Rome, N.Y. — The Rome Free Academy boys hockey team dominated Cicero-North Syracuse 8-1 and got a four-goal performance from junior Braden Meeks on Tuesday at Kennedy Arena in Rome.

That should make anyone happy, but coach Jason Nowicki was upset about the nine penalties the Black Knights racked up.

“We really have to clean up the penalties. Last Friday night came out, took 12 penalties and followed up with a clean effort on Saturday and then come back here with this,” the RFA coach said. “As well as we played, we’re a team that’s built to play five-on-five, not five-on-four.

“So that’s something that needs to be addressed. It’s something we’ll take care of. And again, it’s early in the year, but we can’t come out here every night playing two opponents. We gotta play the team with the other sweaters on, not against ourselves and our emotions.”

To the Black Knights’ credit, their penalty kill was flawless, shutting down all nine Cicero-North Syracuse power plays.

“The man down was fantastic,” he said. “We killed off nine power plays off, and I think during that whole time, there was only one rotation that I didn’t like. That’s something — it’s tough to work on in practice — the man down. To see it live speed and to see it against a good opponent like C-NS, and really got a lot of work tonight. Not what you want to have in a league game, but we’ll take the fact that we were nine for nine on the kill and move forward with that.”

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C-NS vs. RFA boys hockey

RFA jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.

With 4:57 remaining in the first period, eighth grader Jude Sestito found Meeks, who buried his first goal of the evening.

“Jude’s an eighth grader, he’s making a big impact for us,” Meeks said. “I call for the puck and he gives it to me; we score. It’s just the little things that our line has come together and done.”

Then, it was Jack Carpenter who scored on an assist from Jacob Bruno and Mark Varano with 1:08 left in the first period to give RFA a 2-0 lead.

The Black Knights outshot the Northstars 14-10 through one.

In the second period, RFA put the game away.

The Black Knights continued to be the team that created more scoring opportunities.

RFA outshot the Northstars 24-7 in the period. The Black Knights poured in four goals to go ahead 6-0.

C-NS scored a goal in the third period, but Meeks netted his third and fourth goals in the period to seal the win for RFA.

The four goals were a career best for Meeks.

Meeks led the Black Knights with four goals, and Carpenter and Bruno each added two goals. Donte Sparace saved 26 shots and allowed one goal.

C-NS’ lone goal came from Austin Benkoski.

The seven-goal margin was the largest in the last five matchups between these teams. One of those matchups was decided by three goals, two by two goals and one by one goal. All of those games were victories for RFA and two came in the postseason.

The early-season matchup against a familiar playoff foe gave the Black Knights a bit of added motivation, Meeks said.

“Let’s just say that we don’t like these guys, plain and simple,” Meeks said. “We ruined their season the last two years and tonight we just had an extra edge. We wanted to make a statement early on in the season that we’re here and we’re coming for everybody.”

RFA has made the section championship game each of the past two seasons but has not been able to come out on top. Nowicki understands that and believes his team has the hunger to get over the hump this winter.

“That’s always the goal, to get back (to the championship),” he said. “I think everyone in that room would be disappointed if I said our goal is to get back there. Our goal is to win it and not just get there. I think this is a group that’s hungry and really has that in their sights here this year and really going to work to get it.”

The Black Knights improve to 3-0 and will hit the road to take on Ontario Bay on Thursday.

C-NS falls to 2-2 and will continue its streak of road games with a game against Pittsford Mendon on Friday.