Week of September 7, (Game 1) – In a game that featured two evenly matched teams in White Lightning and the Shooting Stars, it wasn’t the usual stars that shined brightly and made their impact felt in this game. It wasn’t Dave Curcio, Scott Young, John Desmond, Ray Dow or Jeff Deharo whose skills led their teams on to victory. Rather, it came from an unexpected player, especially in the first game of the new season that led the way as the Shooting Stars came back late in the game and defeated White Lightning 3 – 2 in overtime.
That unexpected player leading the Shooting Stars was the Over-30 league’s other Medeiros Portuguese player, George Medeiros. George got his season jump started the right way as he factored in on all three of his tam’s goals in this game, scoring 2-goals (including the game winner in overtime) and setting up another goal. George threw down the gauntlet in the first game of the season to serve notice to all the rest of the Portuguese players in the Over-30 league that he will be a force to reckon with this year as the league’s ultimate Portuguese Power Player.
After a scoreless first period that was played as expected with no flow as players were trying to get comfortable with each other, Mike Delorey’s slap shot from the point, set up by George two minutes into the second period, was tipped in front by John Desmond giving the shooting Stars an early lead. With two minutes to play in the same period, Dave Curcio scored from high on the left wing after some great passing by Scott Young and Derek Shaw, to tie this game up.
Four minutes into the third period, White Lightning took the lead as Scott Young (what Pink Stick Bag Challenge?) scored as he was set up by Derek Shaw. With time winding down in this game and White Lightning holding on to the lead, George Medeiros found himself in the right place at the right time, as he scored off a rebound of another Mike Delorey bomb from the point with twenty-eight seconds to play to tie this game back up. Wasting no time in overtime on his first shift, George struck again as he again found himself in the perfect spot to put back a Ray Dow slap shot off a set up pass from Jim Barber to stun the White Lightning team.
Editor's Note: That is not how the Overtime Goal was scored by George... clearly that field reporter was not paying attention to the game.
Week of September 7, (Game 2) – No top defenseman playing, missing 5 of your players and going up against the Big 3 line, was no problem for Blame the Girl as the soundly outplayed Cuckoo’s Nest in this game romping in a 5 – 1 easy victory. The final score gave no justice to how complete the Blame the Girl team played in shutting down their opponent. Even when Cuckoo’s Nest did generate scoring chances, there was goalie Bill Gardynski Jr. shutting the door, making the save, and preventing any goals from going in.
Generating 22 out of the 30 total shots produced by Blame the Girl in this game, the first line of Ricky Hudson–Tony Medeiros–Dominic Defrancisco made their prescience felt all game long as they never stopped running, constantly hustling and putting pressure on the overworked defense of Cuckoo’s Nest. If that wasn’t enough, you also had Gary Goodwin turning up the pressure by playing his constant running fore checking / back checking style of play clogging up the rink and not giving the Cuckoo’s Nest players any open space.
Four minutes into the first period, Ricky Hudson scored the game’s first goal, as he was set up in the high slot by Tony Medeiros and Dominic Defrancisco. For Ricky, the goal was his first scored since the spring 2007 season, the last season he played in the Over-30 league, due to health-related issues. Welcome back indeed! Just over a minute to play in the same period, Dominic scored out front off a rebound of a Gary Goodwin shot. Two minutes into the second period, Blame the Girl upped its lead to three goals.
Two minutes into the third period, Cuckoo’s Nest tried making this a game as Angelo Deluca scored off the left wing, set up by Ricky Cassano. Making the key saves when he needed to, goalie Bill Gardynski Jr. and Gary Goodwin each elevated their games to once again turn the momentum back in favor of their team resulting in Tony Medeiros scoring on a setup from Ricky Cassano two minutes later on a top corner bomb from the right wing (a goal scorer’s shot and not so fast George Medeiros) as the goalie had no chance. This was followed by Dominic scoring an unassisted goal two minutes later to complete the scoring in this one-sided game.
|