ONONDAGA COUNTY – Excitement over the start of the Section III ice hockey regular season was tempered, to a great deal, by the dispute between the section and hockey officials over pay raises negotiated a year ago.
As a result, the threat of postponements hung over the season’s opening stretch. But West Genesee, the reigning sectional Division I champions, was able to get underway and remind everyone that it was still the team to beat.
It took only two periods of last Tuesday’s clash with Oswego at Shove Park for the Wildcats to earn all of its offense on the way to a 6-0 victory over the Buccaneers.
Aggressive from the outset, WG quickly got a 2-0 advantage early in the first period with goals from Michael Hard and Owen Zoanetti just 36 seconds apart.
Will Schneid tacked on a second goal later in the period, and returned early in the second period. Then Riley McAloon converted and, before the period was done, Schneid had his third goal and a hat trick.
Ryan Considine and Will Shields both got a pair of assists, with Schneid, Zoanetti, Jackson Pensabene, Jared Jaeger, Liam Burns, Christian Ball and David Petrus each adding one assist.
WG’s defense, long a strength, kept Oswego quiet all night, limiting the Bucs to nine shots, all stopped by the duo of Luke Beck and Elliot Kawa.
As for Skaneateles, the reigning sectional Division II champions opened last Friday at Allyn Arena with a shutout of its own, blanking Fayetteville-Manlius 3-0.
A single goal in each period proved enough as Jack Torrey scored two of them, the other going to Henry Major, who joined Andrew Falkenberg, Andrew Gaglione and Alex Whitcock in the assist column. In goal, Chad Lowe stopped all 15 shots he faced.
That was a contrast to what happened with Syracuse, a team full of players from the western suburban high schools who took defeats of 10-1 to Williamsville North and 9-1 to Pittsford in a tough opening-weekend slate.
Girls hockey got underway a day later and Skaneateles, who won the state championship last winter, took a 2-1 overtime defeat to Adirondack United.
Kendra Garlock’s goal, assisted by Scout Oudemool, had the Lakers up 1-0 through one period. Adirondack tied it in the second and then prevailed in the OT period.
