ESP U11 International Silver Stick champions

The Essex-Southpoint U11 Hockey Club (ESP) travelled to Sarnia January 13-15 to participate in the U11 A International Silver Stick Tournament.

In the U11 ‘A’ division were teams from San Jose, California; Denver, Colorado; Brooklyn, New York; Bowling Green, Ohio; Flint, Michigan; Sault Ste. Marie, Barrie, North York Toronto, Woodstock, Centre Wellington, Sarnia and ESP.

In round robin play, ESP won all four games, defeating San Jose Sharks 7-1, Flint Ice Raiders 9-1, Sault Ste. Marie Bulk Barn 5-0 and North York Knights 6-0.

The tandem of Owen Tavares and Keegan Pope each earned a shutout and allowed only one goal with some awesome work in the nets.

The strong defence of Brady George, Russell Colenutt, Lyle Fleming, Brody Church, Ashton Drozdz and Ada McKeen kept the opposition to the outside and allowed very few shots on net. The ESP forwards dominated the opposition with their tape-to-tape passes, low cycling and constant pressure.

All team members were in on the scoring: Brody Church (6 goals, 5 assists), Conner Blain (5 goals, 5 assists), Christian Rutgers (5 goals), Eddie Zieba (3 goals, 3 assists), Carter Demant (3 goals, 2 assists), Zander Cook (3 goals), Asher Grossi (2 goals, 1 assist), Alex Antonios (5 assists), Drake Pernal (4 assists), Ben MacQuarrie (1 assist), Brady George (1 assist), Russell Colenutt (2 assists), Lyle Fleming (2 assists), Ashton Drozdz (1 assist), Ada McKeen (1 assist).

For Championship Sunday, only the top four of 12 teams advanced. ESP earned eight points, putting them in first place.

In semi-final action, ESP was in a re-match with Flint Ice Raiders.

ESP had a three-goal lead at the end of the first period and added another early in the second for a four-goal lead, but Flint replied with two goals in the second and one more early in the third to make it a 4-3 game.

Twenty seconds later, ESP took back control, scoring two goals in 34 seconds.

On an ESP penalty, Flint scored a power play goal only to be followed by an ESP short-handed goal. Flint gave ESP a hard fought battle for the 7-4 win. Scoring the goals were Blain with a hat trick, Rutgers with three goals, and singles to Church and Grossi. Earning assists were Rutgers, Antonios, Demant (2), Drozdz, McKeen, Grossi, Zieba, Church and Cook. Tavares and Pope each allowed two goals.

In the championship game, ESP was pitted against their biggest rival, Centre Wellington Fusion. Alex Antonios scored early, jamming in a wraparound with assists to Rutgers and Colenutt.

The score remained 1-0 until midway through the third period. Antonios buried a pass from Rutgers and then finished his natural hat trick with a rebound from Grossi and Rutgers.

Centre Wellington scored their only goal five minutes later on a power play. With the goalie pulled, Rutgers put the game away with two empty net short-handed goals.

The final score was 5-1 and ESP are the 2023 In- ternational Silver Stick Champions as the entire ESP team played an awesome game, winning battles along the boards, making end-to-end rushes and keeping the puck to the outside. Pope stood tall between the pipes, stopping several point- blank shots.

The coaching staff of Donnie Church, Ryan Rutgers, Kevin Cook, Kevin Gale, goalie coach Jim Quick, manager Dave Demant, owner Lucas George and videographer Chloe Blain have put in hours of effort, and appreciation was shown by the parents and players for all of their hard work.

The squad will host the Rochester Rattlers in a double-header on Saturday, January 21 with games in Leamington at 3 pm and Essex at 7:30 pm.

Essex-Southpoint U11 defeated Centre Wellington Fusion to win the U11 A International Silver Stick championship. Team members are, front row, left to right: Russell Colenutt, Ada McKeen, Lyle Fleming, Keegan Pope, Owen Tavares, Zander Cook, Drake Pernal, Eddie Zieba. Back row: Manager Dave Demant, Ashton Drozdz, Ben MacQuarrie, Coach Ryan Rutgers, Carter Demant, Conner Blain, Asher Grossi, Brody Church, Alex Antonios, Christian Rutgers, Trainer Kevin Cook Coach Kevin Gale, Coach Donnie Church. Absent: Brady George. Photo submitted