Trojans Ground Eagles in SportsFest Ice Hockey Championship
Jul 14, 2009
Trojans Ground Eagles in SportsFest Ice Hockey Championship
In an exciting conclusion to the inaugural SportsFest ice hockey tournament, Parkland beat a tough Exeter team from Berks County, 5-3 in a dramatic, down-to-the-wire shoot-out. After 42 minutes of regulation play and a five minute sudden-death overtime, it all came down to a three man shoot-out.
Parkland senior Jeremy Campano went first and slid a back-hander past the Eagles senior goalie, Jordan Sweigert. Freshman Ron Baker shot first for the East Penn League squad, but was turned away by junior Trojan net minder, Jordan Potosky. Parkland junior Daniel Plinke followed with a nifty right-to-left move, beating Sweigert to the spot, but the puck slid off his stick as he went to launch the shot. High scoring senior Josh Sherman was next up for the Eagles, but Postosky got the butt end of his stick on the puck before Sherman could finish. Finally, Senior Joey Stock sealed the deal with a straight-on shot through the five-hole for the spectacular win.
The two teams had played earlier in the round robin part of the tournament, and Exeter had won that one 3-2, earning the home team advantage for the championship match. Sherman opened up the scoring at 11:24 of the first period with an unassisted tally that was the result of a critical, neutral ice turn-over. The score would remain 1-0 until late in the second period when Campano would pick up two quick ones for the Trojans. The first came at 4:37, assisted by Plinke, and the second at :43 off an amazing feed from a sprawled-out Zach McHale, who was able to sweep the puck to Campano charging the net.
After an ice cut during the second intermission, Exeter freshman Darren Erb got on the board at 13:12 of the third period with an assist from senior Tyler Lubas to tie it up at two apiece. Five minutes later, junior Conor Higgins beat Potosky low for the Eagles go-ahead goal. Like a Hollywood script, with three minutes remaining in regulation, senior McHale tied it up when he got his stick on a shot from the high slot by Stock, and sizzled the deflection past the helpless Sweigert. Plinke started the play with his tournament leading ninth assist.
Campano ended up the leading scorer for the tournament with nine goals and three assists for twelve points. Three players tied for second with eleven points: Senior Chris Brown from Pennridge with five goals and six assists, Plinke with two goals and nine assists, and Sherman with seven goals and four assists. Trojan goalers Potosky and junior Tim Hilty led all goal tenders with identical .917 save percentages, and 0.83 goals against averages.
By everyone’s estimation, the inaugural SportsFest ice hockey tournament was a huge success, and next years edition should be even bigger and include teams from a larger geographic area. However, regardless of how big the tournament grows over the years, it’s going to have a very hard time topping the first one.