The JV Wildcats kept up their successful season with 3 wins in 4 games and the Varsity Cats continued their turnaround by winning 3 straight after dropping their opener to win the Markus Rasmus memorial tournament over University School in a thrilling 1-0 Overtime battle.
Friday nights have not been kind to the Varsity Cats recently and this past Friday was no different. Coming off their upset of #1 state ranked St. Ignatius a rather lackluster performance led to the ugliest loss of the season 6-0 to University School.
A subtle reminder from the coaching staff and a change of address down to the tamo locker rooms helped motivate the Cats as they played much better in earning 2 quality wins over Cincinnati’s Moeller and St. Xavier by final scores of 5-2 in both games Saturday. It didn’t look like the turnaround was in the works for Saturday mornings game. A goal from Moeller just 11 seconds in and another 4 minutes later had the Cats in an early 2-0 deficit. However Junior CJ Lehman gave the Cats a much needed lift with a goal near the final minute of the opening frame to close to 2-1. Junior Riley Ames scored the equalizer in the 2nd minutes after Liam Diesing fell through the door LOL! Benny Seals and a pair from Tryston Harrell finished off the Crusaders in the 3rd.
In the night cap the Cats squared off with St. Xavier with the winner earning a right to face University School in the final. After a scoreless opening period the Cats scored 3 times for a 3-1 lead after 2. Mason Crandell opened the scoring off a 2 on 1 feed from Lehman. Fellow Junior Landon Elliott made it 2-0 just over a minute later. as his point shot found the way through a nice screen from Liam Diesing. After Xavier closed to 2-1 Senior Tyler Shoffer tipped home a nice centering pass from Harrell to restore the 2 goal cushion. Xavier closed to 1 again early in the 3rd but a beautiful individual effort from Seals extended the lead again and Ames hit for a power play goal for the final margin.
The 2 wins propelled the Cats into the finals where they would get a 2nd chance vs University School. After holding a 3-1 lead in a game with the Preppers at the Padua Tournament the Cats had been dominated in the 4 periods since giving up 9 goals and scoring 0! However this game looked different from the onset. Playing with a much more concerted effort especially defensively the Cats skated with US in a well played game by both teams! With niether team able to find the net however this one was headed for sudden death OT tied at 0. In the extra frame skating 4 on 4 Junior Defensmane Landon Elliott rushed the puck from his own end before attempting a wrap around that deflected home off Mason (Don’t call me fat Jason, Crandell for a thrilling championship victory!
Junior Netminder Austin Nowak rebounded from a subpar performance on Friday to come back and earn 3 quality wins. His 28 save shutout put an exclamation point on another strong weekend and earn him the WTOL Channel 11 player of the week! Congratulations Austin!!
The JV team once again had a solid weekend. An unfortunate bounce on Saturday vs University School resulted in a 1-0 loss to keep them from the Championship game but 3 victories in 4 games pushed their overall record to 13-5-1. Sophomore Keegan Draper continous to lead the offensive attack and strong goaltending helped out by a strong defensive effort has held their ooponents to just 21 goals over their past 13 games!
Congratulations to both teams!
This weekend the Cats have a difficult and another busy weekend this time in NHC league play! Friday night the teams travel down to BGSU for an 8 PM varsity game and 10 PM games with Anthony Wayne. They return to Tamo on Saturday for a showdown with St. Francis. Jv is scheduled for 5:30 PM with the Varsity to follow @ 7. They finish the weekend with another trip south to BGSU. The Jv will square off with Perrysburg at 11:30 AM while the Varsity takes on BG @ 1:30 PM.
KAC!!
You must log in to post a comment.