Nathan Dunn is atop scoring leaders in WNY Fed
A hard-fought matchup between two of Niagara County’s bitter rivals saw the Niagara Wheatfield Falcons (6-3-0-1, 3-0 NFL) take down the Starpoint Spartans (7-1-1-0, 4-0 ECIC II) 4-1 at Hockey Outlet on Saturday afternoon.
By handing the Spartans their first loss of the 2024-25 campaign, the Falcons let it be known that they can hang with any team this season. It’s also a welcome sight for coach Rick Wrazin, as he felt his roster had been merely so-so coming out of the gates this year.
“It’s always a battle when we play Starpoint – we’ve always known that they're a good team, well-coached and disciplined, so we knew what to expect,” Wrazin said. “To be honest, we've been having a little trouble finding our way so far this season. Coming into the game, we told the boys that today would be a great way to get us kick-started and going.
“To their credit, they came out and they played hockey the way that we've been looking for all year. It’s a great win for us against a very good team.”
That victory was obtained during a first period in which the Falcons came roaring out of the gates and never looked back. With about 4:43 left, Anthony Bochicchio deflected a shot from the point by Nolan Bernhard to get his team on the board and nearly 40 seconds later, Nathan Dunn followed up on a rebound and beat Nick Prezioso to make it 2-0.
A power play chance a few minutes afterwards went the Falcons’ way as well when Adam Perry lit the lamp to increase the lead to three goals. Starpoint eventually got on the board when Sam Prezioso found the back of the net, but a physical second and third periods didn’t yield any more offense for the Spartans.
Dunn tallied a second goal on an empty-netter with 11.3 seconds remaining in the third.
“That's the best first period we've had all year by far,” Wrazin said. “We came out buzzing, and that's what we've been looking for. If we can play like that on a consistent basis, we can give teams headaches and we showed them that in the first period."
Wrazin chalked up his team’s early season jitters to having a younger roster than in years past. When a team has a lot of new faces, it can take a little while to build up chemistry and the Falcons’ coach believes they may have finally jelled together.
“Once we come together, there's no telling what we can do,” Wrazin said. “It's great to see. I've kind of told them that at some point, it's just going to start clicking for us and today's a good indicator that maybe that time is now.”
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