by The 2nd seed Chagrin Falls Tigers met the 3rd seed Orange Lions in the semi finals of the Baron Cup III today. Both teams played fast and hard but thanks to amazing goalie play and stout defense, the Lions came out on top with a score of 3-1.
Both teams came out of the gate fast in this one. The first half of the first period was a back and forth battle with both defenses holding strong.
Halfway into the first Chagrin Falls started to get comfortable and applied a lot of pressure in the Lions zone. Thankfully for the Lions senior goalie Zach Frederick came to play. Frederick saved everything that came his way in the first, and in hockey good defense turns into good offense.
With around 4:30 left in the period, following a Frederick pad save, the Lions went on attack. They moved past the blue line and set up in their offense. After some set up, junior Russell Tye fired a shot that was rebound saved by the Tigers goalie. The puck bounced right into junior Ben Hegyes’s stick and slipped it right past the goalie for the first goal of the game.
Chagrin Falls went back on attack for the rest of the period, but Frederick remained stout in net. The period ended with a 1-0 lead in favor of Orange.
The second period continued with tough defensive play by both teams. The Tigers stayed on attack while the Lions sat back and tried to turn defense to offense.
Much like Zach Frederick, Chagrin Falls goalie Nathaniel Newton was put to the test in the second period. Newton made numerous clutch saves and the Lions flew down the ice in transition offense. He foiled many man advantages for the lions and kept his Tigers in the games.
With a minute left in the middle period Orange committed the game’s first penalty, putting the Tigers on the power play. The Lions did a great job killing the first half to head into the locker room up 1-0, but they were gonna have to come out strong in the third to kill the other half.
Orange came out and quickly killed the penalty to start the third period. Things continued to play out the same for most of the period. Orange’s Russell Tye was flying all around the ice making defensive plays and just coming up short on scoring attempts. It wasn’t until inside 2 minutes where he finally broke through.
With 1:30 Chagrin Falls was putting a ton of pressure onto the Lions defense. Frederick made save after save and then junior Noah Rice came up with a clutch steal. He shot his head up and found Tye wide open passes the over pushed Tiger defense. Tye had a 1 on 1 with the goalie and he took advantage of it, burying it stick side to put Orange up 2-0.
The Lions scored 1 more thanks to an empty netter from freshman Charles Thomas and the Tigers got on the board with 12 seconds left thanks to a smooth goal from freshman Ace Rossi. This goal ended Zach Fredericks clean sheet but it did not take away from his amazing performance in this one. He finished with 32 saves and kept the Lions in front time after time with some very clutch saves.
The game finished 3-1 in favor of Orange and they will take on 5th seed Nordonia in the Baron Cup III championship on Sunday.
