BY RANDY SCHULTZ –
NIAGARA FALLS, NY — Natalie O’Brien scored three goals to lead the Niagara County varsity girls Hockey team to a 5-1 victory over the HEWS (Hamburg, Eden, West Seneca) Girls varsity hockey team Monday afternoon at the Hyde Park Ice Arena.
Less than 30 seconds into the game, Niagara County’s Kayla Persinger opened the scoring to give the Lady Warriors a quick 1-0 lead. That’s when O’Brien went to work.
At the 2:38 mark of the first O’Brien scored to give Niagara County a 2-0 lead. Less than three minutes later O’Brien tallied again (5:30 mark) to give NC a commanding 3-0 lead.
HEWS closed out the scoring in the opening stanza when Riley Andzel scored at 13:43 to cut the NC lead to 3-1.
But O’Brien picked up early in the second period where she had left off in the previous period, scoring her third goal of the game at 2:41 to give the Lady Warriors their three goal lead again, 4-1.
There was no further scoring until the third period when Faith O’Connor scored the fifth, and final goal of the game at 6:37 to make the final, 5-1.
Annie Riek was in goal for Niagara County, giving up just one goal. At the other end of the ice it was Lauren Brown in the nets for HEWS.
It was the opening regular season game for both teams.
Both teams continue play on Tuesday with Niagara County taking on LID (Lancaster, Iroquois, Depew) at Holiday Twin Rinks (3:45 p.m. start) while HEWS will play Williamsville at the Amherst Northtown Rink (5:10 p.m. faceoff).
