Monsignor Martin emerges victorious for Private School title

Two goals were all it took for the Monsignor Martin Girls’ hockey team to down St. Mary’s of Lancaster and take home the second-ever Private School Championship for their seventh overall title since 2012.

Isabella Fedele and Reece Honadle lighting the lamp in the second and third periods, respectively, were able to seal the win for first-year coach Darren Palezewski. But Palezewski knew the win wasn’t going to come easy for his team.

“It was a great win but tough,” Palezewski said. “We split with (St. Mary’s) early in the season – once in overtime and the other one was a 2-0 game too, so I knew that it was going to be very tough. On Friday at our practice, we worked on power plays and the game winning goal ended up being on the power play.

“You’ve got to get pucks to the net. I thought we had a good chance of getting rebounds and putting a rebound in today, and I just told the girls to get pucks to the net and good things will happen.”

Freshman Kate Kelley, named the game’s Most Valuable Player, made 20 saves for the shutout and Palezewski knew her performance would be excellent going in.

“I knew she had some big game experience, but she was Williamsville’s goalie last year and played in the championship game as an eighth grader,” Palezewski said. “So that was one of the main reasons I went with her because of that experience, and I can tell from the second that warmups started that she was dialed in. She deserved the MVP, no question.”