Cooksville Bantam Red takes the Lloyd Hillier Memorial Tournament
Cooksville Phantoms Bantam Red #91 SCORE TOURNAMENT HAT-TRICK winning the Lloyd Hillier Memorial this past weekend. Another amazing team effort!!!
Goalie: Frank Middleton; Players: Anthony Luppino, Paul Figliano, Matthew Toic, Michael Pellegrino, Selami Sherifi, Daniel Gough, Timothy Peroff, Tristian Velechovsky, Olivier Dagenais, Ralph Perez, Agim Sherifi, Dean Trinetti, Alexander Selwa, and Michael Fernetti; Head Coach: Dan Trinetti; Assistants: Nick Toic, Mark Selwa; Trainer: Paul Middleton.
Cooksville Minor Atom White WINS Third Feather To Their Caps
The Cooksville Minor Atoms rode a late-season wave of success to capture the Mississauga Reps Spring Tournament, and build on their Mississauga Hockey League (MHL) Series and Championship victories. Ironically, the young Phantoms ended their season where it began, in a battle against the Erindale Vipers.
In late September, the young Phantoms started the season with a 2-Nil loss against the Erindale Vipers. Overcoming that initial setback, they soon emerged to be one of the frontrunners in the division. Though they were clearly more dominant than their opponents, sporadic lapses in effort made them vulnerable to losses against lesser teams, and they could not distance themselves from the pack. In their two December tournaments in Brantford and Stoney Creek, this vulnerability was apparent against the older and larger teams, and they failed to get past the first round for both tourneys.
The Phantoms continued to grow as a team, win key victories, and build a 5-point lead going into the final league game. On February 9th, despite losing again to the Erindale Vipers in their last regular season game, the Cooksville M. Atom White Phantoms were proclaimed MHL Series Winners.
In the first round of the MHL Playoffs, two ties and a loss threatened to derail their playoff hopes. But the final 2 wins secured them second place rank in the round robin and a semi-final berth against the Port Credit Storm. The Storm was a last place team with only one win during league play. But now bolstered with a new superstar and stronger goalkeeping, they emerged as a playoff powerhouse. The agility of their new speedy superstar disheartened the Phantoms faithful as the Storm took control in the latter half of the first semi-final game, and easily won 5-3. With the Phantoms facing elimination, they dug-in in the second final game, and emerged from the defensive battle with a 1-Nil victory. This was the turning point to the team, as they realized they needed back-checking to neutralize the strong attackers, and the entire team began to play effective 2-way hockey. With renewed purpose, they eliminated the Storm 5-1 in the 3rd game of the semi-finals.
The Phantoms continued to ride the wave as they easily defeated their arch rivals, Erindale Vipers, in a 6-2 win in the first game of the championship finals. With optimism, they came into the 2nd game hoping to clinch the Playoff championships, only to be disappointed by a controversial late minute goal and lose 2-1. On April 2nd, With the finals tied up, the Phantoms came from behind to win the third game with a score of 2-1 and be proclaimed MHL Champions for the Minor Atom White division.
Full of spirit and confidence, the Phantoms entered Mississauga Reps Spring Tournament, and breezed through the early round robin. The only loss was a 6-2 thrashing by Erindale Vipers who were seeking revenge for their earlier demise in the MHL Championships 4 days earlier. Their second place ranking had them square off against 3rd place Whitby Big Red, whom they easily dispatched in 4-1 win. This set the show down in the finals against their arch rivals, Erindale Vipers, who were undefeated in this tournament.
So on the last game of their season, the Cooksville Phantoms were playing the team that had defeated them in their very first game of the season, defeated them in their last league game, and had easily defeated them in their last meeting the day before. The tournament finals was a defensive battle between the Phantoms and the Vipers. Both teams battled back and forth with close coverage, accurate passing, and keen goalkeeping. Every time the Phantoms took the lead, the Vipers answered with an equalizer. At the end of regulation, the score was tied at 2-a-piece, and the tournament champs would be decided with a shoot-out.
The Phantoms Backstop, Ron Aguiar-Rowsell, had shaky start, letting in the first shot. But he saved the best for last, stopping the next 3 shots. This allowed the final Phantom shooter, Sevon Wessman, to beat the talented viper goalie with a wrist shot, and win the game. The Cooksville Phantoms were the Mississauga Reps Tourney Champs!
