By Dylan Butler
“I came here with a bang and I leave with a bang,” said Sofletea, the Knights' hulking defenseman.Cammarata made 29 saves and fellow senior Will Gill scored a hat trick to lead Holy Cross to a 3-1 win and a 2-0 sweep of St. Peter's in the best-of-three CHSHL 'B' championship series March 16 at the Ice Hutch in Mount Vernon.”It's great to come in as a freshman and we won a championship,” said Cammarata, who was named playoff MVP, just as he did his freshman year. “To leave my senior year feels much better.”Holy Cross (16-2-2) entered the season with one big question: What player would fill the void left by sniper Chris Ryan, who decided not to return for his senior year to concentrate on playing travel hockey.Throughout the regular season and into the playoffs, the answer was clear: no one.Instead, the entire team picked up the slack. Reny Mazzorra, who transferred from Kellenberg with the desire of winning a championship, scored some big goals, as did Anthony Pagano, Andy Kuhnle, Chris Will and Chris Anastasio.And in his final high school game, Gill scored big goals – three to be exact.”I didn't come here thinking I was going to get three goals, no way,” Gill said. “I just put in my work and everyone put in their work. It was a team effort, team win, team championship.”Ron Triano put St. Peter's (9-9-3) ahead 24 seconds into the game but Gill tied it with a slap shot between the circles with 13:03 left in the first period.He scored what proved to be the championship-winning goal exactly four minutes later when he buried the rebound of Tom Backman's shot. Gill added the critical insurance marker with 8:52 left in the third period, knocking in another rebound to complete the natural hat trick.Defensemen Sofletea, Cammarata and Marcus Brito held the highest scoring team in the CHSHL 'B' division in check, allowing just two goals in the series. Triano had a chance to get St. Peter's to within a goal with 1:43 left in regulation, but he lost control of the puck on a breakaway and Cammarata made the easy save.”We just knew we had it, we had it,” Cammarata said. “St. Peter's didn't have it in them. We wanted it so much more and we went out there and gave it to them.”The title is the third for Holy Cross, which won the 'B' crown in 1998 and the 'C' title in 2002.”What can you say? It was a great season from start to finish,” said Holy Cross coach Mike Mitchell, who said his team played a total of four bad periods all season. “It was like a pure thoroughbred, out of the gate we took the lead from wire to wire and we never looked back.”Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
