It was opening night for the Boys Federation hockey playoff’s. The Private school and Small school divisions took center stage.
St. Mary’s of Lancaster defeated St. Francis 5-3 at the HarorCenter putting them one step closer to a WNY Catholic School title. Read about it here
The Northtown Center in Amherst featured four teams looking to extend their seasons as well.
Tigers blank Billies
Ryan Stark and Trevor Tout scored first period goals to lead Amherst past Williamsville South 2-0 in the Small School Quarterfinals Thursday. Sophomore goaltender Evan Czora made 24 saves in the shutout victory.
Tout, a freshman defenseman scored short-handed at 10:56 of the first period. “Nick Smith found me and I found a soft spot and let it rip,” Tout said after the win.
Amherst did not face Will South during the regular season but knew they would be in for a tough game and still had two periods to play.
“We knew they were a physical team and that’s the way they play,” Tigers coach Mark Mobus said after the win.” We just had to fight through it. I’m happy for our team they deserved the win.”
The Billies came out hitting in the second period and began to forecheck the Tigers, picking up a number of scoring opportunities along the way. Their best chance of the night came during one of the flurries. Billies forward Leonard Higgins misfired on his shot from in close, Czora was out of position but the puck sailed to the right of the post.
“I was able to see most of the shots,” Czora said. “They like to screen and always had a guy in front.”
Nick Haas played admirably in net for Will South making 19 saves, including a number of glove saves in the third period to keep the game close.
Next up for Amherst is Kenmore West who they will face on Friday at 7pm.
Bulldogs continue winning ways
Russ Riggio is one of a few players left from the 2015 Kenmore East State championship team still wearing the Bulldogs jersey. He scored big goals for that club during that run, so it was no surprise to see him add another Thursday.
Riggio’s first period goal set the tone in their 6-2 win over North Tonawanda in the second game of the double-header at Northtown. The goal sparked his teammates as well, especially junior Aiden Bova who stepped into a check deep in Lumberjack territory setting up a nice scoring opportunity.
NT wasn’t going to be pushed around though. There are a number of seniors on the team to settle the bench down and play on. Trent Woodroe is one of those seniors. Woodroe carried the puck into Bulldog territory and scored a beautiful goal with Kenmore East freshman Dominic Cassillo draped all over him, tying the game 1-1.
The Bulldogs had a hefty lead in the shots department at the first intermission 3-6.
In the second period Riggio and Ryan Hahn set up Cassillo on the power play to seize the one goal lead. It was the only goal of the period. The flood gates opened in the third.
Aidan Bova and David Uptegrove extended the Bulldogs lead to 4-1 before Jake Warriner cut that deficit in half. The Lumberjacks could not seize the momentum, surrendering another goal to the Bulldogs. This time Hahn found the back of the net.
Mike Greiner added a late goal for Kenmore East to round out the scoring.
“I’m real proud of the guys and happy with the way we played tonight,” coach Kyle Pray said. “We have a few things we need to clean up for sure, we can’t get caught up in the after the whistle stuff and there are some things in our own end we have to take care of but all in all we beat a good team tonight.”
The Bulldogs will take on Sweet Home Sunday at 7pm.
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