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The Hill Academy Takes Home 18U Division Championship

02/01/2017, 5:00pm EST
By Martone

The Hill Academy 18U Team got off to a slow start to the season. In their first showcase, they finished with a 1-2-1 record.  From that point on, they turned things around and never looked back. Since that first showcase, they had gone 6-2. Hill would finish the season 7-4-1 putting them as the #1 Seed going into the league championship. 

The Hill Academy took down Team Maryland 7-1 in their first preliminary game. They set the tone of the game by scoring three unanswered goals.  Team Maryland should have saved that puck because goals were hard to come by against this Hill Academy team. They would not let up another goal in the next two preliminary games. They would roll 4-0 passed Boston Jr. Rangers and then 6-0 Against Newbridge Academy.

Heading into the semi finals, Hill was the #1 seed by winning the tiebreaker against the New Hampshire Monarch with a +16 Goal Differential.  Hill’s first big test was against the #4 seed Boston Bandits.  The Hill Academy jumped out first scoring just over 3 minutes into the game. Boston Bandits answered right back just two minutes later. The game would stay tied until the 6 minute mark in the first period when Austin Miller put one home for the Bandits to make the score 2-1. Throughout the rest of the game, momentum would shift back and forth but neither team would break. With their backs against the wall, The Hill Academy scored with 3 minutes left in the game to tie it up at 2-2.  The first over time period came and went without deciding a winner. With 42 seconds left in 2OT, Connor Sleeth would stuff one in the back of the net. Hill left their bench in excitement and piled on Connor.

The Hill Academy 18U team would go on to play the New Hampshire Monarchs in the championship game. The Monarchs would finish the regular season in 3rd place and enter the semi finals as the number two seed after going undefeated in the preliminary games taking down Newbridge Academy, Team Maryland, and Boston Bandits.  They would go on to play Boston Advantage in the semi finals. The game would be decided by a short-handed goal, in over time, by Niks Krollis.

The championship game was full of great plays, great hits, and most of all, great goal tending! The only goal in the game came at the 5-minute mark in the first half by Hill Academy’s Miles Cook.  The Monarchs had many chances on a power play they had received for the last two minutes of the game. Eric Doner had other plans. He wanted to add another shutout to Hill’s goaltender staff for the weekend and he wanted another ECEL Championship.  It was an outstanding weekend from The Hill Academy goalie tandem Domenic Paciocco and Eric Doner. They would finish with a combined 5 wins, 3 shutouts, and a total of 3 goals against. It was an unbelievable performance from them and the rest of The Hill Academy 18U team. Congratulations on another ECEL Championship.

Tag(s): News