Minor midget AA Hawks finalists in London

The minor midget AA BFCPlace.com Hawks ended up as finalists of the recent London tourney.

The Caledon minor midget AA BFCPlace.com Hawks fared well in the recent London Junior Knights Triple '20' Shootout tournament at the Western Fairgrounds in London, featuring 20-minute periods with a flood between each period.

The team's first game Oct. 26 was early but the boys came out hot against host London. With solid goaltending from Andrew Gabriele, Andrew Dominey found the net early in the 1st period unassisted. In the second Matt Somers added to the total from Matt Verdone. Ryan Huggins scored early in the third from Robert Silvestri and Jonathan Monti and then Huggins found the net again less than a minute later from Daniel Junik. Junik capped off the scoring in the dying minutes of the 3rd from Jonathan Batten and Verdone as the boys took the opening game by a score of 5-2.

Game 2 against Clarington saw the opponents jump out to a 1-0 lead but it was shortlived as Batten put the Hawks on the board from Huggins. A few minutes later Batten netted another one from Dominey and Huggins and the period finished with Caledon ahead 2-1.

Batten completed his hat-trick early in the second on a goal from Dominey and Somers and then Batten added to his total finding the back of the net from Patrick Francella and Nick Roberti. Batten ended the second period with his 5th goal of the game from Verdone. In the 3rd Ryan Huggins finished the scoring from Alex Schittenhelm and Dominey and the boys went on to take the second game 6-1. Goalie Anthony Fera made a number of key saves, allowing only one goal in this contest.

The third game was all Toronto Aces as the boys lost 3-0 but their 2 wins, 1 loss record gave them 1st place in their division and it was enough to move them into the playoff round.

With goalie Fera between the pipes they ran up against a strong Vaughan Panthers team in the semifinals. The first period was a goaltenders dual and ended in a 0-0 draw. Vaughan drew first blood early in the 2nd but Caledon came back quickly with a goal by Somers from Lee Panchuk. Somers followed quickly with another goal from Matt Forer.

The 3rd period was another scoreless goaltenders dual until Huggins fired the puck into an empty Vaughan net and the boys were off to the finals with a 3-1 victory.

The boys ran out of gas in the finals as they went on to lose to the reigning OMHA champions and OHF finalists, Whitby. Silvestri was able to find the net from Mellace and Batten also netted one from Dominey and Tyler Nutzenberger. That didn't prove to be enough against an overpowering Whitby team but the boys were pleased with their showing in this prestigious tournament competing against some of the top teams in Ontario.

Thanks to coach Elliot Forer, trainer Alex Gunn, assistants Sam Fera and Rob Roberti, and manager Susan Batten for their continuing efforts and support.