U12 Ravens win OMHA championship

REGIONAL — The Essex Southpoint Ravens U12 hockey team travelled to Whitby this past weekend and came away as Ontario champions.

The Ravens began the season with one objective — to win a provincial championship.

On Friday afternoon the Ravens faced off against the Norfolk Admirals and came out flying, easily defeating the Niagara District champs 7-0. Nash Fuerth and Lucas O’Neil each scored two, while Kayden Cook, AJ Youssef and Nathan Mariuz added singles. Trent Chevalier and Kevin Ondic split the goaltending duties.

On Saturday morning it was the Georgina Blaze that would try and stand in the way of the Ravens mission. But they too would fail as Essex skated away with a 9-2 victory. Nash Fuerth potted four in this game while Lucas O’Neil and Ben Liebrock added two apiece. Nathan Mariuz added one to help the cause while Kevin Ondic earned the win.

Later that day a determined Ravens squad would quickly dispatch the Woolwich Wildcats 9-3. Fuerth again scored four while Youssef notched a pair and Austin Goudie and Liebrock chipped in one goal each.

This win set up an early Sunday morning semi-final against the Centre Wellington Fusion. It was all business in this game as well as the Ravens were methodical with their play.

Three minutes in Kayden Cook grabbed the puck in his own zone and skated wide right, ripping his wrist shot high glove to begin the attack. With 4:00 to go in the first, while short-handed, Lucas O’Neil stole the puck and cut in hard, jamming it past the goalie to increase the lead.

Very early in the second, Derek Dunn found Cook at the line and he fired his hard wrister in past the goalie. The Fusion added a goal shortly after. With 9.7 seconds left in the middle frame, Joseph McLeod rifled his shot just wide but Dunn found the puck and slipped a pass out front to O’Neil who tapped it home to make it 4-1.

A minute into the third, on a pass from Cook, Jonathan Recker from the point wired his shot in through traffic to increase the lead. Two minutes later Ben Liebrock skated wide around the D and slid a pass over to Brayden Foster who roofed his wrister to go up 6-1. Two minutes later the Fusion scored. Then with just under 2 to play Foster took the puck deep and slid a pass out to O’Neil who fired it home to complete his hat trick and a hard earned 7-2 victory. Chevalier and Ondic split the win in net.

The 2021-2022 Ontario Champion Essex-Southpoint Ravens, front row from left: Derek Dunn, Kevin Ondic, AJ Youssef, Trent Chevalier, Nash Fuerth . Middle row: Head coach Tony Youssef, Austin Goudie, Owen Derksen, Lucas O’Neil, Ben Liebrock, Maxim Pyne, Nathan Mariuz, Joseph McLeod, Tyler Thomas, Jonathan Recker, Isaiah Georges, Brayden Foster. Back row: Trainer Kevin Cook, Kayden Cook, coach Dylan Impens, coach Ryan Derksen.

Photo submitted

Sunday afternoon it was only the Burlington Eagles that were left standing in the way of the Ravens championship dreams. Slowly but surely the Ravens started to impose their will on another good hockey team.

With 10 seconds to play in opening period, Goudie skated in alone and took his shot then chased down his own rebound to open the scoring.

Two minutes into the second Fuerth grabbed the puck from Youssef behind the net and wrapped it in to increase the lead. Kayden Cook then scored on the powerplay from Dunn and Derksen before Dunn then fed Cook again for goal number two.

Midway through the third Goudie passed the puck deep to Youssef who fed Fuerth in the slot and he made no mistake ripping his shot blocker side. Burlington could not solve Trent Chevalier as he earned the shutout in this well-deserved 5-0 championship victory.

The Essex Southpoint Ravens finished the season with a 45 -1-2 record. This team won the Bradford

Classic, won the Woodstock SilverStick Qualifying tournament, won the Bluewater Hockey League regular season and Playoff Championship, won the International SilverStick Finals and capped it off as the U12 OMHA Provincial Champions.