Shaun Gezotis scored twice during a four-goal third-period outburst by St. Mary’s High School to help the Saints top Turners Falls High School, 7-3, in a Fay-Wright Division hockey game Tuesday afternoon at Amelia Park Arena in Westfield.
The teams were tied at three goals apiece heading into the third and Gezotis, who had already scored once in the game, tacked on two more goals to complete his hat trick and help the Saints (2-1-1) pull away. Quinn Powers also scored twice in the decisive frame.
It was Powers who broke the tie 1 minute, 34 seconds into the frame with an unassisted goal that put the Saints up 4-3. He struck again three minutes later to push the lead to 5-3 with assists from Aaron Blanchard and John Pitoniak. Gezotis made it 6-3 with 6:12 to play in the game with an unassisted goal, and he finished off his hat trick late in the game on assists from Powers and Peter Chrisanthopoulos.
“We had a couple of bad turnovers that directly resulted in goals for them,” Turners Falls coach Darren Lenois said. “We made some mistakes today that we hadn’t made all year and that was kind of the difference.”
The first two periods were very much even, and the Indians (0-5-0) even took a lead late in the first. St. Mary’s opened the scoring two minutes in when Kenny Bonney finished off a feed from Chrisanthopoulos, but Turners Falls responded with nine minutes to play in the period as Zach Smith scored his first career varsity goal on an assist from Aurel Pydych.
Turners Falls took its only lead of the day with 4:22 to play in the first period on Bryan Baumann’s goal, which was assisted by Ethan LaFleur, but St. Mary’s tied the score before intermission when Gezotis got his first of the day with 1:47 left in the period on assists from Blanchard and Val Reopel.
Much of the second period remained scoreless but the teams traded goals in a 19-second span late in the frame. Chrisanthopoulos put the Saints ahead 3-2 with 4:48 left on an assist from Gezotis, but Adam Coffin responded with 4:29 to play on assists from LaFleur and Doug Hanieski.
“We are seeing a lot of growth,” Lenois said. “We are moving the puck well, and we are limiting teams to a lot less shots than last year, and that’s a huge improvement. Plus, we are getting more shots than we were last year. We are improving, we just have little spurts in the game where we revert back to bad plays and it costs us.”
St. Mary’s outshot Turners Falls, 29-23, on the day. Matt Brady stopped 20 shots to earn the win, while Jordyn Lavallee made 22 saves in the Turners Falls goal.
The Indians take on Greenfield High School in the Upton Cup game Saturday afternoon at 3 at Collins-Moylan Arena in Greenfield.
Mahar goes 1-1
Peter Tattan, Benjamin Gilmore and Matt Herk each were unbeaten on Tuesday as Mahar Regional School went 1-1 during a double dual wrestling meet at Chicopee Comprehensive High School in Chicopee.
Mahar defeated Ludlow High School, 48-36, on the day, but dropped a 48-36 decision to Chicopee Comp.
Tattan earned a forfeit victory and third-period pin over Ludlow’s Jaden Giza to earn his unbeaten performance at 160 pounds, while Herk did the same at 220 where he earned a forfeit and a pin over Comp’s Shannon Mitchell in the first period. Gilmore earned two pins on the day at 170, sticking Comp’s Chris Calaf in the first period, and Ludlow’s Ben Lahoud in the second for his perfection.
Two other Mahar wrestlers also earned pins on the day, both against Chicopee Comp. Justin diDiego pinned Dylan Labonte in the second period at 132 pounds, and Todd Chaisson pinned Isaias Gomez in the second period at 145.
Tech at Pentucket
Franklin County Technical School traveled to West Newbury to compete against 20 other teams in the Pentucket High School tournament on Tuesday.
Two Eagles finished in third place on the day. Jordan Bashaw went 4-1 on the day with four pins at 152 pounds en route to his third-place finish. Bashaw pinned Kevin Batting from Maldon Catholic High School in the consolation finals.
Mike Mattson also won four matches by pin on the day at 285 pounds, including his first-period pin over Phillips Exeter Academy’s Verne Rice in the consolation finals.
Two other Tech wrestlers performed well on the day and lost in the consolation semifinals. Brody Wood went 3-2 on the day at 170 pounds, and Spencer Telega went 2-2 on the day at 160.
Frontier finishes 1-3
Frontier Regional School went 1-3 on Friday at the Franklin County Technical School quad in Turners Falls.
The Red Hawks defeated Mohawk Trail Regional High School (60-24) but lost to Taconic High School (66-18), Southwick-Tolland Regional High School (51-30) and host Franklin Tech (42-42, lost on tiebreaker).
Connor Pettis was a perfect 4-0 at 126 pounds for the Red Hawks, earning three pins and a forfeit, while three other wrestlers finished with one loss. Josiah Murry went 2-1 at 138 pounds with both wins coming via pin, and Rearkeous McMillan went 2-1 at 132 pounds with both wins via pin. Miguel Olivera went 3-1 on the day at 195 pounds with two pins and a forfeit. Joey Hildreth finished 2-2 on the day at 182 pounds with a pin and a forfeit, while Tanner Finch did the same at 106 with a pin and a forfeit. Eric Trueswell wrestled one match at 152 pounds on the day and picked up a pin.