With another season come and gone, thought I’d reflect back on some issues we discussed at the end of last season and the beginning of this year. At the end of last season Cherokee was thinking of replacing head coach Mike Sullivan, but at the last minute decided not to make a change. And not only was it the right move, Cherokee went on to win the league championship and made the semi-finals of the Flyers Cup. As Mike would tell you, he’s got a good staff with Scott McKay and Steve Monaghan, and the kids bought into the system. There can’t be any grumblings from the board on this season, good job coaches!!

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Washington Township coming off a strong season in the SJHSIHL came into the Flyers Cup as a #3 seed, and looked to advance into the semi-finals, but strong goaltending by Springfords’ Peter Esslinger, who stopped 37 shots led to a 4-2 defeat of the Minutemen. Sean McCabe scored the lone goal of the first period on the power play as Township carried much of the play but failed to dent Esslinger.

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Ben Basalma scored twice and Eddie Sarin added two goals and three assists as Washington Township defeated William Tennent 5-3 in their opening round game in the Flyers Cup at Voorhees Skate Zone. After Tennent took a 1-0 lead in the opening minutes, Township would tie the game as Sarin would bury a shot from down low on a nice pass from Eric Naccarelli. Early in the second period, on the power play, Justin Cogbill gave Township a 2-1 lead as he scored on a rebound of a shot by Sarin.

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Jason Spieker scored with fifteen seconds left in overtime as Cherokee rallied to defeat Washington Township 6-5 and win the SJHSIHL Championship before a jammed packed crowd at the Skate Zone in Voorhees in one of the best playoff games in a long time. Cole Zucker once again came up huge for the Chiefs with his third hat trick of the playoffs. Jonathan Smith had a big night for Township scoring four goals. But once again the night was about the resiliency of Cherokee, the one characteristic that this team has shown all year, no matter the score, no matter the situation, they keep coming at you.

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Dan Navarra after surrendering a first period goal to Eddie Sarin, stopped 18 shots in the second period and Cherokee scored three times as they defeated Washington Township 3-1 before a packed house at Hollydell. The victory spoiled Townships anticipated celebration and they must now travel to Voorhees on Wednesday night for a deciding game in this double elimination format.

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Washington Township received goals from six different players, with Ben Basalma leading the way with two as they defeated Shawnee 7-2 in front of a packed house at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Ryan McCusker stopped 34 shots as Township advances to the Championship game having gone through the double elimination tournament undefeated. They will play the winner of the Cherokee-Shawnee game. Township never trailed as they scored twice in the opening period with Jonathan Smith and Eddie Sarin getting the goals. Sarin scored on the power play as Township controlled the play for much of the first period.

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Once again SJIceHockey.com is pleased to announce our annual award recipients. This year there seemed to be more balance throughout the league and with the playoffs upon us we could be in for a few surprises. Listed below are the 2010-2011 winners:

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Eddie Sarin scored three goals and Ryan McCusker stopped 26 shots as Washington Township rallied to defeat Clearview 6-4 at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Friday night. Township now moves on to the winner bracket final and will face Shawnee on Monday February 21st. The winner of that contest goes into the championship game. Sarin gave Township a 1-0 lead as he won a face-off in the offensive zone and after getting the puck back from Shane Moffatt, ripped home a shot from the top of the circle. Clearview came right back about one minute later as Bob Campbell put home a rebound of a shot by Josh Gonzalez and we were tied at 1-1.

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Ben Basalma had a hat trick as Washington Township defeated Cherry Hill East 8-3 in a playoff opener for Township at Hollydell ice rink. East was coming off an opening round win against Lenape and will now go into the losers’ bracket. Eddie Sarin and Garrett Quinn added two goals for the top seeded Minutemen. The teams were tied after the first period as Sarin and Dan Desrochers traded goals and Ben Tice stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced.

