Last season was nothing to be ashamed of for Niagara Wheatfield, as they won the Section VI final and lost to McQuaid, the eventual state champion, in the regional playoff game. But of course, the Falcons wanted more.
“It didn’t end the way we wanted it to,” said forward Alex Bauer, who is in his fourth year with the varsity team as a senior this year. “We never want to end a season with a loss. We want to end with a win. That’s what we say every season when we start, and obviously last season against McQuaid, we didn’t get to end it that way, so that kind of hurt.”
But they’re using last year’s ending as fuel to play harder this season and, they hope, go further.
“We fell short of what we wanted to do,” said senior defenseman Matt Canada. “That was really disappointing, but I also think that a lot of guys want it even more this year. We’re using that to our advantage, so I think that’s a good thing.”
Despite the disappointment of losing the regional game by a goal and saying goodbye to last year’s seniors, Canada is ready to get the new season started.
“It was tough to lose in a game like that,” he said. “It was a close game, I thought we played well, and I was close with a lot of the seniors from last year, so it’s disappointing not to win with the guys that you grew up playing hockey with. But at the same time, we’ve got a lot of new talented guys coming this year, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Of the nine seniors on last year’s team, none will be missed more than defenseman James Stenzel.
“He was maybe the best defenseman in the state, high school hockey wise,” Niagara Wheatfield head coach Rick Wrazin said. “And it’s hard to replace that, but we are strong on the back end. We have three seniors coming back that’ll be our top three, and then we have a couple of underclassmen coming in that were here last year that have improved a lot, so we should be pretty good on the back end.”
Among those stepping up in Stenzel’s absence will be Canada and senior defensemen Joe Torcasio and Kasey Haseley.
“On the back end, we have Matt Canada, Joey Torcasio, and Kasey Haseley,” Wrazin said. “Kasey is a converted defenseman, but he’s stepped in and done very well for us. The three of them anchor it back there.”
Just like Stenzel, Canada is a versatile defenseman, and he tries to always be where his team needs him to be on the ice.
“I think that I’ve kind of got a lot of aspects of my game,” Canada said. “I can play both offensively and defensively as a defenseman, so I think that works to our advantage. I like to jump up in the rush when I can, but I’m a stay-at-home defenseman as well when I need to be.”
Torcasio sees the need for increased offense at his position with the loss of Stenzel, and that’s what he hopes to do this season.
“I need to bring more offense to the team,” Torcasio said. “We lost Stenzel. He was a big offensive defenseman last year, so someone’s gotta step up there. We have three capable guys that are very offensive. Actually, all of our defense are capable of it. So we all need to step up there.”
On the front lines, the Falcons return a skilled forward in Garrett Downie, who scored four goals in last year’s 5-4 Section VI championship win over Williamsville North, along with four-year starter Alex Bauer, who brings speed. Both are seniors.
Bauer spent the last two seasons looking up to the seniors on the team and just working hard alongside everyone else.
“Kind of middle of the pack, working hard to get stuff done with the rest of the team, just like everyone else,” Bauer explained. “Still looking up to our senior leaders.”
This year, he and his fellow seniors are ready to step up and be those leaders for the rest of the team.
“We’re the guys in games and practices that everyone else is looking up to, and we have to be there to lead by example, by what we say, and in every way on the ice and off the ice,” Bauer said.
The majority of his leadership will happen on the ice.
“I’m more of an on-ice leader,” Bauer said. “I’ve always known myself as someone to work hard. And the rest of our team, especially with this team, is always working hard because we never take a day off, we never take a second off on the ice, and we don’t let ourselves, and Wrazin wouldn’t let us even if we wanted to.”
Torcasio knows he’ll have a leadership role as well. He and Bauer are both in their fourth year on the varsity team, so Torcasio hopes that his experience will help him to lead the younger players on the team.
“Me and Bauer, we have the most experience on the team,” Torcasio said. “So we know what we’re getting into going into the season. I just try and get the kids ready for it so they know what to expect.”
