ORCHARD PARK’S DEPTH & DEFENSE DOUSES FLAMES ON FNL FINALE
For two teams as dynamic offensively as Orchard Park and Williamsville East, it was a defensive clinic on both sides in the Friday Night Lights girl’s flag football season finale. The Orchard Park Quakers extinguished the Flames, 14-0.
The non-league affair began with four straight defensive stops, with the Flames and Quakers both denying their opponent any territory beyond midfield. Standouts on the defensive side of the ball were sophomore Lily Wisniewski for Orchard Park, while junior Lia Brunskill made countless plays for Will East at safety.
With just over twelve minutes left in the first half, Orchard Park’s Halle Senfield intercepted a defected Will East pass for the games first turnover, setting up the Quakers’ offense with a short field. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Senfield launched a twenty-eight rocket toward the speedy Regan Hill, who was all alone, breaking toward the end zone. After a couple bobbles of the football, Hill hauled it in to give the Quakers the first score of the game. Electing to go for two from the 10-yard line, OP tacked on the extra points, with Senfield finding Wisniewski for the 8-0 lead.
Both teams showed a tremendous amount of heart as the game went on, with both teams making a defensive stand, each denying points on goal-to-go drives. In the second half, elite defense, and in-game development and adjustments were prevalent, resulting in 24 minutes of scoreless football. With just over one minute left in the game, Senfield capped off an Orchard Park drive with a two-yard rushing touchdown to seal the victory for the Quakers, 14-0.
There are just a handful of regular season games to be played this week, before the road to the championship begins later this week. Section Championships will be held in the upcoming week and a half, with the Class C Title next Saturday, with the Class A and Class B title games played on Wednesday March 28th.
We’ll have a playoff preview later this week on Friday’s episode of The Scoreboard.
MAPLE LEAFS DROP BOTH GAMES THREE AND FOUR IN FLORIDA; HEAD HOME TIED
After claiming victory in the first two games of the series, the Toronto Maple Leafs have squandered all momentum, losing both games three and four in Florida over the weekend. As a result, the Panthers tied the series at two, heading back North for game five.
On Friday Night, game three began as you would expect the team who’s up 2-0 in the series to start it, with Toronto scoring twice in the first six minutes of the game. Florida got one back before the end of the first, but the Maple Leafs regained the two goal lead early in the second, up 3-1. That’s when the game, and the series changed.
The most underrated and forgotten aspect of hockey is that the home team gets to have the last change. Meaning that the home team determines what offensive lines and defensive pairs they want on the ice against the visitors throughout the game. For a series with two veteran Head Coaches, who have each won a Stanley Cup, this chess match has been so intriguing to track.
Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice had begun game three by matching the same lines that Toronto had elected to in the first two games, specifically with how he deployed Florida’s top line featuring Carter Verhaeghe, Samson Reinhart, and Sasha Barkov against Toronto’s top line with Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner.
As Toronto took a 3-1 lead less than three minutes into the second period, Maurice got out the blender, mixed up the Panther lines, and began matching the Knies-Matthews-Marner line for Toronto against Florida’s third line of Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell, and Brad Marchand. That change had a massive ripple effect, along with flipping Evan Rodrigues and Verhaeghe on the top two lines.
Florida went on two score three straight goals in the second period of game three, taking a 4-3 lead into the third. Morgan Rielly tied the game up for Toronto halfway through the third, and to their credit, the Leafs looked great as the game went into overtime. Toronto had been buzzing, creating scoring chances and breaking up Panther counter-rushes the other way.
But no matter what, you can’t escape fate, and it sure felt like fate when Brad Marchand, who I kindly refer to as a “Leaf-nightmare-dweller”, sent a shot toward Joseph Woll, had it deflected off of Rielly, float over Woll and fall into the net. As plastic rats were tossed onto the ice in celebration in Florida, you could feel the shift in momentum that night, as the difference between a 3-0 series and 2-1 series was felt throughout the hockey world.
In game four last night, things got out of hand. Frankly, it was surprising that the Leafs were only down 1-0 at the first intermission, given the fact that they were called for four penalties in the opening 20 minutes. In the second period, it was Florida’s turn to head to the sin bin, with three Panther penalties called in the middle frame, with another Toronto infraction halfway through the period as well.
However, both team’s penalty kill units and goaltenders stood tall. In total, Woll made 35 saves in the loss for the Maple Leafs, with Bobrovsky recording 23 saves in the shutout win. Florida added the insurance maker halfway through the third, with Sam Bennett vaulting the Panthers to a 2-0 win.
Toronto’s power play going 0-for-3 is simply not good enough. One goal on any of their three power plays in the second period would’ve entirely changed the game. Instead, the Maple Leafs are now 2-for-15 (13%) on the power play this series.
To be fair, on the flip side, Florida’s man-up unit went just 1-6 in game four. Woll’s 35 save performance proves that Toronto’s issue, believe it or not, is scoring goals, not keeping the puck out of their own net. Who would’ve ever thought that the Leafs’ power play inefficiency is the only thing keeping them from a 3-1 series lead in the second round?
The Eastern Conference Semifinal shifts back North of the border to Toronto for game five on Wednesday night with the series tied at two-a-piece.
NLL FINAL IS SET: BUFFALO BANDITS VS SASKATCHEWAN RUSH
The Buffalo Bandits officially know who they’ll be facing in the NLL Championship Series: The Saskatchewan Rush are headed to KeyBank Center this Friday night for game one.
The Rush toppled the Halifax Thunderbirds, 10-9, in overtime on Saturday, winning the Western Conference and punching their ticket to the Final. After blowing a 3-0 lead in the first, Saskatchewan fought off a two-goal deficit in the final minute of the game, scoring twice in the last 44 seconds of regulation to tie it at 9, and force OT in game two.
On a powerplay, less than two minutes into the extra frame, the Rush scored, with former Halifax player Austin Shanks ending his former team’s season.
We’ll have a full preview of the NLL Final on Wednesday’s episode of The Scoreboard. Game one of the NLL Final is Friday night in Buffalo.
The Scoreboard is presented by Zenner and Ritter Heating and Cooling.
