Ryan Bonkov scored twice in his varsity debut, and West Islip held off a late push to beat Ward Melville 3-2 in an SCHSHL varsity game Friday night at The Rinx – North Rink. Tyler Sapoff earned the win in net as West Islip improved to 2-1-0-0. Ward Melville fell to 0-2-0-0.
Ward Melville controlled much of the territorial play early, but West Islip struck first. Brendan McMahon converted on the power play with 10:09 left in the first period, with Jack Fifield assisting, for his first point of the season. Bonkov then finished an odd-man rush with 2:49 remaining in the period, set up by Jake Raineri, to make it 2-0.
Ward Melville kept coming in waves and finally broke through with 5:39 left in the second. Patrick Burke finished a tic-tac-toe passing sequence on the power play, with Michael McFadden and Dominik Fischbach drawing the assists, to cut the deficit to 2-1. Andrew Febbraro kept Ward Melville within reach with a highlight-reel stop on Raineri.
West Islip restored its cushion early in the third. With 14:16 left, Bonkov made a sharp move to create space and roofed a shot high to the glove side, with Raineri again assisting. The goal made it 3-1 and stood as the winner.
Burke entered the night without a point and scored his second goal with 1:09 remaining, again assisted by McFadden, to make it 3-2. West Islip called a timeout to regroup. Sapoff then made a glove save in the final minute as the West Islip student section chanted his name, and Matthew Cascino’s hard checks helped West Islip protect the lead until the final horn.
Both programs missed the playoffs last season. With the win, West Islip moves into third place in the varsity standings behind Sachem and St. Anthony’s, while Ward Melville will look for its first win of the season next time out.
