Zugnoni and Valent score twice to lift Spartan Hockey

BY JONATHAN SKUZA

ROCHESTER, N.Y.– Mikey Valent and Ayden Zugnoni continued their strong starts to the season with two goals apiece for Spartan Hockey en route to a third home victory 4-3 against Brighton/HFL Tuesday evening.

“A win is always good and you celebrate those,” Spartan Hockey’s head coach Joe Jehlen stated. “However, there’s things that we need to fix in our game, but it’s still a little early in the season. So, we’re just gonna keep working and grinding in practice. Try to get better every day.”

Valent and Zugnoni are the two leading scorers for the Spartans. Valent has 13 goals leading all of Section V and has the most point for his team with 17. Zugnoni is not far behind his team with 14 points through five games. Both players have recorded points in every game to start the new campaign.

“They’re very talented and skilled,” Jehlen stated about his top two goal scorers. “They have a lot of energy. They’re fun to watch and they’re our top group for a reason. We’re fortunate to have them both.”

Brighton put pressure on the Spartans in the first period by taking a 1-0 lead off the stick of Trevor Reese, who fired home a shot above the glove of the goalie.

Spartan answered in the second period with two goals of their own six seconds apart. Zugnoni tied the game at the 13:36 mark, then Valent right off the faceoff goes down and puts home to give his team the lead.

Carter Gangarosa tied the game at two for the Bruins with a gritty goal in front of the Spartan net. Gangarosa’s goal was his second of the year and set the game up for a crucial third period as the Bruins continued to pressure.

“We got running around in the first period and we were puck-watching,” Jehlen stated about his team’s adjustments. “Just weren’t ready to go. I thought we came out with much more energy in the second. We got two quick ones. That kind of shifted the momentum a little bit.”

Zugnoni scored the game-winner for Spartan Hockey after he drove down the right side and roofed a shot for his second of the contest. Both of his goals were unassisted. Valent added an empty-net goal to give his team an insurance goal with 1:33 remaining.

Reese made the game interesting by pulling the Bruins within one with 22 seconds left in regulation with his second of the contest.

Brighton outplayed the Spartans for a good amount of the contest and was able to register 34 shots.

“They didn’t stop,” Jehlen stated about Brighton’s continuous pressure throughout the game. “They’re a very good skating team. Our defense has some young kids back there. We have a few freshmen that have been playing. I thought they kept their composure and did what they had to do.”

Keegan Waldo made 31 saves for Spartan for his third 30-plus save performance of the season.

Spartan Hockey (4-1-0) returns to action on December 20th when they travel to Brockport to take on the Portside Royals.

Brighton/HFL (3-3-0) will travel to Webster to take on the Webster Thomas Titans on December 17th.