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Congratulations U18 Vipers – EHF League Champions 2014

Tuesday, November 18, 2014, 4:50PM

The Vipers captured another championship this past weekend by winning the EHF U18 league championship. The Vipers rolled through the semi-finals with an 11-5 victory and had trick from Matignon’s leading goal scorer John Andrews. In the finals, they faced a “New & Improved” Bulldogs team that came out extremely aggressive and scored four early goals taking advantage of the Vipers slow start. After a mid-game time-out and some individual player self-reflection, the Vipers settled in one shift at a time chipping away the old fashion way. Having the Bulldogs take a 4 minute penalty, the Vipers immediately scored two goals in one shift to jump right back into the game. Having the game shift in a positive direction, the Vipers continued the aggressive fore-check by forcing defensive zone turnovers and again capitalized on the power play with a Ryan Spagnoli snipe from the top of the slot. With nothing to lose the Matignon trio of Andrews, McPherson, Petrie took matters into their own hands. On a neutral zone transition McPherson carried the play on a three on two and caught the goalie sleeping with an absolute blast from the blue line to tie the game and force the overtime.

 

With the Vipers having experience with over-time from the previous State championship weekend they remained calm and incorporated a four forward and one defense offensive attack system in play early to put the Dogs back on their heels. With all pucks to the net and recognizing the many rebounds being left on the door step, McPherson once again chose to take ownership and “seize the moment” by burying a loose puck rebound to win the EHF Championship!

 

“These young men are a special group and it’s a true honor to be a part of their continued development, they have worked extremely hard, paid their dues on and off the ice and have had to deal with much adversity this past season. While doing so, they never lost focus and their true character was certainly tested and revealed, we couldn’t be any prouder for them, they deserve this Championship”… Coach Somerville