East splits games against large schools
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Whoever said a Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation small school hockey team could not beat a large school team should have checked out Williamsville East's win over St. Joe's last Thursday.

The Flames (14-6-3, 10-4-2) received goals from their goal scorers, played aggressive all game and left the Amherst Pepsi Center Olympic Rink with a 5-3 win over the Marauders, one of the top Division I teams in the Federation and in New York State.

"It shows we can play with anybody if our team comes to play," said East coach Mike Torrillo.

Jon Toole scored twice for the Flames. Toole opened the scoring from Anthony Clair and Kyle Smith in the first period and gave East a 4-3 advantage in the second period from Clair and Eric Charlton.

Chris Fabozzi (Spencer Barrett), Smith (Barrett) and Charlton Fabzozi) also tallied for the Flames in a game where East never trailed.

"We felt we've been playing a little complacent so we had more traffic in front of their goalie," said Torrillo. "Plus our big scorers who scored in the past scored."

Cole Schneider (Ron Femia), Femia (Mark Gramza II), and Kris Raepple (Mike Hatton) on the power play, tallied for St. Joe's who outshot the Flames, 29-22.

Matt Bradley stopped all 12 St. Joe's shots in the third. Jay Hall played the first two periods.

Unfortunately, East didn't play as aggressive against Kenmore West and were behind 6-2 after the second period.

Clair (Charlton and Toole), Clair (Mike Terryberry) on the power play, and Mike DeStefano (Smith) rallied East in the third but Kenmore West's Michael Vasquez scored an empty-netter with 25 seconds remaining.

Clair opened the scoring 34 seconds into the game with a slapshot from the blue line. The Blue Devils answered with three first period goals and another two in the second before Toole scored on the power play from Barrett and Clair.

Vasquez (Scott Moser), Moser (Vasquez) on the power play, Kyle Whipple (Anthony Farah, Nick Panepinto), Michael Boice (Chris Povinelli, Jared Passman) and Vasquez (Patrick Fisher) scored for Kenmore West. Panepinto scored again with a power-play goal in the third from Moser and Robert Whelan.

East's first round game Section VI Western New York Varsity Hockey Federation playoff game with Frontier on Tuesday was postponed. A makeup date was yet to be announced when The Bee went to press.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com