Along with Ron & Sevon, the very exciting Phantoms included: Dysan Barrett, Jonathan Cordoso, Nicholas Cerqueira, Michael Gallant, Josh Gulbinski, Gabriel Iosso, Matthew Mammoliti, Kenneth McDonald, EuJin Puk, Zacary Raczywolski, Terrell Reading-Hanchard, Lucas Santoro, Xavier Tomines, Sevon Wessman, and Adam Wickham. The parents and fans greatly appreciate the efforts of Head Coach Dave Love, Assistant Coaches Steve Gallant and Tony Iozzo, and Managers Stephen & Josie Wickham, in keeping this rambunctious group in line. And special thanks to George Cardoso and Sutton Group – Elite Realty for their support.
Cooksville Bantam Red wins it all at the Shamrock Tournament
Cooksville Bantam Red took their act to the Shamrock Hespeler Memorial Tournament in Cambridge on the weekend. In the round robin play they out scored their opponents 19 goals to 3 goals against. In the semi-final game Cooksville showed their dominance and defeated the Milton Hawks 10-0 with a solid defence , outstanding goaltending from Frank Middleton and an awesome performance from their forwards. Cooksville took total control from start to finish but the big test awaited them as they had to play the undefeated West London team in the final who had manhandled their opposition throughout the tournament in the other division.
The final was very intense with end to end play and outstanding goaltending on both teams. The game was scoreless going into the 3rd period, with approximately 5 minutes left in the game West London scored a beautiful 2 on 1 play. As the clock began to wind down West London iced the puck, with 1 minute and 13 seconds left Coach Dan Trinetti called a 30 second time out, pulled his goalie and sent out his 6 attackers. Dean Trinetti won the important face off to Tristian Velechovsky who shot the puck to Matthew Toic who popped in the tying goal. With 1 minute and 7 seconds left, the excitement of the crowd and the momentum on the Cooksville side, Paul Figliano took a pass from Selami Sherifi and scored the winning goal with 51 seconds remaining in the game stunning West London and their crowd. As they have done all year round this Cooksville team never gave up and has won their second tournament. Congratulations to: Head Coach: Dan Trinetti; Assistants: Nick Toic, Mark Selwa; Trainer: Paul Middleton; Players: Michael Fernetti, Alexander Selwa, Dean Trinetti, Agim Sherifi, Ralph Perez, Olivier Dagenais, Tristian Velechovsky, Timothy Peroff, Daniel Gough, Selami Sherifi, Michael Pellegrino, Matthew Toic, Paul Figliano and Anthony Luppino; Goalie: Frank Middleton.
Cooksville Bantam White wins the Jim Gregory Friendship Tournament.
The Cooksville Bantam White team competed in the Jim Gregory tournament the weekend of March 15th. Cooksville went 4 - 1 in the round robin, beating out Cooksville Blue, Applewood, London and Clarkson, with the only loss to Erindale 92. They met the London team again in the semi’s managing a hard fought 3 – 2 victory. The goals were scored by Jordan Shea, Neil McInnis and Richard Noel. The championship game was against Erindale 92 where Andrew Bilchak recorded a shut-out and Neil McInnis and Nathan Pacheco scored to lead us to a 2 – 0 win. The boys received their medals from Jim Gregory (Hockey Hall of Famer and current Senior VP of Hockey Operations for the NHL) and Irene Bodanis, founder of Jakes House for children with Autism. An honorary captain (a child with Autism) was assigned to each team and for all the hard work our captain, Jenna, was awarded a trip to Disney World in Florida. It was a great time for everyone involved. By the expressions on the faces of the coaching staff, here with Jim Gregory click here, it was certainly an enjoyable tourament worth seeing.
Members of the championship team are Neil McInnis, Nathan Pacheco, Kacper Pacewicz, Daniel Kwinter, Patrick Bilas, Tyler Hehn, Jordan Walsh, Kelvin Ho, Jordan Shea, Stephen Stella, Richard Noel, Daniel Sepasi, Michael George, Andrew Bilchak and Ishan Tikku.
Head coach Colin Hehn was assisted by Michael Shea, Scott McKay and Noe Pacheco.
Congratulations from everyone in the Cooksville Hockey Association.
Please click here to see the article printed in the Mississauga News.
Please click here to see a photo of the winners.
Cooksville Bantam #91 Wins the Faustina Select Christmas Tournament
The Cooksville Bantam Red team went 4-0 outscoring the opposition by a combined score of 15-4 to win a Select tournament over the Christmas season. Congratulations to all the boys for representing Cooksville hockey so well. For a picture of the winning team, please click here.
