Story & Photos by Janet Schultz, NYHOL
Well it’s been quite the New Year! Starting off the New Year with wins for Niagara County and Kenmore/Grand Island. Postponements followed for St. Mary’s of Lancaster with illness and injury and then Mother Nature stepped in to postpone all games on January 6.
NiCo, who has secured the number 5 spot overall and 4th in the Section beat Clarence/Amherst/Sweet Home 4-2 at Hyde Park Arena in the first game of the New Year. Madison Mallone dropped in two goals with Abby Zimmer scoring a shorthanded goal and Madelyn Jagow also scoring. Assisting that evening were Kayla Persinger and Sam Latini with two each and Natalie Ponzi with another. Mariela Mulready had the win with 14 saves on 16 shots.
Allison Green had two goals, one unassisted and Isabella Zivis assisting her on the other. Melissa MacLeod made 28 saves.
Up next was KGI handing Hamburg/Eden/West Seneca a 5-2 loss. Isabelle Bourgeault, Teagan Willats, Emiliana Cassillo, Isabella Jayme dropped in goals, along with Isabella Burt, who scored her first season goal in that game. Assisting with goals were Jayme, Cassillo, Carissa Buyea, Madison Flory and Kiley Turnbull. Carolyn Bourgeault made 19/21 shots for the win. Riley Andzel had both goals for HEWS and Leia Schneid added to her record with 21 saves.
KGI, working on a first place finish this season, had another win the following night. It was a 5-1 victory over Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew.
Isabelle Bourgeault had two goals, Jayme and Cassillo each had an unassisted goal and a fifth was droped in by Buyea. Assists this evening were from Willats, Flory, Pinzel, Madeline Marzec. In goal, C. Bourgeault made 27 of 28 shots for the win.
Kayla Osinski scored, assisted by Maddie Braun for LID’s only goal of the night. In goal MacKenzie Walkowiak made 28 saves.
KGI sits in first place overall after playing 11 games and posting an 8-2-1 record and 25.5 points. Closely behind in League play is MonMar with 12 games played and a 8-3-0-1OTL record and 25 points.
Neither team can take it easy as FLOP, Williamsville, NiCo and CASH all have opportunities to move up the ladder with a few wins in the coming weeks. These four teams have only played 9 games each and sit with 21, 20, 18 and 10 points, respectively.
LID and HEWS are in the 8-7 spots overall with 11 games played and 6.5 points each. Sitting at the bottom in their Inaugural Season is St. Mary’s of Lancaster.
MonMar’s Cam Brownschidle leads the scoring with 11 goals and 7 assists but is followed closely by Isabelle Jayme (KGI) with 9 goals and 7 assists; Allison Greene (CASH), 13 goals and 2 assists; Kayla Persinger (NiCO) 5 goals and 10 assists and Aizah-Roze Thompson (Williamsville) 12 goals and 3 assists.
Goaltending is a major part of this years win/loss record in many cases. Several teams are carrying a single goalie, giving them no break when games are back to back. But leading the team in minutes played is HEWS’s Leia Schneid who has made 207 saves on 251 shots. Following is Sophia Will (MonMar) with 477.95 minutes and making 210/222; MacKenzie Walkowiak (Williamsvillle) 454.98 minutes, 297/313 and C. Bourgeault (KGI) 451.42 minutes and 169/180.
Coming up this weekend is KGI heading to Plattsburgh for an impromptu tournament featuring Plattsburg, Saranac/Lake Placid and Beekmantown.
While postponed games are being rescheduled as we go to press, next week’s match-ups include:
January 10: LID at St. Mary’s, KGI at CASH, HEWS at NiCo, and MonMar at FLOP (that game is at Riverworks).
January 11: FLOP at CASH and Williamsville at KGI.
January 13: KGI at Williamsville (this is a rescheduled game), LID at FLOP, NiCo at CASH and St. Mary’s at MonMar (a look at the two private school teams that will play a first-ever championship game).
