
Mikaela Ditonto
The Orchard Park/Frontier girls hockey team stunned Monsignor Martin (17-1 in regular season) in the semi-finals of the Federation playoff hockey tournament Thursday afternoon, 2-1.
The girls lost three previous contests to Monsignor Martin; 7-0, 5-1, and 5-2, but were able to neutralize their opponent’s offense by adjusting their defensive alignment.
“They are so strong offensively,” OP/F assistant coach Lucian Forcucci said. “We brought our strong side winger down to support the corners so we could outnumber them low and brought our weak side winger over to split the two defensemen.
Their defensemen were open, but we took our chances with their defense beating us with point shots than letting their forwards come out of the corners.”
Tied 1-1 late in the third period, OP/F earned its second goal of the contest to go ahead. From there, the girls went into a trap defense to preserve the win.
“Once we were up, 2-1, we went into a trap and sent a girl into the fore check and kept our other four in the neutral zone and held on for dear life,” said Forcucci.
An outstanding performance was provided by eighth grade goalie Mikaela Ditonto, who stopped what appeared to be surefire goals by Monsignor Martin.
“Our goalie played amazing,” said Forcucci. “She probably had five and six point blank guaranteed goals that she kicked out. We had a few bounces go our way, but it was one of those games where things fell into place.”
Orchard Park/Frontier, now with a 10-8-2 overall mark, will play Williamsville in the Federation title game on Friday, Feb. 25 at the Northtown Center in Amherst at 8 p.m.