Jared Cummins had waited a long time for this. As a senior forward on the Williamsville North varsity team this year, he and his fellow seniors had never defeated St. Joe’s. Cummins was emotional after finally accomplishing something for which he’d waited so long.
“They’ve beat us nine games in a row,” Cummins said. “I haven’t beat them out of six games. It’s just such a relief to finally beat this team. We work so hard every year, every practice, every game; it just finally paid off. It’s all worth it.”
Cummins scored his first goal of the season 4:02 into the third period, assisted by Noah Bachwitz and Daniel Mosher, and it was Cummins’ goal that stood as the game winner when St. Joe’s Spencer Frome cut into the Spartans’ lead with 5:31 remaining in regulation.
“Even better,” Cummins said of scoring the game-winning goal. “It doesn’t get much better than this. It’s a [heck] of a team over there, great players, but we stepped up and performed like we knew we could.”
“He’s had a tough start in the beginning,” Williamsville North coach Bob Rosen said of Cummins. “And in your senior year, sometimes you press a little bit, and to see him score the goal, it was good for him. I was very happy for him.”
It was Nick Tracy who started the scoring late in the second period. The score stood at 0-0 until Tracy scored with 1:57 remaining in the second period, with Zach Kurbiel picking up the assist.
Cummins thought the Spartans improved and came together as the game progressed.
“First period was a little back-and-forth,” he said. “We felt like we didn’t play up to our potential in the second, but definitely as the game went on, we definitely improved as a team. We were able to get pucks deep and shots on goal and really test their goalie.”
The Marauders’ lone goal came on a power play, just the third power play Williamsville North allowed them to have. And with Jake Zurat strong in goal and the defense working in front of him, the one goal was all St. Joe’s was able to score in its first loss of the season.
“I think we did a good job limiting them to the outside,” Rosen said. “A lot of shots from the peripheral. We did a really good job in our own zone. They got the one power play goal, and we didn’t tie up a stick, but they didn’t have a lot of great scoring chances, and my goalie played well. Anything that they had close, there was no rebounds, there was no second chances, and we got that strong goaltending.”
In the week leading up to Thursday night’s game, the atmosphere for the hockey team as well as the entire school revolved around the upcoming game.
“Leading up to this week, it’s an emotional week,” Rosen said. “And I thought our team handled that part well and came out and played really good tonight. Really happy with the team effort that we got.”
“We stuck with the game plan,” Cummins said. “Bob knew what we needed to do, knew what we needed to work on, and we just followed the game plan.”
When Rosen looks at this year’s team, especially in Thursday’s game, he sees qualities in these players that have led to great teams in the past.
“In the room afterwards, I said, ‘When I look at great teams that I’ve had, not necessarily just the talent, but the team, if you’re willing to make sacrifices and think of the team first and not count minutes, you can go a long way,'” Rosen said. “And I think this team, if it continues to build, has that possibility.”
Cummins was playing not just for his teammates, but for his school and even for past players who were unable to grasp that elusive victory over St. Joe’s.
“It’s always a big deal playing against this team,” Cummins said. “The crowds, the fans get really into it all week in school, and to just be able to give something back to the school for supporting us all these years and all the kids that haven’t been able to beat Joe’s in their senior year — it’s just a great feeling.”