It’s the junior class leading Niagara Wheatfield this season.
And the Falcons are hot, boasting a 5-2 league record after Saturday night’s 4-0 win over Kenmore East. Junior Nick Breier scored the Falcons’ first goal, junior Chace Woods had a goal and two assists, and junior defenseman Zack Belter had two assists. The three players, along with other juniors on the Niagara Wheatfield Fed team, play travel hockey together, and they’ve carried that chemistry with them into Fed season.
And it’s that chemistry, along with the hard work that’s become part of the Niagara Wheatfield tradition, that led to the Falcons’ breakthrough Saturday night. They faced a strong goaltender in Kenmore East’s Chase Ford, and the Falcons didn’t score their first goal until late in the second period.
“Honestly, we thought we were playing really well, and so we just kept telling our boys, ‘Stick with the system; stick with the game plan. Things will fall into place,'” said assistant coach Ryan Coyne. “Their goalie was playing a heck of a game, but we just knew if we stuck to the system and tried to get the boys to keep playing the way they were playing and not hold the stick too tight and not be pressured, that it would fall into our hands.”
“Wraz [head coach Rick Wrazin], he just kept in our ear,” said Chace Woods. “He said it was coming sooner or later, and then it came.”
“We knew we were taking over the game at times, so we knew that it was bound to happen,” said Nick Breier. “You know it’s gonna come. We just gotta make sure we get pucks to the net, and we could put one in.”
Breier was the first to find the back of the net and give Niagara Wheatfield a 1-0 lead with just 1:30 left in the second period.
“Ford was playing good all game, so we knew we had to get some rebounds,” Breier said. “The defense were doing nice, shooting the puck low, and I think it was Belter who had a nice little shot, and Woodsy gave me the pass out too, and I just buried it. Woodsy and Belter did all the hard work. It was huge because Ford was playing on his head. It was just really good to get a one-nothing lead.”
The Falcons seemed to have all the momentum in the third period. Nick Peters scored 1:27 into the third, Woods scored just over three minutes later, and Thomas Efthemis added another insurance goal with 2:07 left in the third.
“It worked out,” Coyne said. “It’s all about sticking to the game plan, not veering away from the game plan, and sometimes at this level, kids hold the stick a little bit too tight when things aren’t going their way, and they did a good job of not doing that. They stuck to the game plan, and it worked in our favor.”
“We were getting traffic in front of the nets,” said Belter. “We were moving pucks well, and everything came together. We had three good periods. We’re all moving the puck well and just gotta keep doing it.”
“We finally played three good periods, so keep doing that,” said Woods.
The Falcons expected another tough game Sunday night against Orchard Park at the Quakers’ home rink. They knew that OP goaltender Tom Held would be difficult to solve and expected the game to be physical.
But Belter’s expectation was simple.
“A win,” he said.
Again, Sunday’s game came down to the wire. With six seconds left, Niagara Wheatfield tied the game at two with a penalty shot. The Falcons went on to win 43 seconds into overtime by a final score of 3-2.