“Clutch” might be the most appropriate word to describe Trevor Pray’s senior season at Kenmore East.
It started with his timely return to the Bulldogs after spending his junior year playing for the Jr. Sabres. During the regular season, he scored the game-winning goal in an overtime win over Hamburg.
And in a 4-3 overtime win over Williamsville South in the Division 2 semifinals, it was once again Trevor Pray with the game winner.
The win carried the Bulldogs into the Section VI finals on February 29 at First Niagara Center where they faced off against Williamsville East. The past two years, the Flames had defeated the Bulldogs to be named section champions.
This year, Trevor and his team were ready. Kyle Pray, Kenmore East coach and Trevor’s father, knew first thing Monday morning that Trevor was ready. And that night, Trevor scored five goals as Kenmore East defeated Williamsville East 5-2.
“I was awfully proud of him tonight,” Kyle Pray said after the win. “Starting from last night, we tried to do all the right things, eating right and getting the proper rest and all that, and then he woke up this morning and he said, ‘Dad, I feel good. I feel like this is gonna be a big one tonight,’ and he answered the call. So I’m very proud of him.”
Trevor completed his hat trick in the first 10 minutes of the game, and when his travel linemate Mike Steffan scored to cut Kenmore East’s lead to 3-1, Trevor answered back with two more. Steffan added one more late in the second, but it wasn’t enough as Kenmore East came away with a 5-2 win and a redemptive Section VI championship win.
“Steffan gave us a battle, but me and AJ [Marinelli], we were fortunate,” Trevor said, naming the third member of the Wheatfield Blades’ “gold line” in Marinelli. “I was just fortunate to get five beautiful passes, and I was able to tap in all those goals, and Joey [Spataro] gave me a nice pass down low so I could tap the fourth one in too.”
“A father can only dream that,” coach Pray said. “And when it really happens you’re just elated, but at the same time, you’re trying to stay composed and stay in the game and about the team thing. But when he did get that third one, I definitely had a little smile.”
A concern going into the game was how the Bulldogs would start. Pray knew that a fast start was key; it almost cost Kenmore East the game in the semifinal game against Williamsville South. The Bulldogs came back in the final minutes to tie the game before Trevor’s game winner in overtime. Pray hoped to avoid that type of drama in the section finals.
Trevor’s natural hat trick in the first period was exactly what the Bulldogs needed.
“That was huge, gave us confidence right away, and as soon as we put that in, we felt that the momentum just kept going,” Pray said. “We tried to win a period. That was our strategy today: just go out and every one period is like a mini game, so we just tried to go out and win each mini game and it all fell into place.”
As Pray likes to say, the Bulldogs had their legs that night.
“I knew that last game that we didn’t have our legs,” Pray said. “And I knew tonight right when I saw those first couple shifts that we had our legs, so I can usually tell right away with these guys what we got, and they had it tonight.”
With 10 seniors on this year’s team, over half of the roster is in its last year of Fed hockey. That was certainly in the back of each player’s mind as motivation for the section championship. Trevor felt that it was key in the way they played and in the result.
“We just wanted it so bad,” he said. “We all just worked hard to get to the section championship, and we just wanted it so bad.”
Another focus this season has been on playing as a team. Although the score sheet showed Trevor Pray’s number five times, coach Pray saw that team game he wanted, and Trevor was quick to credit his teammates around him as well.
“All four of our defensemen, they logged the whole ice time the whole night,” Pray said. “Sammy Balesteri has just been super all playoffs — and JP Giordano. Spataro and [Cullen] Smyth are some of the best two-way players in the whole league. And then Anthony Tulipane sometimes doesn’t get noticed, but he kills penalties and does power plays. He just works so hard both ways. And I thought Justin Watson had a good game as well tonight, and steady. Even though you had one guy getting five goals, this was really a good team effort tonight for us.”
“It was a good feeling, but it was a good team win,” Trevor said. “It wasn’t just me. AJ, Joey, Cullen… Brad [Hermann] had some good saves in net.”
Marinelli finished with four assists in the win, and he was excited for the win, especially because it was against Williamsville East.
“Just feels great, especially the rematch against them. It just feels good,” Marinelli said. “It’s huge, just because we’re a big rivalry and everyone knows that, so it’s nice.”
Trevor was already looking ahead to Saturday’s regional playoff game against St. Lawrence.
“It’s just an unbelievable feeling,” he said of winning. “I just can’t even think right now. I’m just happy that we’re section champs, but come Saturday we gotta win another game to get to states.”
“If we play like we just did, then we should have no problem,” Marinelli said.
That’s exactly what the Bulldogs did last Saturday against St. Lawrence: they started fast and played as a team. The result was a 6-1 win and a trip to states.
Trevor Pray and Marinelli each scored once and had three assists, and defensemen Cullen Smyth and Joey Spataro each had two goals.
“We were real happy to come out and get that quick start, kind of like we did against Williamsville East,” coach Pray said. “We did the same thing against St. Lawrence — scored a couple early, had a three-nothing lead after the first period. And with the crowd and everything, that really gave us a lot of momentum, and we had studied [St. Lawrence] pretty well. We knew what to expect. We felt we were the stronger team and if we just didn’t play with hesitation, we’d be fine, and we were.”
Pray was happy to see both Spataro and Cullen score twice after some frustration for both earlier in the season, but especially Spataro.
“They both have had some chances,” Pray said. “Joey was really frustrated all year, and it was kind of a little bit of a joke, but yeah, it was great to see, and a real nice play to set him up, and then he had a nice wrist shot to put in that first one, and then he scored on the slap shot too.
And Cullen, typical Cullen-type goal. One was a slap shot, nice to the corner, and the other one was just a hard dig in front of the net on the power play, and he’s hard to outmuscle, so he batted one in right in front of the net.”
And Trevor Pray and Marinelli’s goal and three assists each were exactly the kind of team play that coach Pray was hoping to see.
“I’ve just been real happy with how we’ve been playing that team game,” Pray said. “And guys have just been picking the right times to pass and the right times to shoot.”