Junior B’s buzzing
The offence was in high gear this weekend for the St. Catharines WMKL junior B Athletics.
The Athletics topped the Owen Sound North Stars 15-2 Saturday at home and followed it up with a convincing 25-4 victory Sunday afternoon over the Point Edward Pacers at Canada Games Park.
The two wins improves the Athletics’ record to 6-1-1.
A’s head coach Alec Tamas was thrilled with the efforts.
“Our chemistry now is off the charts,” Tamas said. “It’s nice to be in a position where we really didn’t lose any of our offensive guys from last year and from Game 1 this year there’s been instant chemistry. We just kind of picked up where we left off from last year and we’ve been able to keep the ball rolling.
“The boys are hot right now.”
Newcomer Nate Watson, a New Brunswick native who is attending Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, made an impressive debut with three goals Saturday and five more Sunday.
“We got Nate Watson back in the lineup this weekend, it was his first couple of games with us and he was really impressive. He’s a good shooter who has a knack for scoring the ball,” Tamas said.
Watson’s arrival should help ease the sting of losing Colton Armitage full time to the Junior A Athletics.
“We want to win games and we have a goal in mind, but at the end of the day, the whole point of junior B is to develop these players and push them up to junior A,” Tamas said. “That’s why we became the St. Catharines Athletics and work so close with the junior A team. We want our kids to be getting better and have to opportunity to go up and play for our junior A team.”
Sunday, the A’s jumped out to an 8-0 lead after one period and led 20-3 after two.
Tamas was happy with how his club handled playing in such a lopsided affair.
“The big thing is to stay disciplined and keep our composure. Sometimes in those games things can get a little ugly but I was proud of our guys for staying disciplined and kind of walking away from everything and staying out of the penalty box,” he said.
“We obviously don’t want to be running it up on anybody, but at the same time, we have a goal in mind and a place where we want to be at the end of the year and we have to keep working on our craft and keep working on our skills to get to where we want to be.”
Trent Mooradian added three goals and eight assists Sunday while Cody MacNeil had four goals and four assists and Jaden Patterson two goals and seven assists. Ian Kohut added three goals, Landon Jaeckle and Aidan Carr two each. Singles came off the sticks of Cody Rudderham, Liam Diestch, Teison McGregor and Reed Ozog.
Ethan Williams made 29 saves for the win.
Saturday, Armitage had three, Jack Parker, Patterson and MacNeil two each. Diestch, Sutter Pilon and Carter Accursi also scored while Mooradian collected five assists.
Mike Napoli made 35 saves in net.
The A’s visit Owen Sound Saturday, May 18 and are home to the Windsor Clippers Sunday, May 19 at 4 p.m.
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 5,900 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpotrecz@outlook.com for more information.
