By Andy States
SMAC Content Manager
In his first season at the helm of the La Plata hockey team, Mark Eagles had to devote some time to teaching the basic rules of the game to some of his players.
On Wednesday night at the Capital Clubhouse in Waldorf, Eagles finished his fourth and final season coaching the team with a 3-2 win over Northern in the Chesapeake Cup — the year-end tournament for Southern Maryland teams. And in stark contrast to that first season, three freshmen playing on a line together led the way in the Cup final.
Dillon Higgins scored the game-winning goal on a deflection late in the third period, and also assisted on La Plata’s other two goals. Dallas Savoy scored La Plata’s first goal in the second period, while Bryce Berryhill scored early in the third.
“Isn’t that something,” Eagles said of the success of the freshmen line. “And I put them together today about halfway through the first period.”
Seeing that Northern’s top defensive pairings were out on the ice against his top line, Eagles looked to put together the hardest remaining skaters from the rest of his roster. The freshmen line provided quick results.
“All of a sudden they score on the first power play I put them out on. So it was sort of set in stone at that point, I’m like, ‘OK, I found my second line.'”
La Plata needed to find its scoring somewhere. Despite the fact that Northern, owners of the Cup the past three seasons, was playing undermanned due to injuries, La Plata struggled to gain control.
James Powers scored 9 minutes 36 seconds into the game off a feed from Wes Caparratto to put the Patriots in front 1-0. Northern succeeded in its goal slowing down the pace of play to some extent, and while La Plata held a decisive shot advantage it was not able to get one past Northern goalie Stephen Horak and into the net.
“We had all kinds of chances in front of the net,” La Plata co-captain Ross Eagles said. “We couldn’t get the puck in the net.”
It was Savoy, on a backhander in front of the net, that finally got La Plata on the board with a power-play goal at the 14:23 mark of the second period. Berryhill put the Warriors in front 2-1 after a scrum in front of the net early in the third. Then, after a laser wrist shot from Caparratto tied the game up, Higgins got the game-winner on a deflected puck with just over three minutes left on the clock.
“Relief more than anything,” Mark Eagles said of his emotions. “We peppered them with shots for two straight periods and I’m thinking, ‘one’s got to go in.’ And what is it? A fluke goal — a deflection.”
“Feeling kind of lucky,” Higgins said of his game-winning marker. “It tipped off the other guy’s stick, but a goal’s a goal.”
Despite the fact that Northern was missing four players from its regular lineup, La Plata’s coach was not about to take them any more lightly.
“They’re a good team,” he said, “and they play really well when they’re in a hole.”
Northern’s injury woes nearly got worse on the first shift of the game, as Caparratto took a puck to the knee. But after missing a couple of shifts, the senior defenseman returned to the ice to eventually contribute a goal and an assist.
“This was a tremendous game for all our players,” Northern coach Mark Clark said. “All these guys pulled together as a team.”
Northern made La Plata earn the Cup, and remained on the attack looking for the trying goal right up until the final buzzer. But in the end, it was La Plata finishing its season 16-2 overall and adding to the Southern Conference championship trophy it received before the game.
“They’ve had it for a while,” La Plata co-captain Brad Lawson said. “It’s kind of nice for it to change.”
La Plata 3, Northern 2
N 1 0 1
L 0 1 2
First period
N – Powers (Caparratto), 9:36
Second period
L – Savoy (Higgins, O’Leary) (pp), 14:23
Third period
L – Berryhill (Higgins, Savoy), 4:07
N – Caparratto (O’Connor), 5:49
L – Higgins (unassisted), 11:48
astates@digitalsports.com
Processing your request, Please wait....
