NEWS: Athletics

The Selects Academy U-14 and U-16 teams traveled to Detroit, MI on October 19, 2012 to face off in the AAA Warrior Invitational Hockey Tournament.

Both teams put on a fantastic showing with the U-14 team earning top honors and bringing home the championship trophy while the U-16 team earned the runner-up spot after losing in the championship game.

The U-14 Selects Academy went 5-0-1 in the tournament. Adam Peck, (SKS class of 2016) scored two of the four goals in the 4-2 win over Niagara. The following game against the Toronto Titans was a hard fought defensive one, ending in a 2-2 tie. The U-14s pressed on in a dominating offensive performance with a 5-3 win over Texas Alliance Bulldogs to bring them to the quarterfinal game against the Hamburg Hawks. Both teams were relentless bringing the game into a shoot-out after two five-minute overtime periods. Eugene Lim, (2016) finally put one past the Hamburg goalie as the eighth shooter of the tie breaking shootout for the game winner. Moving onto the semifinal game against local rival Westchester Express, the Selects Academy was impressively dominating ending the game with a 5-3 win. Advancing to the finals, the U-14s found themselves in a rematch against previously tied Toronto Titans but with a late goal by Peck the Selects Academy earned the championship title.

“The boys were so excited to ring the bell at the rink for the tournament win and to bring the cup back to the Hillside for our community,” said Eric Soltys, U-14 Selects Academy head coach.  “They call this tournament the Warrior because you have to battle hard and often to make the playoffs. The U-14’s were warriors this weekend and nothing was going to stop them,” he said. “I am so proud of their hard work, sportsmanship and teamwork.”

The U-16 Selects Academy went 5-1 in the tournament. The first game of the tournament for the U-16’s was against the Hamilton Huskies, from Ontario, Canada resulting in a 2-0 win. Al Rogers (SKS class of 2014) had the shut-out in net and Karl El-Mir, (2014) and Jared Toole, (2013) took one goal each for the win. Jérémie Lintner (2014) had a shutout in the following game against NY AppleCore with a 3-0 win. The U-16’s continued their hard-fought battle against Victory Honda with a must win or tie to win their bracket and move onto the quarterfinal round. With six minutes left in the game the U-16’s found themselves down 1-0 but Austin Mcllmurray (2015) scored to tie up the game, followed by the game winner by Donovon Ott (2015).  The Selects Academy pulled out a 6-0 win against the PK Warriors in the quarterfinal game. Lintner was in goal for the shutout and Tyler Augustinsen, (2014) and Chase Harwell (2015) each scored two goals to help the team advance to the semifinal game against the Michigan Nationals where they took a 3-1 win.  The U-16s battled hard against Team Wisconsin in the championship game but ultimately lost 3-0. The Selects Academy was down 1-0 after the first period but after two power plays in the last period Team Wisconsin sealed the win with two more goals.

“We had a fantastic tournament and our team continued to get better and better as the weekend went on,” said Devin Rask, U-16 Selects Academy head coach. “We look forward to getting back to campus and getting ready to head to The Beantown Classic next weekend,” he added.