Deerfield wins 52nd annual Flood-Marr Hockey Tournament
On Sunday the Deerfield boys hockey team won their first Flood-Marr tournament title since 2002 beating a very good Milton Academy squad 4-3.
The team had played well all three days of the tournament with impressive wins over Nobles (3-2 in overtime) and Kimball Union (1-0). In their third game of the tournament after securing a spot in the finals game, the team faced a typically strong Salisbury team and came up short in this one by a score of 6-3.
Against Milton the Big Green played a solid three periods and when things got tight in the third period the team rallied and played its best hockey of the tournament.
Deerfield opened the scoring tallying the only goal of the first period when Chad Haggerty found the back of the net with assists coming from Danny Farr and Justin Marler.
In the second period Deerfield scored twice more building up a big 3-0 lead midway through the period. Mike Holland scored off a pass from Thomas Dale at the 13:19 mark and Thomas Dale scored one of his own a little over two minutes later giving Deerfield a 3-0 lead. Dale’s goal was assisted by Chad Haggerty and Danny Farr. Milton dug in and began to shift the momentum their way scoring two goals before the end of the second period narrowing the lead to just one goal.
Chris Camelio would score the eventual game-winner at the 11:20 mark in the third period lifting his team to a 4-2 advantage. Thomas Gale played brilliantly all game between the pipes and kept turning away several good scoring opportunities being created by the crafty Milton forwards. Milton did manage to score late in the game which made for some dramatic play as the clock wound down. At the end it was Deerfield 4 – Milton 3 and Big Green winning its first Tournament championship under head coach Tim McVaugh.
Sophomore goalie Thomas Gale had 29 saves this game and earned the Tournament’s MVP award. Also earning all-Tournament honors were forwards Danny Farr, Thomas Dale, and defenseman Justin Marler.