Lancers ready for home opener

by Larry Austin
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, December 4, 2004

Alex Bevacqua of Lewiston Porter had a goal and an assist in the Lancers' 4-0 victory over Olean Walsh in their first club hockey game of the season on Nov. 28. (photo by Larry Austin)

Lewiston Porter’s club hockey program heads into tomorrow’s home opener against St. Joe’s after beginning the year with a victory in Olean.

Coaches Rick Price and James Bellreng saw their team shut out Archbishop Walsh 4-0 on Nov. 28. The team played at Niagara Catho-lic last night and plays at Maryvale tonight at 9, and will host Division B opponents at Niagara Universi-ty’s Dwyer Arena: St. Joe’s tomor-row and Depew on Dec. 12. Game times are 8:15 p.m.

Price said the team hopes to go .500 and qualify for playoffs at the end of the season. They are off to a good start with a dominating vic-tory in the Southern Tier.

“We were shorthanded as far as players go, because we probably ran out of gas about the middle of the third period,” Price said of the 4-0 victory. “But we probably outshot them 2-1, easy. We were all over them. They gave up a couple soft goals, but the kids probably hit three pipes, their kid made two or three great saves. We were the bet-ter team the whole night.”

Lew-Port plays in Division A with Starpoint, Cheektowaga, Maryvale, and St. Mary’s, and plays inter-divisional games with Olean, SouthWestern, St. Joe’s, Cheektowaga, Depew and Grand Is-land of Division B. The Lancers play non-division games against City Honors, Niagara Catholic and South Park.

A rivalry game of sorts is Dec. 26 at the Dwyer Arena against Grand Island, a game the Lancers have won the last two years.

The team includes Frank Faso and Joe Gariano at center, with wingers Sam Bellreng, Alex Bevac-qua, Matt Duffy, Jeff Henderson, Matt Janik, Hagop Otabachian and Mike Rossman. The defense corps includes Jesse Price, Bobby Sharpe, Nate Witvoet, Adam Wylucki and Drew Nearhoof. Marc DeGregorio, Bill Mesler and William Raymond handle the duties in goal.

Gariano centers the Lancers top scoring line with Henderson and Bellreng, while Faso centers a line with Bevacqua and Sharpe that had two goals in Olean.

Having only 17 hockey players may pose a problem in the long run.

Not having a junior varsity team in the program last year hurt the varsity team’s experience level this year, Price said.

“We needed a JV team last year,” he said. “We’re taking a hit for it now.”