For the first time in both MYHSAL basketball and hockey league history, Frisch and TABC faced off in a championship game—for the JV hockey championship. While TABC has been a regular in this game, with its six year consecutive championship run, the Frisch JV team had never won a championship and the school had not won any hockey championship since moving into its new building.
TABC took a two year hiatus from the game, but found itself right back in Lawrence Middle School as the league’s overall number one seed. The team finished the season an impressive 9-0-1, the lone tie coming against its rival Frisch Cougars. During the season, TABC was able to beat Frisch at home in the first game of the season, 3-0. The team continued its impressive regular season play, and when the rematch at Frisch occurred, TABC left the Frisch gym with a 2-2 tie. The team was also able to take down the east’s number one seed DRS 3-2 in the last game of the regular season. In the playoffs, TABC was able to easily handle Flatbush in the first round, winning 4-1. In the semi-finals, the Storm players were challenged a bit more, but were able to score with six minutes left to defeat HAFTR and find their way back to Lawrence Middle School.
Frisch, after finishing 10-0 and losing in the championship last year to DRS, had a bit of a rockier regular season. They finished 6-1-3, tying DRS, TABC and SAR, with their lone loss coming to TABC early in the season. As Frisch entered the playoffs, the players really started playing their best hockey th of the season. In the first round they were able to easily defeat HANC 5-1 to set up a showdown and rematch of the 2015-2016 championship game in the DRS gym. Earlier in the year, when these two teams faced off in the same gym, DRS and Frisch tied 1-1. In similar fashion, DRS jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in this rematch. Frisch kept fighting and putting on the pressure and finally broke through with three minutes left in the second to tie it at one. Much like the regular season, the game went into overtime with this score, but this time a winner needed to be determined. In overtime, Frisch standout goalie Isaac Markovitz held strong by making numerous saves, and with 5:45 left, co-captain Josh Levine was able to score the game winner, his second goal of the night, avenging last year’s loss and sending the Cougars back to Lawrence Middle School for the second straight year to set up the showdown between the Route 4 rivals.
With much anticipation, Sunday’s game did not disappoint. The two teams came out energized and ready to take Bergen County bragging rights into next season. Both teams fought hard in the first, though Frisch seemed to control a good part of the period. Both teams had good chances, but both goalies, Isaac Markovitz and Charles Gibber, were determined not to let anything past them.
As the second period started, the play started to even out a bit. Finally, halfway through the period, on a deep face off in the TABC zone, Frisch’s top goal scoring line all year, the freshman combo of Jason Alter and Elliot Eisner scored as Alter tied up the face off and Eisner beat Gibber five-hole for a 1-0 lead. That lead would hold into the third.
The third period continued seeing many opportunities for both teams. During the third, Frisch was led by defensive co-captains, Aryeh Bloom and Josh Levine, who had led Frisch all year. Helped out by freshman defensive standout Ari Baruch, Frisch clamped down defensively and would not let much go. Not to be outdone, the TABC sophomore pairing of Akiva Hain and Avraham Gellman kept generating chances and pushing Frisch to the limit. On a beautiful cut from Gellman, Hain fed him, but Markovitz was up to the task and made the pad save. As the third wore on, TABC’s second line of Eli Schiff and Elli Spinowitz really tried to make as much happen as they could, but Frisch kept holding strong. The Frisch pairing of JJ Coren and TABC transfer Natan Neugroschl kept controlling the game deep in the TABC zone, and did not let TABC mount too many chances, Finally, with 1:03 left, JJ Coren, led on a breakaway by Ari Baruch, scored a beautiful rebound goal of his own missed shot. This allowed Frisch to settle back defensively and take home their first ever JV Hockey championship, with a final score of 2-0.
This Frisch team was a team in every sense of the word, with contributions from everyone on the roster. With a very deep team filled with talent all the way down to the fifth line, Frisch wore teams out with waves of aggressive and speedy players from start to finish. It really was a great season by both teams, which gave Bergen County a fun and exciting year and championship game.
Congratulations to coaches Yossi Sasson and Rabbi Ben Pomper as well as the entire Frisch team, including sophomores Aryeh Bloom, Adam Bromberg, JJ Coren, Harry Dubitsky, Gilad Holzer, Jack Katz, Josh Levine, Isaac Markovitz, Natan Neugroschl, Sammy Volodarsky and Ian Welfeld, as well as freshmen Jason Alter, Jason Aranoff, Ari Baruch, Ari Besterman, Gabe Einhorn, Elliot Eisner, Jacob Hershenov, Sammy Penn, Judah Rolnick, Jonah Rubin and Evan Solomon.
By JLNJ Sports Staff
