(Moriah Sports) After a full year hiatus from league play due to Covid-19, the Moriah Mountaineers entered the 2021-2022 Yeshiva Middle School Sports Association (YMSSA) hockey season eager to defend their championship title from the 2019-2020. Now the boys who had won the championship as sixth graders, were given an opportunity to prove themselves as eighth graders. Going into the season, Moriah was the favorite to win. Could Moriah win back-to-back championships or would another team step up and be able to stop them?

When Moriah and Ramaz faced off in the final game of the regular season, both teams were undefeated. Many assumed that this game would be a preview of the championship game which was just weeks away. Both teams were hyped. Many of the players on each team knew each other from camp, some even played together on the same ice hockey team and Jared Helwani, Moriah’s star goalie, had actually transferred from Ramaz to Moriah a few years prior. With all this background, the game was highly anticipated. Moriah’s convincing 5-0 victory in that matchup would set the stage for the championship game. Ramaz had many talented players; moreover, Ramaz was an incredibly fast and aggressive team. Three weeks later, in the championship, Ramaz was hungry for revenge. And Moriah knew that if anybody could beat them, it would be Ramaz.

The championship game took place on Tuesday March 15, at TABC. Moriah was coached by Rabbi Zev Kahane and Ezra Csillag, and Ramaz was coached by Jacob Henry. The game opened with a tough and scoreless first half of the first period. Moriah defensemen, David Kahn, Bennett Lissauer, Aidan Petak, and Sam Rosen, were playing lock down defense, not giving many scoring opportunities to the Ramaz forwards. On the other side of the court, Ramaz goalie Nathan Podolsky was a brick wall, making stop after stop. But finally someone managed to put one in.

Moriah’s first line offense, co-captains Alex Pomerantz and Noah Sosland, had carried the team offensively all season. Linemates for years in both ice hockey and floor hockey, the two play with unbelievable chemistry. Weaving in and out of defenses, the two have managed to score countless goals throughout their Moriah career. And this night was no exception.

Midway through the first period, Pomerantz had a spinning shot on net, and Sosland was positioned right in front of the net, giving him the ability to tip and deflect the ball in for Moriah’s first goal of the night. As the period neared a close, Sosland managed to make a move around the Ramaz defense, scoring a beautiful breakaway goal, putting Moriah up 2-0 going into the second period.

Ramaz came out hungry and energized in the second period. Despite that, Moriah was able to build upon their lead with another goal, this time from Pomerantz, scoring with a halfcourt slapshot. Led by Jack Linhart, Edward Ash and Asaf Seinfeld, Ramaz did generate some good scoring opportunities on the powerplay, but Moriah’s second line offensemen, Jonas Nelkin and Jakey Solomon, managed to kill off the penalties. This second line offense, with their energetic and aggressive style of play, has stepped up for the Moriah teams many times throughout the season. The Moriah team was also energized by some critical shifts from third line offensemen David Almo and William Gollender.

Eventually Ramaz was able to get on the scoreboard with a goal from Seinfeld. But as the next period and a half would show, it was going to be too little, too late. Moriah defenseman Petak went on two score two goals, both shots from the point, in the remainder of the game. Pomerantz also put in his second, with a shot right off of a face off win. Moriah finished the game with some big shifts from Aaron Feldman, Chaim Ratzersdofer, Avi Winslow and Jack Yunis.

After the game, Moriah’s coach, Rabbi Kahane, remarked, “I have had the unique opportunity to be the coach and rebbe of these boys for the past three years. Over these years I have seen these boys grow as players on the court and as students in the classroom. Seeing this growth makes me so proud of them. Winning the championship was just the cherry on top.”

Congratulations to the Moriah Mountaineers, the 2021-2022 YMSSA champions on their victory: David Almo, Aaron Feldman, William Gollender, Jared Helwani (A), David Kahn, Bennett Lissauer (A), Jonas Nelkin, Aiden Petak, Alex Pomerantz (C), Chaim Ratzersdorfer, Dovid Ratzersdorfer, Sam Rosen, Jakey Solomon, Noah Sosland (C), Avi Winslow and Jack Yunis.

A special thank you to TABC for hosting the game and to the YMSSA commissioners Dov Elafant and Dovey Forman.