Amherst Mite 1998 Selects dominate in debut

The Amherst Mite 98 Selects opened their season on Dec. 31 with a convincing 6-2 win over visiting West Seneca.

It took Amherst a few minutes to get going before Ben Reichert opened the scoring at 6:20 of the first period. Reichert took a one-handed pass from Connor Wagner and chipped it over the West Seneca netminder.

It took until 6:27 of the second for Amherst to strike again. Defenseman Connor Bender fed the puck into the West Seneca zone, and when the goalie attempted to clear it, Wagner was there to pick it off and bury it for a 2-0 lead.

A minute and 13 seconds later, Amherst found the net again on a tic-tac-toe play from Aaron Bengart to Matt Cohen to Nick Carbone who slid it past the West Seneca goalie. Cohen made it 4-0 after he stuffed in a rebound on a shot from Sam Kinerk.

West Seneca sniper Pat Faliero scored two quick goals to cut the lead to 4-2 but that was all West Seneca could muster against the Amherst defense and goalie Dylan Wild.

Zach Perelstein made it 5-2 when he converted a pass from Cohen. Ben Levy chipped in an assist.

Amherst closed out the scoring at 14:21 of the third. Cam Carney slid a pass to defenseman partner Reed Bihary, who fed a perfect pass to Carbone and sent him in alone on the goalie. Carbone deked him and put it in the open net.

West Seneca goalie Matt Ladd was stellar between the pipes as he faced a constant barrage of shots from the Amherst squad. Along with Faliero, Andrew Michalski and Gordon Donacik also played well for West Seneca.

Hamburg outlasts Amherst Mite 98 Selects, 7-5

The Amherst Mite 98 Selects lost 7-5 in a hard fought battle with Hamburg at the Nichols Arena on Saturday afternoon.

After Connor Bender gave Amherst a 1-0 lead just 23 seconds in, Hamburg answered with two of their own as Matt Cerrillo and Josh Dake each tallied.

Amherst countered with Nick Carbone beating the Hamburg netminder after Matt Cohen chipped the puck off the boards to spring a streaking Carbone.

Amherst closed out the first with a 3-2 lead when Josh Knauf scored from a bad angle after the Hamburg goalie stopped two point blank shots from Chris Dirienzo.

Cerrillo tied it for Hamburg early in the second as he potted his second of the night on a breakaway. Carbone put Amherst up 4-3 notching his second with help from Cohen and Zach Perelstein. Cerrillo completed the hat trick with a high wrist drawing Hamburg even at 4-4 as the second period came to an end.

The third period was all Hamburg as Amherst goalie Cam Carney faced a barrage of quality scoring chances from close range. Dake got his second at 6:44 and less than a minute later, Tyler Manwing put Hamburg up 6-4. Connor Wagner cut the Hamburg lead to one as he broke in alone and drilled a shot that went in off the crossbar. But that was all Amherst could muster as Hamburg closed out the scoring on a goal from Clayton Galas at 11:48 of the third period.

Amherst returns to action on Saturday against Ft. Erie before venturing onto foreign soil for an afternoon tilt with Ridgeway on Sunday.