No matter where they end up a couple of months from now, the Fayetteville-Manlius and CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt ice hockey teams will carry a special memory from their early-season head-to-head match.
The two neighbors, now both in Division I, met on Dec. 8 on the Syracuse Crunch’s home ice of the War Memorial, and it turned into a thriller that went beyond regulation before the Hornets and Brothers ended up in a 2-2 tie.
Through 51 minutes of regulation and an OT period, the two sides battled it out, rarely able to break through due to fine defense by both squads.
On CBA/J-D’s side, Kodi Dotterer earned one goal and assisted on the other, by Ian Henderson. Adam Louise assisted on Dotterer’s tally as Manuel Pineda kept his team close all the way, stopping 33 of the 35 shots he faced.
As it turned out, both teams gained plenty of confidence from this effort, as demonstrated last Tuesday by lopsided victories as CBA/J-D routed Cazenovia 10-2 at Onondaga Nation Arena and F-M handled Mohawk Valley 8-1 at Cicero Twin Rinks.
Getting to double digits on the scoreboard against the Lakers, CBA/J-D had eight different players find the net, with only Dotterer and Simon Lessor scoring twice as Dotterer added two assists.
Louise, Isaiah Raby and Matt Walker had matching totals of one goal and one assist. while Henderson, Finn Wheeler and Seamus Nicholson also had goals. Tanner Burns, Tom Caputo, Dylan Drury and Sason McKie, Seamus McIntyre joined the assist column.
F-M’s rout of Mohawk Valley mostly featured Zach Bookman, who augmented his pair of goals with three assists to be involved in more than half of the Hornets’ scoring plays against the Raiders.
John Manzi, Jonas Oesterle and Spencer Sasenbury each had one goal and one assist as Trent McKiven and A.J. Williamson also found the net. Will Duncancson and Jackson Denton each earned assists.
CBA/J-D faced New Hartford Friday in the opening round of Cicero-North Syracuse’s Optimist Tournament, and pulled out a 2-1 decision over the Spartans.
They traded goals after a scoreless first period, with the Brothers inching in front in the final period as Louise and Burns found the net, assists going to Cole Mathews and Bailey Doust.
In the final, CBA/J-D met host C-NS, who had handled Greece 6-2 in the other opening-round match. This game was high-scoring too, and though the Brothers doubled its total from the day before, it still lost, 6-4, to the Northstars.
It was 3-3 going to the third period before C-NS pulled away late, led by Jake Den Bleyker, who finished with three goals and one assist.
The four CBA/J-D goals came from four different players – Louise, Burns, Mathews and Drury – as Dotterer got two assists. Caputo, Brackton Bowler, Simon Lessor and Justin Thies had one assist apiece.
F-M, meanwhile, headed to the Buffalo area for games last weekend against West Seneca East and Grand Island, returning to the Twin Rinks to face Liverpool Tuesday in its last game before the holiday break.
The Hornets blasted West Seneca East 5-1 on Friday, and then against Grand Island it prevailed by a 5-3 margin, improving its overall record to 5-3-1.
On Tuesday night, F-M met Liverpool the Twin Rinks, with CBA/J-D going to Lysander Arena to face Baldwinsville, two nights before hosting state Division II no. 1-ranked Skaneateles.
