This past Saturday night October 29, HAFTR hosted the first ever Rabbi David Beitler Memorial Tournament. Rabbi David Beitler who tragically passed away too young has made an incredible impact in the way yeshivot handle student activities. Rabbi Beitler was also the first person to start an after-camp summer program when he started Camp Dovid with David Kolb.
In the first game the DRS Wildcats beat host HAFTR 5-1.
The second semi-final was a rematch of last year’s varsity championship featuring the Frisch Cougars and the TABC Storm. If the game played on this evening is indicative of what is to come this season it will be an incredibly exciting year. Frisch opened the scoring early in the first period when starting senior Jacob Feit scored off a beautiful pass from his first cousin Eitan Geisler. TABC responded less than a minute later as senior Shlomo Mittel went end to end and stuffed the ouch past senior goalie Andrew Srulowitz to tie the game at one. Later in the first, junior Shay Fields would put TABC up 2-1 only to see Senior Ben Srulowitz tie the game late in the second period with a laser shot over the glove of junior goalie Amichai Dresdner making his first ever start on a varsity level.
The goalies would shine after that, eventually sending the game to overtime. In overtime, Feit hit the crossbar and Dresdner robbed senior star Ethan Alter and Feit numerous times while Strulowitz stymied Eitan Adler and Ryan Brandwein. The game would go to Double overtime when senior Eli Altman stole the puck in his own end, rushed up the court and snapped the puck past Srulowitz to give TABC a 3-2 win.
After a 20 minute break, DRS and TABC went to battle and early in the first period Adler popped a Jordan Reider rebound on the power play. TABC would hold the 1-0 lead until late in the second period. Senior Noah Friedman ripped a shot past a screened Chaim Mermelstein to tie the game at one. Senior star goalie Mermelstein would keep DRS at bay the rest of the night with several excellent saves. This game would also go to overtime when TABC executed a Tic-Tac-Toe passing play: Junior Matis Krause fed Fields, who whipped a pass to senior Sariel Rotblat, who tipped the puck into the top of the net to give TABC the 2-1 win and the championship of what was an incredible pre-season tournament in memory of Rabbi David Beitler.
Coach Mo Fuchs was close friends with Rabbi Beitler and when asked about the win he said, “I know my close friend Rabbi David Beitler is smiling in heaven.”
By Jewish Link Sportsdesk
