By David LaBash
Warrior Utica HS
1st Place
Division 3, Yearbook
Sports Reporting
As the boys looked to turn a rough start to the season around, they came up against the Avondale Yellow Jackets, a cross division rival who beat the team the previous year. The boys arrived to the rink a little over an hour before game time to warm up and prepare before the game. About five minutes before taking the ice, head coach Matthew Burke came into the locker room to address the team one last time.
“This was a huge game for us, especially after last year. They handed us our first loss last season,” Burke said. “I knew it was going to be a tight game from the start.” From the drop of the puck, both teams came out flying. With Avondale taking an early penalty, the boys knew they had to capitalize on the power play. As Avondale failed to clear the puck out of the crease, senior captain David LaBash knocked in the loose puck to put the Chieftains ahead early.
As the teams intensely battled through the first period, Avondale scored a late goal, sending the teams into intermission tied at one.
While both teams headed into the second period, the message was clear that the intensity of both the teams and fans was rising. Avondale came out strong, and scored quickly to go up by one. The boys were battling hard, and received another power play. With a great pass from senior forward Evan Gizinski, senior Alec George scored off the one-timer to tie the game at two.
“I knew I had to one-time it to beat the goalie,” George said. ”It was a critical time in the game, and we needed to score.”
The teams were still working hard and putting up a fight. They were headed into the third period with a five on three power play. Going three for three on the power play, LaBash scored his second goal of the game to go ahead three-two.
“In between periods, Burke made it a huge point how critical the power play was,” LaBash said. “After that goal, they looked defeated.”
With just over three minutes left in the game, a Yellow Jacket player dumped the puck in the zone, and it de ected o a Utica defender and trickled past goaltender junior Jacob Lawson.
“I couldn’t believe it went in the net after going o my stick,” junior Anthony Taormina said. “The feeling was indescribable. I felt awful.”
With only a few minutes left in the third period, the boys pushed to try to score, but the clock expired and forced the game into overtime.
As overtime started, all of the fans were on the edge of their seat watching anxiously. Avondale came out strong, and a Yellow Jacket broke free, but was denied a goal by Lawson. With the Chieftains receiving a power play, Gizinski broke free and scored, leading the Chieftains to defeat Avondale 4-3.