Spartans stomp out Billies in win
The Starpoint Spartans raced out of the gate on Saturday at the Northtown Center and never looked back, defeating the Williamsville South Billies 9-1.
It was a start like no other, as the Spartans scored an unprecedented three shorthanded goals within the first five minutes of the game to take a commanding lead that they never gave up.
“We hadn’t scored a lot of goals yet this season, and before the game I told the kids that hopefully we’ll get some bounces and breaks go our way,” coach Clayton Wilson said. “I’ve been around the game a long time and I’ve never seen a team score three shorthanded goals in a game. That was a great thing to see and it should be a good confidence booster going forward.”
No matter how many times the Billies would be the recipient of a power play, the Spartans wouldn’t back down. Josh Kelly, Brenden Dewey and Luke Kenyon each scored while the Spartans were down a man, and Kenyon said it was all a product of work ethic.
“Scoring three shorthanded goals is pretty rare,” Kenyon said. “Every time we’d get a penalty, we’re not just looking to clear the puck and kill time. We’re looking to score, and that right there was a great example of our will.”
The onslaught of goals continued in the second period. Less than three minutes into the period, Chuck Schmidl increased the lead to four and Kenyon added his second of the game two minutes later. 18 seconds later, Magden Ferrari scored with the man advantage, Tom Mazgaj lit the lamp a short while afterwards and Dewey recorded his second score of the contest nearly a minute later.
Mazgaj found the back of the net again in the third period for the Spartans’ ninth goal of the day, while Connor O’Brien notched the Billies’ lone goal.
Despite the shellacking by the Spartans, Wilson knew his team wasn’t going to be repeating this type of outing any time soon, and knew his team still had a lot of areas to improve upon.
“Overall, I actually don’t think our play was that good,” Wilson said. “A lot of times, I noticed our kids were playing on their heels instead of their toes, and we need to change that. It’s pretty rare to score nine goals in a game so we know that it’s unlikely we’ll repeat that. We’ve just got to go back to work and get ready for our upcoming stretch of games.”
Blue Devils fan the Flames, win 5-4
The Kenmore West Blue Devils got five goals from four different players, including a late power play goal from Owen Green to eke out a victory over the Williamsville East Flames.
The back-and-forth affair saw the Blue Devils initially take a 1-0 lead on a goal from Chris Schiavone less than two minutes into the game, but the Flames then scored four unanswered goals from Sean MacLeay, Cam Smith, Nick LaFornara and Michael Wolf.
The Blue Devils, however, found their resolve. Etthan Yotter scored a pair of goals and Michael Barker added a shorthanded tally to tie the game at four entering the third period. “We told them (during second intermission) to keep up the intensity,” Ken-West head coach Rob Roszak said. “I told them we came back versus West Seneca West but not Will South, we didn’t finish the job. I told them we worked too hard to lose.”
A late penalty by Thomas Burke was the straw that broke the Flames’ backs, leading to Green’s goal with the man advantage with 3:21 left to play in the third. Despite a late rally by the Flames, the Blue Devils were able to hold on for the victory.
Will East led the Blue Devils 4-2 with under two minutes to play in the second period.
SJCI take Round II
After dropping a 4-2 decision earlier in the week to Lancaster, St. Joe’s knew they would have to dig deep in Saturday’s rematch if they were going to prevail.
Niko Pavicich delivered the festivus miracle in the form of a power play goal late in the 2nd period that turned out to be the only score of the game giving the Marauders a 1-0 win over the Legends.
Lancaster had the man advantage in the final minutes of the third period but were unable to beat St. Joe’s goaltender Ben Weppner, who finished the game with 17 saves. Kevin King made 23 saves for Lancaster.
Amherst Wins in OT
Amherst won their first league win of 2017-18 with a 3-2 OT decision over Niagara Falls. Trevor Tout, a freshman scored the game winning goal for the Tigers who have won two league games in a row.
Bruno, Sardinia lead Will North over Bishop-Timon
Andrew Bruno and Brett Sardinia had themselves a game Saturday at Northtown in a 6-3 win over Timon in a Division 1 showdown. Bruno scored a hat-trick and assisted on two other goals while Sardinia finished with two goals and two helpers.
Will North (8-0-2) are now in sole possession of first place in the Fed’s top division.
West Seneca East’s Prynn and Maving storm WGR Studio
Saturday morning’s Inside High-School Sports program spent the bulk of their weekly show talking Boys Federation hockey. West Seneca East’s head coach Phil Prynn and goaltender Jagger Maving were in studio with host Tony Caligiuri and WNYAthletic’s Frank Wolf and Francis Boeck. You can listen to the show here: IHSS 12-23-17
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