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Sports

Garnets Ice Hockey Headed to the Finals

Garnets beat Sleepy Hollow/Irvington 3-1.

Rye's hockey team has been poised to get back to the sectional finals and seek revenge after losing last year and now its wishes have come to fruition.

Rye scored the game's first three goals as they went on to defeat the visiting Sleepy Hollow/Irvington Legends 3-1 in Saturday's Section 1 Division II semifinal game at the Playland Ice Casino.

With the win, the Garnets will now play against the Yorktown Huskers in the Division II Section 1 Finals at Army in West Point today at 4:00 p.m.

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Sophomore forward Ryan Rogers got the Garnets off to a solid start putting in both of his goals in the first period. The first goal came at the 8:07 mark and the following one came with 3:48 to go. That was really all the scoring the Garnets would need the rest of the way.

"We just wanted to be aggressive out there and force everything around the net," Rogers said. "We did a good job of cutting off their best players and now we're going back to the sectional finals where we can try to make up for last year."

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Nick Rosenfeld tacked on the Garnets' final score with a power play goal on an assist from teammate Alfredo Holguin with 10:03 left in the second period. At that point with the three unanswered goals, the Garnets were in complete control and had all the momentum.

Sleepy/Hollow's goal by Josh Kaplan with 11:02 to go in the third period got the Legends on the scoreboard, but the Garnets were the more aggressive and experienced team, and held the lead for the rest of the game.

Sleepy Hollow/Irvington did keep pace with the Garnets with the shots on goal numbers (31-27 in favor of Rye) but they just couldn't capitalize on their opportunities, especially as it got down to crunch time. Rye's Junior goalie Aaron Rix did a nice job of making timely saves, clearing the puck out, and staying focused as time ran thin and the Legends revved up their shot output.

"We definitely wanted to get back to the sectional finals but we just had to take things one game at a time," Rix said. "The win feels great but we have to forget about this one already and start thinking about the final."

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