By Warren Kozireski —
During the regular season, Churchville-Chili scored ten goals over two games against Webster-Schroeder. But that’s why they play the games.
In a rematch for the Section V Class B championship, the Warriors clogged up the center ice area and came away with a 2-1 victory and the championship.
After a scoreless first period, Schroeder took a 1-0 lead at 5:25 of the second as defenseman Nolan Roughsedge assisted on Jason Simons tally.
Later in the second, the Warriors got an insurance goal as Simons entered the offensive zone one-on-one with a Saints defenseman before putting his low shot past the goaltender at 11:50.
Churchville-Chili hit the post late in the period and Luke Herring set up Gavin Carr for a one-timer at the period buzzer, but entered the third down by two.
The Saints got a power play with 4:40 remaining in regulation, but could not convert. They then pulled their goaltender for the extra-attacker with two minutes left and finally got on the board as Tyler Eberhart fed Jesse Prue in the slot with 38 seconds left, but could not get the equalizer.
Churchville-Chili outshot the Warriors 46-33 in the game with game MVP Colin Smith making 45 saves in the Schroeder net.
“Just confidence; we came in as a team kind of the third seed, we weren’t really favored and said ‘what do we have to lose—we’re playing with house money,” Smith said.
“I think what worked really well is we changed up our forecheck. They’re a really speedy team and…we came up with a trap where they can’t through that neutral zone with speed and, if you mess up their speed, they have no where to go. I think it was a really, really smart play by our coaching staff and the guys executed it perfectly.”
Webster-Schroeder moves on and will play the Section III champion in Syracuse Saturday, March 4th at 5pm.
(Photo By Warren Kozireski)
