Banner year for hockey team

by Eric Keppeler
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, May 19, 2007

Lew-Port’s varsity club hockey team advanced to the state championship game before losing.

The Lewiston-Porter varsity club hockey team will have a hard time next season improving on what it was able to accomplish this year.

The Lancers wound up second in the state after bowing 3-1 to the Cheektowaga Warriors in March in the New York State Small School Championship. Lew-Port was practically unbeatable after the first of the year, losing just two games after Christmas. They then went on to finish in the top four at the sectional tournament, punching their ticket for the state tournament.

The Lancers rode that wave of success all the way to the state championship game before they were subdued by the defending state champions.

But Lew-Port coach Ken Browning says it’s still a mighty accomplishment, especially for a team that made sectionals but didn’t even make the state playoffs the year before.

“I’m very proud of the boys,” he said. “I knew coming in that this was a high quality team. The boys just needed to find that out for themselves, and they did that at the state tournament. They played like I knew they could.”

The Lancers had balanced scoring throughout the season, and they only handed out one post-season award, that being for unsung hero. This year’s winner was senior defenseman Andrew Nearhoof, who scored the Lancers’ lone goal in the championship game.

“Andrew did an unbelievable job for us all season long,” Browning said. “He didn’t get the credit that he deserved. He came to play every single game and he was a big reason that we were so successful.”

Browning added that a fair amount of credit for the team’s success belonged to its many fans and sponsors, especially Sevenson Environmental, CWM, Steve’s Heating, Jay’s Place, Kiwanis Club of Lewiston, Lew-Port Sports Boosters, Empire Dismantlement, Two Ole Dads and Destino’s Pizza.

“The sponsors were very important,” Browning said. “We were able to get some nice new jerseys, and the sponsors paid for that. They also paid for a lot of the ice time for our practices. We never would have gotten to states without them.”

Browning says it’s difficult to keep from thinking about next season already, particularly since the Lancers will lose just four players to graduation. To be sure, Scott Beseth, Marco Santiago, Nearhoof and captain Hagop Otabachian were essential in the team’s run to the state championship finals, but the rest of the team will be back a year older and a year wiser, and with an invaluable year of experience in a grueling tournament that saw the Lancers play five games in three exhausting days. Everyone was fatigued by the end of the tournament, but Browning says that it shows how important conditioning is.

“The experience from this year’s playoff run was very important,” Browning said. “Next year, if we’re able to make it back to states, the kids will know what it takes to get there and succeed. And every single kid wants another shot at that title.”