North easily wins in regionals, will defend state title this weekend
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville North's Nick Fronczak buries Seton Catholic's Tom McCauley with a thunderous hit during the Spartans' easy 7-1 victory in the New York State Division I quarterfinals on Saturday at the Amherst Pepsi Center's Feature Rink. Photo by Joe Eberle Purchase photos at www.BeeNews.com

Williamsville North hockey plays all season to win state championships and Saturday the Spartans moved one step closer.

North dominated Seton Catholic of Section VII's Plattsburgh in the Division I New York State playoffs, winning 7-1 at the Amherst Pepsi Center's Feature Rink.

The Spartans (23-3-3), ranked No. 1 in the New York State Sports Writers Association Division I poll and the defending state champions, will play fourth-ranked Canton (23-2-1) of Section X at 3:15 p.m. next Saturday at Utica's Memorial Auditorium. The winner plays on Sunday.

"The first practice of the year we all got together on center ice and our assistant coach Tim Digiulio said 'what's our team goal?' and we said, go to states," said North's Justin Kochan, who scored a natural hat trick.

"This is our goal all long," added North coach Bob Rosen. "This is how we gear our season."

North already beat Seton Catholic, 7-1, in the Williamsville District Tournament earlier this season. Despite winning by a lopsided score, Rosen didn't want to take the game lightly.

"We had a good week of practice," said Rosen. "We actually had to cut practice short on Thursday because it was getting so intense so we knew they were ready to play. That was a good sign."

"We knew this game wasn't going to be one of our best games in terms of competition but we wanted to go out there and give our all," added Kochan.

The Spartans outshot Seton Catholic, 19-1, in the first period, and scored three times in the last 6:53 of the first period. Nick Fronczak and Kochan (Pat Mulvihill, Ryan Geary) each tallied goals off slap shots. Kochan added a back-handed goal from Nick Angelo and Geary with 1:15 remaining.

Kochan picked up his third straight goal 43 seconds into the second period, slipping a goal past Jeremy Coupal on the power play from Geary and Fronczak. It was Kochan's second natural hat trick, scoring one last year during the regular season against Kenmore East.

Josh Liddle (Andrew Saint, Fronczak) on the power play, Adam Vinci (Dan Conover, Mike Cusenz) and Grant Rickan (Mark Capenhurst, Saint) scored in the second period for the Spartans.

Kellen Loughan of Seton Catholic scored 2:22 into the third to avoid the shutout.

North outshot Seton Catholic, 36-9.