Diamond Towing midgets take Lake Placid and Vaughan by storm

The Caledon Blackhawks midget Select team won the recent Vaughan Marshall Tournament. Seen here are (back row) Assistant Coach Mike Klich, Dante Commisso, Steven Pinarello, Adam Perri, Ryan Mason, Adam Guadagnini, Mathew Perri, Robert Ferrante, Lucas Bifolchi, Dylan Smith, Head Coach Louis Guadagnini, Trainer Jim Smolak, (middle row) Sam Mantini, Brandon Parps, Jake Smolak, RJ Oswald, Vince DiSomma, Aaron Pederson, Brendon Pace, Danny DaSilva (front row) and Manager Carole Klich. Mike Favot was absent.

The Caledon Blackhawks Diamond Towing midget select team has been very busy for the first half of the season gathering tournament medals.

The team entered the Vaughan Tournament the Nov. 24 weekend and played four outstanding games against some pretty stiff competition.

In their first game, they faced off against the intimidating Vaughan Rangers, who managed to score two unanswered goals in the first period followed with a third marker at the beginning of the second.

It was then the Blackhawks knew they could take this team and shut them down.

The flurry of goals started with Dylan Smith, assisted by Steven Pinarello and Robert Ferrante. The crowd went wild! Shortley after, Adam Perri took control of the puck, passing it off to teammate Dante Commisso, who sniped the puck to Lucas Bifolchi. Bifolchi turned on the jets and before the Vaughan goaltender knew it, Caledon was only behind by one goal.

After a short briefing between the Caledon coaches and players, the third period began. The boys were on fire with two more unanswered goals by Pinarello and Brandon Parps, with the assists going to Jake Smolak, Ferrante, Vince DiSomma and Bifolchi, ending the game in a 4-3 victory for Caledon.

The second game was a crushing blow for the Caledon team with a 3-2 loss. The Blackhawk goals came from Pinarello and Ryan Mason, assisted by Perri, Bifolchi and Ferrante.

This game put the Caledon players into overdrive for their third match of the tournament.

Facing off against the Georgetown Raiders, Caledon started the scoring off with a beautiful unassisted, end-to-end goal by Aaron Pederson. The scoring did not end for Pederson. He followed up with three more goals, two unassisted and one assisted by Pinarello, giving Pederson a hat trick plus one. Smith wanted a piece of the Georgetown net as well, and fired the puck passed the goaltender to show their presence in the Vaughan Stadium. Smith and Pederson helped with the sixth goal of the game, scored by Pinarello tying up the game 6-6. Parps was not satisfied with a tie and with only 48.2 seconds left in the game came through with an amazing, crowd pleasing, end-to-end goal, making it a 7-6 victory for the fierce Caledon team.

So far both goaltenders, Sam Mantini and Danny DaSilva, have kept the boys playing as a team and made some of the most incredible saves this writer has seen in a long time. This took them into the championship game against the Willowdale team. Knowing that Willowdale had won the last time the teams faced off, the coaching staff of Louis Guadagnini, Mike Klich and Jim Smolak brilliantly pumped the Caledon team up, sending them into the stadium with the know-how to get the job done.

The puck dropped, and the Blackhawks crashed the Willowdale net with three unbelievable goals scored by the punishing forward players Perri, Parps and Bifolchi, with assists going to Mason, Smith, Smolak, Ferrante and Guadagnini.

Holly Macanaugh!!! We have a game here folks!

In the third period, Willowdale did all they could, but put in only three goals. The Caledon team did not stop short of their game, and came back with a snipe show by Smolak, with the help from Brendon Pace and DiSomma.

And just for fun, Pinarello was passed the puck from Commisso and Guadagnini for the final goal of the tournament, taking home the championship trophy for the Diamond Towing Blackhawks of Caledon.

The team also took on Lake Placid with a vengeance in December, showing off their talents in the Canadian Hockey Enterprise Tournament, making Caledon proud with a bronze medal.

They played four games in total. Parps, Smolak and Pinarello led the way in scoring with three each, followed by Perri and Mason with a pair apiece and Smith, Pace, Mike Favot and RJ Oswald with singles. The assists went to Guadagnini, Mathew Grossi, Perri, Parps, Pederson, Pace, Pinarello, Commisso, Favot, Mason, DiSomma, Bifolchi, Smolak, and Oswald.

Once again a clinic was put on by the outstanding goaltending of DaSilva and Mantini, who kept the team in the game at all times.