Dakota wins opener of hockey doubleheader with rival Ike
The crowd was diminished. The intensity was not.
Preston Stenzel scored the only goal of the game in the third period to lift Dakota to a 1-0 victory over rival Eisenhower in a MAC Red Division hockey game at Suburban Ice Macomb on Monday morning.
A small group of socially distanced fans attended what ordinarily would be a game with a pitched atmosphere, but both sides said there was no lack of ferocity in the first half of a day-night doubleheader between the Macomb County powers.
“Waking up, you had the jitters, you were ready to go and you just wanted to start playing,” Stenzel said.
“It’s going to be high energy (for both games).”
The teams skated at Mount Clemens Ice Arena, the Cougars’ home rink, in the evening.
The doubleheader, the limited audience and face masks everywhere were all concessions to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced a late start to the season and condensed the schedule.
Junior Jeffrey Buckley won a goalie duel with sophomore Evan Hays.
Stenzel’s right-handed shot found its mark with 8:48 left, after senior Ethan Julin slid the puck to Stenzel,
who shot from a step inside the blue line.
“It felt good, especially against Eisenhower, our rival for a few years,” Stenzel said. “It felt amazing to bury that one and then hold them out at the end.”
Eisenhower pressured the Dakota net in the waning moments, but couldn’t slip a shot past Buckley.
“It was a good, back-andforth game,” Eisenhower coach Bob Hall said. “I was intense, the players were intense. They felt my intensity in how I was fired up.
“It was a battle. There were a lot of hard hits. There were guys crawling back to the bench. It was just one of those games where bodies are going to fly.”
Jim Andonoff, the Dakota coach, called the doubleheader “a big thing.”
“The kids have been excited for it,” he said. “It’s always a rivalry, no matter when we play. The kids are psyched, the coaches are psyched. It’s just a big rivalry. It’s fun.”
The night game was the fifth of the season for both teams in a schedule that was squeezed into five weeks.
“I’ve got a list of about 100 things we need to work on, but I don’t have any time to work on them. That’s the hard part,” Hall said.
“We are so jam packed with games, we’re lucky if we get one practice a week, and that hurts. It’s not an easy task.”
Eisenhower was 1-3 after
the morning defeat.
“We can’t find our rhythm offensively,” Hall said. Dakota was 2-2. “I believe we’ve done well in all of our games,” Andonoff said. “Today, I noticed that mistakes we made earlier have been corrected.
“We’ve got to start scoring goals.”
Eisenhower skates against Romeo and Dakota meets L’Anse Creuse Unified in MAC Red games Friday.
ROMEO 4, UTICA FORD UNIFIED 1
Evan Drouillard and Mason Giza had a goal and an assist apiece in the third period to spark Romeo over Utica Ford Unified in a MAC crossover game at Suburban Ice Macomb.
Giza’s goal, assisted by Drouillard and Cullen
Jones, gave the MAC Red Bulldogs a 3-0 lead, and Drouillard scored with 5:03 left after UFU had cut the lead to 3-1.
“We started off a little slow, but between periods we got under each other’s skin a little bit and got going,” Drouillard said.
Giza and Jacek Klebba assisted on Drouillard’s goal.
Nick Wilkinson scored in the first period and Kyle Giza scored with a two-man advantage in the second for the Bulldogs.
Devon Seymour was the winning goalie as Romeo improved to 3-1.
“When we play well, we can do some damage,” Kyle Giza said.
Vincent Ruffino and Kyle Giza assisted on Wilkiinson’s goal. Ruffino and Nicco DeStefanis assisted on Kyle Giza’s goal.
“There’s no bad kid on our team,” Drouillard said. “Everybody has their talents and works really hard. We’re a really good team when we play together.”
With Romeo a man short because of an interference penalty, junior Connor DiPonio scored for Utica Ford Unified (1-3). Frank Valenti and Ryan Kotchi assisted on DiPonio’s goal.
“It’s a tough loss, Romeo’s a really good team, but actually the team has never been better,” Utica Ford Unified coach Bob Clouston said.
Clouston said his program has 26 players, including three goalies. Five years ago, those numbers were 11 and one.
“The program’s growing,” Clouston said. “We’re super-excited.
“We’re playing well, but we’re playing good teams.”
Utica Ford Unified plays Dearborn Unified on Wednesday.
ROMEO 5, GROSSE POINTE NORTH 3
Nicco DeStafanis scored two goals and Vincent Ruffino, Kyle Giza and Evan Drouillard had one apiece to lead Romeo in the nonleague game.
BOYS BASKETBALL PARKWAY CHRISTIAN 61, HURON VALLEY LUTHERAN 54
Parkway Christian overcame a 16-point deficit to move to 2-0 in the MIAC Red. Austin Hosmer scored 23 points while adding 14 rebounds. John Stricker scored 19 points and had 12 rebounds and six steals.
ANN ARBOR RICHARD 56, LUTHERAN NORTH 51
Lutheran North was led by Jacob Burke with 16 points, Logan Petzold with 14 and Nick Petersdorf with 10. The Mustangs play Detroit Country Day on Tuesday.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
FORD 48, CHIPPEWA VALLEY 15
Olivia Kubik led Ford with 12 points and five steals. Alyssa Romatz had eight points, four steals and five rebounds. Denice Drewek and Maddy Bettys both had six points with Drewek pulling down seven boards and Bettys getting six boards and three steals. Ford is 2-1, Chippewa Valley 0-3.
GP SOUTH 70, LC 39
Alexa Downey had 20 points, seven steals and four assists and Sarah Rogers had 13 points and three assists to lead Grosse Pointe South. Keely Conlan had nine points and Cameron Lundh eight. Rylee Thomas made four 3-pointers and scored 14 points for L’Anse Creuse.