White Plains Too Much for Rye Town/Harrison

Kevin Fusco's three goals weren't enough for the Rye Town/Harrison hockey team in a 6-3 loss to White Plains.

The White Plains Tigers scored three goals early in the third period on their way to victory over the Rye Town/Harrison Titans Monday night at the Playland Ice Casino.

White Plains controlled the puck throughout the majority of the game, taking the lead six minutes into the contest on a goal by team captain Ryan Mcgee.

But Titans goalie Paul Nadasi managed to shut down White Plains for the remainder of the opening period, turning away numerous scoring opportunities to keep the Titans within one at the first intermission.

"The past couple of years it's been always a grudge match with these guys," said White Plains forward Dan Broderick.  "They go hard all the time."

White Plains opened the scoring almost immediately in the second period, cashing in on a Jack Peeples slap shot after only 46 seconds, doubling the lead.  The Tigers then added another goal to expand the lead to 3-0.

But White Plains had trouble staying out of the penalty box throughout the game and, with less than a minute remaining in the second period, the Titans finally took advantage.  That was when Titans sophomore Kevin Fusco scored the first of his three goals on a power-play to make the score 3-1.

"We weren't smart, we took a lot of silly penalties and we were lucky to keep them out of the net as long as we did," said White Plains Head Coach Howard Rubenstein,  "We really kept the game close by taking a lot of penalties."

White Plains overcame those penalties in the third period.  The Tigers scored three consecutive goals to open the final period to take a commanding 6-1 lead.

"We kept it close until the third period and they just pulled away," said Rye Town/Harrison Co-Head Coach Rob Striar.  "White Plains is a good hockey team, they're coming off of a real nice win against Mamaroneck, they've been playing great hockey all year."

Fusco added two late goals to complete his first varsity hat trick, but it wasn't enough, as White Plains held on for the 6-3 victory.

"I think we started dying down a little in the second and third, but it was tough with a short bench," said Fusco.  "We tried to hang in there as best we could."

Injuries appeared to hurt the Titans as they wavered down the stretch against a very good White Plains team.

"For them, it's one of the benefits of having a very deep team and a very talented team," said Striar.  "I give our guys a lot of credit, they played with a lot of heart.  They (also) played with a really, really, short bench."