Avon Lake hangs tough with Red Division foe THE SCORE

Blue Division teams aren’t supposed to be able to compete with White Division teams, let alone Red Division.

Someone apparently forgot to tell that to Avon Lake.

The Shoremen hung tough with Strongsville in a Brooklyn District sectional semifinal on Feb. 9 at Brooklyn’s John M. Coyne Recreation Center and, even though Avon Lake ultimately lost, 5-2, it was anyone’s game until the end.

“They’re a good team,” Avon Lake coach Fran Sullivan said. “They do a lot of stuff right. I was disappointed with our play early STRONGSVILLE 5, AVON LAKE 2

on since they were beating us to the puck so often. But there’s a lot of heart in our locker room. I knew our guys wanted it.”

Strongsville (11-20-1) advances to face Rocky River in a sectional final on Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. Avon Lake’s season comes to a close at 225-1.

Typically when teams two divisions apart in the Greater Cleveland High School Hockey League meet, the game is over 10 minutes in and only takes two periods. Not this time. It took 23 minutes for Strongsville to take a solid lead in this one, and even then, it was still a shaky 4-1 advantage.

In fact, Strongsville only beat the Shoremen in one period — the second — as the first and third period saw a goal each for both sides.

You can credit Avon Lake junior Cam Stepka for that.

“She’s been solid all year,” Sullivan said. “She takes her craft very seriously. She works hard in practice and is always ready. She’s the first one dressed on game day and out in the hall getting focused . ... She’s a delight as a person off the ice. And everyone respects her.”

The goalie made 41 saves in the loss, including 20 in the second period when Strongsville was trying to break the game open.

“I went into the game knowing it was going to be very hard,” Stepka said. “They’re a Red Division team and we’re obviously two divisions below them. I just had to stay mentally strong throughout the game.”

Sullivan said that Stepka’s play in the second period was not a big shock to him.

“She’s got that goalie knack where she lets one in and forgets about it almost immediately,” Sullivan said. “That was exactly how she needed to approach that period.”

Getting a chance to hold a team like Strongsville at bay was something Stepka said she’s not going to forget anytime soon.

“This was our game to take,” Stepka said. “Not many Blue Division teams can say that heading into the third period against a Red Division team. It’s a great memory, that’s for sure.”

Strongsville got on the board first when Adam Cook put a rebound in amid chaos in front of the Avon Lake net.

That was it for the Mustangs for the next 16 minutes as Stepka made 13 saves in the period and junior Jared Aslaksen drew the game even with 2:17 to play in the first.

Strongsville netted three goals in the second with Greg Williams scoring first and Bryce Born netting a pair nine seconds apart to make it a 4-1 game after two periods.

Avon Lake made it interesting when Patrick Graney scored less than three minutes into the third period to make it 4-2, but it was all the offense the Shoremen could muster.

Born completed a hattrick for the Mustangs with 4:16 to play to cap the scoring.

“You know, you wish you could have gotten a bit more offense, but the thing is, they’re a great team,” Sullivan said. “We were in it in the third period which is something not a lot of teams would be able to say. You don’t want your team to be happy with losing, but this is one where, once the sting of the season being done is gone, you can think about and enjoy.”