And Canada will lead by example as well, but he’s also not afraid to be vocal and encourage and correct his teammates.
“I think that a lot of guys look at me because I talk a lot,” he said. “I’m always telling guys — not so much yelling at them for what they’re doing wrong, but I’m telling them, ‘Hey, you can fix this here. You can fix that there.’ I think I work pretty hard as well, so I lead by example, you know, because if you see somebody let up, skate faster, so they know it’s not ok to let up, you know?”
And behind Canada and Torcasio will be junior goaltender Dom Tallarico, who split time with Casey Wall last season.
“[Tallarico] was our two man last year, but they were one and two all year long,” Wrazin said. “He’s always been capable of being a number one goalie. He’s a hard worker. He’s gonna be a big asset. I think he’s a guy that can steal games. I hope we don’t need him to stand on his head, but we know that he can if we do. Other than that, he’s been around these guys since he was a freshman, and he’s a junior now. He’ll talk back there, he’ll make sure that everybody knows what’s going on, so he’s a leader on the back end for us, so he brings a lot to the table.”
Tallarico is excited for his starting role this season, and his expectations for himself are set high.
“This year, I just want to get better obviously, and I want to have the best goals-against in the league, and I want to be the best in the league,” he said. “But obviously, that comes with a lot of hard work and a lot of time.”
He sees himself as not only a leader on the ice but also as someone for the younger goalies to look up to, as others were for him in the past. And when he is on the ice, he tries to set a good example for the younger goalies.
“Just work hard when you’re in there, show them what we’re about, first of all,” Tallarico said. “And then if there’s something they don’t understand or something, try and be that friendly kid and tell them, ‘Hey, you’re doing this wrong,’ or just kind of lead them.”
The result of Tallarico in back, Canada and Torcasio anchoring the defense, and Downie and Bauer in front is a fast, physical game with plenty of offensive skill to go along with it.
“I guess I would call it kind of a Canadian style of hockey,” Wrazin said. “We like to be fast and physical. We like to create turnovers. Offensively, we have some skill so we like to keep possession as much as we can.”
And Niagara Wheatfield’s game doesn’t focus or rely on one individual player, as Bauer was quick to point out. The Falcons are known for their hard work and teamwork.
“I think our whole team really brings something to the ice,” Bauer said. “We’ve never been, not this year, never, I hope, would be, a team that really relies on one guy. I think our whole team kind of brings something to the ice, and that’s just the way we all move together, and if you buy into the system, you’ll always end up doing good, whether it’s yourself or as a team.”
The only expectation he has of himself is to be a leader and work hard.
“I expect to give the same leadership that all the guys before me have,” Bauer said. “And I would expect that I help lead our team to keep the tradition going on that our team has as the hardest working team. We’re not a big team on losing. We’re a big team on winning, and that’s the only goal.”
And with this team, Wrazin is confident. There’s no easy game in the Fed, but what the Falcons have is a complete team that they think can match up against any opponent they’ll face.
“We want to be one of the teams down at the end,” Wrazin said. “We feel like speed wise and skill wise, we’re as good as we’ve ever been or better. So it looks pretty good for us, but we have our work cut out for us too because this league is — there’s never an easy game. Everybody’s strong. Looking at the schedule, there’s not one game you look at and you say, ‘That one we should have in control.’ Every one of them is gonna be tough.”
“I think that we have a really good team, probably one of the best teams that I’ve been able to play on,” Canada said. “I’m excited. I think that good things are gonna happen as long as we keep working hard and everybody does what they need to do.”
“You want to meet your goal every year,” Tallarico said. “You want to be able to say you won the last game, and last year we weren’t able to do that, but this year we could make something out of it. We just gotta work hard.”
Niagara Wheatfield is scheduled to open its season Dec. 3 against St. Joe’s at 9 pm at Northtown Center.