OJR Elementary wins title at Ice Line Christmas tourney
BUCKTOWN — The Owen J. Roberts Elementary Hockey team won the Ice Line Christmas tournament in West Chester late last month.
In Wednesday’s opener the Wildcats took on division rival Shanahan. The Wildcats outshot Shanahan, 10-1, in a scoreless first period en route to a 4-0 win.
Shanahan goalie Dominick Veneziale played well, keeping the Wildcats off the scoreboard with several big saves, while OJR’s goalie Dawson Sakowski was only tested once in that opening period. The Wildcats peppered Veneziale with 11 shots in the second period. Dylan Gratton struck first for OJR, scoring an unassisted goal that turned out to be the game winner. Shawn Dubey gave OJR with a 2-0 lead. Andrew Budzynski and Dylan Gratton picked up the assists. Sakowski saw three more shots from Shanahan in the middle period. The Wildcats picked up two more goals in the third period to increase their lead to 4-0. Zach Kuhar added an early third period goal. Wyatt Legge scored OJR’s fourth goal. The Wildcats outshot Shanahan in the final pe- riod 11-6, for a game total of 31-10 shot advantage. Dawson Sakowski made 10 saves in picking up the shutout win for OJR.
In Game 2, the Wildcats played the up-andcoming Rustin A Elementary B team. Rustin was no match for the experienced Wildcats who cruised to a 13-0 win, outshooting the Knights 43-0. Alex Walsberg picked up his first goal of the season on a nice setup from Venezia and Dawson Sakowski. Sakowski skated out as a forward for the first time in over a year and scored his first goal. Cole Heintz added two goals and two assists. Rory Booth, Andrew Budzynski and Ethan Venezia each added two goals and one assist. Ryan Walsh also chipped in a goal and had three assists. Wyatt Legge added three assists, with Dylan Gratton adding two assists.
In Game 3 the Wildcats took on another young team in the Twin Valley Raiders and the Wildcats rolled out to a 4-0 lead in the first three minutes en route to an 11-0 win. Budzynski and Booth led OJR with two goals each. Gratton added one goal and one assist. Cole Heintz also chipped in one goal and one assist. Heintz’s goal came after setting up Alex Walsberg’s second goal of the tournament on a power play. Venezia added two assists, The other goal scorers were Shawn Dubey and Adam Carter. First year player Gavin Schultz added an unassisted goal. Ryan Walsh and Wyatt Legge added assists.
In Friday’s Elementary AA Division Championship versus Shanahan, the Wildcats prevailed in a chippy and tense fought game for a 9-2 to win their first ever tournament championship.
The Wildcats were without one of their top players, Gratton, leading to some line juggling. The Wildcats still came out on the attack, scoring four first-period goals. The OJR game plan was to drive to the net and look for rebounds, a strategy which worked on three of their four goals in the opening period. Budzynski buried a Walsh rebound for the first goal with just over three minutes played. Booth set up the second OJR goal when he intercepted a pass at center ice and passed to Carter, Carter’s initial shot was saved by Veneziale, but Sakowski, skating as a forward instead of goaltending, was there to ram home Carter’s rebound for a 2-0 lead. OJR increased the score to 3-0 just 46 seconds later when Venezia beat Veneziale to the left side. Cole Heintz’s finished off the scoring in the opening period with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle during a line change.
The Wildcats added three more goals in the final frame. Every player who skated out had at least one goal. The Wildcats outshot the Eagles 23-9. Ryan Sweeney picked up the win, his second of the tournament, and backstopped the Wildcats to the Championship. Passing was the key to all four games as each player looked for their teammates to pass to. Pottstown Penguins The Pottstown Penguins Midget Gold team took on the Regency Panthers at The Hill School with the game ending in a 2-2 tie. Pottstown, still beset by injury and dressing only 10 skaters, jumped out to an early lead on a goal by Benjamin Felice. Regency took a 2-1 lead into the third period only to see Pottstown put forth a valiant effort to tie the game on a goal by Brandon Readinger. Dante Felice and Sam Miller contributed assists, while Tim Potts held the Panthers off in goal.
The tie leaves Pottstowns record at 7-5-2 and still tied for fifth place in the THL.