SYRACUSE – Sixty-plus minutes of tense, aggressive and memorable ice hockey did not settle the Section III Division I championship game between West Genesee and Rome Free Academy at Upstate Medical Arena.
One great block, and one perfect short-handed rush, did settle it – in the Wildcats’ favor, again.
Jonah Vormwold was the author of that goal, short-handed, 9:33 into overtime, and it gave WG a 2-1 victory over the Black Knights along with a third consecutive sectional title.
Head coach Frank Colabufo said that, before the OT, he reminded his players of how unlikely it was that they were even in this situation after 10 seniors and other key players departed from last year’s state championship team.
“No one gave this group a chance,” said Colabufo. “They had to work and grown and find themselves, and they did.”
The game-winner came on RFA’s second power play of the extra period, moments after WG used its timeout. Luke Beck had already made several key stops in the OT, working his total to 34 saves as the Black Knights controlled most of the flow of play.
Then, as so many times before, WG’s ability to strike while a player down proved a difference-maker.
Jacob Pensabene got in front of an RFA shot and swung the puck to Vormwold streaking down the middle. Outskating a single Black Knights defender, Vormwold went top-shelf past Donte Sparace, who had made 49 saves to that point.
All night long, said Vormwold, RFA had done an effective job limiting his chances – but, as he put it, “I’m glad I got that (last) one.”
Going in, the pregame indicators went in WG’s favor – not just its recent success in the post-season but its 5-2 win over RFA when the two sides met at Shove Park four weeks earlier. By contrast, this was the Black Knights’ first sectional title game since 2014.
RFA had a better start here than in January, but just after killing off a Black Knights power play, the Wildcats, on its own man advantage, went in front 8:03 into the first period, Jesse Desena converting from the point on the rebound of a Pensabene shot.
They traded second-period surges, but at the 11:59 mark of the second Jacob Bruno’s pass sprung Tyler Lokker up the middle of the ice. Lokker skated around a WG defender, kept the puck and put it past Beck’s left shoulder, tying the game 1-1.
In close games, said Beck, “everyone’s intensity and adrenaline goes up. And when it does, our team plays faster and more connected.”
All of that was true – but RFA still thought it went ahead when, 1:45 into the third period, Lokker made another rush to the net, his shot brushing the net. After a long discussion among officials, the goal was negated.
So it stayed 1-1 and the tension kept building, through penalty kills by both teams and a host of go-head opportunities in the closing stages of regulation, with the increased knowledge that the next goal was the decisive one.
WG had to weather an RFA power play early in the first OT, then was short-handed again when Desena was called for cross-checking. But as RFA’s power play wound down, Pensabene got the puck, found Vormwold – and the Wildcats again found itself celebrating a sectional title.
On Saturday at Shove Park, the Wildcats faced Section VI champion Orchard Park, with the winner to head to Buffalo’s HarborCenter for next weekend’s state “Frozen Four”.
For two periods, it remained 0-0, neither side able to find the net. But then the Quakers inched in front in the third period and, despite WG’s all-out attempts to get even, it could not do, and by a 1-0 margin the Wildcats’ season – and reign as state champions – ended.
