Photos and Story by Janet Schultz, NYHOL
Frontier/Franklinville/LakeShore/Orchard Park (FFLOP) has returned to the victory platform in the WNYGVIH Federation by defeating Hamburg/Eden/West Seneca (HEWS) and taking the Championship. It’s been six years since their last Championship, a three-peat after winning in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
However, this is not the end of the road. FFLOP faces Webster for the Western Regional Championship and a spot at the NYSPHSAA States. Who they will face is still being determined due to a weather cancellation of two games.
FFLOP took the NYS Championship (then known as a Regional Championship) in 2017-18, their third appearance in the States. Williamsville won it in 2018-19.
FFLOP battled all season with KenGiPort and LIDA to make it to the finals. At the end of the regular season they placed second to KenGiPort with LIDA in third. Only 2.5-3 points separated them. In Quarterfinals FFLOP beat Williamsville, moved on to play LIDA and then to the Championship against HEWS.
The game opened with the first period ending in 0-0, much like the game previously played for the Private School Championship. In the second period Sophia Phillips scored an unassisted goal at 9:51 and the period ends 1-0 HEWS, and with a penalty that carried over.
After the teams returned to the ice for the third period. FFLOP came out flying and determined to take a win for their Assistant Coach Chelsie Sereday, home recovering from surgery. It was all FFLOP when just 24 seconds in Peyton Forcucci scored. Seven minutes later Gabby Sojda scored, unassisted and then sank in a second one. Chloe Gearhart scored an empty netter and the game ends 4-1 FFLOP. Credit goes to both goaltenders who “stood on their heads” at times to stop the puck from entering…Rachael Fix for FFLOP and Ella Buczynski for HEWS. (Sorry I was unable to obtain the stats for this game).
FFLOP ends the season with a 11-2-3 record. Maya Griffin and Gabby Sojda lead the scoring this season with 26 goals and 27 assists for Griffin and 25 goals and 26 assists for Sojda. In addition to leading the league this season, Griffin has moved to #8 in the WNYGVIH All Time Scoring list with 58 goals and 70 assists in 80 games played. Also in the top ten this season are Peyton Forcucci with 13 goals, 17 assists and at #10 Jocelyn Smaczniak with 4 goals and 24 assists.
FFLOP’s goaltending has Rachael Fix with 907.12 minutes played, stopping 346 of 376 shots for a .920 save percentage. She served as goalie for all games played this season.
HEWS Sophia Phillips comes in at #6 with 18 goals and 14 assists. HEWS goaltender Ella Buczynski is in the top of the goaltender list for this season with 867.20 minutes played, stopping 417 of 451 shots and a .925 save percentage. She also played in all games this season.
FFLOP heads to Webster Ice Arena to face Webster in the Regional Quarterfinals. The game is scheduled for Wednesday, February 19 at 7 p.m.
In other regional games Potsdam is facing Beekmantown.
Section 5/6 (FFLOP or Webster) has to play Section 3/4 (Skaneateles) and Section 2 (Adirondack) has to play Section 7/10 (Potsdam or Beekmantown) in the State Semi-finals on Friday, February 21. Those games are at 4 and 6 p.m. at the Utica Nexus Center, respectively. For those who have followed the girls varsity leagues, all of these teams have been in the States and all but Webster have taken home a State Championship at some point, most recently Adirondack last season.
The NYS Championship game is scheduled for Saturday, February 22 at Noon at the Nexus Center.
Tickets are required for all of these games. Go to https://gofan.co/app/school/NYSPHSAA and that will direct you to the ticket page.
Photos property of NYHOL, Janet Schultz© Photographer
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