Ramparts earn Silver at Buffalo Tournament

Contributed Photo – Batavia Ramparts players and coaches display their runner-up trophy at the Buffalo Stars Tournament.

Contributed Story
The Batavia Ramparts Bantam A hockey team, which is 14-0 in their league, earned second place honors today at the Buffalo Stars AA Christmas Tournament.

The Ramparts faced the Wheatfield Blades, a team they had lost a scrimmage to earlier in the year, in the tourney opener on Tuesday.

Falling behind 1-0 after just 14 seconds, and 2-0 halfway through the second period, the Batavia team rallied for two goals in that period to knot the game at 2-2.  The goals were scored by Max Hutchins and Alex Totten.  After that scoring, neither team could add any goals and the game ended in a tie.

On Wednesday, Batavia faced the home team Buffalo Stars AA Major team, and came away an 8-1 winner. Seven Ramparts scored goals including Vinnie DiRisio (2), Jed Reese, Nick Call, Zach Geitner, Totten, Dominic Peracciny and Sean Pies.

Thursday was the last game of the prelims and the Ramparts faced Hamburg in the morning and came away a 5-1 winner locking up the first seed for the semifinals.  Scoring were Totten, Derrick Fedus (2), Hutchins and Pies.

Later in the day in the semifinals against the same Hamburg team, the Ramparts played their way into the finals with an 11-4 victory.  Goals by Totten (3), Hutchins (2), DiRisio (2) , Reese (2), Pies and Nate Ryan accounted for the scoring.

Today’s championship game was a rematch with the Wheatfield Blades.

The Ramparts had leads of 1-0, and 2-1 on goals by Reese and Hutchins, but fell behind in the third period 3-2.  Midway through the period, however, Fedus scored to tie the game.  However, Wheatfield added the final goal with 5:08 remaining the win the gold, while Batavia settled for the silver.