Thursday Night is Fed Night

By Francis Boeck fboeck@fromthe300level.com

There was an explosion at the Northtown Center Thursday night, an offensive explosion. In four High School Federation Hockey games (1 girls, 3 boys), a total of 36 goals were scored. No winning team had less than five goals when it was all said and done.

Girls: Amherst/Sweet Home/Clarence (CASH) 8, West Seneca/Hamburg/Eden 3

CASH has earned a reputation for having a high powered offense, on Thursday they showed why. Kaira Patterson tied the game when she scored off a pass from Emma O’Neil in the first period for West Seneca/Hamburg/Eden. But that was taken away when Casey Adimey put one by to give CASH the 2-1 lead at the end of the period.

Charleigh Rondeau scored off a pass from Page Gross. A few minutes later, the Girls Fed’s top scorers connected as Julia Mings found Emma Faso to give CASH the 4-1 lead. O’Neil scored with less than a minute left in the second period, but that was as close as West Seneca/Hamburg/Eden would get as CASH went on to have a four-goal third period.

“We’ve been skating well and scoring a lot this season”, CASH Head Coach Nicola Adimey said.

Mings had two goals and two assists. Faso had two goals and one assist. Adimey had a goal and two assists for CASH.

“It was a great game”, West Seneca/Hamburg/Eden Head Coach Brian Hillary said. “They have a very fast team, it just wasn’t our day.” Courtney Cavarello lead the way in the third period, scoring two goals and assisting on another in the final frame for CASH.. “She has played for a long time so she knows when the flow is a little slow”, Adimey said. “She can take the puck from the back end and bring the energy to the game.”

“We played as a team”, Cavarello said. “Our passing was a little messy but we fixed it. Then we came out strong and scored a couple goals.”

Next: CASH will be back at the Northtown Center as they host Monsignor Martin on Wednesday at 4:30pm. WS/H/E will be back in action today as they host FLOP at the West Seneca town ice rink for a 5:30pm faceoff.

Boys: Kenmore West 8, Williamsville South 1

Alex Militello had a big night picking up a hat trick as the Blue Devils picked up an important win over a Division 3 opponent. Matt Stewart got things going quickly for Ken West as he scored off a pass from classmate Owen Green less than a minute into the game.

Later on, Anthony Alvear took advantage of prime real estate in front of the net to put the Blue Devils up 2-0 at the end of the first period. Stewart ended the game with two goals.

Ken West received a penalty early in the second period but it didn’t matter as Militello got a breakaway and scored. Later Militello scored again, this time off a Jake Pray pass to give his team a 4-0 lead. The senior completed the hat trick early in the third as Sean Degnan found him to give Ken West the 6-0 lead.

“We played well today”, Militello said. “We all came together and worked hard. All four lines, all six defensemen.” “We’ve been having trouble with Division 3 schools, so we knew we had to get some points”, senior forward Degnan said.

According to Head Coach Sean Green, the Billies are still a young team going through growing pains. “It’s a learning process for our team”, Green said. “A lot of times we beat ourselves, it correctable so we have to keep moving forward.” Jake Pray had a goal and two assists in the win.

“We’re tied at the top, so we’ll take any points we can get”, senior forward Pray said. “When we work as a team, we get good results.”

Next: Ken West will face St. Francis for a 3:30pm faceoff at the Northtown Center on Saturday. Will South heads to Hyde Park to face Niagara Falls at 6:45pm on Monday.

Boys: Lancaster 5, Williamsville East 4

The Flames scored three goals in the third period as they fought back from a 4-1 deficit, but it wasn’t enough as Lancaster still came out on top.

Just over a minute in, Bryce Benham found the back of the net to give the Legends the early lead. Will East came back as Mike Steffan found Jack Kelly to tie the game at one.

Shawn Kross found fellow classmate Mike Shaver to give Lancaster back the lead with six and half minutes to go in the second. Less than a minute later Connor Carrow scored to give his team the two goal lead. The Legends went up by three when Kross scored early in the third period. But the Flames weren’t going to give up. Steffen brought his team to within one with back-to-back goals. When Shaver found the back of the next again, Will East was still fighting. Finnegan Sayers scored a short handed goal to bring his team back within one. Will East pulled the goalie and received a power play in the game’s final minute, but could not tie the game up.

“I like the way our guys battled. We fought to the end”, Williamsville East Head Coach Mike Torrillo said. “The kids didn’t quit.” “We played all four lines today and they contributed”, Mike Shaver said. “We scored when we needed to.” Kross believes that Lancaster, who sits at the bottom of Division 1 at the moment, needs to have an urgency about winning games moving forward.

“It feels that we got two points. We’ve been on the losing end of a lot games”, Kross said. “Now that we’re in the second half of the season we have to start winning these games.”

Next: Both teams will be back on at the Northtown Center on Saturday. Will East takes on Canisius at 3pm. Lancaster continues their campaign against Clarence at 5:30pm.

Boys: Williamsville North 5, Bishop Timon 2

After a scoreless first period, the Spartans scored two unanswered goals in the second to help beat Timon.

Griffin Green started out the second period going top shelf. Before the period ended, the Spartans converted on the power play as Daniel Mosher found the back of the net to give Will North a 2-0 lead at the intermission.

In the third the Spartans got right back to business as Mosher grabbed a rebound off a Josh Surowiec shot from the point and put it home. Green scored again, this time a shot from the point to give Will North the 4-0 lead.

Brian Makowski took a slap shot that got past the goalie to put Timon on the board. The Tigers then scored on the man advantage as Evan Stanley put one in to come within two of the Spartans. Any hope of a comeback ended when Brett Sardina gave the breathing room back to Will North as he scored with less than two minutes left in the game.

“We have to win with urgency and desire,” Bishop Timon Head Coach Matt English admitted. “We didn’t have that tonight.” “We had a couple guys sick so I was happy how some guys came up and answered the call”, Williamsville North Head Coach Bob Rosen said. Daniel Mosher had two goals and an assist in the win. But Rosen insists that Mosher’s impact on the game is much stronger then showing up on the stat sheet.

“He’s big for us”, Rosen said. “I’m glad he showed up on the score sheet because there are a lot of nights he doesn’t show up on the score sheet. But he does a lot things that are so important for us.” “It was a big team win”, Mosher said. “They’re a tough team and we took a couple penalties but we fought.”

Will North’s statistics will improve as the Spartans killed nine of ten penalties in the win. But going forward Rosen knows that it can’t be a recipe for success.

“It’s disappointing. We took some undisciplined penalties tonight”, Rosen admitted. “We have to work on that.”

Next: Will North faces Kenmore East at 5pm at the Northtown Center on Saturday. Bishop Timon will face Hamburg on Sunday for a 6:30pm faceoff at the HarborCenter.