Raiders' late start not enough vs. NA
WARRENDALE — Tanner Pfeffer believes the Seneca Valley hockey team learned its lesson about what is needed to beat good teams.
The Raiders need to come out and set the pace. North Allegheny disrupted Seneca Valley's flow at BladeRunners Tuesday night, earning a 2-1 Section 2-AAA win.
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Raiders (5-4).
“We need to come in with high tempo,” said Pfeffer, who made 33 saves. “We didn't start off the game with a high tempo. The past few games we won we put one in the net right off the bat. ... That's what we need to start every game with.”
By the time Seneca Valley found that tempo, the Raiders were behind 2-0 in the third period. That's when Seneca Valley pulled Pfeffer for an extra attacker and Andrew Gagnon buried a shot from in front of the net with 1:05 remaining to cut the lead in half.
Then the Raiders nearly scored again.
With less than 30 seconds left, Christopher Marziotto flipped a shot from the blue line that was turned away by Tigers goalkeeper Doug Wild. North Allegheny (6-2-1) cleared the puck out of the zone to seal the win.
“We needed to take away the middle of the ice and keep them on the outside,” North Allegheny coach James Black said. “Initially, what we wanted to do was stop the quick rush. They have some guys that are really fast.”
The Tigers (6-2-1) out-shot Seneca Valley 35-29 and dominated the scoring chances early. Despite North Allegheny putting heaving pressure on Pfeffer, the game was scoreless after the first period.
Eighteen seconds into the second period, the Tigers broke through. The Raiders turned the puck over in the neutral zone and Joseph Zappla III got in on Pfeffer alone, ringing a shot off the post.
Cameron Fisher was trailing the play, collected the rebound and scored.
Four minutes later, Dominick Zangero redirected a slap shot from Christian Louria to double North Allegheny's lead.
The Tigers also had another scoring opportunity turned away in-between the goals.
“After the first goal, they had another quick two-on-one. Fortunately, we were able to stop it,” Raiders' coach Anthony Raco said. “It just comes down to us back-checking and wanting to support our defense. We have to do a better job of reading their rush and not causing turnovers.”
Seneca Valley had several strong scoring chances late in the second period, but couldn't connect. Alexander Crilley rang a shot off the post with 3:17 remaining in the second period. Marziotto hit Benjamin Jarrett with a pass in a two-on-one situation with 11:45 left in the game, but Wild made the save.
“Seneca and NA is a big rivalry game,” Black said. “It's a good win for us, especially a 2-1 win, it could have went either direction. They got a couple of bad bounces that didn't go in. We got a couple good plays when we went to the net.”
Pfeffer was pleased with the effort at the end. Seneca Valley will just need to find a way to maintain its tempo.
“We're going to need a lot more hard work to beat these kinds of teams,” Pfeffer said.
