On
March 21st the Hagersville Restaurant Peewee LL Hawks headed back to
Talbot Gardens in Simcoe to play their last scheduled game of the Marci Cook
Memorial Tournament against the Thorold Blackhawks.
Hagersville was out for a win so that they would secure first place in their pool and head to the semifinal game on Sunday. The Hawks made a statement to Thorold within the first 10 seconds of the game when Michael Aube opened up the scoring for Hagersville’s side with a beauty shot he received from Jaden Speers and Nolan McNeil. McNeil followed up with a goal of his own unassisted within the first minute of the game as well and Hagersville found themselves ahead by 2 in the first period.
The second period saw some beautiful plays and passing from all the kids as they tried to maintain their lead. A beautiful play between Dylan Sherry, Brett Russell and Hannah McNeice was one such instance. McNeice passed the puck up to Russell who passed the puck over to Dylan who sent the puck home. McNeil followed up with another goal of his own in the second, unassisted, with just over two minutes left giving Hagersville a comfortable lead heading in to the third.
Mason Leenders, who has been phenomenal all weekend, continued his trend in this game as he made stop after stop. Defensive players A.J. Elliott, Drailyn Hill, Owen Mattice and Jaden Speers were a brick wall as they continually stopped the Thorold players coming in. The offensive action from Ethan Trainer, Brayden Topp, Hannah McNeice, Dominic Baillie, Dylan Sherry, Brett Russell, Michael Aube and Nolan McNeil continued into the third period where McNeil finished off his hat trick with another unassisted goal and giving Hagersville a 5 and 0 lead. Leenders secured a tournament shutout as the final seconds of the third ticked away and the team is heading to the semifinals on Sunday in first place. Way to go Hawks. Keep up the good work.