Story and Photos by Andrew Bowman (@andrew_bowman5)
Ed. Note- Continue below for even more photos of the Bombers and T-Hawks. Note that you can click any image to enlarge.
Northboro, Mass. - The Westfield Bombers visited the Algonquin Tomahawks Thursday afternoon and came away with an 11-9 win, led by a ferocious defensive effort.
Westfield got off to a hot start, and did not trail for the entire game.
In the first, Westfield’s Matt Bonsall opened the scoring six minutes into the game. Then it was Will Cameron who scored off an assist from faceoff man Kohl Lunardi, which was followed by a second from Bonsall. Late in the quarter, Noah Larsen got one back for the Tomahawks, but after one, Westfield led 3-1.
It was the Bombers' defense that did most of the work in the first quarter, causing turnovers with high aggressiveness from all three poles, and they continued that aggression throughout the game. In net, Alex Beauchemin made 5 of his 13 saves in the first, and continued to come up with big saves throughout the game.
“We were very aggressive, it was amazing how many caused turnovers there were on both sides of the field.” Westfield coach Mark Cavallon said about the defense. “There was pressure in the attack zone, pressure in the midfield. It was a very tight game against a very well coached team.”
In the second quarter, Westfield continued to put in goals and make defensive stops. After a goal from Algonquin’s Tommy Ackil, Cam Theriault responded for the Bombers with his first of the game. The Tomahawks got within one when Nick Larsen scored, but Devlin Welch scored for Westfield only 30 seconds later. Late in the quarter, Westfield’s Tyler Shrewsbury scooped up a loose ball near midfield and threw a half-field dime to attackman Max Maggipinto, who put it in to give the Bombers a 6-3 lead at half.
In the third it was the host Tomahawks who came storming back. Just 30 seconds into the second half, Ric Carreras put one in, which was followed by a second goal from Tommy Ackil. After a second of the game from Westfield’s Cam Theriault, Ackil scored his third of the game and Dom Russo got on the scoresheet. Going into the fourth, it was all tied at 7.
The next four goals of the game were scored by the Bombers. Both Matt Bonsall and Cam Theriault scored their third of the game, and Devlin Welch scored his second of the game. In a huge sequence, long pole Gavin Carzello stripped the ball away from Ric Carreras, went coast-to-coast, and ripped one to put Westfield up by four.
Algonquin tried to get back in it late, with goals from Nick Larsen and Ric Carreras, but it was too little too late, and Westfield came away with an 11-9 win.
A major part of Westfield’s success came from faceoff man and senior captain, Kohl Lunardini, who won the majority of faceoffs at Center X.
“I thought Kohl was outstanding. In the last three weeks he’s really been peaking.” Coach Cavallon said after the game. “I thought that was the difference today because we got so many possessions. In an even game like this, the more times you get the ball the better off you are.”
Next up for Westfield is St. John’s, a rematch of last year's district semifinal, which saw the Bombers pull off an upset.
“We’re going to try and figure things out and see what we can do. We know a few of their players, but we aren’t too familiar with them.” Cavallon said about the Pioneers. “But we know that they’re gonna be big and physical, so we’re going to prepare hard.”
Continue below for photos -
No comments :
Post a Comment