With its long road swing in the books and plenty of big games ahead, the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt ice hockey team, who sat at no. 8 in the latest state Division II rankings, had to avoid the trap of looking past the opponents in front of them.
Fortunately for the Brothers, Whitesboro was visiting Onondaga Nation Arena last Thursday night, and the sub-.500 Warriors had just stunned New Hartford (no. 6 in the state rankings) 4-3 in its last outing earlier in the week.
Alert to the danger, CBA/J-D played a terrific first period and, while cooling off the rest of the way, ruled on the defensive side, too, blanking Whitesboro 4-0.
Ryan McGuire got the Brothers on the board in the early minutes, scoring off feeds from Lynch Raby and Cole Fowler. Minutes later, Ryan Durkin, who had surpassed 100 career points in his last game, struck again, this goal assisted by Zach Taylor.
And Durkin wasn’t done, either, emerging from a scramble in front of the net to record a power-play goal late in the first period to make it 3-0 going to intermission.
It didn’t take long for the margin to grow to four goals in the second period as Grayson Burns found the net, Taylor and Sam Mueller picking up the assists.
Though Whitesboro tightened up its defense from there, and Tim Evans recorded 25 saves, the Warriors could not get anything against a tough CBA/J-D back line that deflected most of the threats away. Gabe Vinal only had to make 15 saves for the shutout.
Now at 12-1-2 on the season, CBA/J-D would rest for another week before a big game Friday at Casey Park against defending Section III champion Auburn, who has shown great recent form and looks to avenge a 4-3 defeat to the Brothers Dec. 9 where it squandered a 3-1 third-period lead.
