Beach, North Olmsted give EC an assist
martingretchen
No doubt he wasn’t thinking along those lines, but North Olmsted’s Logan Beach kept Elyria Catholic’s hopes for a berth in the Baron Cup tournament alive.
EC needed Walsh Jesuit to lose to somebody in its final two Red Division games. That somebody had to be North Olmsted, as Walsh’s other game was against Benedictine, which is winless in league play.
Beach scored the winning goal in overtime as the Eagles beat Walsh 3-2 on Saturday afternoon in Kent. Had Walsh won, EC’s hopes would’ve been all but dashed. Walsh trounced Benedictine 9-1 on Sunday.
The Panthers responded by taking care of what they could control, beating Hudson on Saturday and Avon Lake on Sunday.
EC returned the favor to North Olmsted with its victory over Hudson, which gave the Eagles the outright Red East championship.
Beach’s scoring has been down this year, primarily because he began the year playing defense. He has 17 points (eight goals) after totaling 37 points (22 goals) a year ago.
The emergence of freshman defenseman Casey Jones, who has been playing excellent hockey for the Eagles, has allowed the coaches to move Beach back to his natural spot playing forward.
l North Olmsted and Shaker Heights will pick up where they left off Jan. 13 (the evening the Zamboni machine gouged the ice between the first and second periods, rendering the rink unfit for play) tonight, 8:45, at Thornton Park.
The game means nothing to either team in the standings. North Olmsted (18-5), as mentioned, clinched first place in the Red East by beating Walsh Jesuit and having Elyria Catholic bump off Hudson. If Shaker beats the Eagles and, by some strange turn of events, Hudson loses to Benedictine, the Raiders are still out of Baron Cup contention because of their two losses to Hudson in league play.
l Senior forward Dave Turner has returned to the Olmsted Falls lineup just in time for the Bulldogs’ appearance in the White Division Baron Cup. Turner scored four points in two league games — a 3-0 victory over Bay and a 5-3 conquest of Holy Name — last week.
Turner missed a month of the season because of a shoulder separation. He has 26 points after giving the Bulldogs 43 points in 2006-07.
Last chance … period
Three local teams that didn’t reach the Baron Cup gathering — Amherst, Avon Lake and Bay — will join Benedictine in a round-robin tournament to begin Friday and end Feb. 10.
Called the Last Chance, each team will play each other at various venues. The scores of the games don’t matter. Points will be awarded for each period won.
The schedule is: Amherst vs. Benedictine on Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Barons Arena; Benedictine vs. Avon Lake on Saturday, 6 p.m. at Euclid; Avon Lake vs. Bay on Sunday, 2:45 p.m. at Euclid; Avon Lake vs. Amherst on Feb. 5, 7:45 p.m. at Cleveland Heights; Bay vs. Amherst on Feb. 9, 6 p.m. at Euclid; Benedictine vs. Bay on Feb. 10, 4:30 p.m. at Winterhurst.
Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.
|
| ||
 |
Filed by martingretchen January 29th, 2008 in Sports.
|
 Print this story
Read comments and discuss this story
Report an innappropriate comment
|
In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement
and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered, click here. If you are registered, click here to log in.