For the second season in a row, ice hockey teams from Fayetteville-Manlius and CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt share space in Division I, each of them looking to move up the ladder.
F-M got to the Section III semifinals a season ago before falling to West Genesee. With newfound ambition, the Hornets traveled to Casey Park to face Auburn in last Wednesday’s season opener.
Quickly, those ambitions were tempered as the Maroons defeated F-M 4-3, breaking out of a 1-1 tie by scoring twice in the second period while keeping F-M off the board.
Fighting back late, the Hornets did pull within one late as Spencer Sasenbury, Will Duncanson and John Manzi got goals, with Ben Hammond and Jackson Denton joining Sasenbury in the assist colunn.
Auburn held on, though, as R.J. Szakalski did most of the damage for Auburn as he recorded a three-goal hat trick, overcoming Jake Johnston’s 14 saves.
Now the Hornets would try to bounce back in its own tournament at Cicero Twin Rinks while facing two visiting Section II teams, starting with Albany CBA on Friday night.
F-M won that game, 2-1, in overtime, the game scoreless after an exchange of first-period tallies before the Hornets were able to get the game-winner in the extra period. Denton and Jason Tedeschi had the goals, with Duncanson adding an assist and each of Johnston’ s 22 saves important.
Then the Hornets faced Bethlehem on Saturday afternoon and got overwhelmed in an 8-2 loss to the Eagles, who scored seven times in the last two periods to more than offset goals by Sasenbury and John Manzi, with Denton getting two assists and Hammond a single assist.
As for CBA/J-D, it could not have faced a more difficult opening assignment on Nov. 27, having to go after reigning state Division II champion Skaneateles, who proceeded to humble the Brothers 7-1.
Already up 2-0 through one period, the Lakers got away with four more goals in the second period, seeing Cole Heintz score four times and Charlie Major add a pair of goals.
It took Brackton Bowler’s third-period goal, assisted by Simon Lesser, to prevent a shutout. Combined, goalies Manuel Pineda and Joe Salvador made 32 saves.
Difficult as this was, it toughened CBA/J-D for, in its next game against Cicero-North Syracuse a week later at the Twin Rinks, the Brothers outscored the Northstars 6-4.
Bolting out to a 5-2 advantage in the second period, CBA/J-D spread out its attack to ovecome a three-goal hat trick from C-NS’s Matt Cramer.
Six different players got those six goals, with Tanner Burns and Kodi Dotterer leading the way, each getting a goal and two assists. Seamus Nicholson also had two assists as Lesser and Seamus McIntyre each got one goal and one assist. G.P. Giamartino earned the other goal.
Without any rest, CBA/J-D won again on Friday in the Nicholson Tournament, topping Amherst (Section VI) 5-2. Dotterer had three assists as part of another balanced effort, with Dotterer, Bowler, Burns, Lesser and Hudson DiNapoli getting goals and Lesser getting a pair of assists.
Then the Brothers made it three wins in as many days on Saturday by edging Watertown IHC 3-2 in the final, with goals from Ty Parker, Finn Wheeler and Isaiah Raby, and assists from Burns and Justin Thies.
