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Export date: Thu Mar 28 21:05:52 2024 / +0000 GMT

Nobleton’s novice Knights strike gold again




With the NobleKing Novice LL1 Team still in celebration mode from their win at the Hockey Moms of Delhi Tournament, they were at it again at the Wasaga Beach Novice LL Tournament on Jan. 27. It was just one week prior that the Knights were raising their arms celebrating their first tournament win of the season. Just a short 6 days later, they headed up to the town of Wasaga to compete in another battle.
Exhausted from the hard-fought victory, the boys had to get all their energy back for this challenge. One short practice of preparation between games and it was on the ice for game one of the tournament. The Knights round robin draws were against the towns of Essa and Muskoka, who were tagged as the number 2 favourites, behind the hometown Wasaga Stars.
It was another early riser for the Knights and both teams were off to a sluggish start. Lots of early whistles kept the pace down and didn't allow either team to gain momentum. The excitement began at the 8:34 mark of the first period when Daniel Pathan buried a rebound on a shot to give the Knights an early lead. It was from that moment that the momentum started to build. Not even a minute later, Marco Tucciarone got sent in alone with a pass from CJ Rotiroti and made it 2-0. Both teams exchanged goals in the 2nd period with Xavier Manzerra finding the scoresheet once again. With the score sitting at 3-1 for the visitors, Essa scores to make it a 1-goal game and setting up for an exciting finish. With time winding down, the Knights had iced the game with their 4th goal and go on to win their opening round game.
The buzz was in the air. Could this novice team from King do it again? The boys seemed to think so. They came out of the gates roaring for game 2 and exploded with 3 goals in the 1st period. Nicolas Mbermberakis, Joseph Cerqua and Luigi Gerardi gave the Knights the big early lead. Muskoka however, did not go quietly into the night. They had scored 4 unanswered times in the 2nd to tie the game at 4. With time winding down in the period, Muskoka had scored another, ending the 2nd period up 5-4. The boys of NobleKing were behind for the first time with their heads hanging heavy, they were staring at the ground with glossy sadness in their eyes. They needed some inspiration. And that's what they got. Head Coach Chris Gerardi, Assistant Coach Orin Del Vecchio, and trainers, Carlo Manzerra and Danny Tomada started to feed the positive vibes back into the boys and reminded them that there was still a 3rd period to play and to fight, fight, fight, if they did not want it to be the last period of the tournament. They drew up the game plan, made their necessary changes and told them to bring it home.
Once again, with a short bench as Taran Steed and Stefan Niro were unable to make the trip, the boys needed to find some secondary scoring if they were going to pull this one out. Boy did they find it. With one of his is best games of the year, Michael Racco, narrowly missing 2 earlier opportunities, made this one count. He tied the game at 5 mid-way through the 3rd. The boys were now energized once again, with the crowd fully behind them. Julian Tomada found his winger in the slot, with the goalie out to challenge, and Xavier unbelievably flicked the puck over the goalie and into the top corner. “The Knights have the lead, the Knights have the lead” screamed the announcer. With the cheering still pounding, the Knights score another two to win 7-5.
Now it was on to face the hometown boys, the Wasaga Stars, in the final. They're known to have a high scoring offence and strong goaltending. Well, the Knights proved to be quite the challenge for the Stars. With the defence getting all the ice time they could handle, they came to shut down these scoring Stars. Joshua Del Vecchio, Luca Mignardi, Patrick Filippo and Christian Volpe must have had a game plan which obviously included their star goaltender Luke Di Fonzo. Together they shut this Wasaga team down, earning Luke a shutout. The offence must not go unnoticed, scoring a whopping 7 goals. With one of the Knights' players unable to attend his last tournament, he wanted to make sure he contributed to this tournament, and that he did, in a big way! Roman Tarantino scored 3 of those 7 goals, earning himself player of the game.
This NobleKing Knights team is starting to make it look a little too easy, after capturing gold in back to back tournaments.

Post date: 2019-02-06 11:15:11
Post date GMT: 2019-02-06 16:15:11
Post modified date: 2019-04-10 09:49:56
Post modified date GMT: 2019-04-10 13:49:56
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