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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2008-12-10, Page 1818 Times -Advocate Wednesday, December 10, 2008 THIS WEEK IN SPORTS... Silverstick comes to South Huron PAGE 19 Elementary school volleyball champs PAGE 20 SPORTS TIP? CONTACT TIMES -ADVOCATE Ben Forrest • 519-235-1336 ext. 114 Fax 519-235-0766 • E-mail bforrest@southhuron.com SPORTS LEISL,'RE Single -period lapses doom Hawks in consecutive losses By Ben Forrest TIMES—ADVOCATE STAFF PARKHILL In an interview shortly after his club s recent 6-2 loss to North Middlesex, a self-evident statement was put to Exeter Hawks coach Jamie Pearce. If not for the second period, his interviewer said, the game would have been close. Sounds like the story of our year, Pearce said. I don t even know how to comment to that, other than I m absolutely disgusted that we can t play three periods of hockey. Indeed, if it was not for the second period in the Dec. 6 game, when North Middlesex scored five goals, the Hawks would have walked away with a 2-1 win. It was not the first time a single -period lapse could be blamed for a Hawks loss, and Pearce was at odds to ex- plain why this has been the case. I wish I knew, I really do, because I d take the time to fix it today, he said. We re taking steps to do it anyway, but we re going to try to find a solution. The Hawks led 1-0 after the first period thanks to a goal from Jake Jeffrey, but North Middlesex struck back in the second period with considerable force, leaving the Hawks down 5-1 after 40 minutes. Hawks Jamie coach Pearce North Middlesex scored again in the third pe- riod and Jeffrey scored the only other Exeter goal of the game, a power play strike with less than a minute remaining. The previous evening (Dec. 5) against Thames - ford, the story was somewhat the same. Exeter led 2-1 after the first period thanks to goals from Scott Muirhead and Thomas Harnett. Exeter s Justin Anstett increased the Hawks lead with an unassisted goal eight minutes to the second, but Thamesford evened the score at 3-3 by the end of the second period. Ten goals were scored in the third period, though only four of them came from Hawks players. (Jeffrey, Kurt Van Osch, Anstett and Kenney Allen). The game ended 9-7 in Thamesford s favour. Thamesford is a run -and -gun hockey club, and for whatever reason we held them in check, Pearce said. When they decided they wanted to run and gun, that s what they did. Exeter goalie Justin Webb faced 51 shots that game, and Pearce believes Webb would like to have a few of them back. But any time you ask goalies to face 51 shots, one night they re not going to stop 95 per cent of them like he has been doing, Pearce said. Defence was a concern during that game as Pearce says it has been for much of the season,. Injuries and other obstacles have left the Hawks short- handed in this regard, requiring forwards to move back and play on the blue line. The moves have been made to some degree of success, Pearce said, but it s something we have to address im- mediately. No single player stood out for Pearce against Thames - ford, though Pearce said he has been getting solid effort from a lot of guys. When we score seven goals, that s never a bad thing, he said. It was the eight that [Thamesford] scored against us [and] the empty-netter as well. There are areas Pearce believe the Hawks need to work on, however, and keeping things simple is one of them. We need to continue to make the easy plays, he said. We re trying to make fancy plays when we don t need to. The other thing is something that has been true of the Hawks for much of the year. Surveying Saturday s game against North Middlesex, Pearce put it this way: The biggest thing we have to work on is 60 minutes of hockey, he said, instead of 40. Irish unlucky against LUCAN The Lucan Irish struggled last week, drop- ping a 3-2 decision Wednesday to the Lambeth Lancers and losing 2-0 Friday against the Tavistock Braves. The Irish, who sat third in the SOJHL Yeck Conference at press time, trailed last -place Lambeth 3-0 after the first period. Lambeth's Scott Mugford opened the scoring on a penalty shot roughly six minutes into the game before teammate Harrison Marsh added a power play goal 37 seconds later. Lancers centre Mike Cashen scored what would prove to be the game winner roughly half a minute later. Lucan's Zack Yeo was the only player to score in the second period, grabbing a goal with roughly two min- utes remaining in the frame. Tyler Medd and David Latta were credited with assists, and the score stood 2-1 after 40 minutes. Lucan's Adam Hartman captured the only goal of the third period, an unassisted effort notched shortly before the seven -minute mark. Lambeth, can't solve The Irish outshot Lambeth 8-6 in the final frame, leav- ing them with 24 shots on goal (SOG) for the game. Lam- beth's final SOG tally was 26. Friday against Tavistock neither team scored in the first period but Tavistock managed two goals in the second period: one from Kyle Alyea and another from Marcus Yantzi. Neither team scored in the third period, and the game ended in a 2-0 Braves win. Lucan levelled 40 shots on goal in the con- test but could not solve Tavistock's Billy Whaling, the Southern Ontario Junior Hock- ey League (SOJHL)'s top-rated goaltender. Whaling boasts a 2.05 goals against aver- age (GAA) this season and a .930 save per- centage. Irish goalie Dylan Gray, the league's fourth- ranked tender, had 30 saves in the loss. Gray has a 2.59 GAA thus far and a .908 save per- centage. On the comeback trail Lucan Irish player DarcyWard handles the puck during a 3-2 loss to Lambeth.The Irish have struggled of late, losing their last two games.They will face Thamesford at home today (Wednesday) and play at North Middlesex Friday. (photo/Ben Forrest) Lucan faces the Thames - ford Trojans today (Dec. 10) at home, then travels to North Middle- sex to play the Stars. Thamesford elite Tavistock goalie sits in first place in the SOJHL's Bauer Conference and boasted the league's second-best record 17 wins and three losses in regulation at press time. North Middlesex is an intra -division rival of the Irish and sat in second place, four points ahead of Lucan. s°�°d Q.A1 4.<04t Ouh, -w )iii',' yi,utG0% , inet,Pe, et, 9 i ivta3, 9.4 1,ceeet, et,et e oee ow 900, gae. $85 value for $55+ tax $ 150 value for 100 +tax $220 value for $ ISO + tax Available at our winter office location: tin°n' 95 9 2 Ma1235-1840 Exetern St. S. 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