It was the perfect ending to the story of a season, of a career, and of a family. The first thing Trevor Pray did after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime in the Division 2 state championship game was skate over and hug his father Kyle, the head coach of the Kenmore East Bulldogs.
Kyle and Trevor Pray
“If I was a writer and had to write it any better, I couldn’t have,” Kyle said. “His last game. We’ve grown up in the Tonawanda Lightning, Wheatfield Blades, and then onto the high school and everything. So it’s been a lot of years together as a father and son, but also as coach-player, so it’s just fantastic.”
Just to add to the moment, Trevor was named the New York state Division 2 player of the year and Kyle was named coach of the year.
But had Trevor spent this season with the Jr. Sabres as he did last year, this moment never could have happened. He was cut from the Jr. Sabres team, but no one seemed unhappy about it on Sunday afternoon.
Trevor and his linemate AJ Marinelli have a chemistry second to none, and it was Marinelli who set up Trevor for both the game-tying goal late in the third period and the game winner in overtime.
“It’s fun, especially him being on my team for awhile and him being on the Jr. Sabres was one of our first years off together, so it’s good to be back,” Marinelli said.
The two are good friends off the ice as well, which only improved their on-ice chemistry. Marinelli was more than happy to set up Trevor for both goals, and Trevor returned the favor multiple times during the regular season. They finished the regular season with identical scoring statistics — 14 goals and 15 assists each.
And in the state final, Marinelli described each goal and how he and Trevor were there for each other both times.
Alex Bluff, AJ Marinelli, and Sam Balesteri hold up the championship banner.
“The one, I missed earlier, so I wasn’t planning on shooting it again, so I just slid it over to Trevor and he just tapped it in,” Marinelli said. “And the second one, I thought I scored. It hit the bottom of the crossbar and when I looked back, Trevor was just shooting it on a wide open net.”
“My first one, AJ just gave me a backdoor pass,” Trevor said. “And then the second one in overtime, it came right off the crossbar, I saw there was a wide open net, just tapped it home.”
Another thing the two seniors agreed on was their reaction to the win.
“It’s just an unbelievable feeling,” Marinelli said. “It’s amazing. It’s what we’ve been looking forward to all year, and to do it here with our fan section, it’s pretty great.”
“It’s just an unbelievable feeling that we won a state championship and that me and my dad and the rest of the guys just all deserved it, so I’m just happy that we got it,” Trevor said.
And to share the experience with his father took it to another level for Trevor and made it even more unbelievable.
“It was just an unbelievable feeling, something special that we both get to share this year, and it was our last game ever together on the bench, so I’m happy it was a state championship,” Trevor said.
Believe it or not, the Bulldogs trailed the defending state champion Skaneateles for much of the game. Reggie Buell gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead late in the second, and when Russ Riggio tied it five minutes into the third, Skaneateles’ Ray Falso scored less than two minutes later to take the lead once again.
But Kenmore East never lost hope. Trevor and AJ clicked on the power play with 5:46 left in regulation and again in overtime as the Bulldogs took states to finish off 10 seniors’ careers in the best way possible.
Senior captains Cullen Smyth, Anthony Tulipane, and Trevor Pray accept the state championship plaque.
“It was just a great feeling, but all the credit to all of our guys,” Kyle Pray said, a big smile firmly planted on his face. “When we were down 2-1, they didn’t get down. They just played their hearts out, and we felt the tide turning. We felt we had some good momentum going there in the last five minutes, and it was just a fantastic finish.”
“Skaneateles is an unreal team,” Trevor said. “They rolled just two lines, so we did that too, and it honestly just came down to whatever team wanted it more, so it was us today, thank God.”
Under their jerseys this season, the Kenmore East players wore blue t-shirts with the word “COLLECT” in yellow. That goal is accomplished; the only challenge left is saying goodbye.
“It’s just gonna be so hard to take off the jersey,” Trevor said. “But I’m gonna enjoy it, definitely, with all the guys, and our goal was to ‘collect’ all year, and now it’s collected, so we’ll go celebrate.”
“We might go to Disney World,” quipped Kyle Pray. “No, but we’re gonna find somewhere to celebrate with all the team and everything. A lot of these guys have been a tight knit group for many years here, so I’m sure we’re gonna go out and have a good time all together, and this is one we’ll talk about for a long time.”