Working on a three-week stretch where it has not allowed a single goal, the West Genesee ice hockey team was able to get away with modest offensive production for a long time.
At some point, though, there lurked the danger that the Wildcats would pay for not putting the puck in the net enough times.
That payment came due last Saturday afternoon in Camillus when Gates-Chili, a Section V opponent from the Rochester suburbs, came into Shove Park and stunned the Wildcats 3-1, putting an end to the team’s season-opening 12-game win streak.
Going into the game, Gates-Chili was 3-3-3, a mark that hardly seemed imposing. Yet WG was coming off a hard-fought 1-0 win over Skaneateles on Dec. 30 and, at less than full speed, was vulnerable to a first-rate effort from any opponent.
Sure enough, the Spartans, fired up by facing the state’s top-ranked team, attacked early. And when eighth-grader Jake Mattiole scored less than seven minutes into the game, WG’s long shutout streak was over.
They would trade goals in the second period. Erich Haney converted to get the Wildcats on the board, but Gates-Chili’s Pat Eagan answered, and WG still found itself behind, 2-1, with one period to play.
WG found that the Spartans were just as stingy in terms of allowing good scoring attempts. For the day, the Wildcats had just 19 shots on the net, with Gates-Chili goalie T.J. Noce turning away 18 of them.
In the final minute, trying to force overtime, the Wildcats pulled goalie Evan Mazzoni. Instead, it saw Noce score on the empty net, and the shocker was complete.
Fuming after the loss, the Wildcats have little time to fret, for it now faces Tuesday’s key Division I battle with second-place Fayetteville-Manlius at the Cicero Twin Rinks. F-M was 8-0-1 in its first nine games before taking a 4-2 loss to Cortland/Homer on the same day the Wildcats were beating Skaneateles. WG returns home Friday to face Oswego.
