New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Cheshire edges Amity on Pepe’s overtime goal
WEST HAVEN — Cheshire senior Biagio Pepe welcomes the big moments. In a game full of those moments, Pepe rose above the rest when his overtime goal lifted the Rams to a 3-2 victory over Amity in a Southern Connecticut Conference contest at the Edward L. Bennett Rink Wednesday.
After the Rams evened the contest with a power play goal by Drew DePodesta in the final 3 minutes, 38 seconds of regulation, Pepe and Jack Fernicola worked a 2-on-1 break to perfection with Fernicola returning a pass to Pepe for the winner 1:33 into the extra session.
“We are off to a little bit of a shaky start in overtime,” Pepe said. “Our goalie made a really big save to keep us in it. We came together. We saw the lane and (Jack) Fernicola was carrying it wide and he brought it in perfectly and he found me. That was all him on that goal.”
Pepe’s heroics were made possible when his shot hit off the leg of DePodesta and past
Amity goaltender Jayson Gherlone on the power play with less than four minutes to go in regulation.
“My message to the team was coming off back-to-back games, you know they are saying they want to get on us quick,” Cheshire coach Anthony Giusto said after his team won the second of back-to-back games and improved to 5-1 on the year. “We knew we had to weather the storm. They came out playing fast, running three lines. I thought we were a little slow to start, but as we stayed in the game, period to period, I think we got more confident, and we got our legs back a little bit.”
The game entered the final period even at one, before Amity’s Cam Levy directed a Kevin Gu shot by Cheshire goalie Ryan Miller 4:58 into the final period.
The Spartans never built on the lead, thanks to the play of Miller, who denied a Cam DelVecchio blast with 6:15 remaining and stopped a short-handed breakaway by Mike Page with 4:24 to go.
“The power play goal