Williamsville Tops FLOP For First Section Title

This was a celebration that was nine years in the making.

Erin Roland scored the game winning goal in overtime as No.2 Williamsville upset defending state champion and top-seeded FLOP, 4-3, in the Section VI championship game at Northtown Center.

“It was unreal,” Roland said. “It’s so exciting. My teammates worked so hard. Some how I just got that one lucky shot to go in.”

Williamsville will compete in this weekend’s state tournament at HarborCenter. They’ll meet Section X’s Potsdam HS in the semifinal on Friday at 6pm.

Photo provided courtesy of Janet Schultz, NYHockeyOnline.com

This is the first sectional title for Williamsville which has been in the WNY Girls Varsity Ice Hockey Federation since day one.

“It’s la-la land right now,” coach Rick Hopkins said with a smile. “When you’re down 2-0 in the first period to the defending state champions you think ‘well maybe it’s not our day.’ But I was thinking if we could just get the next one, if it goes to 3-0, maybe it’s too big of a hole. The girls battled back. [Goalie] Sydney [Olschewski] battled back after letting those first two in and played a heck of a game the rest of the way.”

A four time sectional runner-up, Williamsville’s lone title was the WNY Fed title in year one.

Always one of the league’s most talented and consistent programs, Williamsville has never had a down year, but they seemingly have always been snakebitten when it came to the playoffs and it appeared that this might be the case again.

FLOP, which was vying for its third consecutive sectional crown, jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on goals by Keegan Shanahan and Brooke Becker.

It seemed as if FLOP had the game in hand, but Williamsville never stopped believing.

Emma Roland notched back-to-back goals in the second period to tie the game – the second coming when they had a two-man advantage.

Photo provided courtesy of Janet Schultz, NYHockeyOnline.com

Shanahan gave FLOP the lead again less than a minute into the third.

But even though FLOP had the lead it was Williamsville that was controlling the play.

Last week’s storm delayed the start of the post season to the start of this week. FLOP drew the bye on Monday, and even though Williamsville was playing its third game in three days they looked to be the fresher, sharper team.

“They forced us to make a lot of mistakes in our own zone. That was the big key today,” FLOP head coach Bob Klimowicz said. “We turned the puck over a lot in our zone tonight. And part of that is because of the pressure they put on us. So hats off to them cause they created the turnovers. And they created the turnovers on the forecheck.”

Elizabeth Jackson tied the game midway through the third to set the stage for Erin Roland’s game winner in OT.

Williamsville fired 16 shots in the third period alone at FLOP goalie, Victoria Cottrell, who made several big saves to keep her team in the game.

“That’s a great team down the hall,” Hopkins said of FLOP. “I told them before the game ‘to beat the state champion in a championship game you have to bring a championship effort.. and a historic effort because this is the first for the Williamsville program.'”