On March 4, the Bantam A team from Tri-County Youth Hockey beat the Webster Cyclones team 6-1 in the Empire Amateur Hockey Conference championship game to cap an incredible season. The players, made up of 13 and 14-year-olds from Brockport, Churchville, Spencerport, Hilton, Medina, Albion and Kendall, started with a common goal at the very first practice last September - to be champions. Through hard work, determination, preparation and teamwork, they went 16-0 during the regular season and then 3-0 in play-offs to capture the big prize, but not without some adversity. Three players broke their wrists, half of the team had conflicts with high school hockey games and some missed games for personal reasons. The team never had a full roster on the ice after the third league game, but won as a solid team. The roster included Forwards Joe Altobelli (Spencerport), Dan Callahan (Brockport), Corey Crandall (Brockport), Andrew Harris (Hilton), Austin Hintz (Spencerport), Nick Holler (Albion), Scotty Stedman (Kendall), Ryan Till (Brockport) and Brad Zacher (Medina), Defensemen Jacob Gaskill (Brockport), Timmy O'Donnell (Churchville), RJ Purpura (Spencerport) and Justin Versage (Brockport) along with goalie Luke Eichas (Hilton). Team members that also played for local high school programs included Andrew (Hilton Varsity), Joe and RJ (Spencerport Varsity), Timmy and Luke (Churchville-Chili JV), Danny, Corey, Jake, Scott and Justin (Brockport JV). The team also played in and won three separate Bantam tournaments in the area. The first was over Thanksgiving weekend at the Lakeshore rink, during which they lost their only game of the season, but ultimately were overall winners. The second was the Martin Luther King event in Auburn, beating teams from Monroe County, Auburn and Clinton to take home the trophy. The final weekend of the year was spent in Webster at the Boulter Classic facing their season-long nemesis from Webster twice, along with Perinton and another Webster team. The championship game ended in a tie and forced a shoot-out with Timmy O'Donnell scoring the only goal to win and Luke Eichas stopping every puck they threw at him. That win brought their overall record to 29 wins, one loss and one tie. The team was coached by Ron Purpura, Jim Stedman and Joe Versage and managed by Laurie and Ed Hoover. March 25, 2007 |
