Squirts: Last Saturday, October 15, the Gladiator Squirts faced off against Walpole Express in a battle of the undefeated. In the end, the Gladiators prevailed with a hard fought 10-3 victory. The team was led by the strong goaltending of Ryan Killion who stopped 18 of 21 shots. The offense was led by the playmaking of Ben Hebbel with four assists, Liz Kilpatrick with three assists, and Patrick Tripp and Brayden Hathon with two assists each in a game that really tested the passing and team play of the Gladiators. Scoring for the Gladiators were Brayden Cannon (3), Tommy Clavell (3), Hathon (3) and Kilpatrick (1). Mike Brown, Bree Killion and John Goll all contributed with an assist as well.
This past weekend, the Gateway Squirts continued their dominance with two more wins to improve to 10-0 on the season. On Saturday, the Squirts faced Canton and came away with an 11-3 win. The team came out playing hard with a strong passing attack that Canton could not break up. Kevin Place, playing left wing, led the passing with three assists. Kilpatrick, playing center, set up another two goals. On defense, Brown, Goll and Bree Killion all contributed with assists. Scoring for the Squirts were Clavell (5 goals & 2 assists), Cannon (3 goals & 1 assist), Hebbel (2 goals) and Kilpatrick (1 goal). In net, Ryan Killion stopped 18 of 21 shots faced.
On Sunday, the Squirts continued their dominance with a 10-2 win against the Seahawks. Clavell, the team’s leading scorer, started off the attack early and never let up. Clavell finished the game with six goals in his best game of the season. Cannon, Patrick Duggan, Tripp and Hathon all scored goals in the win. Kilpatrick led the passing with two assists. In net, the Squirts got another strong performance from Ryan Killion who stopped 26 of 28 shots faced.
Bantams: The Gateway Gladiators Bantams suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday afternoon in their State Tournament Playdown game, 6-3, against the Lower Cape Coyotes. The Gladiators got on the board first when Quirino doCanto put one by the goalie, unassisted. Lower Cape tied the game just two minutes later and took a 2-1 lead with just 13 seconds left in the period. Lower Cape then added two more goals in the second period, before doCanto scored his second goal of the game, assisted by Tyler Lovendale and Will Goldman. Lower Cape kept the pressure on with another two goals in the third period. The Gladiators didn’t give up though, with Matt Cadieux finding the back of the net on a one timer from the blue line, assisted by Lovendale and Goldman. Alex DeMarco played tremendous in net, saving 46 of the 52 shots he faced on the day.
Midgets: The Gateway Midget team came up just short on Thursday night in a 5-4 rematch with the Brockton Cyclones. Gateway actually got on the board first with Jared Westgate taking a pass from Brian Pollock and beating the goalie with a wrist shot over the goalie’s shoulder. Brockton tied the game a few minutes later, leaving the score at a 1-1 tie after one period. The score remained that way until late in the second period when Brockton got two quick goals, giving them a 3-1 lead after two periods. It didn’t look great for Gateway when Brockton got two more goals in the third period, making their lead four goals. The tables turned with two minutes left in the game and Tyler Lovendale took a feed from brother, Zack Lovendale, and snuck it through the five hole of the Cyclones goalie. Zack would then score a goal of his own, less than a minute later, as a result of some nice passing from Westgate and Pollock. Trailing by two with less than a minute remaining in the game, Quirino doCanto put home a rebound from a Peter Pimental shot. Then, with less than thirty seconds and an empty net, Gateway fought furiously and came up just short, with the game ending on a near miss tip attempt by doCanto and a save by the goalie. Steven Strachan faced 36 shots on the night, making 31 saves.
The Gateway Midget team lost their second game of the week, 6-0, to a tough SWS team. The Gateway team only mustered a few shots on net and failed to get anything going on Sunday. Strachan made 29 saves on the day. The Midget team will look to come back from this week as they play two games next Friday and Sunday.