Friday: Newark and Marcus Whitman Win Today

There were a number of out of section games played today and Section Six (Buffalo) won them all. Hamburg defeated Canandaigua 13-12, Orchard Park won their game with Pittsford and Williamsville-North beat Spencerport in overtime 13-12. Newark beat Batavia and Marcus WHitman beat Bloomfield-Honeoye.

 --  A various times in the game, fans could feel certain that their team would convincingly win the game. Big runs of scoring had each team clearly in control during the game which eventually saw Williamsville-North defeat Spencerport in the first overtime period 17-16.

The Spartans (Buffalo-Section 6) scored the first goal of the game, from the initial face off, as sophomore attackman Chad Steinwachs scored on a feed from senior midfielder Jonathan Lunney. The Rangers returned quickly with an unassisted goal by senior Matt Kaser playing from the midfield. It was the first of Kaser's 6g-6a in the game. Spencerport took the lead, scoring two goals, each assisted by Kaser as he fed Ryan Schirano on the first and Kasey Olsen on the second. The two goals were scored twenty-six seconds apart. Taking the lead to three goals, Schirano added another with an assist from Brandon Ellis. The Rangers scored three goals in 1:06 and it looked like they were in control of the game. That was not the case as the Spartan scored two more to finish out the quarter. Their goals, scored a little over a minute apart, were from Matt McDowell (assisted by Eric Steinwachs) and Jake Zaleski (unassisted). The quarter ended with Spencerport up 4-3.

Williamsville-North took strong control in the second quarter, limiting the rangers to a single shot, which was a goal by Ellis assisted by Kaser. On the other hand, the Spartans took twenty-one shots, which produced eight goals and sent them into the halftime break with an 11-5 lead and looking very strong. Key to the quarter for the Spartans was face off wins by Lunney who finished the game with 14 of 33. Although he only won two of eight in the first quarter he won seven of ten in the second quarter.

There may have been magic in the Spencerport half time meeting as the third quarter belonged to the Rangers who scored seven goals and limited W-N to a single goal toward the end of the quarter. Kaser was the sparkplug, figuring in on six of the seven goals (four goals and two assists). Lunney scored the lone goal for the Spartans. The third quarter ended with the teams tied at 12-12.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the momentum switch back to W-N as they scored the first three goals in a period of less than two minutes. They held the lead until the Spencerport started their own three goal streak that started at then 4:28 mark. Schirano scored on a feed from Nick Ventrella which was followed by a goal ten second later by Kasey Olsen (assisted by Kaser). Two minutes later Spencerport tied the game at 15-15 with a man up goal by Colin McElligott (assisted by Ellis). The teams remained tied until 0:53 left in regulation when McDowell scored on a pass from Eric Steinwachs. Kaser came back once more and took control for Spencerport, when he scored with just 0:32 left in regulation to send the game into overtime.

Spencerport had the first chance to win when Kaser took a shot that was saved by Spartan goalie, Cam MacDonald. The ball went to the other end of the field where Ranger goalie Connor MacKenzie also made a high pressure save against a shot by Lunney. The Spartans regained possession and Eric Steinwachs, who finished the game with 3g-5a, sent the ball to his brother Chad (4g) for the game winner at 3:05.

--  Game NOTE: Ten different players scored for Newark. It was the most goals scored in a game by Newark since 2007.