St. Mary's Gaels Blow Away Flyers Hockey 4-2

Despite their best performance of the young hockey season, the Flyers fell to the Gaels of St. Mary's 4-2, at Iceworks in Syosset, dropping their .

"We're going to decline the first minute of every game and start the game from the two minute mark," Flyers coach Frank Bendl joked afterward. "I cringe at early goals. This was a home game and I told them we couldn't allow (St. Mary's) to have anything positive early in game and then they score the first goal quick."

St. Mary's senior Mark DeVaughn scored an unassisted goal 20 seconds into the game to give the Gaels a 1-0 lead. Despite the early hole, Chaminade hung tough and dictated a lot of what was a high-tempo first period.

Because of a , junior Chris Agnone started in net for the Flyers. Agnone allowed three goals, but made 17 saves and looked sharp despite being placed in a starting role somewhat unexpectedly.

"I felt a little off during the game, but overall I felt I did pretty good," Agnone said. "The guys played good today. If we would have scored it might have been a different game."

Chainade captain Anthony Ambrosino finished a pass from Norman Riker and Dylan Scarpato with 29.4 seconds remaining in the first period to even the score to end the first period in a 1-1 tie.

The two teams played even hockey for a long stretch in the second period until Gaels senior Edward Shinnick's power play goal broke the tie and put St. Mary's ahead, 2-1. Mike Leone beat Agnone right in front of the net 43 seconds later to extend the lead to 3-1 at the end of two.

In the third, the Flyers played some of their best hockey this season. First Dylan Scarpato scored 4:09 in, increasing the Flyers' momentum. With the score 3-2 in St. Mary's favor, senior Shane Higgins took an elbowing penalty and put the Flyers on the power play. Senior Michael Gallagher, who earned an assist on Scarpato's goal, took a long wrist shot that had a chance, but Gaels goaltender Matthew Atwell knocked it away at the last second and collected one of his 23 saves.

With the puck in the Gaels' zone and 40 seconds left, Bendl called Agnone to the bench. Just as the Flyers goalie found a seat, St. Mary's sophomore Nick Hutchinson sailed the puck nearly the entire length of the ice to add an empty-netter that essentially ended the game.

"We needed a few more goals, we had more opportunities in this game, but it just didn't happen. It comes back to goal scoring" Bendl said. "The effort was great. I'm proud of them. They played a good game."

CROSS CHECK: Because of the injury to Dorsey, the Flyers promoted sophomore Zach Bostrom to the varsity team temporarily. Bostrom earned a shutout victory in the JV team's 7-0 win over St. Joseph's by the Sea. On Sunday, the Flyers take on the at 6:30 p.m.