After a long wait, the Dunkirk/Fredonia Varsity Hockey team finally took the ice on Saturday night with a 5-1 victory over the St. Joe’s White team at the North Town Center.

“The players overcame quite a bit of adversity after being put on pause by the league for exposure to the COVID virus since February 16th.” Coach Mark Taylor said. “Most of these players haven’t played a game since last March and haven’t practiced in 11 days.”

The Steelers came out flying, but found themselves down early 1-0 with a St. Joe’s goal at the 10:46 mark in the first period. That would be the end of the St. Joe’s offense as sophomore goalie Tim Rasey and the Steelers’ defense were stout.

“(Rasey) continues to rise above all expectations, “Taylor said. “Letting in one goal after not playing a game for a year is truly amazing.”

The team was down thee key players, so the defense played with only four defenseman the entire game. This did not seem to affect the group whatsoever. The Steelers not only shut down St. Joe’s offense, but they also all found their names on the score sheet, including the first goal of the season. This came off the stick of defenseman Josh Cooper, rifling a shot by St. Joe’s goaltender at 9:33 in the first period. Kam Mages and Simon Davis had the assists on the play. This was the end of all scoring in the first period tied 1-1.

The Steelers continued their domination in both the second and third periods, scoring five unanswered goals. In the second period, goals were scored by Dawson Bird unassisted and Michael Norton, assisted by Joey Yeager and Micah Davis. Norton scored his second goal of the night early in the third while Micah Davis gathered his second assist on the goal to improve the lead to 4-1.

The final goal, like the first, was scored from the backend when Trevor Persch found his defensive partner, Alex Rush, who did the rest.

“We came out and looked like we were in mid-season form,” Taylor said. ” … Overall we couldn’t ask for any more from a group that hasn’t been together for almost two weeks.”

The Steeler’s next game will be Friday in Jamestown vs. Cheektowaga (1-1).