Whitcomb Boys Knocked Out
Of Play-offs By Bucks
By Laurie-Jean B. Gauthier

An early season tie between the #10 Twinfield Trojans and the #7 Whitcomb Hornets was all either team had as a gauge to go on when entering the playoffs last Wednesday in Bethel. With very similar schedules and mediocre records (5-8-1) for Twinfield and 6-6-1 for Whitcomb neither team was a shoo-in to win. It came as no surprise when both teams came out hungry and ready to battle for the win.

Luckily for Whitcomb it was the Hornets who prevailed after the Trojans struck first. At 5:37 with the Trojans barreling down on Hornet goalie Scott Killian, a Royal Healey attempt was denied only to have the ball rebound off Killian and in position for a waiting Riley Carlson to tap it in for a 1-0 Trojan advantage. A second chance and another Carlson rebound-attempt at 37:00 was denied by Killian. Twinfield appeared to dominate the play with better passes and positioning but the speedy and beefier Hornets managed to stick with them, holding them to the single digit score for the remainder of the half.

Returning from the break and after new replacement coach Mike Crane made some position changes it was a new and improved group of Hornets on the move. Showing more aggression and better control of the ball, Whitcomb hammered Trojan goalie Brandon Pierce, who was at the ready making some excellent saves (4) before a pass from Nathan Tipton to Chris Kerr-Ayer at 4:42 evened the score.

At 18:00 the Trojans were denied the go-ahead-goal when Killian made his only save of the second half stopping a Greg Blackburn throw-in that Gage Perkins managed to get his foot on. In the 64^th minute of play Whitcomb scored the go-ahead-goal when Brian Ward took a Tipton crossing-pass which he planted in the corner of the far post.

The last 16 minutes of play had Whitcomb hustling and turning the ball back time after time as halfback Tyler Killian along with fullbacks Cody Griffin and Joel Wright settled the ball and booted it back out and away from the forward movement. At the eight minute mark another Tipton/Ward crossing pass was nabbed by Pierce, who ended the half with 11 saves.

Twinfield made the last three minutes of play interesting and managed to keep the Hornets on their toes when a direct kick for Healey and headed by Trevor Kennon bounced off the crossbar and out of bounds and then with only 90 seconds left an excellent corner kick boot was caught by a jumping Scott Killian.

Pierce ended the game with 20 saves for Twinfield and Killian had six saves for Whitcomb. Whitcomb traveled to South Ryegate and faced the #2 seeded Blue Mountain Union Bucks in the quarter-finals last Saturday.

Loss to Bucks

Twice during the regular season the Hornets were shut out by the Bucks so Whitcomb was hoping for a much different outcome last Saturday, away.

Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be as the #2 Blue Mountain Bucks sent Whitcomb back to Bethel winless and out of the post season after a 1-0 shutout victory.

Blue Mountain improves to 12-1-0 and continues into the semi-finals. Whitcomb ends the season at 7-7-1. Whitcomb loses five seniors to graduation.

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