Squirts: Gateway Gladiator Squirts faced K.P. Walpole on Saturday for their last regular season game and they made it count, taking the 3-0 win. Both teams played a defensive game in the first period with no tallies. In the second, Ty David Ribeiro, with assist from Benjamin Hebbel, put Gateway on the board. Matthew Paling also scored, unassisted. Ribeiro scored his second goal of the game later in the second period, also unassisted. The third period was another defensive period with both teams really playing hard. Gateway Gladiator Squirts are off to the playoffs starting next week.
Pee Wees: The Gladiator Pee Wees played an excellent game on Sunday morning against an always competitive Walpole Express Red. The game started out very close with each team posting back and forth goals to end the first period in a 2-2 tie, but Gateway poured it on in the second and third periods to pull away with a purpose. Goalie Ryker King made numerous tough saves and Gateway’s defense to include Luke Mello, Stephen Old, Bailey Tieu and Ben Martins played incredibly tough to stop Walpole’s scoring attempts. The Gladiator forwards made some great passes, they shot often and crashed the net to put in the last four goals which ended the game with score of 6-4 and earned Ben Demoranville a hat trick.
Bantams: The Gladiators’ Bantam team came up a little short, playing up two divisions against Canton, in preparation for their playoffs that start next weekend. Canton opened up the scoring less than five minutes into the game, putting in a rebound. The Gladiators would battle back to tie it up just five minutes later when Jack Martins put in a rebound of a Robert Ramsay shot. The score would remain that way until late in the second period when Nick Snow tapped in a loose puck after a shot from Martins, with Ramsay grabbing another assist. Canton then scored with one minute left in the second period to knot it up at two at the end of the second. The Gladiators then fell flat at the start of the third period, and Canton quickly capitalized on turnovers, scoring two quick goals. They would add an empty net goal, making the final 5-2. Jake DeMoranville faced a number of shots and did everything he could to keep his team in the game, making many saves. The Gladiators will begin their playoff series next weekend against Walpole.
Middle School: The Middle School Jr. Vikings skated to a tough 7-7 tie against a Dedham team that beat them 6-1 in their previous meeting. Dedham jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but the Jr. Vikings would cut that in half when Jack Martins stole an errant pass, strolled in and beat the goalie with a hard wrist shot. Dedham then scored another goal, putting them back up by two, until with one minute remaining in the first period, Tyler Lovendale scored a highlight reel goal, also known as “The Forsberg,” bringing the Jr. Vikings to within one. The Jr. Vikings would tie the game early in the second period, when Quirino doCanto wove through the Dedham team and finished the rush by sneaking one under the Dedham goalie as doCanto was going down the ice. Seth Tomasik would follow that up with an end-to-end rush of his own, beating the goalie with a hard, blue line, wrist shot. The assist came from goalie Alex DeMarco, his first of the season. Tomasik wasn’t done though, when a few minutes later he wound up at the blue line again and released a thunderous slap shot, beating the goalie who didn’t even see the puck go by him. Dedham would add a goal, bringing them within a goal of the Jr. Vikings, until doCanto would add a short-handed goal, coming from behind the net and putting in a backhand goal off of the goalie. The Jr. Vikings would go up by three early in the third period, when doCanto would complete the hat trick, decking the goalie and easily putting it in the net, assisted by Robert Maloney. Unfortunately, the Jr. Vikings couldn’t hold onto the lead, getting a little sluggish and complacent, allowing Dedham to fight back and tie the game 7-7. DeMarco had a good game in net, facing many shots.