Declan Lavelle, No. 9, takes a face off for the Garnets against John Jay. 1293
Rye High Hockey
Garnets Shock John Jay, Win Section Championship
BY CHRIS URBAN
Back on January 8, the Rye Ice Hockey team lost 5-0 to John Jay-Cross River on home ice at the Ice Casino. Ancient history.
Going into the Section 1 Division 2 championship rematch game at Brewster, Rye had a 13-8 record with quality wins over Mamaroneck and Cortland. As No. 2 seed previously beat Pelham 3-1 in the Section 1 Division 2 semifinal to reach the championship.
John Jay carried an impressive 18-2-1 record coming into their game against Rye, losing to only one other Section 1 opponent all season. The No. 1 seeded Indians defeated Horace Greeley 4-1 heading into the championship game, having won the division the last two seasons.
Two minutes into the action, Mattie Wierl opened up the scoring for John Jay on an odd wrist shot deflection that seemingly caught everyone off-guard.
Despite that, Rye was unfazed, outshooting and pushing the pace of play the rest of the first period. Their hard-nosed play led to a highlight-reel Reece Dorfman backhand goal which was the play of the game. Dorfman deeked the John Jay defender through the legs and finished on the backhand side with a minute left in the first period.
Extending the Garnet lead in the second period, Sasha Vasyuta snapped a wrist shot in the top right corner from the left slot on an assist from Brian Curran.
Leading 2-1, Rye continued to get good chances against John Jay and were physical all period. They shut down many Jay scoring chances by playing tight man-to-man defense, with aggressive forechecking that flustered the Indians’ rhythm all game.
Three huge hits started the 3rd period with the physicality peaking in the last 15 minutes of play. This only brought out the best of the Garnets who would go on to score three more goals.
Declan Lavelle and Brendan O’Byrne scored within two minutes of each other midway through the third period. Lavelle finished off a two-goal performance with an empty-net goal with 2:30 left to play that sunk John Jay’s Section 1 title hopes.
Great penalty killing and excellent goaltending from Annabelle Thomas were also significant factors that led to Rye’s 5-1 thrilling victory.
This is Rye’s first ice hockey Section 1 title since 2010 and the 14th Section 1 title in the program’s history.
In addition to goals from Dorfman, Vasyuta, O’Byrne, and Lavelle (2), Aidan Cunningham, Graham Ross, and Liam Hurley assisted for the Garnets. Thomas stopped 26 of 27 shots and Nick Petrella had 27 saves for John Jay.
The 14-8 Garnets will now play Whitesboro, a Section 3 finalist, in the state quarterfinals on March 7 at 5:30 p.m. at Brewster Ice Arena.
Declan Lavelle, No. 9, takes a face off for the Garnets against John Jay. 1293
