Minor bantam Hawks pull out a win in last match of the campaign

The Caledon Hawks minor bantam AE team were hosts to the Hespler Highlanders Jan. 11.

Caledon lost this one 2-1. The lone scorer for Caledon was Michael Newman, who with the flick of his wrist, shot the puck into the upper left corner of the net, totally surprising the goalie. The assists were made by Jake Mottershaw and Leo Labine. Coaches named Chris Sabaziotis player of the game and Newman the hardest worker.

The Hawks second-last game of the regular season was against Cambridge and this time they took home the win with a score of 7-4. Chalking up the points on the board were Nick Wheeler, with three, Scott Foley, Lucas Guadagnini, Newman and defenceman Mottershaw. Jonathan Dunn had a pair of assists, while singles were counted by Michael Bozzo, Chris Sabaziotis, Tyler Goertzen, Daniel Kozluk, Labine and Wheeler. Credited with another win under his belt was goaltender Peter Coghill. Coaches named Wheeler player of the game and Labine the hardest worker.

Jan. 14 saw the final game of the regular season, and it was a match to end all matches. The Hawks had their work cut out for them, as they faced the secondplace team, the Georgetown Raiders.

Period one had both teams up and down the ice, offensively firing fierce shots and defensively stopping those fierce shots. Goalie for the night, Dylan Farrow was bombarded with shots, however, the score at the end of the first period was 0-0.

Early in the second period, Sabaziotis got the first goal to put the hometown team ahead. Assists went to Foley and Goertzen. Midway through the second, the Raiders tied the game as they skated around the back of the net and swirled the puck around the post and in.

The third period saw much of the same action. At one point, the Hawks hit the penalty box and the Raiders took full advantage of the opportunity, pummeling Farrow, who repeatedly held his composure and robbed them of what could have been several goals. With less than a minute to play, both teams were hungry for the win. At one point, the opposition took a shot and instead of going into the net, the puck hit the goal post and traveled along the red line and out the other end. The referee was there to see the whole thing as he called it "no goal." However, the Raiders grouped together on the ice thinking that they scored. This gave the Hawks the opportunity to catch them off guard. Caledon's Kozluk seized the puck and headed down to the Georgetown zone. He shot, with no luck, but Guadagnini was right there to get the rebound and score to put the Hawks in the lead. With only 20 seconds to go, the Hawks had the win sealed up. Coaches awarded Farrow player of the game and the entire team shared the hardest worker honors

Previously, after a long deserved rest over the holidays it took the Caledon Hawks minor bantam AE hockey team a few games to get back into their winning ways.

Jan. 2 saw the team headed out to Oakville to play the Rangers. This, the first game of 2008, started off on an ominous note, as the Hawks took home the loss.

The trouble began early in the first period, as the Rangers backhanded a screened shot which had the puck head straight into the net, giving them the lead early in the game.

Minutes into the second period, the Oakville team received a penalty and it was up to Caledon to turn on the heat. Dunn, Labine, Newman, Guadagnini and Jacob VanVliet attempted to set things up in the opposition's end, with no success. Their passing was superb and their positioning was perfect, but the Oakville goalie was hot that night.

Minutes later it was the Rangers who scored. Soon after that, the Hawks took a penalty and thanks to John Sheridan, who managed to keep the puck at the Rangers end of the ice for what seemed like an eternity, the Oakville team could not take advantage of their man advantage.

Guadagnini opened up the Hawks scoring opportunities as he fed the puck to Bozzo, who, hungry for his first goal of 2008, slammed it into the net. The Rangers however, nabbed another before the period ended.

The third period was scoreless, and the Hawks took the 3-1 loss.

Coaches named Jacob VanVliet player of the game and John Sheridan the hardest worker.

The second game of the year got even better, as the team marched off with a tie against Flamborough.

By the end of the first period the score was 1-0 for the visiting team.

Just after the mid-way point in the second, the Hawks were down by yet another goal. As most of their fans know, this team gets pumped as the game goes on and this contest was no exception. At 1:33, Bozzo managed to take hold of the puck and delivered it up to Sheridan who then shelved one deep into the net. At 1:02 (about 30 seconds later), Sheridan once again fired the puck past the Flamborough goalie and straight into the net. The score was now tied 2-2.

Early in the third period, the Caledon team dug hard and within seconds, Sabaziotis had the puck at the end of his stick, and from there it headed over to the end of Bozzo's stick and then into the net. For the first time in the game, the Hawks had the lead. With only minutes to go in the game, goaltender, Coghill had his work cut out for as two of his teammates headed for the penalty box. Flamborough came on strong at this point to grab another point and tie the game.

Coaches named John Sheridan player of the game and Mottershaw the hardest worker.

The next game was the best one yet of the year, as the team took home their first win of 2008 with a score of 3-0 against the Brampton Battalion.

The Hawks hit the penalty box early in the first period, but thanks to the expertise of Christian DeMarco and Mottershaw, they were able to foil many of the Battalion shots on net, so the game remained scoreless.

Shortly after that Bozzo, headed for the Battalion net, stopped short to drop the puck to Sabaziotis, who then scored.

Brampton players kept pushing hard, trying to tie the game but, with defensive players like DeMarco, who even when being pushed against the boards managed to shove the puck outside of the blue line, they were unsuccessful.

At the ten-minute mark of the second, Sabaziotis dropped passed the puck to Foley who then fired the puck into the net. The Hawks were now ahead 2-0.

The third period saw plenty of action, as the Battalion tried in vain to get on the scoreboard. The Hawks had the man advantage at about the 11- minute point, and they took advantage of the situation when Foley responded instinctively with a pass from Sheridan to nab his second of the night.

Coaches decided Foley was player of the game and Farrow the hardest worker.