Rye stuns Red Devils in NYSPHSAA D-II Semi's
- Tony Fiorello
- Mar 15
- 3 min read
A spirited playoff run by the Clarence Red Devils fell short in the NYSPHSAA semifinal during a 3-2 overtime loss to the Rye Garnets of Section I at the LECOM Harborcenter on Saturday.
While no one likes to have their season end in defeat, coming out of the contest on the losing end didn’t deter the team’s overall outlook on the 2025-26 season.
“It's disappointing that we didn't move on but it’s certainly not heartbreak,” coach Rick Brooks said. “This was really a great season, and we were going against a great team out of Section One. We lost to (Rye) in overtime in the first game of the season so we knew that they're strong and we knew it could be an uphill battle and you want to be respectful of their talent. But we believed we could win and you want to be proud of your abilities, and I thought we did that too.
“So as I look at all the accomplishments, I can't be disappointed too much. I wanted these kids to be able to play tomorrow (in the state title game), but it was a hell of a year so I’ve got to take that in stride.”
The Garnets, meanwhile, will play for the first state championship in the school’s history.
“I think the game was pretty much what we expected – kind of like a mirror image of the first time we played in our season opener,” coach Peter Thomas said. “Every inch ice was difficultly contested and we just continued to go about our business and played with a lot of poise. Towards the end there, I just think we had more gas in the tank.”
The Garnets struck first midway through the first period when Finn Draddy took advantage of a rebound given up by Red Devils goaltender Carson Oates and found the back of the net on a backhanded shot. The score remained that way until only 1:32 into the second when Jeremy Dorigo knotted it up at 1-1 after he lit the lamp on a power play goal, and about three minutes later Taylor Regian gave Clarence the lead on a goal of his own.
Nursing a two-goal lead midway through the third stanza of play, the Red Devils began to dream about reaching their first ever state championship game appearance. That’s where things began to go wrong for Clarence, as they took consecutive penalties to force their penalty killing units into taking on an abnormal amount of ice time and it resulted in a goal by Will Weinman with the man advantage to tie the game with 2:22 to go.
“Two penalties in a row was hard to kill,” Brooks said. “I think we were out-shooting them at one point in the third period and we were doing really well. But if you give a team like that two power plays in a row – four minutes of being on the man-advantage – it's going to change the momentum.
“You're going to play the guys that you have the most confidence in killing a penalty, which is normally four defensemen and four forwards. So they're on the ice every other shift for four minutes in a row, and it just crushes them. That's the way it worked out.”
Thomas believed that the two consecutive power plays gave his team life.
“I feel like when we had previous chances in the game on the power play, we didn't score but I thought we had a lot of good looks,” Thomas said. “Going into that last one, we took a timeout and the biggest thing I wanted to do in the timeout was just make sure that my guys were loose and we weren’t going to try to press too much.”
In overtime, a shot from the point by Rye’s Will Molin was deflected by Jack McGill in front of Oates for the game-winning goal.
“If we were back in December and I gave you the option that you could go to the KeyBank Center, compete in that game and win the sectional title and that's all you could do, would you take it? Sure,” Brooks said. “Now you're going to go to the state regional game and you're going to win it. Would you be happy with that? Yes? Well, here we are. We're in the semifinals and one goal away from going to the state championship.
“There are a hell of a lot of other teams that didn’t get here and going into this game, we were one of three teams in the entire state in Division II that were still alive until a little while ago. That's pretty special.”
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