Suffern and Pelham both picked up some more hardware for Section 1 upstate, while Pawling and North Rockland won local tournaments in a pretty action-packed Tuesday. Now there will be a two-day break before some more big games this weekend.

Andrew Emerson had three goals and two assists to lead Pelham to a the championship of the Niskayuna tournament with a 6-0 win over Saranac Lake, the same team Emerson needed a last-minute goal to beat two weeks ago. Marc Flory had two goals and three assists and Mike Mamone had a goal and three assists. Gavin Lambdin stopped 18 shots to record his first shutout of the season.

Tournament MVP Zac Hiller had a goal and two assists to lead Suffern to the championship of the Oswego Invitational with a 4-2 win over Lancaster in the first ever meeting between the programs. Johnny Hill and Greg McCarron each added a goal and an assist.

Locally, Matt Ng saw Matt Burdick score a hat trick as Pawling defeated Fox Lane 4-1, despite 45 saves from converted defenseman Cody Williams (I’ll provide the link when I get it). Tournament MVP Mike DeLaVergne made 15 saves for Pawling. In the consolation game, John Jay earned its first win of the season, beating Brewster 8-5. Kyle Greenberg had two goals and two assists in the win.

At the Nyack/Tappan Zee tournament, MVP Alex Nestle made 25 saves as North Rockland defeated Newburgh 5-0 in the championship game. Craig Meany’s shot from the point four minutes into the second period was the only goal through 30 minutes, but the Red Raiders depth and conditioning finally paid off, as Sean O’Connor, Steven D’Alisera, Mike Meigh and Nick D’Amelio all scored in the third period to clinch the title.

Pearl River defeated Nyack/Tappan Zee 4-2 in the consolation game, breaking a 2-2 tie early in the third period when Ryan McArdle coverted a 2-on-0 breakaway off a pass from Paul Moreau.

One other score to report — St. Peter’s Prep beat Stepinac 5-2 at the Ice Vault in Wayne, N.J., Rocco Miano had a goal and an assist for the Crusaders and teammate Michael Lanaro stopped 39 shots.

Thanks to Clarkstown North seniors Matt Willows and Chris McIndoe for joining me in the studio tonight for the second broadcast of Varsity Central Live, and of course all of you for watching and contributing. The show will can be accessed at lohud.com/vclive (if it doesn’t come on immediately, or if it starts at a random point, click “on demand” and it’s the one from Dec. 30. From there you can skip to any point in the show). Stay tuned for next week’s schedule, and hopefully some more special guests.

Finally, we’ve set up an email address for coaches, parents, fans, players to send in suggestions about our new Varsity Central site: vcfeedback@lohud.com. Send us your thoughts and we’ll see what we can do.

Like everyone else, I’m off the next two days but I’ll be back soon enough with a special feature that I’m going to start for 2009, and a look ahead at this weekend’s action.

I hope everyone has a chance to tune into Varsity Central Live tonight at 7:30 (www.lohud.com/vclive), where our special guests will be Clarkstown North seniors Matt Willows and Chris McIndoe. Willows is currently on pace to set the state record for points in a season, while McIndoe is the only goalie in Section 1 with state playoff wins on his resume. It should be an interesting show, and of course everyone will get a chance to ask Chris, Matt and me whatever they want (although I can’t promise it will get through the moderator). Hopefully a big response tonight will ensure a weekly broadcast going forward — there’s certainly a ton of guests I’m hoping to have in the studio over the next two months.

The hockey gets going early today, with Suffern playing defending state semifinalist Lancaster at 11 a.m. The Mounties beat Oswego 3-0 yesterday, dropping the Bucs to 1-7 (five losses were by one goal). Despite both programs’ success through the years, this is the first time Suffern and Lancaster will meet. At noon, Pearl River plays Nyack/TZ in the Nyack tournament consolation, while Pelham takes the ice at 1 p.m. against Saranac Lake (3-4-1) in the championship of the Niskayuna tournament.

Two more champions will be crowned at 6 in the Nyack and Fox Lane tournaments. I know the Nyack matchup is North Rockland-Newburgh at Palisades but I’m not sure about Fox Lane (anyone?) and Fox Lane is playing at Pawling up at Brewster. We will have a reporter at Brewster tonight to cover the action. Congrats to Fox Lane, by the way, who may be winless in League 3 but just had a nice win against League 2 Brewster. Meanwhile, Pawling picks up a good win against League 1 John Jay.

Mamaroneck broke Monroe-Woodbury’s four-year reign in the Tiger holiday tournament, defeating the Crusaders 6-1 last night at Hommocks. This avenged Mamaroneck’s worst loss last year, a 5-0 defeat to M-W in this tournament. 

Just like at Pelham, it was balanced offense (six players scored), tight defense and timely goaltending from Luke Glaser. M-W lost most of its scoring and a great goalie from last year, but the Tigers are still outplaying and outhustling teams right now. 

In the consolation, Stepinac’s Steven Yankowski (four goals) had a natural hat trick in less than four minutes of the third period as the Crusaders came back to defeat Rye Town/Harrison 6-4. Rocco Miano (one goal, five assists) had a hand in all six goals. Nice showing by Stepinac, who were missing two more players this weekend from an already small bench, and a tough break for the Titans, who can’t seem to get any positive momentum going right now.

Elsewhere, Brewster scored five unanswered goals in the first period and went on to a 9-3 win over Mount Pleasant. Iona Prep took care of John Jay 6-1, and Nicky Belger had three goals and three assists as Lakeland/Panas defeated the Albany-area school Mohonasen 8-6. 

Monday is usually a slow day, but not this week. Two more holiday tournaments get underway — Nyack/TZ-Newburgh and North Rockland-Pearl River at Palisades, and John Jay-Pawling and Fox Lane-Brewster at Brewster.

Greeley beat Newburgh already this season, so I fully expect North Rockland to win the Nyack tournament, but the Fox Lane tournament appears wide open. Brewster is obviously playing well right now, Pawling is 6-1-1,  John Jay is winless but against tough competition, and Fox Lane is struggling but I’m sure they want this to be the time they turn their season around. Elsewhere Suffern is playing in the Oswego tournament (it opens against the host) and Pelham is at Niskayuna. 

Finally, exciting news — the ratings are in, and the Varsity Central Live hockey show has been picked up! Tuesday night at 7:30 at lohud.com/vclive. This time the special guests will be Matt Willows and Chris McIndoe of Clarkstown North, so start thinking of some good questions to ask.

For the second time in a week, Queensbury defeated Rye again, this time by a much lower score of 3-1 last night. At least if they meet again in the state quarterfinals, the Garnets will know what they need to improve. \

Rye and Mahopac are finishing up in the Albany area this afternoon, while the Mamaroneck tournament gets underway in about an hour, with Monroe-Woodbury vs. Rye Town/Harrison, followed by Stepinac-Mamaroneck. There’s also some League 3 games between Pawling-Clarkstown South and Ossining-Fox Lane, while Lakeland/Panas continues a three-games-in-three-nights weekend against Newburgh. 

Tomorrow is the conclusion of the Mamaroneck tournament, along with an intriguing Catholic-public game of Iona Prep-John Jay, a good League 2 game with Mount Pleasant-Brewster, and Yorktown plays O’Neil.

I’m off today but I’ll be at Hommocks tomorrow. In the meantime, please post your updates and thoughts on this weekend’s action here.