Squirts: The Gateway Gladiator Squirt team continued their strong play with two wins this weekend. On Saturday, the team faced off against Duxbury and fought to a 12-2 win. On offense, Tommy Clavell led the team with five goals and an assist. Brayden Cannon, Brayden Hathon, Liz Kilpatrick (2), Ben Hebbel, Kevin Place, and Patrick Tripp all contributed goals. The Gladiators followed up Saturday’s win with their toughest test of the season against Pembroke on Sunday morning. The team got great goaltending from Ryan Killion and strong defensive play from Mike Brown early on to help hold on until the offense was able to mount an attack in the second and third periods. Cannon led the offense with five goals while Hebbel and Hathon each had one goal in the 7-1 win. The goal scoring was supported by a great passing game led by Bree Killion, Kilpatrick and Clavell, all with two assists and Place with one assist.
Pee Wees: Gateway Gladiators Pee Wees had their season opener on Saturday versus KP Walpole. Matthew Paling put Gateway on the board followed by a goal from Ty Rebeiro and one from Nate Ribeiro with an assist from Lucas DeMoranville. Walpole and Gladiators were both playing a defensive game, but Rebeiro was able to score two more with assists credited to Ribeiro and Jacob Hebbel. Paling came in to find the back of the net one more time assisted by Rebeiro. Ryker King had a phenomenal game in net, also facing a penalty shot to secure the shut-out, ending the game 6-0.
On Sunday, it was Gladiators Pee Wees versus Barnstable for an early morning game. Gladiators were ready to go and Rebeiro, unassisted, put Gateway up less than 15 seconds into the game. Soon after, he added another assisted by Connor MacLeod. Paling added one with assist from MacLeod. In the second, Lucy Murphy found the net assisted by Ribeiro, Rebeiro added three more goals with assists from Matthew Stone and Lucas DeMoranville, and Joe Urnek added another for the Gladiators assisted from Ribeiro. In the third period, Gateway was still receiving a pressured game from Barnstable but kept skating. Ribeiro scored a goal assisted by MacLeod, Urnek got two more, both assisted from DeMoranville, and Stone put one up with assist from Macleod. Thomas Leger had a great game in net with a final score of 12-1.
Bantams: Although the 8-3 score may not reflect it, the Gateway Gladiator Bantams faced their toughest challenge of this young season on Sunday against a feisty Plymouth team. The Gladiators were short handed at the start of the game, causing some shuffling of the lines, and Plymouth took advantage, scoring the game’s first two goals. With the Gladiators down two goals, Quirino doCanto stole the puck in his own end, skated through the Plymouth team, and beat the goalie for his first goal on the day. Plymouth would erase that goal a few minutes later, moving their lead back to two goals. The Gladiators would pull within a goal when Tyler Lovendale found the back of the net on a feed from Robert Maloney and doCanto. Defenseman Will Goldman would tie the game with a wrist shot from the blue line, deflected in past the goalie, with assists going to Zach Barris and Ethan Carpentier. The second period ended in a 3-3 tie, but just 10 seconds into the third Lovendale put in the go ahead goal, assisted by Maloney and doCanto again. The score would remain that way until a power play with 58 seconds, when doCanto would go on a scoring frenzy. He would score three goals in less than 40 seconds, assisted by Liv Fryer on one and Lovendale on two, while the other was unassisted. Lovendale put the exclamation point on the game with an unassisted goal just before the buzzer sounded. Alex DeMarco had an outstanding game in net, making 13 saves.