The Moriah Mountaineers continue to pile up the hardware in 2022, taking home the biggest prize in junior high hockey this past Sunday at the 15th annual Martin Weiselberg Memorial Hockey Tournament. The victors joined seven other schools, HALB, HANC, Yavneh, Kushner, host HAFTR, Ramaz and Har Torah for a full day of action in Cedarhurst, for the chance to earn the championship for the only hockey tournament on any 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. In the morning session, Ramaz knocked off EJHSHL champion HALB 2-0. Kushner continued the trend, knocking off HAFTR by the same score. HANC, despite scoring the first goal, fell to Yavneh 6-1 behind dual hat tricks from Charlie Butler and Adin Katler, and Moriah defeated Har Torah 4-0.
The afternoon session saw HALB defeat Kushner 3-0 and Ramaz down HAFTR 5-1, leading to a shootout between HALB and Kushner to join Ramaz in the semifinals of the “A” division. The first two HALB shooters each scored while Lion goalie Daniel Wohlgelernter stood tall in net, sending HALB to the knockout rounds. In the “B” division games, Moriah continued their domination, knocking off HANC 5-1 behind a hat trick from Alex Pomerantz and Yavneh held off Har Torah 3-2 to keep the two New Jersey teams undefeated and advancing to the knockout stages.
Following Mincha, the four remaining teams took the floor for the final three games of the day. In the “A” semifinal, Ramaz repeated their earlier feat, scoring two goals in the opening minute and a half of the third period, while goalie Nathan Podolsky kept HALB off the board to advance to the final with a 2-0 win. The “B” semifinal would see rivals Yavneh and Moriah do battle where, despite Butler’s sixth goal of the afternoon, it was four different Mountaineer scorers who gave Moriah the push into the championship.
Like their earlier championship contest in the YMSSA finals, this game would be all Moriah. Noah Sosland opened the scoring with two minutes left in the first and proceeded to break the tournament record for assists with his sixth on a Bennett Lissauer goal early in the second period and the tournament record for points with 11 on his second goal of the game late in that same period. Moriah goalie Jared Helwani would hold down the fort for his third shutout of the day en route to tournament MVP honors for yielding only one goal in the entire day. The win marks Moriah’s first tournament championship since 2011 and their tournament-leading fourth overall.
In addition, the tournament also served as a fundraiser for Hatzolah. Once again, the tournament set out and met its goal of raising $10,000.00 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 is sent 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 relay of the tournament can be found on the tournament website at www.mwtournament.com.
The following players were named to the All-Tournament teams and will receive a trophy courtesy of Crown Trophy of Brooklyn:
First Team All-Tournament: Noah Sosland (Moriah), Charlie Butler (Yavneh), Alex Pomerantz (Moriah), Jack Linhart (Ramaz), Aiden Petak (Moriah).
Second Team All-Tournament: Adin Katler (Yavneh), Asaf Seinfeld (Ramaz), Josh Lampert (HALB), Nate Zitter (YHT), Nathan Podolsky (Ramaz).
