#7 Saratoga cruises past #15 BHBS in championship rematch

In a rematch of last year’s Section 2 Championship game, BHBS hoped that they could keep it closer in this game than they did last year (Saratoga won 8-3). They did not.

The game was fairly evenly played between the two teams for the beginning half of the first period, and it remained scoreless until Saratoga’s Matt Shamberger capitalized on a defensive turnover for his first high school goal. It was all downhill from there. Blue Streaks junior Jonathan Luse continued his great play for the second line, and he scored twice in the first period, both off of defensive turnovers, to make it 3-0 Saratoga after one. The score at the end of that period was deceiving, as BHBS had several good scoring chances, and a few great saves by Tom Fornabia kept the Spartans off the scoreboard in the period. All 3 Toga goals were off of BHBS turnovers in the defensive zone. Shots were 13-9 in favor of Saratoga in the first.

If the first period was somewhat close, the second was the exact opposite. The Spartans had poor defense and poor goaltending all night, as senior Mark Stocker was pulled after allowing 3 goals in the first in favor of sophomore Trevin Tidmarsh, who entered the game leading all of Section 2 in save percentage and GAA. He would not leave the game leading either category. Tidmarsh stopped just 5 of 9 shots in the second, and was quickly yanked in favor of Stocker again, who failed to stop the only shot he faced in the period. Saratoga continued to show their opportunism, as they leaped on turnover after turnover, and scored 5 times in the period. Senior Sean Holmes scored the first goal of the period, his third of the season, to make it 4-0. Jake Fauler recorded a hat trick solely in the second period, and junior Ryan Robens scored his 4th goal of the season. BHBS’s Geordan Buffoline scored his 13th goal of the season, good for third in the section, and Nick Koszelak added the goals for the Spartans in the period.

BHBS came out in the third period and played a solid 15 minutes. Shots were 13-12 in favor of the Spartans in the third, and sophomore defenseman Sam Swingruber scored his 7th goal of the season in the period. He continues to lead all defenseman in Section 2 in goals. Jonathan Luse capped off his first high school hat trick with his third of the game at 5:28.

Saratoga improves to 10-3 (9-0-0 Section 2) and will face off at #4 Suffern on Friday. BHBS falls to 6-4-1 (3-3-1 Section 2) and will host Yorktown on Saturday.

GOALS:

1st Period:

8:32- (TOGA) Matt Shamberger (1) ASST: Caleb Smith (3)

10:07- (TOGA) Jonathan Luse (6) ASST: Colin Paton (3), Sean Holmes (5)

13:52- (TOGA) Jonathan Luse (7) ASST: Matt Russell (4)

2nd Period:

2:38- (TOGA) Sean Holmes (3) ASST: Eric Jess (8)

5:56- (TOGA) Jake Fauler (12) ASST: Sean Sesselman (3), Matt Russell (5)

7:05- (BHBS) Geordan Buffoline (13) ASST: Tino Benamati (10), Graem DeLong (3)

10:16- (TOGA) Ryan Robens (4) ASST: Matt Russell (6), Caleb Smith (4)

10:43- (TOGA) Jake Fauler (13) ASST: Josh Dagle (13)

13:12- (TOGA) Jake Fauler (14) ASST: Josh Dagle (14)

13:45- (BHBS) Nick Koszelak (2) ASST: Dom Monterroso (6)

3rd Period:

5:23- (TOGA) Jonathan Luse (8) ASST: Colin Paton (4)

0:19- (BHBS) Sam Swingruber (7) ASST: NONE