Sleepy Hollow/Irvington Falls to Tigers

A superior Mamaroneck Tigers ice hockey team dealt a 9-5 loss to the Sleepy Hollow/Irvington High School Legends on Saturday night at the Hommocks ice rink.

Mamaroneck, a team that won last year's Section One championship and is currently undefeated and ranked third in the state, simply outmatched the Legends.

"These guys have been killing everyone in our league," said Legends head coach Howie Wiener. "We played hard and we didn't play poorly; it's just that they have a couple of guys that could probably play college hockey right now."

Mamaroneck controlled the first period of play, and continually pushed into the attack zone, pressing back the Legends.

Six minutes into the game, one of Mamaroneck's star players, Joe Naclerio, scored with the help of Scott Hagan and Matt Connor. Naclerio, a junior, would score four times during the game.

An offsides call prevented another Tigers' goal less than a minute later. 

The Legends were able to muster a response with Forward John Garro (junior, Sleepy Hollow) feeding the puck to Bradlee Pesce (senior, Irvington), who managed to sneak it pass the Tigers' goalie in the eighth minute.

But that was all the the Legends could muster for the next 22 minutes.

The Tigers' scored two more goals before the end of the first period. The first one was during a one-on-two attack by Mamaroneck's Scott Hagan, assisted by Dean Chiapparelli (junior). The next came short after, when Naclerio made a fast break up to the side immediately following the face-off.

In the second period, the Tigers scored five unanswered goals, out of which two were by Naclerio, two by Dean Chiapparelli and one by Connor Ferguson. The 6th goal, courtesy of Naclerio, was scored while the Legends were down one player due to a boarding penalty. 

The second period closed with Chiapparelli's slap-shot goal, making it 8-1 at the break. When both teams came back on the ice, however, the momentum shifted and the Legends managed to outscore the Tigers 4-1 in the final period.

The Legends' second goal came in the first minute of the third period on a drive by Irvington junior Andrew Enax. Then the Legends' Brett Pesce (sophomore, Irvington) scored two unanswered and unassisted goals after weaving through the Mamaroneck defenses. He scored again for the Legends' last point, late in the third period.

The Tigers scored only once in the final period, but they didn't need much more than that to come out victorious. Goal number nine was scored by David Dansky (junior), assisted by Connor Ferguson, also a junior. 

The Tigers will be playing against White Plains on Jan. 7th at the Ebersole ice rink.