A period remained in last Friday night’s ice hockey game at Cicero Twin Rinks, with Fayetteville-Manlius finding itself tied with Rome Free Academy and, perhaps, poised to deliver one of its biggest wins of the season.
Instead, the Hornets’ attack went silent, just as the Black Knights woke up in the late going and, by a 4-2 margin, improved its overall record to 10-6 as F-M fell to 4-13-1 overall, stuck in fourth place in the Division I National Conference.
The Hornets were well-rested going into the game, having not played in eight days since prevailing by that same 4-2 margin at Watertown IHC on Jan. 19 to all but seal a Section III playoff berth.
Now, with a chance to knock off an RFA side sitting second behind Syracuse in the National Conference standings, F-M struck early as Tommy Guilfoil and A.J. Coughlin put in first-period goals, with Ben Hammond adding an assist.
The Black Knights matched those numbers, though, and the opening period ended 2-2. It stayed that way until the third period, when RFA, led by Gino DeBlasiis, broke out in front and scored twice more.
All told, DeBlasiis picked up two goals and one assist, while Ethan Bielby and Anton Russell had the other goals. Derrick Miller contributed two assists as, in goal, F-M’s James Kaffenberger had 18 saves and the Black Knights’ Ethan Siderine matched that effort.
F-M plays just once this week, meeting Cicero-North Syracuse at the Twin Rinks Tuesday night just as CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt returns with its 7-7-1 record to visit state Division II no. 2-ranked Skaneateles before back-to-back home games Thursday and Friday against Cortland-Homer and Scarsdale.
