By TIM IRVING
On January 27th, Batavia Notre Dame United beat Victor 4-2. Other than a 3-0 loss to number one in NYS Orchard Park, it marked the only time the Blue Devils had been beaten this season.
“I thought we played well, “ Victor head coach Mike Ferreri said. “Their goalie stood on his head, so even though they beat us, I thought they played well.”
Last Friday, the teams played again in a make-up game and the Blue Devils won 9-0.
The tie-breaker came in the Class A quarterfinals at the Rochester Ice Center Thursday and the second-seeded Blue Devils again shut out the United, 5-0, to advance to the semifinals.
Victor took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Jon Chapman set up Braydan Riesenberger for the lead but seventh seeded Notre Dame had a couple of opportunities to tie that were denied by Max Pitts.
Just over a minute into the second, Michael Peluso converted a turnover and the lead was 2-0.
Three minutes later, the Blue Devils on a power play, Asher Erwin’s shot from the point was put in by Tanner Radogna and the lead went to 3-0.
With still over six minutes to play, Chapman picked up the puck near his own blue line and found a direct path to the goal for a 4-0 lead.
Ferreri credits some of the Blue Devils’ scoring success to the play of his netminders, Pitts and Cam Beal.
“Both guys have done a phenomenal job and it creates competition which gets every kid even better and it makes our kids better as well because when they’re competing, it’s gonna be a little harder to score in practice.”
Colin McNamara capped the scoring in the third. Pitts stopped all 18 shots while Frank Faletti stopped 33 shots for BND United.
“I’m super-impressed with them with how they continued to give it more and more, they kept coming,” Ferreri said of the United. “Even down 4-0, they kept coming.”
Victor will have a much need week off before playing McQuaid in the semifinals after playing four games that last eight days.
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