By Jake Greenberg
On Tuesday, November 29th, the Forest Hill Falcons Varsity Hockey Team kicked off their season against Humberside Colligate. After 13 years of coaching the hockey team, Head Coach Mr Ketchum had never beaten this school in a game. When the game was all said and done, this streak was finally put to rest. The boys came through for their coach and took home a 2-1 win to start their season with a bang.
The Falcons started off slowly, losing the opening faceoff and playing in their own end for the majority of the first five minutes. Some may think that this would tire out the team — physically and mentally — but the Falcons kept pushing. Once the puck was finally being consistently controlled in Humberside’s defensive end of the ice, chances upon chances were being continuously generated for the Falcons. With 3 minutes left, the puck landed on the stick of the Falcon’s older Mierczuk brother, Axel, who wound up and fired a shot to the top left corner of the net. Opening the season’s scoring, and showing Humberside that no matter how hard the Falcons get down, they will always fight back and end up on top.
Once the second period began, the game only got more aggressive. Big hits coming from both sides seemed to be the theme of the game. With the Falcons falling victim to some bad penalty calls, Humber Side had Many opportunities to come back and tie the game. With power play after power play, Humberside could not turn chances into goals, mostly due to the outstanding play of Elliot Zolf in net. During a small window on five on five hockey, the determined Falcons scored again, with Dylan Katz tipping another strong outside shot from Axel Mierczuk.
In the third period, the Falcons were determined to keep Zolf’s shutout alive, but Humberside had other plans. They won the period’s opening faceoff and just like the start of the game, dominated the Falcons in their defensive end; only this time, finding the back of the net of a big Wrist shot from the hash marks, cutting the lead in half. Throughout the period Forest Hill and Humberside were battling back and forth, but the goaltending on both ends of the ice was too good for both opposing offensive units, Humberside’s goalie controlling all rebound and Zolf coming in clutch stopping both a breakaway and a penalty shot.
The final buzzer went off and the Falcons went home feeling accomplished. This game was a very good example of how hard work will bring people to victory and allow them to come out on top. The Falcons season is just the beginning and anything can happen in any given game, but hopefully winning can be a common factor for each of the rest of their games.