Weekend Roundup - November 22-23

8U Mites

The 8U Mite-y Hens traveled to Downingtown on Saturday morning and defeated Campus Wild by a score of 29-1.

Luke Scott got the scoring started with his first of three goals. Stone Giblisco scored eight goals and Nick DeLuca netted seven. Theo Brainard (four goals), Jordyn Draper, and Emma Gliniak also notched hat tricks, and Aiden Graham found the back of the net, as well. Goalie Liam Peipoch stopped four of the five shots he faced.

The team returned on Sunday for a non-league matchup against the Campus Wild A team and lost 15-1. Nick DeLuca scored the lone goal for the Jr. Blue Hens.

After Thanksgiving, the Mites will travel to Colmar, PA for a Saturday morning game against the Hatfield Ice Hawks on December 6. They’ll then return home for a Sunday morning game against the Delco Phantoms. The team will then take the ice during intermission of the Flyers/Avalanche game that same afternoon.

10U A Squirts

From Coach Chris: 10U A played on Saturday vs. the Delaware Ducks, and Sunday vs. the Exton Kings, both resulting in losses.  While we've been getting away from our game for the most part in terms of executing our game plan as well as the things we've been working on in practice, this team has fight, and they have resilience.  Both games saw us go down, and while the chips were down, we didn't give up.  Leadership on the bench is starting to emerge, lifting each other up, encouraging our teammates to battle through the final buzzer, staying resilient, and keeping a positive no-quit attitude.  Although we didn't win on the scoreboard, these were certainly character wins for us, and we'll look to keep that momentum as we work to get our game back.

10U B Squirts

The 10UB Delaware Jr. Blue Hens came up short in a 6-1 home loss to Genesis Hockey Club.

The visitors took an early 1-0 lead, then scored a second with just under two minutes remaining in the first period. Game MVP Finn Litwick answered back to make it a one goal game, but Genesis retaliated 23 seconds later, followed by a fourth goal only 80 seconds after that. 

Goalie Aiden McGrath made several great saves and stopped 32 of 38 shots. The Hens travel to New Jersey on Sunday, December 7 for a chance to avenge a 4-3 home loss to Princeton earlier in November.

12U A American PeeWee

Our 12A team traveled to Frederick, MD to play in our 2nd non-league matchup against the Frederick Freeze.  We knew this game would be a tough match given how close the game was the last time we played. Although we lost, the team was challenged and the game highlighted some areas we need to focus on improving.  We have the thanksgiving weekend off and our coaches are looking forward to hitting the ice hard in December! 

After the game, a few Frederick players shared that they wished they had coaches like ours; coaches who build them up, remain positive when things aren’t going your way, and are true role models. Thank you to all our volunteer coaches, your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. 

The 12U B Crew kicked off a two game weekend with an early Saturday game in the Rust against the Exton Kings. Facing a short bench due to illness, we had our work cut out for us with 3 defenders. The team really stepped up though and kids did a fantastic job of shuffling around and filling the gaps. Drake Worrall got us on the boards first with an assist from Bruno Herrera and just 3 minutes later Dom Brown sailed up the ice on a breakaway and snuck one past the Exton goalie. One minute later on an assist from Frankie Bohenick, he pulled it off again sinking his second goal of the game. The 2nd period flew by without much fanfare, our team getting off a decent number of shots on goal but not finding a gap until :22 left when Drake Worrall tucked it in the corner off an assist from Jacob Lynch. We turned up the heat a bit in the 3rd with Frankie Bohenick scoring off an assist from Dom, and in turn Dom knocked two in back to back coming away with a hat trick and sealing our 7-1 win.

Sunday morning found the team back at Gold bright and early for a game against the Chester County Cougars. Feeling good about our big win from the day before, the team was pumped up but still facing a short bench. Knowing they had what it takes, they didn’t let it hold them back and came out strong from the start. The Cougars managed to sink two in the first period despite us putting up twice as many shots on goal, encouraging us to step up our game in the back half. Jackson Callahan scored on a breakaway in the 2nd, narrowing the lead. The pressure was on in the 3rd, and Drake Worrall snagged a pass from Jackson to tie up the game. Heading in to OT we had three minutes to pull off a win, and couldn’t quite get there ending in our first tie game of the season. 

Frankie Bohenick earned the Game Chain for exceptional performance this weekend, falling back on D when needed and stepping up on O in a big way to keep the pressure on. His versatility and understanding of the game is a massive asset to this team.

The team is heading in to the holiday break hoping to recover from illness and come back strong next month.

14U A American Bantam

The team played the Reading Royals on Saturday afternoon for an away game.  They played hard, but just couldn’t get a spark going. Period 1 the Royals scored twice to end the period with a 2-0 lead. Period 2 the Royals scored to make the game 3-0.  Andrew Nicholson scored with an assist from Riley McGrath to make it 3-1. Period 3, our team tried to rally, but the Royals lengthened the lead with 4 more goals making the final score 7-1. 

The team played the Susquehanna Stampede on Sunday at home.   It was the most intense game of the season. It was a back and forth fight. First Period the Stampede scored first. Carter Mast answered back with an unassisted goal. Susquehanna scored again to end first period with a 2-1 lead. Second Period Susquehanna scored to end the period leading 3-1. Third Period things heated up. Chase Watkins scored making it 3-2. The Stampede scored again to make it 4-2. Chase Watkins scored a second time to make it 4-3. Our goalie was pulled to give us an extra player, but time ran out. Susquehanna got the 4-3 win.

To say this was an exciting game is an understatement. It was a tough, physical, hard fought game. Everyone played well. Vincent Trettel was phenomenal, Chance Scarborough was aggressive, Pippa Hall was on fire, and the first year line of Ryan McCoury, Ernesto Boyd, and Cash Scarborough were strong and unrelenting.  

