Victor heads to the State Finals for the fifth consecutive season after their 12-6 win over the Section IV Champion, Vestal.  The Golden Bears scored the last two goals to catchup in the final four minutes.  The Blue Devils led by eight halfway through the fourth quarter.  Leading in scoring for Victor were Camden Hay (3g-4a) and Joey Pezzimenti (2g-3a).  For Vestal, senior Matt Thrasher finished with 4g to lead his team.  In the cage for the Golden Bears, Luke Barney and Carter Ruhn split halves.  Barney finished with 4s/6ga and Ruhm finished with 3s/6ga.  For Victor, Liam Haller played the majority of the game and finished with 3s/5ga; Michael Calianese faced a single shot and finished 0s/1ga in the final four minutes.  The NYS Sportsmanship award went to Truman Kurst (Vestal) and Liam Haller (Victor).

Vestal scored the first two goals to the game when Thrasher scored with an outside shot during extra-man offense two minutes into the game.  Two minutes later he added a second with a sweep along the top.  Six minutes into the game, Vestal led 2-0.  The Blue Devils finished out the quarter with three more goals.  Joey Pezzimenti scored with a midrange outside shot with 4:29 left on the clock.  Under a minute later they tied the game with an outside shot from Hay.  They took the lead with 0:28 left with TJ Brei scoring on an assist from Hay.  Victor led 3-2 after 12 minutes and never trailed for for the rest of the game.  The Blue Devil defense held Vestal scoreless for 23 minutes spanning into the third quarter.

The problem with Vestal wasn’t their inability to shoot, but their inability to put the shots on cage.  Vestal finished the game with 29 shots and only 9 on cage.  On the other hand, Victor took 26 shots, but hit the cage 19 times.  The other major factor in the win was at the face-off.  Regan Endres took all but one face-off and finished 18/19 with his only loss from a technical loss. 

In the second quarter, Victor scored three goals to increase their lead to 6-2.  Jack LaRue, Pezsimenti and Alec Russell scored the Blue Devils.  Coming out of halftime, Victor scored three more to increase their lead to 9-2.  Hay scored in extra-man with an inside feed from Pezzimenti.  Just over a minutes later, LaRue scored with an outside shot (assisted by Hay).  The third goal was scored 5-on-5 with a feed from behind to the right flat from Pezzimenti to Hay.  The Golden Bears scored the next two.  While still in the 5-on-5 non-releasable penalties, Thrasher scored his third.  Four minutes later, Sam Eckert drove up from behind the cage and finished into the back of the net.  The final goal of the quarter was another Victor goal.  LaRue scored off an inside feed from Hay.  Victor led 10-4 going into the final 12 minutes.

In the fourth quarter, Victor scored the first two to take their largest lead (12-4).  Russell and LaRue scored for the Blue Devils.  As time counted down, Vestal added the final two goals in the last four minutes.  Thrasher scored on a fast-break and Aaron Tebo scored with an outside shot with 0:01 left on the clock.  Victor moves on to the Finals where they will face John Jay (who defeated Manhasset 11-10). The B Championship starts at 12:30 at St. John Fisher on Saturday.