Site Editor posted on November 18, 2011 23:18
Cole Zucker had three goals and two assists as Cherokee came back from a two goal deficit to defeat Shawnee 7-3 in SJHSIHL action played in front of a packed house at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Both goalies struggled early as the teams combined for 7 goals in the first 18 plus minutes of play. However Cherokee goalie Kelly Farinella shut down the Shawnee attack for the remaining 27 minutes on arguably her biggest game in front of a large crowd.
Shawnee took advantage of a few early penalties against Cherokee as they scored two power play goals less than two minutes apart. First, Alex Churchill notched his first goal of the season at the eight minute mark right after Farinella had stoned Mike Peccini down low. Later in the period Peccini would beat Farinella, again on the power play to make it 2-0. Zucker, who saved his best game so far, for the biggest stage, got Cherokee back to within 2-1 as a nice keep by Dylan Bradley get the puck alive in the offensive end and Zucker beat Gavin Hambrose for his first of three on the evening.
The second period would start out with Shawnee taking a 3-1 lead just Peccini getting his second goal of the night on a shot right through the five hole. Cherokee came right back twenty seconds later as Zucker went top shelf to beat Hambrose and it was 3-2. David Mazilli would tie the game at 3-3 scoring an unassisted goal just twenty one seconds later. Then Zucker made a nice pass down low to Brian Miller, who had a tap-in goal and a 4-3 lead barely three minutes into the period.
Both goalies would regain their footing and neither team would score the rest of the period. Zucker would give Cherokee a two goal advantage scoring at the ten minute mark of the third period and Mazilli’s second of the night one minute later gave Cherokee a 6-3 lead. Farinella meantime kept Shawnee off the board making two big saves from in close with Shawnee on the power play. Bradley would add an empty net goal late in the game and Cherokee with the win moves to 9-0.
Written by Mike Costantino
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