Mr. Ice Hockey posted on March 18, 2016 22:43
Boomer Miller had a goal and two assists as Cherokee defeated Salesianum 5-3 to win the NJ/DE Flyers cup at Voorhees on Friday night. Cherokee used a three goal outburst in the first period to take control early, but Salesianum kept battling all night. Miller scored on a breakaway in the opening five minutes and fourteen seconds later Sam Libetti made it 2-0 on a feed from Jeremy Ambrose. At the nine minute mark, Miller found Johnny Butkus at the point and his shot found the net for a 3-0 lead. Early in the second period Salesianum would connect on the power play to make it 3-1.
Now with some life on the bench the Sallies would cut the lead to 3-2 less than two minutes later on the first of two on the night scored by Jeremy DeWit. Miller made a nice cross-ice pass down low to Anthony Salvatore midway through the period to give the Chiefs some breathing room at 4-2. Ambrose would deflect a pass from Libetti six minutes into the third period and Cherokee was back up by three at 5-2. The Sallies would have their offense going in the period, launching 11 shots at net minder Matt Bidini, but he made several key saves down low to keep the Sallies off the board until less than three minutes left when DeWit would get his second of the game to make it 5-3. After a Cherokee penalty gave the Sallies a power play Miller and Ambrose did a great job killing the penalty and ending any hopes of a comeback. With the win Cherokee becomes the first South Jersey team to win both the league championship and the NJ/DE Flyers cup. Congratulations to Coach McKay and his staff and with a young team Cherokee should challenge for the title next year.
Notes: Rolling four lines seemed to pay dividends for the Chiefs, and getting consistent scoring from the second line, with Ambrose getting 9 points and Libetti 8 points, was the keys to winning this tournament. In addition to experienced assistants like Steve Monaghan and Matt Pinto and a developing Angelo Di Battista.
Written by Mike Costantino