December 3, 2009

For the second year in a row the team went up to Castleton St to play in their tournament - in the first round we drew the short straw and faced last years Div 111 champ Neumann of Mn. - the first and second periods were pretty much all Neumann, they put constant pressure on our D but with Barchard in the net we were able to keep the game close - we scored on a PP at 8:51 of the first period Diaco from Amico and Wilson - this only held up for a few minutes with Neumann tying it up at 11:32 - the next 20 minutes or so saw no goals scored but we still were under constant pressure, finally Neumann went up by one at 15:18 of period 2 on a PP - the period was filled with penalties, many matching, but we got out of the period only down by one ----- in the third period Cooper wasted no time tying it up at 0:12 from Derosa and Pieri - minutes later John made it 3-2 from Vitale and Derosa, Korchin then made it 4-2 from Diaco and Walker and now the pressure is on Neumann to get rolling again - well, once again our defense held up, Neumann could not score and an empty netter at 19:16 Vitale from Pieri put an end to Neumann's misery - a great win for the Jumbos - now on to the finals against host Castleton, a team we have had trouble with the past two years

In the first period play was ragged the first half of the period with many penalties but no scoring until 17:58 when Diaco scored on the PP from Wilson and Walker, and that is how the period ended - in the second period the Jumbos started to outplay Castleton and it showed on the scoreboard - we made it 2-0 at 6:45 Plimmer from Amica and Antonelli, 3-0 Pieri unassisted and 4-0 Walker from Rosano and Korchin at 16:20 - that was it for the second period ----- Castleton finally broke through at 2:15 in the third period but Tufts came back on the PP Cooper from Derosa and Pieri to keep the led at 4 ----- a late Castleton goal made the final 5-2 and a tournament win for Tufts - an exciting weekend of hockey ------ first stars for the final were Scott Barchard at #1, unsung Conor Pieri at #2 and Lindsay Walker at #3 --- on the all tourney team were the three above Jumbos plus Zack Diaco (and I think someone else - would welcome that info)

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