Four league wins. Four-game blocks. Four goals.
It’s all about the number four for Williamsville North, as Saturday’s 4-2 win over Kenmore East was the team’s fourth straight league win to move the Spartans into first place. After starting the season 0-3, Williamsville North coach Bob Rosen reintroduced the number four.
“After we got off to the 0-3 start, I went back to something that we’d done in the past where you break the season down into four-game blocks,” Rosen said. “And our second four-game block we went four-and-oh: beat Niagara Wheatfield, Joe’s, Saratoga, and Shen. And now we’re off to a two-and-oh start here in our third set, so if we can keep going and having positive winning records in those four-game slots, that’s gonna be huge for us.”
As the Spartans prepared for Saturday’s game against the Bulldogs, they had played four games in five nights, including an outdoor scrimmage against Williamsville South on Friday. They were tired and a loss to the skilled Bulldogs might have been understandable, but Rosen sees something special in this year’s team.
“We’ve had a tough stretch with an outdoor game, long travel to Albany and played tough games there,” Rosen said. “I said before the game, ‘We got 27 excuses why we shouldn’t win today.’ But I said, ‘In all the years I coached, my good teams, my great teams find a way to win this game against a good opponent.’ And I was really impressed with how hard we worked.”
Kenmore East gave the Spartans the challenge they expected, but North’s depth and hard work paid off.
“We know they’re a hardworking team,” Derek Westbrook said. “They got one line that’s really really good. We just had to come out and keep playing our same game. So we came out, played our game.”
Westbrook’s game included a hat trick as he found the offense he’s been searching for all season. Two goals against South on Friday sparked some of that offense, and Saturday’s game was Westbrook’s chance to really shine.
“It definitely felt good to kind of get the monkey off your shoulder there, finally put some points in the net for your team and contribute,” Westbrook said.
“The thing that impressed me most about him is how positive he was even though he wasn’t scoring in the first eight games,” Rosen said. “And doing the little things well, and doing whatever he could to help us win, even if it wasn’t on the scoreboard, and that, to me, was very impressive and the type of character and person that he is.”
Sardina scored North’s other goal on an opportunity he didn’t expect to have. Matt Terrance assisted the goal, but Sardina was ready for the opposite to happen.
“Terrance gave a good feed to the corner, and then I picked up my head,” Sardina said. “He was going to the net, I was gonna pass, but the defenseman dropped down, so I just took it right across, waited ’til the goalie went down, and shot it.”
Williamsville North almost let Kenmore East climb back into the game in the third period as the Bulldogs’ Justin Watson and Russ Riggio scored to cut into North’s 4-0 lead with less than six minutes remaining. Whether it was fatigue or just relaxing with the lead, the Spartans finished strong to come away with the 4-2 win.
“I think we just kinda got too comfortable, and we just kind of let them get away with a few,” Sardina said. “But we came back and held ’em off.”
“We ran out of gas with only five minutes left, which was really impressive,” Rosen said. “We’re missing players — injuries, sickness. We’re really depleted, and we had some guys step up, filled some key minutes for us today, which is always important for a team to have success.”
The win moved the Spartans into first place in Division 1, and they were excited to start off the new year and unofficial second half of the season with a win.
“Felt great,” Westbrook said. “We played well. I think that we really deserve it.”
“I think it was good,” Sardina said. “It’s good for the team. We’ve been on a roll, so it just really keeps bringing us up. I hope we can keep going like that.”