Whitby Home Woes Continue, St Catharines End Losing Skid
Last season the Whitby Warriors lost one game at Iroquois Sports Park – regular season and playoffs combined – en route to their Minto Cup win. On Monday night the St Catharines Athletics travelled to Whitby ending their own three game losing streak, and handing the Warriors their fifth home loss of the season, 9-7.
Easton McCafferty and Owen Tapper got Whitby out front early with a pair of special teams goals. Those were answered later in the period by Noah Snyder and Zackary Toll 49 seconds apart. The first period ended tied 2-2.
With a penalty carrying over from the first period, it didn’t take long for Toll’s second of the night to open the second period. Snyder’s power play marker, the first of two in the frame, put the As up by two. Whitby would scatter a pair of goals in the period, including Gabriel Sorichetti’s tenth of the season, on the power play, with two minutes to play.
Leading 6-4 St Kitts pulled ahead for good in the third. Keaton Zavitz sandwiched a pair of goals around Gavin Howard’s power play goal to lead by five. Whitby looked like they’d come back scoring three goals in 1:57, with Jack Oldman winning a clean faceoff and scoring just five seconds after Jake Darlison. But A’s rookie Ty Wilson shut them down from there, hanging on for the 9-7 victory.
The Athletics were led by five points (3 goals, 2 assists) from Noah Snyder. Gavin Howard also had five (1 goal, 4 assists). Zackary Toll (2 goals, 2 assists) and Keaton Zavitz (2 goals, 1 assist) both scored multiple goals. Ty Wilson stopped 40 of 47 shots for his first career OJLL win.
Whitby’s seven goals came from six different players. Gabriel Sorichetti was the only multi-goal scorer (2 goals). Jack Oldman led the Warriors with three points (1 goal, 2 assists). Kaleb Martin stopped 26 of 35 shots, losing three straight games for the first time in his career.
St Catharines will return home Wednesday to face the Oakville Buzz (9-4), who will then welcome Whitby to the TRAC on Thursday night.
