WNYGVIH Weekly Recap: January 6-10, 2025

by Janet Schultz, NYHOL

The WNYGVIH is half way over and the teams are still battling for a position in the rankings. St. Mary’s of Lancaster and KenGiPort sit at the top, but HEWS and FFLOP still have a shot at upsetting those teams. Niagara County, Williamsville and Monsignor Martin are having a tough go this year, but still providing competition to those who want to move to the top.

Two games on Monday opened this weeks schedule with Niagara County at St Mary’s and LIDA at HEWS.

HEWS took that first game 5-3 with Sophia Sokolowski having two goals, and Sophia Phillips, Brynn Holland and Samantha Miller adding three more for the win. Holland had the game winner, unassisted. Phillips, MacKenzie Benker, Holland and Kelsey Barrett added assists. Keeping the pucks from flying in was Ella Buczynski, stopping 21 of 24 for HEWS and Iris Schimenti stopping 36/41 for LIDA. Scoring for LIDA was Brynn Cafferty on the PowerPlay, Leah Dowling and Caitlin Sinclair. Sinclair, Dowling and Cafferty each had an assist.

In Cheektowaga St Mary’s upset NiCo 7-4. For St. Mary’s it was Meghan Donnell with two goals, Lauren Gilano, two; Avery Szczesek, Brooklyn Vitez (the game-winner) and Dylaney Dee, each with a goal. Donnelly, Dee, Gilano, along with Riley Kumrow, Alanah Pagano and Alaina Roland added assists. In goal Betsy Accurso faced 32 goals, stopping 28 for the W.  For NiCo is was Abby Zimmerman with two goals and an assist; Sam Latini with a goal and assist; Natalie Lawrence with a goal. Lila Jones stopped 28 of 35. 

With the goal and assist Latini joins All-Time Federation Leaderboard tying Charleigh Rondeau (2019) of CASH.

Tuesday was a busy night with four games on the schedule.

FFLOP visited NiCo and came away with a 9-5 win, but not easily. FFLOP’s Maya Griffin came away with a HatTrick and charted #18 on the All Time Scoring List with 5 points in a single game with three goals and two assists. Other goal scorers were Chloe Gearhart, Jocelyn Smaczniak, Gabby Sojda (2), Kayli Tefft (the game-winner) and Alyssa Starkey. Assisting were Campbell Rutz, Smaczniak (2), Olivia Waterman, Brooklyn Forcucci (3), Starkey, Tefft and Luci Bowen. In goal Rachael Fix stopped 22 of 27 sog. For NiCo it was Latini with  3 goals for the HatTrick, Lawrence and A. Zimmerman. In goal Jones stopped 22/29. 

Over at Paddock LIDA faced KenGiPort. It was a KenGiPort 5-3 win with the Isabella’s scoring.  Isabella Jayme having two goals, one the game-winner; Isabella Bourgeault with 2 goals, one on the powerplay; Isabella Burt adding the third. Burt, Jayme, Savannah Samplinski and Teagan Willats assisted on those goals. Jayme’s game-winner was unassisted. In goal Ella Johnston stopped 23 of 26 for the W. For LIDA it was Dowling, assisted by Cafferty; Lysiak assisted by Hauser and Lawrence and Hauser, assisted by Lysiak and Layla Osinski. Schimenti tended the goal stopping 32 of 37.

HEWS beat MonMar 6-1 with scoring by Kaelynn Wittschack, Holland, Sokolowski (Hattrick) and Morgan Cooper. Buczynski stopped 10 of 11 for the W. Gabby Kazmark had the lone goal for MonMar with assists from Ellie Black and Isabella Kosich. Kate Kelley continues stopping ions of goals as she faced 44 in this game, stopping 38.

St. Marys headed to Northtowns to face Williamsville and won 5-4. Szczesek, Pagano, Kumrow and Vitez scored with Vitez’s being the game-winner. Accurso stopped 31 of 35. For Williamsville it was Addison Stachura, Scarlet Canna, Quinn Wolf and Allison Besancon scoring, assisted by Besancon, Sophia DePrima, Canna and Genevieve Illos. Anna Bacon was in goal, stopping 34 of 39.

It was CASH at FFLOP on Thursday with FFLOP taking a shut-out win 5-0. Sojda (2) had the game-winner with Favata, Starkey and Griffin (getting her 100th point) adding to the scoring. Assisting were Griffin, Rutz, Smaczniak, B. Forcucci, Sojda and Bowen. In goal Fix stopped all 12 shots for the SO W. CASH’s Ella Celej stopped 38 of 43.

Latini got her 100th career point in the NiCo vs Williamsville game as NiCo took home a 9-3 win. Scoring were Latini (2), Mainstone (2), Lawrence, A.Zimmerman (2), Martin(2). Assisting were Martin, Chopyak, Latini, Whitehead, Terranova, Lawrence, Mainstone and Kish. Beaver stopped 11 of 14 for the W. For Williamsville it was Illos, Besancon, and Wolf scoring. Bellacose, Stachura, Meyer and Besancon, assisting, Olivia Lookman stopped 20 of 29.

KenGiPort traveled to Monsignor Martin and brought home a 6-0 shutout win. Scoring were S. Shaft, Jayme (on the powerplay and with a hattrick), Alexa Denning and Samplinski. Assists came from Bourgeault, Willates, Kiley Burke, Samplinski, Natalie Kopf, Kumrow, Madeline Jagow, Erin Krawczyk. In goal Hadley Dahlgren stopped 2 for the shutout win. Kelley was in goal for MonMar facing 55 shots, stopping 49.

After this week KenGiPort’s Bourgeault and Jayme are heading for the All-Time Leaderboard in the Federation. Jayme has 139 points in her career jumping to #4; Bourgeault has 129 points. The Top Four Teams are in a tight race for the #1 position with St. Mary’s at 18.5 points, 1/2 point ahead of the next two. KenGiPort and HEWS are tied at 18 points. FFLOP scored 15 points in 7 games giving them some moving room.

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