SYRACUSE – A year later, with the same opponent on the other side and with the same high stakes, the West Genesee ice hockey got the same triumphant result, this time without any reason to question the outcome.
Anchored by a dominant defense, the Wildcats beat Rome Free Academy 2-0 in Monday night’s Section III Division I championship game at Upstate Medical University Arena to earn its fourth consecutive sectional title.
The Black Knights managed just 11 shots all night, most of them in the third period, with WG defenders like Evan Zoanetti, Ryan Long, Luke Alfieri, Kaiden McBride, Harrison Walker and Michael Vetter constantly moving the puck out of their end and denying space to RFA’s quick group of forwards.
Head coach Frank Colabufo said the key to this effort was denying RFA’s top scoring line of Tyler Lokker, Jacob Bruno and Jackson Marchione any room with which to work.
“We knew what we were in for,” said Colabufo. “We pride ourselves on defense and we knew we could not give them any open ice.”
The Wildcats’ desire to maintain its sectional crown clashed with the Black Knights’ fierce determination to take it from them, which dated back 12 months.
Every RFA player, coach and fan brought with them bitter memories of the 2024 final, convinced they had scored a go-ahead goal in the third period of a game which WG eventually won in overtime. A 2-2 tie when they played again at Kennedy Arena in late January only added to the expectations for this title game.
Yet it barely took three minutes for the Wildcats to go in front and, fittingly, senior captain Jonah Vormwold was in the middle of it. Taking a well-timed pass from Christian Ball at center ice, Vormwold streaked up the middle and flicked a wrist shot past Donte Sparace.
For the rest of the first period WG controlled the flow of play, rarely letting RFA generate any organized attack while taking 15 shots to the Black Knights’ two.
This continued into the second. Even when RFA gained the game’s first power play, it could not manage a single shot against the Wildcats’ penalty-killing unit. The Black Knights’ third shot on goal didn’t come until past the game’s 26-minute mark, and didn’t have another one the rest of the period.
Only Sparace’s spectacular work in goal kept it 1-0. He had 26 saves overall through two periods, including some late in the second where he kept the puck out even while his stick lay in front of him on the ice.
Not until early in the final period did RFA apply consistent pressure both during and after a second power play, but Luke Beck, to that point mostly a spectator, made a series of close-up stops and kept his team in front.
One more serious RFA flurry followed in the cosing minutes. When Sparace was pulled, heavy pressure was applied, but Vormwold got to the puck and with 46.8 seconds left fired it from his own end into the empty net to seal the victory.
Vormwold said this championship felt as good as it did in 2024, especially with a lack of any attached controversy.
And this leads WG to Saturday’s Division I regional final and another familiar opponent – Orchard Park, the team it lost to 1-0 last March when this game was played at Shove Park. Now it’s at Buffalo’s HarborCenter, the exact same location where the state “Frozen Four” takes place next weekend.
