by No. 3 seed Orange Lions took on No. 6 seed Solon Comets in the first round of the Baron Cup III Tournament (Blue Division). This was a very fast-paced but one-sided affair with the Lions winning the contest 3-1.
Both sides started the game off by controlling the puck very well and playing aggressively. There were a lot of shots on goals by both teams and that started with freshman Carter Chase for the Comets and sophomore Cooper Radillo for the Lions.
Freshmen Charles Thomas for the Lion started taking things into his own hands displaying a pair of nice moves on a Solon defender that led to a wide-open shot that just missed. Thomas again came right back to have a nice pass to junior Noah Rice that led to a wide-open shot but missed as well. Orange was getting into the right position late in the first period but couldn’t seem to capitalize.
The Lions were applying a lot of pressure on the Comets’ defense late in the first period. Radillo was looking to put the Lions on the board after he stumbled the goalie, however, Radillo mishandled the puck which would’ve been a free goal.
The Orange Lions’ energy picked right back where they left off in the first period. The Lions were having their way to start the second period, maintaining most possession of the puck. The intensity started back up when Rice for the Lions put on a great move but wasn’t able to score.
Lions’ senior goalie Zachary Fredrick was out of the goal for a split second and almost regretted it. Sophomore Gabe Bodak came down for the Comets to knock the puck in, but Fredrick jumped back into the goal to save it just in time.
Orange was applying a lot of pressure offensively onto the Comets. They were attempting a ton of shots on goals late. Junior Russell Tye took things into his own hands to finally score a goal for the Lions. This made the score 1-0 with the Lions up at the 2:30 mark.
About a minute later, senior Ben Roder for the Comets answered right back with a goal of his own. This made the score 1-1 at the 1:30 mark. The intensity picked up from there but with just seconds remaining, the period came to a close.
Orange once again came back out controlling the tempo of the game. Tye showed no signs of slowing down, scoring his second goal of the game just two minutes into the game. This made the score 2-1 and the Lions were on top.
The third period was very fast-paced and maybe too fast-paced for the Comets, seeing them become sloppy with the puck late into the contest. Tye took advantage of the sloppiness of the Comets and scored yet again, giving him a hat-trick for the game. This made the score 3-1 with just 4:50 remaining. The Lions were able to control the rest of the game on both sides of the puck.
The player of the game for the Orange Lions was Russell Tye with 3 goals and the player of the game for the Solon Comets was Ben Roder with 1 goal.
