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The Honeybaked 14U girls ventured to Stoney Creek, Ontario the weekend of Sept. 23-25 to participate in a 16-team Bantam AA tournament. The teams were divided into four divisions for round-robin play and Honeybaked started slowly with a 3-1 loss to Kingston on Friday morning with Kaleigh Beauregard scoring the lone goal.
Game 2 proved to be a much stronger effort with a hard-fought 2-2 tie with host team Stoney Creek; Sami Wais and Lea Boreland lit the lamp, and Shannon Ropp turning in a solid effort in goal. To advance to the “A” division playoffs, Honeybaked would need to win Game 3 and hope for a Kingston win over Stoney Creek. Unfortunately neither happened as the Leaside Wildcats earned a tightly-contested 3-0 decision that was much closer than the final score indicated, with two goals in the final two minutes of play. Emmy Cooper took the loss in goal.
With the top two teams in each division advancing to the A pool quarterfinals, Honeybaked was relegated to the B pool, opening with a 2-0 victory over the Brampton Canadettes on Saturday evening. Shannon Ropp earned the shutout win in goal, while Lea Boreland and Janie Groetsch (power play) lit the lamp for Honeybaked. Sunday started early with a 7:45 a.m. semifinal match-up with the Scarborough Sharks, which saw Honeybaked emerge with a 4-2 win to advance to the finals. Taylor Girard, Lea Boreland, Rylie Murray and Kaleigh Beauregard scored for the winners, with Shannon Ropp in net.
Honeybaked’s final game with the Buffalo Bisons proved to be an exciting affair. Sami Wais opened the scoring in the first period on the power play, but Buffalo battled back to take a 3-1 lead late in the second period. Lea Boreland drew Honeybaked to within one with a power-play goal set up by Morgan Stacey and Janie Groetsch. Honeybaked carried the play early in the third period but fell behind 4-2 just 4 minutes in. The deficit remained at two with just over 8 minutes to play, but by the time the smoke had cleared two and a half minutes later, Honeybaked jumped in front on a blitzkrieg of goals by Sami Wais, Taylor Girard and Willow Guenther. Solid forechecking and smothering defense shut down the Bisons the rest of the way earning Honeybaked a 5-4 victory and the B Pool Championship.
Emmy Cooper and Shannon Ropp share the crease for 14U Honeybaked, while Morgan Stacey, Sami Wais, Bree Scarpaci, Jillian Jacobs, Janie Groetsch and Kelsey Jaeckle anchor the backend. Kaleigh Beauregard, Taylor Girard, Rylie Murray, Hannah Laho, Madison Phair, Willow Guenther, Lea Boreland, Olivia Ziemba, Taylor Babcock and Abby Chapman provide the offense upfront. The team is coached by Lyle Phair, Rick Murray, Norm Jacobs and Steve Scarpaci, with Brian Wais as the manager.