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Council Rock South scored a power play goal with less than four minutes remaining in the game as they defeated Washington Township 5-4 in a cross-over game between two of the top teams in the tri-state area. Township won an earlier meeting 3-1. Patrick Grilli and Steve Junod each scored two goals for CRS; Jonathan Smith led Township with two goals. Smith gave Township a 1-0 lead just thirty seconds into the game, but that lead was short-lived as CRS scored a power play goal with Greg Aquaro getting the tally.

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With the second season upon us the SJHSIHL begins it’s double elimination tournament on Monday so we thought we would break down to see exactly who is peaking and who is struggling. Let’s begin with the Eastern Vikings. Tough year for Mike Pontonio to come out of retirement having coached teams in the past to multiple championships, the Vikings did not win a game this season, but in speaking to Coach Pontonio it was not for lack of effort. Don’t see Eastern advancing.

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In the third annual Junior-Senior Showcase game in the SJHSIHL held at the Skate Zone in Voorhees the North came back from a 3-0 deficit and beat the South 9-5. Vincent Tascione led the North with a goal and four assists and Tyler Pedersen added two goals. Jonathan Ruiz and Jared Hand led the South with two goals each. Tascione was voted the MVP for the game.

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The SJHSIHL has released the roster for the Junior-Senior Showcase game to be played on Friday, January 28th at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Game time is 8:05PM. North Squad will be the home team and wear white and coached by Mike Sullivan of Cherokee. The South will be in the dark jerseys and coached by Mike Glick of Washington Township. We congratulate this year’s selection and look forward to another exciting contest. Here are the nominees for the North and South All-Stars...

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The SJHSIHL has released the nominees for the Junior-Senior Showcase game to be played on Friday, January 28th at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Each team was asked to nominate 3-4 players with a minimum of 2 players selected from every team. Here are the nominees for the North and South All-Stars…

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Justin Cogbill scored two goals, both on the power play as Washington Township defeated Shawnee 6-2 in SJHSIHL action played at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Brandon Cusumano got the start in nets and after giving up two goals in the first ten minutes of the game, shut the door on Shawnee the rest of the game. Shawnee scored with just one minute played as Vince Tascione notched his eleventh of the season, which leads the team.

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The rivalry between Washington Township and Clearview was renewed on Friday night as the team met at Hollydell in front of a capacity crowd and around 14 policemen. Township came back from a two goal deficit to win 5-4. Kevin Mello paced the Township attack with two goals. Ed Moore and Taylor Olson led Clearview with two goals each. Clearview jumped out early as they capitalized on the power play just over one minute into the game with Moore burying a nice feed from Eric Mitchell. Later in the period Clearview made it 2-0 as Olson scored his fifth goal of the season. It was at this point that the game changed, Township Coach Glick called a timeout and reminded his team of the game plan, immediately after the timeout, Mello scored his first of two goals to cut the lead to 2-1.

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Eddie Sarin is arguably one of the best all-around players to play for Washington Township and with his hat trick against the winless Vikings; he surpassed a milestone in his varsity career, 100 regular season goals. Washington Township won going away 13-1 as Ben Basalma also had a hat trick and the game was over after an eight goal opening period. Steve Sailor added two goals.

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Everything seemed to be working for the SJHSIHL as they had a great game scheduled between Washington Township and neighboring Williamstown, the rink was near capacity and the game was tied late in the second period at 4-4. What happened over the next few minutes was, in a word ugly.

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Washington Township continued its strong play as they defeated unbeaten Council Rock South 3-1 in a crossover game played at Hollydell. Solid goaltending and good defense once again keyed the Township win with Pat Finnegan getting the start in goal and allowing just one goal, that on the power play. Council Rock South, a 2009 Flyers Cup Champion, plays in the Suburban Hockey League and currently is undefeated at 10-0 in league play.

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Ryan McCusker stopped 12 shots in the third period as Washington Township held on for a 3-2 win over Cherokee and took over sole possession of first place in the SJHSIHL. Through two period Cherokee had managed just a total of 11 shots as Township came out early and aggressively attacked the puck. After a scoreless first period that saw Cherokee goalie Dan Navarra make several big saves, Township capitalized on the power play in the first three minutes of the second period to lead 1-0. Jonathan Smith made the play as he circled around the net and found Eddie Sarin camped down low, a spot where he does his best work, and Sarin banged home his team high 14th goal.

