16U A American Midget
The 16U A American Crew hit the road for the Congressional Veteran’s Day Cup tournament in Northern Virginia. Our first match up was against the Jersey Shore Wildcats at 11am on Friday morning in Haymarket Iceplex. The boys came ready to play, hitting the ice with determination and drive. Right out of the gate the teams were pretty evenly matched, with everyone feeling each other out. Shots on goal were dead even throughout the first period, and both goalies were locked in. The second period kicked off much like the first, with even play back and forth. Rolling in to the 3rd we were hungry, and ready to change the tone. 5 minutes in, Jackson Persoleo saw an opening and took it, racing down the ice on a breakaway and popping it right past their goalie to finally put us on the board. A 1-0 score with 9 minutes left in the third is a tense place to be, but we were relentless with the pressure forcing them to pull the goalie with just over a minute left. In a battle for the puck in our defensive zone, Gavin Lawry got his stick on the puck and shot it up the ice smack in the middle of that open net, securing our 2 goal lead. Brody Szyjka was a force to be reckoned with, not only did he stop every one of the 23 shots on goal he faced, he absolutely shut them down not even giving a chance for rebounds. The Hens ended the morning with a 2-0 win, and a second shutout of the season for Brody.
After a team dinner, game 2 on Friday evening found the team back at Haymarket against the Richmond Generals Selects. Feeling great about our morning performance, the boys were hyped up for a repeat. Hitting the ice with full force, they battled hard from the first puck drop and dominated the entire game. Tristan Fischer found the back of the net first, with help from Nate Meissner. Two minutes later, on a Power Play, Paxton Hafner passed to Jeet Patel for what would end up being the game winning goal. The generals found the net once on a fluke breakaway, and Brody stopped every other puck that made it’s way to him like an absolute beast.
With a late afternoon game Saturday, the team headed to Top Golf for a bit of fun and food before hitting the ice. The third game of the tournament had us at Ion Training Center for a match up against the Charleston Stingrays. Absolutely pumped from two prior wins and riding that wave, the boys were confident they could maintain the streak. Getting the game rolling, Oscar Wiebke tipped one in off a pass from Josh Revis which absolutely set off the whole team. Completely pumped up and feeling rush, Kaiden McCoury and Rowan Donohue executed a perfect play to net the second goal of the game. On a power play a couple minutes later, Josh Revis found a hole and sailed up the ice on a breakaway and tucked one in for our third goal of the game. The second period tipped slightly in the Stingray’s favor, netting them two goals to bring the score Hens 3 Rays 2 at the start of the 3rd. The boys agreed this wouldn’t do, and lit the ice up throughout the 3rd. Rowan knocked in his second goal of the game off a sweet pass from Jackson Persoleo. Not to be outdone, Oscar passed up the boards to Kaiden McCoury who then connected with Josh Revis on a gorgeous play to take us up 5-2. The team was electrified at this point and absolutely rock solid on offense and defense. Kaiden had more to give, netting his third assist when passing to Jeet Patel who found his second goal of the weekend. And, bringing us home for our 7-2 win were Jackson Persoleo and Connor Clark working together beautifully to end the day on a high note and seal our spot in the Championship Game on Sunday.
The Championship Game on Sunday had the boys on the ice versus the Richmond Generals Selects. Coming in with a vengeance knowing we’d beaten them already, we expected the game to be intense and it was. Both teams were playing to the limit, neck and neck throughout. After the first period ended with no goals scored, the refs said “I can already tell this game is ending in a shootout”. The second period was the same, neither team finding a scoring opportunity. The third period was just as tense, with both teams battling hard and coming up very evenly matched. With 2 minutes left on the clock, rink officials came over to plan for overtime and a potential shootout to determine the winner when the Selects caught a lucky break and snuck one past Brody through the backdoor. It was just the opening they needed, and yanked the championship right out from under us. Finishing with a score of 1-0, we accepted 2nd place after a phenomenal weekend of hockey. The team played some of their best games yet, and if we were going to finish anywhere but 1st this was the way to do it.
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