NOTES: Pittsford`s heralded defense held up to their hype in their 7-4 win over Webster Thomas. The Titans kept the game close and even took the lead for a short time in the third quarter before the Panthers scored the final four goals in the game. Pittsford's defense held the Titans scoreless for the first 14:16 and the last 13:32. The Panther defense was led by senior Nick Panara (4 ground balls), senior Greg Weyl (5 ground balls and 6 takes), sophomore Jared Conners (3 ground balls) and junior Mike Perotto (2 ground balls and 2 takes). In addition to the close defense, freshman midfielder Colby Barker also showed impressive defensive skills during the contest. He finished with the last goal of the game on the open net (after Thomas pulled the goalie to attempt to take the ball). In the Pittsford cage, Kevin Maguire finished with six recorded saves.

The game began with Billy Cooper scoring on an unassisted drive from the top left. He beat his defenseman and put the ball into the back of the net on the first Panther shot. Two shots later, Brandon Barker scored the first of his 2g-1a with a similar unassisted drive to the goal. He beat his defenseman, as well as the slide before scoring. The Panthers took four more shots in the first quarter, but only hit the cage once and the first quarter ended with Pittsford leading 2-0. The Titans only took three shots in the quarter (one on cage).

The second quarter was much more evenly balanced. Thomas finished with ten shots (four on cage and one goal). Pittsford had seven shots (two on cage and one goal). Thomas scored first on a drive from the top by Cam Isaac. Isaac beat his defenseman and found Mitch Hutteman on an inside cut. Pittsford scored their goal with 0:01 remaining when Henry Potts drove from around the back of the cage. Pittsford led 3-1 after the first half.

The third quarter belonged to Thomas. Pittsford spent the majority of the quarter in their defense end and rarely gave their defensemen time to breath. Thomas scored their first goal at 8:28 on an unassisted goal from Kevin Hill. Hill finished with 2g-1a for the Titans. Four minutes later, Hill drove from behind the cage and found Travis Ford open for an outside shot against Maguire to tie the game at 3-3. Three minutes later the Titans took the lead for the first time. Hill scored on an underhanded outside shot (with an assist from Teddy McCabe) during a man-up situation.  The Panthers won the next face-off and 0:50 later, Stephen Quinzi scored his lone goal of the game with a drive from behind the cage. Quinzi led the Panthers in shots with ten (four on cage). The game was tied 4-4 going into the final quarter.

For the final quarter the Panthers were back in control. The Titans only had one shot in the entire quarter and that came during a man-up situation. Pittsford had sixteen shots (nearly double the first three quarters) with six on cage and three goals. Brandon Barker scored the first goal (unassisted) and then assisted Billy Cooper two minutes later. The Panthers led by two with seven minutes remaining. Colby Barker scored the open net goal with 0:31 remaining.

In the age for Thomas, Davis Bird and Dean O`Neal split quarters. Bird finished with 5s/4ga (56%) in the second half and O`Neal finished with 3s/3ga (50%) in the first half. Kevin Hill, a midfielder, finished with a team leading six ground balls for Thomas. Midfielders Joe Vasile and Sammy Botross-Greenlee and defenseman Ryan Nugent finished with four ground balls each. Isaac finished with 64% at the face off draw (7/11).

Overall the offensive portion of the game was a lot of wild shots. Pittsford finished with only 20% of their shots on cage (15/35) and Thomas finished at 15% (10/26). A large portion of those percentages come from the skill of the defenses forcing bad shots.

Pittsford (4-0) plays Brighton on Thursday and then takes a week off. Thomas (3-2) plays Aquinas on Thursday and Ithaca on Saturday.