The Yavneh Redhawks turned back the clock to take home the biggest prize in junior high hockey this past Sunday at the 16th annual Martin Weiselberg Memorial Hockey Tournament. The victors joined seven other schools—HALB, HANC, Moriah, SAR, host HAFTR, Noam and Har Torah—for a full day of action in Cedarhurst, New York, for the chance to earn the championship for the only hockey tournament on the age level.
The eight schools were split into two divisions, where each played two round-robin games with the top two moving on to the knockout rounds. The morning session was littered with shutouts as all four contests ended with zeros on the board. HAFTR began the day with a 2-0 win over SAR; YJHSHL champion HANC outlasted defending tournament champion Moriah 1-0; Noam took a 2-0 win over Ramaz; and YMSSA champion Yavneh dominated HALB 4-0.
The afternoon session saw Moriah rebound to defeat HAFTR 2-1; HANC continue their winning ways defeating SAR 3-0 HALB defeat Kushner 3-0; Noam shock HALB 3-2 on a last-minute goal by Aaron Brothman; and Yavneh ended the session with a 3-1 win over Har Torah. The “A” Division saw Moriah and HAFTR meet up in a shootout where Jack Dushey’s goal and Nate Cuttler’s netminding would help the Mountaineers advance to the knockout stage where they would meet up again with HANC.
HANC got on the board first in the last minute of the first period on Isaac Silbiger’s second goal of the tournament. Three minutes into the second period, Dushey would tie up the contest for Moriah and the score would stay the same the rest of the way through regulation, leading to overtime. With only 38 seconds left in the extra second, an Aaron Hackel faceoff win found its way back to Silbiger who ripped the ball into the net to give HANC the 2-1 victory.
The “B” Division contest was not quite as close, as Yavneh ended “Cinderella” Noam’s day 3-0 on goals by Eitan Goldwasser, Adin Katler and Pacey Hornblass. The result meant that for the third time in tournament history, the finals would be a matchup of the two league champions, and that HANC and Yavneh would meet in the finals for the first time since the very first championship back in 2006.
The game went scoreless until halfway through the second, when Goldwasser would pick a Noam Goodman loft out of midair and pop it into the HANC net to give the NJ squad the 1-0 lead. Two minutes into the third, with HANC pressing, Max Pomerantz would add the insurance goal for the Redhawks that, combined with Zac Nussbaum’s third shutout of the day, would be all that was needed for Yavneh to end the day with their third tournament championship. Katler’s five points and dominant offensive performance earned the Yavneh eighth grader MVP honors in the victory.
In addition, the tournament also served as a fundraiser for Hatzolah. Once again, the tournament set out a goal of raising $10,000 through donations, sponsorships and ticket purchases for a raffle that included phenomenal hockey memorabilia, including an autographed Adam Fox jersey, an autographed Wayne Gretzky photo and two tickets to a New York Islander contest. Sponsors of the day included Weiselberg Law, LLC Real Estate Law Services, Crown Trophy of Brooklyn, Yeshiva League Pass and Yeshiva Sports Network. A special thank you to HAFTR, the HAFTR administration and Athletic Director Joey Honig for opening HAFTR’s doors to the tournament. All participants walked away with a gift bag complete with a tournament T-shirt, water bottle and various other goodies provided by all of the event sponsors. A replay of the tournament can be found on the tournament website at www.mwtournament.com.
Additionally, stay tuned to the website for an announcement of the all-tournament teams, with each honoree receiving an award courtesy of Crown Trophy of Brooklyn.
By Elliot Weiselberg
