Heather's Poodle Care/Allan's Fireside Grill Bantam C Girls Off to a Strong Start
Nov 9, 2010. The Heather's Poodle Care/Allan's Fireside Grill Bantam C Girls hockey team has already shown that it has what it takes to do well this season and has recorded a win-loss-tie record of 4-1-1 to date, not including the recent tournament (more on that below).
The core of the team is strong with ten players remaining in Bantam from last year’s provincial bronze-medal winning team. Three strong players were added to this year’s roster – Molly “Heater” Halpin and Emma DeBoer on defense, with Zoe Mackintosh on left wing, bringing the total squad to thirteen.
The season started well with an exhibition game win over Tiverton 3-0 which got a few crinkles out of the players beautifully pressed uniforms and gave Samantha Harvie a chance to score 2 goals. Soon after, the team recorded a solid 6-0 victory over the Owen Sound Ice Hawks on their ice. Special mentions in this game go to Sabrina Goegan who recorded a goal and two assists, and Kira Bollen who also got a goal and an assist.
The regular season home opener on October 23 kept the ball rolling with a 7-0 victory over the Durham Huskies on October 23. Jocelyn Parker, playmaker extraordinaire, racked up 4 assists, two of them to Zoe Mackintosh who scored her 2nd and 3rd goals of the season. Bryanna Cobean played another solid game, keeping her shutout streak alive and well.
The first real test of the season came on Oct 24th against a strong Georgian Shores team. The Bantams lost 2-0 after an epic battle which saw a few too many penalties assessed against the good guys. The score could have gone either way, it was that close. A week later on Oct 30th , the team was put to the test again against Markdale and a hard-fought match ended in the first tie of the season at 2-2 with goals scored by Teila Becker and Assistant Captain Jocelyn Parker from Assistant Captain Rayne Crosetta.
The next day saw the team in Lucknow where they handily defeated the home team with a 5-1 win. Coach Dino Crosetta’s after-game, rousing speech was cut short to make time to get home for trick or treating (are they not too old already?).
The weekend of Nov 5-7th found the Bantam C’s in Waterloo at their first tournament – the Waterloo Ravens Fall Challenge Cup. It turned out that there were only two types of games in this tournament – somewhat easy and really hard. It seems that the Bantam C’s have the stuff that great teams are made of and they played increasingly harder and better, with more heart throughout the weekend, gelling beautifully as a team. Solid defense from Sydney Liddle and Molly Halpin, Emma DeBoer and Kira Bollen throughout the tournament was a key to the team’s success along with outstanding goal-keeping by Bryanna Cobean.
In round robin play the team won the first game against Port Hope 5-0. Samantha Harvie scored a couple, Rayne Crosetta got three assists and Samantha Albright scored her third of the season. This was one of the easier games. The next game against Timmins was head to head and toe to toe, ending in a 0-0 tie.
Saturday came a bit too early for some of the parents, but the girls were apparently ready to go, taking on Lambton Shores and beating them 3-0. This result was enough for the Storm to sail into the semi-finals in a Saturday evening game against the hosts – the Waterloo Ravens.
This game started in the wrong direction with two quick goals by Waterloo inside the first minute of play. Luckily the Storm stopped the madness and started playing the solid game which is becoming their hallmark. Excellent defense took over and the Storm came back with a goal in the middle of the 2nd period with a somewhat unorthodox goal by Sabrina Goegan who proved that you don’t need a stick to score a goal and made the most of her shoulder pads to butt the puck into the net. It has to be said that the Storm maintained the upper hand for most of the rest of the game but was unable to convert, losing 1-2.
The final game on Sunday morning saw the Bantams battling for the bronze medal against the Twin Centre Hericanes in what turned out to be the most exciting game of the tournament. Captain Delaney Brown put the Storm on the scoreboard in the first period on a breakaway, putting the biscuit in the top shelf and scoring her 4th goal of the tournament to put the score at 1-0 Storm. From that point on, there was no score until the final minute of the 3rd period. The Hericanes pulled their goalie and put the full court press on the Storm and the unthinkable happened… they scored with 50 seconds left on the clock making it 1-1. This slowed down the Storm for a bit - it took them a full seven seconds to regain the lead… Zoe Mackintosh broke down the left side, fired one in and Delaney Brown picked up the rebound, labelled it and mailed it express to the back of the net.
You might think that the game was over at this point, but you would be wrong. The Hericanes scored one last time, but it was just too late - the puck entered the net a fraction of a second after the buzzer sounded and the goal was discounted. The Bantams picked up the bronze in a fantastic first tournament. Way to go Storm, this is going to be a great season!
Written by James Mackintosh
Click here for more Bronze Medal Game Photos
