The
Louie’s Pizza and Pasta Bantam Rep team filled the net Saturday night
, putting seven pucks behind the Thunder’s goalkeeper in a game that saw both teams hammer the opposition with punishing body checks. Assistant captain Parker Hodgson seemed to be in a particularly nasty mood, slamming into purple sweaters at every opportunity. Isaac Westlake opened the scoring less than three minutes into the match. Ethan Emerson added a beautiful power play goal later in the first. After taking a pass from Joel Verspeeten, Emerson walked right in and fired a laser beam wrist shot into the top right corner. Caledonia had an opportunity to claw their way back into the game when Brennan Rupert was assessed a double minor for head contact. Ingersoll weathered the storm, and headed into the second up 2-0. The Express train just kept rolling in the middle frame. Christian Lee set up Ethan Emerson for a booming slap shot that was deflected perfectly by Parker Hodgson. Caledonia got one back, but almost immediately, Ingersoll regained its three goal lead when Daniel Martineau scored on a beautiful wrist shot from the blue line. Dayton Racicot and Brennan Rupert earned assists on Martineau’s goal. As play continued, Mick Donker had a great chance in front, but number 11 was robbed. Defenceman Nathan Graham broke up a 4 on 1 play in the Ingersoll zone, fired a pass up to Christian Lee who was joined by Hodgson on a 2 on 1 that almost led to Ingersoll’s fifth goal. Caledonia scored a weird one with 23 seconds left in the period to keep their comeback hopes alive. A minute and a half into the third however, Daniel Martineau put the nail in the coffin with his second goal of the game. Isaac Westlake stirred up some excitement when he took a pass from Joel Verspeeten and scored a powerplay goal with 8:31 left on the clock. Much to the delight of the Ingersoll fans, hot-hands Westlake found the back of the net again just nine seconds later, completing the hat trick and snuffing out what little “thunder” remained on the Caledonia bench. The teams meet again Wednesday March 8th in Caledonia.
The bantams will be busy this week playing Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th, Thursday 9th and then starting their exciting OMHA finals Saturday March 11th at home in Ingersoll at 8pm. Series will continue the following weekend up in Penetang, playing there Saturday and Sunday, with game four and five back in Ingersoll March 25th and 26th.
Go Express Go……
Submitted by M. Martineau