Next weekend, no games due to the Holiday. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

16U A American Midget

The 16U Boys started off their weekend with an afternoon home game on Saturday against Snider. We know this is a hard team to beat and we’d need to be on it to have a chance. The first period started off strong with both teams applying equal pressure, neither goalie yielding an inch. Going in to the 2nd Snider stepped up their pace and we couldn’t hang, giving up 3 goals and taking the wind completely out of our sails. The 3rd period was similar, and we couldn’t recover. Ultimately, our downfall is our lack of shots on goal: You can’t score if you don’t shoot. Knowing we need to work on that gives us a starting point for recovering and breaking out of this slump.

Sunday the team traveled up to PNY for a rematch against the Quakers. We tallied the mistakes we made in the previous game and vowed to address them, coming out strong and making more of an effort to get shots off. It paid off, with Tristan Fischer connecting on a pass from Ben Zigmond to net our first goal of the weekend. Just a minute later Paxton Hafner snapped the puck to Jeet Patel who tipped it in taking us up 2-0 at the end of the 1st. Feeling good going in to the 2nd, we kept up the pressure and continued to score. Ben Zigmond capitalized off a beautiful set up by Josh Revis and Landon Griffin taking us up 3-0. Mike Brzozowski came in hot a few minutes later and sunk one deep, pumping up the team even more. At this point we got a little comfortable, and Quakers got a little chippy. Two penalties found us short handed and the Quakers pounced, managing to score on both and closing our lead. The boys let it go to their heads more than they should, and found themselves in a tie game at the end of the 3rd. Heading in to OT they knew it shouldn’t have gotten to this point and finally buckled down. Josh Revis won the face-off and barreled down center ice, getting off a direct shot on goal that was kicked out. Fortunately Kaiden McCoury was right where he should have been and snapped the rebound directly in the corner, taking back the win they worked hard for. 

The team is going in to the holiday weekend looking to rest up and regroup, with the goal to bring it in December and turn things around.

16U A National Midget

The 16A National boys were back on the ice Saturday afternoon, facing off against the Exton Kings following last week’s statement win over top-seeded Snider.

From the drop of the puck, the Blue Hens controlled possession and pushed the pace. Early in the first period, Landon Austin opened the scoring on the power play, finishing a setup from David Lavieri. Just fifteen seconds later, Jaxon Mackenzie buried his seventh of the season, with Lavieri again picking up the assist. Keeping the man-advantage momentum rolling, Stephen Evans punched in his second of the year off a feed from Austin, giving Delaware a commanding early lead.

The second period was all Blue Hens. Austin and Mackenzie connected once more for another highlight-reel finish. Then, late in the frame and down a man, Jackson McNutt created his own opportunity on the penalty kill, sneaking one through for his second goal of the season. 

Exton’s defense held firm in the third, preventing Delaware from adding to their total, but the damage had already been done.

But the Kings weren’t the toughest opponent the Hens faced—their biggest battle was discipline. Delaware racked up 13 penalties, a stat that kept the game closer than necessary and forced the penalty kill to work overtime.

Between the pipes, Jacob McBee delivered another standout performance. He turned away 31 shots, finishing with a 93.9% save percentage and securing another win on his record.

The boys now get Thanksgiving weekend off before heading to Aston the following week for a rematch against Delco Black—the team responsible for their first loss of the season. The Hens will look to settle the score.

16U AA Midget 

From Coach Jesse: U16 AA only had one game this weekend. We traveled to the luxurious Regency rink in Lancaster to play the Central Penn Panthers.  Regency is always a treat to visit.  Last time we had the overhead lights in the room catch fire. Not to outdo the fire, the players bench only has one door, which we don’t use, but comes into play as only about 4 feet of the bench are onside which effects changes.  To complete the luxury, the center circle touches the blue lines which means the neutral zone is very small and cramped.  That being said, we came to play.  CPP went up 1 nothing on a weak side goal.  At the beginning of the second period Holly took a pass from Wyatt Bolin on the PP to tie it at 1-1. We have to stay out of the box. A minute and a half later we let up a PP goal to go down 2-1.  With 1:47 left in the second CPP scored another PP goal to go up 3-1.  Our third period was marred with self inflicted penalties.  Dumb stick penalties.  Stick penalties are lazy, and in the end cost us the game.  We had a PP and at 5:29 of the third Riley Naftzinger buried a beautiful pass from J$ on the PP to bring us within reach.  For the remainder of the game we put on the pressure but could not sneak the third by the goalie.  CPP parked the bus in front of the goal and although we were close, we ended 3-2.  Erik Ingholt was an absolute beaut.  CPP had two goals called back as one entered the net through the outside through some zip ties.  Erik had it covered and the boys calmly showed the refs who made the right call.  Another one the CPP player backed into Erik while in the crease and ran him over and then another CPP player poked the puck in. The refs did a good job of talking to each other and determining goalie interference and called the goal back.  Erik also dealt with some classless adults who taunted him and called him names the entire game. He was a rock. It was so bad that Erik’s mom ,who is quiet, reserved, and extremely calm, became very irritated. Our fans rallied around Erik and the boy's a BB against some nasty parents.  We get a break over the holiday and come back next week for practice and a three game homestand.

18U AA Midget 

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In Other News...

We are thrilled to announce the Winter Giveback Classic, partnered with CV3 Hockey Development to benefit the Child Life Department at Nemours Children's Hospital in Wilmington. 100% of the proceeds from this event will go to Nemours, and it's going to be a blast. We hope you can join us, your teammates, and friends, for the Skills Competition and 3v3 Mini Tournament. More details to come, click HERE to register!