The boys traveled to Williston for the second time this season to take on the Wildcats J.V. team. The first game, back on January 17, was a high-scoring affair with Deerfield coming out on top by a 7-5 score. We knew going in to yesterday’s game the competition would be strong and we weren’t surprised with the score being 2-1 Deerfield heading into the third period.
Goalie Alex Leong continued his stellar play keeping his team in the lead through the contest. Williston created several good scoring opportunities throughout the first two period but Alex answered all but one and kept the game to Deerfield’s advantage.
The other big factor in yesterday’s 4-1 win was the play of the line of Austin Philie, Alton Machen, and Andy Han who contributed the first three goals for Deerfield. In the first period Austin tallied his first stripping the puck from a Williston D-man and scoring the game opener. He would forecheck the opponent mercilessly throughout the entire game. Still in the first period Deerfield saw the lead jump to 2-0 when Austin scored his second goal off great hustle and play from his line mates setting up the finish.
The second period was an up and down affair with Williston gaining a little bit of momentum. They would score midway through the period and the pace would intensify.
In the final period Deerfield regained the momentum and started creating one good scoring opportunity after another. The Williston goalie did an outstanding job keeping his team in the game. Finally, with under 5 minutes to play Alton scored on a nice set up pass from Austin Philie giving us a little breathing room. Gabe Moos did a great job in out hustling the Williston defenders scoring the empty netter with under a minute left in the game. All three lines worked hard and created good scoring opportunities. The defensive corp. also had solid games; Matt Gardner, Henry Gustavson, Alex Weinman and Aidan Philie saw a ton of playing time and kept Williston off the scoreboard for most of the game.
Next up will be a game at Northfield Mount Hermon this Tuesday at 4:15.