Senior Luc Fedele and sophomore Ryan Plouffe each netted a pair of goals and junior A.J. Giannavola had three assists to lead Spencerport to a 6-4 victory over Brockport in the Class B Section V hockey quarterfinals.
Brockport senior Mathew Gemerek began the scoring with an assist from Dominic Viola at 5:25 of the first period, but the Rangers scored three times within a 3:37 span to lead 3-1 after the first period.
The tying goal came on the power play as defenseman Mark Neu wristed in a shot from the right point after a pass from Fedele at 7:13.
Plouffe followed by knocking in the rebound from a Neu shot at 9:33 and Fedele made it 3-1 with a tap-in from the side of the net with an assist by AJ Nussar at 10:50.
Brockport scored three times in just 37 seconds early in the second period to take a 4-3 lead.
Michael Holding scored on a pass from behind the net by Evan Bovee and, nine seconds later, Holding fed Viola from behind the net for the tying goal. Brockport took the 4-3 lead as Holding found Jeremiah Rausch in the slot.
“I feel like we came in a little overconfident because early in the season we put up ten (goals) against these guys and beat them 4-1 the second time and I feel the lack of focus before the game really showed in the early periods,” Fedele said. “Once we were able to mentally stabilize and get focused again, we were right back to where we were scoring goals and really have the train moving forward.”
Spencerport retied the contest 4-4 just 1:53 into the third period when Jason Uebelacker scored on the rebound from a Neu shot.
The Rangers then grabbed a 5-4 lead eight minutes later as Fedele scored on the backhand after his rush down the left wing with assists from Andrew Simoncelli and Neu.
Spencerport senior goaltender Rachel Brase, who made 24 saves, protected the one-goal lead with a key glove save with less than three minutes remaining and Brockport pulled their goaltender with 1:22 left for the extra attacker. But Plouffe secured an insurance goal from 150 feet at 14:49 to finish off the 6-4 victory sending the Rangers to the Class B semi-finals against second ranked in the state Webster-Thomas.
“We talked before the game that this is playoffs and people are going to be coming full bore especially for us since we made it to the finals last year and have targets on our back,” Spencerport head coach Ryan Ford said. “You fall asleep for a minute and it’s bang-bang-bang.
“We need to do a better job taking away passing lanes; thankfully it wasn’t a season-ender. We have enough talent in this room that, when we play the game right, we’re a pretty effective team.”
