opponents to single digits in scoring in four of six games this season. At 5-1 overall, Carthage has done all it can to secure what will most likely be a No. 4 seed in the sectional playoffs beginning Oct. 19.

Tonight’s football game between Lowville and General Brown has been scheduled for months. A Friday night slugfest in the final week of the regular season between two rivals who are all too familiar with each other. No matter what their records were heading into week seven, the game was going to carry extra weight regardless.

Nancy Henry leads her former players from the podium after speaking during the induction of the 1988 and 1993 Copenhagen girls soccer teams into the North Country Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. A collection of notable athletes, coaches and teams were honored at the second annual induction ceremony into the North Country Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

Nancy Henry leads her former players from the podium after speaking during the induction of the 1988 and 1993 Copenhagen girls soccer teams into the North Country Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. A collection of notable athletes, coaches and teams were honored at the second annual induction ceremony into the North Country Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

Watertown head coach Kyle Lalonde might want to think about playing Nick Mallette in the backfield more often. The junior has been the Cyclones’ top receiver all season, yet on Friday versus Oswego, he used his legs more than his hands. Mallette rushed for 219 yards and scored five touchdowns in the Cyclones’ 59-0 rout of Oswego in a nonleague game.

After taking an early lead, Ogdensburg Free Academy allowed General Brown to sneak back into the game. Before eventually defeating General Brown, the state’s fifth-ranked team in Class C, 26-20, the Blue Devils watched as their 12-point lead slowly dissolved into a tie game. General Brown’s defense had been stubborn the entire second half, not allowing OFA to gain much momentum.

During Wednesday’s practice session before General Brown’s home game versus Ogdensburg Free Academy, coach Doug Black calls off a play with a blow into the whistle hanging from his neck. The whistle’s high-pitched scream is long and drawn-out, Black is frustrated. His offensive line has once again failed to block the defensive tackles.

The Carthage offense put up plenty of points in the Comets’ 51-6 Class A North victory over the Watertown Cyclones on Saturday afternoon. But beneath the 51 points were countless defensive moments that set the Comets up to score time and time again. Elijah Whitfield, Ben Bowen, Jake Millich and Jakob Maxwell all intercepted passes.

Beaver River High School cross country captains Corey Demo, middle right, and Brayden Campeau, middle left, lead their teammates in warmup exercises at practice on Thursday in Beaver Falls. While driving to the grocery store in Lowville, Beaver River’s boys cross country coach Alex Barrett will occasionally see some of his athletes running along the side of the road.

People watch as a fleet of boats ride back to shore after a race Saturday at the Crystal Lake Regatta in Redwood. While scores of participants come to compete in powerboat races like the 22nd annual Crystal Lake Regatta held this weekend, they also come to catch up with friends — ones they’ve made at similar events throughout the country who share their love of racing.

It only took Chad Bach two plays to show he was going to be the best player on the field in Lowville’s 58-14 rout of Thousand Islands on Friday night. A 30-yard run followed up by an 18-yard run ended with Bach in the end zone, 8 points on the scoreboard and only 22 seconds shaved off the game clock.

The green synthetic grass of Thousand Islands’ new turf sports field adds blinding color to contrast its bleak surroundings. Flanked by acres of dirt plowed flat and formed into ranges of man-made mountains and seemingly never-ending farmland, the carved-out field looks like a scene out of Field of Dreams.

Faced with a 4th-and-9 on Sandy Creek’s 26 yard-line, Beaver River was looking at its last chance. Trailing by two with three and a half minutes remaining, quarterback Sam Bush took the snap and dropped back. To his left, running back Colin Noftsier had gotten free and was all alone — had Bush saw him he would have had the first down and much more.

With the Northeastern Football Alliance playoffs approaching, the Watertown Red and Black’s 2018 season is on its last leg. No. 1 seed Syracuse awaits Watertown’s arrival today, an opponent who is 10-0 and has defeated the Red and Black twice already this season, 31-3 in Syracuse and 17-14 in overtime in Watertown.

Chad Bach can’t exactly pinpoint what sport he considers his “main” sport. Like many student-athletes at Lowville high school, he plays multiple. In the fall, the junior orchestrates the offense as the quarterback of the Red Raiders; in the winter he’s Lowville’s point guard; and in the spring he makes his way back to the turf, once again donning pads but this time he’s carrying a lacrosse stick and not a football.

In the third quarter of Indian River’s 33-21 win over Carthage, the Warriors defense began to fail them. Indian River entered the half up 20-0 and appeared to be cruising to another blowout win against their rival, but a push by the Comets in the third quarter quickly shrank that lead to 20-14. An Indian River fumble that was recovered by Carthage at midfield set up the Comets for a chance at another score and this time the lead.