16U A American
From Coach Jesse: 16UA American was home for a game against Central Penn Panthers. The boys were anxious to get back at Central Penn to avenge a loss from earlier in the season. We started off the scoring with Wyatt Bolin off of a pass from JP [Jackson Persoleo] and secondary from Jeet Patel. Central Penn scored the next 3 goals in the second period on a screen shot from the point, a short side shot, and one from behind the net. In the 3rd period the boys came out buzzing after a slow start with a little motivation. Justin Silver scored on the PP to bring us to 3-2. After the next goal was scored, the entire bench erupted for Jason Tamin as he had a beautiful finish off of a pass from Chips. A one timer that we had been waiting for all season. Jason (slim shady) Tamin has been so close all season. Plenty of assists and great play, but couldn’t find the back of the net. The boys let him know how happy they were for him and how much it meant to them. Not only did he tie the game, but he also dominated on face offs, winning crucial defensive zone possessions that ultimately lead to our win. J Tamin’s goal was one minute after Justin Silver's PP goal. 2 minutes later Wyatt Bolin scored on a ridiculous backhand off of an outlet pass from Ryan Roth. Wyatt remains en fuego and is having a season. I cannot say enough about Ryan Roth and the season he is having. He unselfishly has been a force at defense, as he prefers fwd. His positioning and high hockey IQ have had an impact that should not go unnoticed. He has made some legal hits that have opposing players second guessing their decisions. He played his best game for us Saturday and continues to be a force. After Central Penn tied the game on a weird bounce, with 6:54 remaining, Kaiden McCoury made a play. I cannot tell you how difficult this play was. Play was behind our goal when Ian Guarneri had the puck. The Central Penn wing grabbed Ian and dragged him down. The referee indicated a penalty and because we had possession, we knew it was against CP. Slim Shady picked the puck up and head manned it to Kaiden McCoury who was flying up the right side. For some reason CP believed they were going on the power play and pulled their goalie in favor of an extra skater. Only one problem, we had the puck and played continued. Kaiden, skating with his head up, saw the goalie out of the goal and fired the puck from just over the red line for the go ahead goal. A very heads up play at any level and he buried it to take the lead and the eventual game winner. Every player on our team played with energy, afford and purpose. This team is extremely resilient which I find is becoming more uncommon. These boys don’t quit. I love them all.
Two more regular season games to go, one against the Quakers, and away against Hershey.
After the games I usually talk to the other coaches and we comment on good and bad. 4 different coaches and three goalies have commented “they just don’t stop. It never stops. The pressure is relentless” that’s how we play. All of the defenders have gotten so much better at pinching and holding the blue line which keeps the puck in the zone. It allows our forwards to buzz around the offensive zone and apply pressure. Our forwards can all finish.
Congrats to all of the boys on this season but it is far from over and the job’s not done.
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