Wildcats 6-5 win make it 48 in a row against defending Section Champs

Rotella, Cassalia and Clark shine in Wildcat win

The streak stood at 47 games, nearly three decades of frustration loomed on the horizon as the # 5 ranked team in the state and defending Section III champion undefeated ) Auburn Maroons waited for the # 7 ranked undefeated 0-0 (5-0) West Genesee Wildcats to enter a packed Holland Stadium in Auburn filled with an estimated 1,000 spectators. At stake were Section III bragging rights and an inside track towards the 2002 Sectional crown and a chance for a bit of Maroon redemption. Senior attackman captain Ryan Blair, who is bound for North Carolina in the fall led the offense for the Maroons and a punishing defense was spearheaded by captain Travis Tarr and back stopped by one of the finest goaltenders in the section senior C.J. Squires.

West Genesee's strength lay in their defense that had given up under five goals per game, led by seniors Dean Mancini, Rob Lemos and Chad Clark who drew the Ryan Blair assignment. In goal was junior Casey Rotella who would play superbly in one of the toughest contests of his young career. However it was the Wildcat offense that first caught the capacity crowds attention when senior attackman and captain Mike Conklin cut from the left side of the Auburn cage and into the slot where he took a feed from junior attackman Drew Dabrowski and put it past Squires at the 10:07 mark to take a 1-0 lead.

Several moments later Blair tried to assert his dominance as he slipped by the Genny defense and went airborne with a one handed wrap around attempt only to be snuffed by Rotella who played the angle to perfection.
Auburn did draw even at 6:42 when senior midfielder Bill Dean fired a shot from the Rotella's left that snuck between his legs knotting the game at 1-1. Rotella met Blair again head on with 5:00 left in the quarter after Blair maneuvered through the cracks in the Genny defense and once again stoned the Auburn star with a stick save at the edge of the crease.

West Genny tried to take advantage of an overly aggressive Maroon defense who gave away the first man-up opportunity of the day at 4:32 but Squires stood tall stealing a page from Rotella's book and stopped Conklin on the doorstep with a great stick save. Auburn used the momentum gained by the Squires stop and converted it into a 2-1 lead at 3:48 on a goal by senior midfielder Doug Lumb who took a pass in front of the cage from senior midfielder Chris Hutchinson and drilled a high bouncer past Rotella forcing a West Genny timeout.

Squires was at it again early in the second quarter with a great save against senior midfielder Jim Mullaley who found himself widein front but couldn't put his bounce shot in the goal. Mullaley would turn his fortunes around at the 5:00 mark of the second quarter and tie the game at 2-2 when he driftedin front of the Maroon cage and tucked a shot in the bottom right corner of the cage. Genny then gained the momentum when junior midfielder Matt Cassalia won the face-off and streaked down the middle of the field and fired a bouncer past Squires to take a 3-2 lead at 4:54. The two goal run in a six second span did little to dampen Auburn hopes as they scored while short handed on a goal by junior midfielder Greg Downing to even the score at 3-3 with 4:00 remaining in the half. Squires continued the battle of the keepers with another one on one save as he once again robbed Conklin who was widein front to keep the score all even through the first half.

Genny looked to take the advantage early in the third quarter at 10:49 when sophomore Andrew Hanover found himself alone in front of the Maroon goal only to turned aside once more by Squires. Senior middie Matt O'Connell scored at the 5:36 mark as he took a feed from senior attackman Drew Dabrowski who beat his man from behind and fired a shot high into the left corner for a 4-3 lead.

The Wildcatsd the door for Auburn to sneak back in with 3:50 remaining in the quarter with a man serving a one minute slashing penalty but Rotella yet again came up huge turning away a point blank shot from Blair. Genny ended the third with Dabrowski getting a return favor from Conklin and putting the ball past Squires for the largest lead of the day at 5-3 with 3:15 left in the quarter.

Blair finally got on the board with his lone point of the day assisting on a goal by Lumb who netted his second of the day as his bouncer past Rotella with 10:41 left in the game cut the Wildcat lead to 5-4. West Genny once again turned Auburn's defensive agressivness against them with a man-up goal by Dabrowski's who scored his second goal of the contest off of a cross cage feed from Conklin to sneak a shot by Squires and extend the lead to 6-4 with 9:12 remaining.

Squires and Rotella then traded big saves to keep the contest tight but it was Auburn's Downing who made it interesting by firing a high hard shot by Rotella with just 17 seconds remaining to bring the Maroons to within one at 6-5. Cassalia did seal the game for West Genesee by taking the ensuing face-off as he went 11 of 13 for the game to help the Cats capture an exciting 6-5 victory.Rotella finished the game with 13 saves several of the spectacular version and senior defender Chad Clark shadowed Blair all day allowing the high scorer senior a lone assist in the game.


West Genesee scoring:

Drew Dabrowski 2 goals 2 assists, Mike Conklin 1 goal 1 assist, Matt O'Connell 1 goal, Matt Cassalia 1 goal,
Jim Mullaley 1 goal, Andrew Hanover 1 assist. Saves Casey Rotella 13.

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