Through a pair of hard-fought victories, the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt ice hockey team laid the groundwork for a big early-season showdown against the side that denied them a state Division II championship in 2015 and then made it back to the state finals a year later.
Skaneateles arrived last Friday night sporting a 3-0 record, with a combined 26 goals scored in wins over Fulton, Victor and Oswego. However, all those games were on home ice at Allyn Arena, and this was the Lakers’ first road test.
CBA/J-D did make it challenging, but Skaneateles passed it, with Raymond Falso carrying his side past the Brothers 5-3 by netting four of his team’s goals and assisting on the other.
Everyone knew the main battle front in this game – CBA/J-D’s defense against Falso, Matt Benson, Reggie Buell and the rest of the potent Skaneateles attack. With a large home crowd on hand, the Brothers seized a 1-0 lead on Skaneateles when Doug DeMarche scored in the first period.
For the most part, CBA/J-D’s defense did a solid job containing the Lakers in the early going ,but the first period still ended 1-1 when Falso put in the tying goal.
That momentum carried over into the second period, when Falso’s second goal gave Skaneateles the lead for good. Minutes later, Falso’s pass set up Dimitris Christou for another Lakers tally that made it 3-1, and before the period was done, Falso had converted again.
With Falso’s latest hat trick in the books, the Lakers took a 4-1 edge to the third period, and Falso tacked on a fourth goal to help Skaneateles withstand a late CBA/J-D push that included goals from Ben McCreary and Adam Carpenter. Christou and Reggie Buell both earned two assists as Patrick Major earned a single assist as Brothers goalie Peyton Bowler finished with 31 saves.
Before all this, CBA/J-D first had to face Ithaca last Tuesday night, and nothing about it was easy – but timely goals and solid defense down the stretch gave the Brothers a 3-2 victory over the Little Red.
They worked through a scoreless first period before Jack Austin broke the deadlock 32 seconds into the second period. Less than five minutes later, Will Dietrich struck to make it 2-0, a margin that only lasted until James Cronin put Ithaca on the board midway through the period.
Penalties appeared to slow up the Brothers – at least until McCreary found himself on a breakaway and put home a short-handed goal with 43 seconds left in the second period. As it turned out, that was the game-winner, since the Little Red pulled within one late in the third period, but CBA/J-D held on.
Meanwhile, Fayetteville-Manlius, off to a 1-1-1 start, went east to Kennedy Arena last Tuesday night and ran into Rome Free Academy, who steadily wore the Hornets’ defense down on the way to prevailing by a 6-2 margin.
Not until the second period did F-M get on the board, and it would convert again in the final period as Tommy Guilfoil and Gabby LaBarge got credit for goals, while Tavish Daly, Will Duncanson and Jason Tedeschi earned one assist apiece.
RFA scored twice in each period and, throughout the night, depended on Derrick Miller, who put together a three-goal hat trick and added a pair of assists. His linemate, Gino DeBlasiis, added two goals and two assists, and Black Knights goalie Ethan Siderine stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced.
A weekend road trip followed, F-M going east to face Lake Placid Friday night and lost, 2-1, taking a brief lead in the first period with Tedeschi’s goal, assisted by Duncanson, before Lake Placid tied it in the second period and won it in the third period, overcoming 26 saves from Brandon Heyman.
The Hornets took on Saranac Lake a day later, and again dropped a one-goal decision, this one 3-2 where, once more, all of F-M’s offense was generated by passes from Britton Smith that set up goals by Mike Hockenberger and Will Healy, with A.J. Coughlin also getting credit for an assist.
Yet Saranac did exactly what Lake Placid accomplished the day before, applying lots of pressure to goalie James Kaffenburg (who had 31 saves) and converting once in both the second and third periods.
F-M plays just once this week, hosting the Syracuse Cougars Friday at the Twin Rinks, while CBA/J_D visits Cortland-Homer and goes to the Rochester area this weekend for back-to-back games against McQuaid and Greece Thunder.