After years of dazzling success in middle school, but never any noise in the high school level, Kushner’s remarkable group of juniors now on the varsity team watched their 2018-19 JV championship banner raised in front of their families and classmates. It was a remarkable season to remember that ended in an incredible win against the TABC Storm that took three overtimes to decide the victory. Now that the majority of that group are on the varsity team, their desire to continue their success extended into the night’s match-up vs. the JEC Thunder.

Halfway through the first period, the Cobras opened up the scoring off Jesse Koppel’s open chance in the slot. The period ended 1-0 with Kushner outchancing the Thunder by a significant amount.

The second period saw Kushner turn up the pressure claiming four straight goals by Eitan Kaynan, Josh Lando, Ben Orbach and a blast from the point by AJ Keiser. Keiser was dominant all game, generating offense off the breakout and controlling the ball on both ends of the court. Kushner led 5-0 after two. JEC managed to put one in net in the third to make it 5-1 and goalie Dov Weitz finished the game with 48 saves. Nathan Orbach and Itai Merlin shared the win in the net.

The two teams played again on Sunday at the JEC. Weitz and Merlin both couldn’t be beat through two periods seeing even play between both teams, though Kushner was missing several key players due to travel delays. Despite that, with 2:59 to play, off a huge face-off win by Zev Weisz, Josh ‘Chip’ Lando banged home a rebound from Drew Rabinowitz’s point shot to give the Cobras the go-ahead goal which stood as the game winner. This was Lando’s 14th of the season, which leads the team. Merlin secured another win in the net. Kushner improves to 8-4 looking to secure their position in the Western playoff race.

By Yeshiva League Pass