Sep 19, 2016 | Ccecchini | 237 views
Early Bird Tournament Complete; Regular Season Schedule Finally Released!
Our Novice A Falcons completed play in the Garden City Early Bird tournament on Saturday with losses to Lorne Park Clarkson (8-1) and Hespeler (9-1) and did not qualify for Sunday's final, which ultimately was won by Hespeler in a 6-5 decision over Woolwich.
The game against the LPC Wild was an extremely chippy affair, to say the least, with ten penalties called in the game, eight of which went to the Wild, including two "head shot" penalties and two boarding penalties! Chris Crowe scored the Falcons goal on an assist from Ben Grohnwald and our goaltending tandem of Quinton Burkley and Bryanah Smith combined to make 13 saves in the contest.
The second game on Saturday was against eventual tournament champion Hespeler. This was a tight contest and a Malik Moore goal early in the third period brought our Falcons to within three but Hespeler would go on to score five unanswered goals to move onto the finals. Once again, Bryanah and Quinton combined to make 13 saves.
The defense rarely get mentioned in stat writeups but Michael Magnotta, Jack Dolch, Preston Burkley and Evan Bosela all deserve a bit of recognition, as the team was without fellow defenseman Max Hardy on Sunday and the four remaining blueliners each played big minutes in the last two games.
The team will now begin preparations for their Niagara District Hockey League season opener, which takes place on Saturday September 24th, with our Novice A Falcons traveling to Welland to take on the Tigers. Puck drop at Welland Arena (Youth) is at 2:20pm and the schedule for games up to the beginning of January is now available here at GCMHA.ca!