Throughout the course of a season, there are games – and moments within those games – that define a team’s character. In Wednesday’s 4-2 win against Suffern, Rye’s hockey team showed once again it has championship potential.
Sophomore Will Niejadlik scored a beautiful back-hander unassisted to give Rye (12-2-3) an early 1-0 lead. But after two quick goals from Suffern (11-3-1), Rye trailed the two-time defending New York Division 1 state champions 2-1 after two periods. As both teams exited the ice, the dreaded third – and likely game-deciding Suffern goal – felt only minutes away.
Then, the moment came.
With just under 14 minutes left in the game, sophomore Max Niejadlik broke free from a pile of Mounties and scored a lightning bolt of a goal through the five hole – between the goalie’s legs to tie the score at 2-2.
Two minutes later, he did it again to give Rye a 3-2 lead.
Following a top-shelf goal by sophomore Colin Nigro, off of another sweet dish from Finn Draddy, Rye led 4-2 with seven minutes to play.
An untimely boarding penalty against Rye and a subsequent five-minute man-up advantage for Suffern meant Rye would need to rise up. Fortunately for the Garnets, all-section junior keeper Fernando Mosquera was manning the net.
“Fernando is a pretty good mistake-eraser,” said Rye coach Peter Thomas. “His skill really frees up our guys to be aggressive, because they know who’s back there. Fernando was sensational tonight. We’re down 1-0 after the first period, and we felt we were right in this game. We never backed down. We attacked.”
Mosquera’s saves preserved a senior night win for seven Garnets: Will Weinman, Ryan Draddy, Trevor Dolan, Matt Rovenger, Will Molin, Cody Greenhaw, and Jamie Morris.
“I was in awe of the guy (Mosquera) in the first period,” Dolan said. “He kept us in this game all night long.”
After 17 games and some realistic expectations for the upcoming postseason, Dolan knows the work is not done.
“We’ll celebrate this one a bit tonight for sure,” said the senior captain. “But we really don’t care who or where we play. We treat every opponent the same and we feel that if we stick to our systems and believe in each other, we’ll go far and accomplish great things this season.”
The Garnets are off until Wednesday, when they host Mamaroneck (7-10) in their final home game, then travel to Suffern for a rematch next Friday to wrap up the regular season.
