Williamsville North’s season came to a close Monday as the Spartans fell to Niagara-Wheatfield in the Section VI boys hockey large school final.

The Falcons got a five-point performance out of junior forward Garrett Downie, who scored four goals and an assist in Monday’s title match at First Niagara Center.

Senior Casey Wall and sophomore Dominic Tallarico combined for the win in net for the Falcons, stopping 29 shots.
Junior forward Matt Terrance had two goals for the Spartans while senior defenseman Brian Couto had a goal and an assist for Williamsville North.

“We played well tonight, that part I’m glad for,” said North coach Bob Rosen. “It was a game that we didn’t capitalize on some opportunities. We gave them some early goals but we battled back to keep the game going. Of that I am proud of this group.”

It was Downie who started the scoring off in the game as he took a pass from Andrew Logar and beat the goalie for the game’s first goal near the top of the first period.

At the six-minute mark, Downie would strike again, this time unassisted.

Downie took the puck off the defender and beat the goalie once more.

Instead of letting the game slip away, Williamsville North answered back seconds later. Adam Batz was able to get the puck from teammate Kyle Wilk and found an opening to cut the lead in half.

In the middle of the second, Downie scored the hat-trick goal as he took a pass from Dakota Becker and slammed the puck home in a scrum in front of the net to put the Falcons back up by two.

North showed its fighting spirit and answered back three minutes later when Terrance scored the first of his two goals, this one off a pass from Couto.

Chris Churakos gave the Falcons a two-goal lead when he scored an unassisted goal with two minutes remaining in the second.

Terrance would bring the Niagara Wheatfield lead back to one with 58 seconds left in the second period when Josh Surowiec found Terrance in the slot. Terrance made a move and beat the goalie to rob Downie of the game-winner.

The Spartans tied it early in the third period when Couto scored an unassisted goal to even the game.

“I thought (the comeback) was really good. We stayed patient,” said Rosen. “We overachieved a little bit. We got the point where things continued to build. They are a good group of kids who put their teammates first. That part they could win anything. Pure hockey-wise, we needed to improve in a lot of areas and they worked hard and did that.”

However, Downie was determined to lead the Falcons to a championship.

With the puck deep in the zone, Downie made a centering pass, which found Logar’s stick. Logar made one move and beat the goalie on the stick side to score what would be the game-winner.

The teams battled with Williamsville North goalie Nick Stafford making some outstanding saves to keep North in the game.

However, Downie scored an empty netter in the closing minutes to seal the game and give the Falcons the championship.