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Austin Haslett’s second goal of the game with twelve seconds left gave Washington Township JVA a much earned tie with division leading Cherokee at 4-4. Cherokee entered the contest with just one loss in eight games and Township battled the Chiefs throughout and spent a lot of time killing penalties the last half of the game, including two in the final five minutes and it took a 3-on-1 break at the end to salvage a point.

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When it comes time for Flyers Cup selection, the committee after reviewing the nominated teams will look at cross-over games and playing non-league games is always looked on favorably. So Township president Ed Sarin scheduled an exhibition game against Pennsbury during the practice time allotted to Township at Hollydell on Wednesday. Township won 8-4 as both Eddie Sarin and Jonathan Smith had a hat trick for Township.

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Ryan McCusker got the start in nets for Washington Township and shut out Holy Cross 3-0 at Hollydell on Friday night. Township seemed sluggish offensively and led just 1-0 after the first period, with Eric Naccarelli getting the lone goal in the final seconds of the period. Holy Cross would create some opportunities in the second period, with John Silverio having two good chances, one on a break, but McCusker stood tall.

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Jonathan Smith had two game tying goals, the last on coming on the power play in the final two minutes of regulation as Washington Township rallied to tie Moorestown 4-4 in a SJHSIHL game played at the Igloo. Moorestown jumped out to a 2-0 lead just seven minutes into the game as William Sulpizio and Michael Katz got Moorestown off quickly. Eddie Sarin got Township going as he scored an unassisted goal to cut the lead to 2-1.

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Playing at home against a team still in search of its first win Washington Township started slowly but finished strongly in a 12-2 defeat of the Eastern Vikings in action played at Hollydell on Friday night. Freshman Ryan McCusker got the start in nets for Township and faced just one shot in the first period. Township managed just one goal, scored by Steven Sailor, a deflection off an Eastern player. Eastern tied the game at 1-1 in the first five minutes of the second period as Marc Duyan got the equalizer.

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Ben Basalma had three goals and Justin Cogbill added two as Washington Township used a four goal second period to breeze past Cherry Hill East 7-1 in a game played at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. Basalma opened the scoring just over one minute into the game, scoring on the power play to give Township a quick 1-0 advantage. Township had their offense clicking in the opening period as they launched 15 shots at East goalie Mike Tice. With Basalma in the penalty box, East had a chance to tie the game at the nine minute mark, but Justin Cogbill would score short-handed to give Township a 2-0 lead.

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Dan Navarra stopped 21 of 22 shots and Cole Zucker scored two goals to lead the Cherokee Chiefs over Washington Township 4-1 at Hollydell on Friday night. After a tight checking opening period, Eddie Sarin scored the only goal late in the period as his blast from the top of the right circle found the far top corner and Township led 1-0. That was all Navarra would give up as he controlled the rebounds and his defense kept the front clear so no rebounds were available for Township.

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You could not have scripted this opener any better for new Washington Township coach Mike Glick, right out of the gate you play the defending champ Moorestown with a chance to see how you stack up. The answer was pretty good as they took over control of the game midway through the second period and out-scored Moorestown 9-6 at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Monday night. Another good sign for Township was that senior forward and league MVP Eddie Sarin did not have to carry the scoring load. Sure he had his normal three point night, with a goal and two assists, but three players stepped up and made an immediate contribution.

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It’s the start of a new season, hopes are high, optimism is running rampant and the fans are showing up. Over the last few seasons, and particularly since Ed Sarin was appointed president of the club, Washington Township has started their season with a cross-over game with teams from Pennsylvania, and although they do not count in the league standings, these games are important come Flyers Cup selection time. This year the rink was packed, especially for a Friday night, as the scheduling gods would have it, the football team played last night, the opponent was Archbishop Wood, a team that plays its games in the Suburban league, and last year they finished 11-11.

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