skip navigation

YORK JV HOCKEY WINS SCHOLASTIC CUP

By J Redick, 03/04/15, 2:45PM CST

Share

York Hockey Club’s junior varsity team won the Illinois High School Hockey League West Division Scholastic Cup by defeating Plainfield High School Hockey Club. The victory provided a happy ending to York’s blockbuster season. The IHSHL regular season champion York Dukes easily defeated Plainfield in the best of three game series by matching 5-1 scores to bring home the championship.

The Dukes played host to Plainfield on Friday evening for the opening act of the championship series. The home team jumped out to an early lead when freshman Jake McCreadie gained control of the puck and hit sophomore Jack Redick with a pass in the slot. Redick took a shot and freshman Ethan Horne knocked in the rebound for the goal. That group was back at it on the very next shift when Horne scored his second put back goal with assists by McCreadie and Redick.

In the second period, junior Zach Johnson scored to make it 3-0. York scored again when freshman Josef Calzante won an offensive zone face-off. Sophomore defenseman Anders Caster collected the puck and made a beautiful pass to sophomore Anthony Trankina at the side of the crease for the tap in goal.

The visitors scored early in the third period. But York shut-down the visitors the rest of the way in part due to the play of freshman Matt Shepherd and sophomore Thomas Albin. Trankina sealed the victory when he scored his second goal by putting a wrist shot over the goalie’s shoulder with ten seconds remaining in the game.

The next day, York traveled to the Sportsplex in Darien for a matinee affair. Despite the efforts of the Plainfield team, York delivered an encore performance that followed the same script as the game the night before. On Saturday, however, it was sophomore Matt Davis playing the role of Horne when Davis scored the first two goals of the game to give the Dukes a commanding first period lead. The first goal came on an assist by freshman AJ Orlando. The second was an unassisted wrist shot past the out-stretched pad of the opponent’s goalie.

In the second period, freshman Kyle Spiller broke the puck out and split the defense with a pass that hit Trankina in stride. The sophomore scored a break-away goal with a wrist shot over the goalie’s blocker.

Johnson then scored an unassisted goal before Trankina brought down the curtain with the final goal of the game.

Throughout the Scholastic Cup the Dukes played with a renewed sense of energy and aggressiveness. The two-way play of sophomore Scott Blair stood out in the finale and proved to be a difference maker against Plainfield.

Freshman goalie Nolan Knupp was in net for both games earning the victories.  Knupp was aided by strong team defense by the Dukes. Sophomore Dominic Gatti and freshmen Mark Feilen, Jack Foley, and Liam Gardner led the defensive effort for York.

The Scholastic Cup victories improved the squad’s final season record to 39-14-6.