CAMILLUS – No matter the venue, the stakes or the general trends of both teams, when West Genesee meets Baldwinsville in ice hockey, it’s bound to be close, tense and memorable.
For the only time in the 2023-24 regular season, the Wildcats and Bees clashed last Tuesday night at Shove Park, and with some timely late heroics, WG fought past the Bees 2-1.
It was by that exact same 2-1 margin that, in the 2023 Section III Division I final at the War Memorial, the Wildcats fought off B’ville, the last close call experienced in WG’s eventual run to a third state championship.
Now, despite the Bees’ modest 5-4 record, it still sat at no. 18 in the state rankings, with WG having dropped from no. 3 to no. 5 after a 1-1 tie with Cicero-North Syracuse on Jan. 4.
Again this game would prove tense and low-scoring – in fact, there weren’t any goals for more than 29 minutes, the Wildcats proving stingy yet unable to get any shots past B’ville goaltender Nate Sotherden.
Only when WG gained a power play late in the second did the breakthrough happen, eighth-grader Matt Schneid sending a high shot over Sotherden’s shoulder for his first goal of the season.
As the third period started, the Bees picked up its pressure, forcing the Wildcats into two penalties. Playing five-on-three, B’ville tied it with 10 minutes left, Mitch Burlingame one-timing a sucessful face-off that Luke Beck could not stop.
Resuming its pressure, the Wildcats got its own power play and, off feeds from Jonah Vormwold and Jacob Pensabene, defenseman Jesse Desena got WG back in front.
Beck and the defense made it stick, the junior goalie recording 25 saves as Sotherden had 33 saves.
This was just the first of three tough games in a 72-hour stretch, the Wildcats going to Section V’s Victor on Thursday and finding itself in another one-goal decision, but seeing it go 3-2 in the Blue Devils’ favor.
A fast start keyed Victor’s win, as it went up 2-0 through one period. Despite goals in the second and third, WG could not quite catch up, Vormwold assisting on tallies by Schneid and Carter Berg as Pensabene and Evan Zoanetti also had assists. Beck finished with 24 saves.
Then the surprising CNY Fusion team, a combination of Fulton and Liverpool, came to Shove Park Friday night, and in a fierce defensive battle the Wildcats claimed yet another close victory, this one 1-0.
Again, WG endured a scoreless first period and, again, it went out in front in the second, this time courtesy of Pensabene, whose goal was assisted by Schneid and Nick Meluni.
Fusion goalie Trevor Smith, echoing what Cicero-North Syracuse’s Leyton Sullivan did a week earlier in a 1-1 tie, frustrated the Wildcats the rest of the way and ran his total to 39 saves.
And Fusion had plenty of its own opportunities to pull even, but again the Wildcats’ defense, anchored by Desena and Ryan Long, turned back the opposition and, when that didn’t work, Beck stopped all 26 shots he faced.
WG emerged from this difficult week 10-3-1 overall, clinging to first in Division I ahead of Rome Free Academy as it mostly rests this week, its lone scheduled game a Thursday visit from Ontario Bay.
