11 Teams gathered Sunday March 4th for the March Ice-Out 7v7 Tournament in Greenfield, MA. The event featured an A division for younger/less experienced teams and an AA division for older/more experienced teams.
In the A division, Catamount Red and 1X Lacrosse emerged as the top dogs. After winning their first two matches handily, Catamount Red was beaten 7-6 by 1X in the final game of pool play. Based on point differential as a tie breaker of a three way head to head tie with the War Eagles, 1X and Catamount advanced to the finals. Given a second chance, Catamount capitalized on strong play from defense man Quinn Berry (Middlebury, VT), transition from midfielder Dom MacDonald (Pelham, MA) and finishing from attackman Billy O’Neill (Cummington, MA) to win the final.
The AA division saw a similar story with Catamount Black and 1X 18/19 coming out of pool play with perfect 3-0 records. St. Bernards High School (Fitchburg, MA) and the Owls (Hoosick Falls, NY) wrapped up the third and fourth seeds respectively. The Owls jumped out to an early lead on Catamount with goals by Attackman Andrew Crawford. Catamount crawled back into the game on strong dodging from Seth Bowman (Londonderry, VT) and Austin Russell (Fairfield, CT). Eventually Catamount extended their lead as defensemen Kris Meneses (Westfield, MA) and Nick Porter (Hartford, VT) held the Owls. 1X 18/19 faced St. Bernards for the second time and capitalized on stiff goaltending and stout defense to contain Midfielder Dom Valera and Attackman Mick Ginnity.
In a repeat of the Pre-Season tournament final of not even a month before, 1X 18/19and Catamount Black faced off. 1X jumped out to the lead with both teams staying within a goal of one another. The 1X offense was paced by Jeff Potter (N. Bennington, VT) who capitalized on transition pushed by Owen Politis (Williamstown, MA) 1X extended a small lead late, only for Catamount to tie the game with less than two minutes left.
Overtimes at IAS are normally a 3 minute Golden Goal competition, but to mix things up, a 2v2 Braveheart was compromised by the teams. Austin Russell won the first face-off, but missed the net on his shot. Jeff Potter of 1X came roaring back down the field and ripped a shot off the knee of Catamount Goalie Camden Devlin (Middlebury, VT) which went out of bounds. On the ensuing drive, Russell buried one to seal the victory for Catamount Black.
Thanks to all for attending and we wish you the best in your coming seasons!