Greece Athena/Odyssey 1, Aquinas 0 (Lakeshore)

Greece Athena/Odyssey 1, Aquinas 0 (Lakeshore)

D&C Staff Reports 11/22/08

PHOTOS

Freshman forward Matt Lane scored the game's only goal with 5:04 left in the first period to lead Greece Athena/Odyssey (2-0). Senior Pat Sofia and senior forward Greg Ryan assisted on the goal. Sofia was behind the net and then passed out in front to Lane. Aquinas (0-1) goalie Peter Dohr stopped 21 shots. Greece Athena/Odyssey goalie Parker Bonis made 23 saves for the shutout.

Wes Vyverberg Reports
Sat Nov 22nd Game Report

The ticket line was out the door for this the Thunder's second game of the season on Saturday, Nov 22 at Lakeshore Hockey Arena. In town and on the bench for his son's Amateur Penguins PeeWee Major game against Monroe County Eagles, Mario Lemieux was seen strolling through the lobby and graciously giving up an autograph or two. Meanwhile, Thunder was preparing for battle with league rival Aquinas Little Irish. A young lady by the name of Jenna Bruce did the anthem honors, putting her own signature on it, before the game got underway.

One could hear the chant of "nice dive Louganis" from the thunder camp as AQ struggled to stay on their feet in the early going and thunder went to the box to kill off a few penalties. Fear not, as Vyper was making his debut for the season and helped keep AQ off the board while shoring things up on the blueline. It was only a matter of time before Thunder would break out of captivity and go on the attack. Greg Ryan was back on the job muscling the puck into the AQ zone before leaving the baton for Pat Sofia to carry it in deep and find Matt Lane in the slot for the one-timer, 1-0 Thunder. The new section V theme song - " I don't wanna work, just wanna bang on the drum all day" droned on at the period break, c'mon guys is that the best you can do? I'm sure the kids would appreciate hearing some Lil' Wayne or Ludacris, and us older folk might appreciate some Ozzie or Metallica. But I digress.

Second frame was scoreless but the first AQ penalty of the game drew some applause from the crowd. Refs pulled the captains aside due to some monkey-business after the whistle and that seemed to keep things from getting too terribly out of hand. The Eric Grills disciples finally got up the nerve to lead the GREECE, THUN-DER cheer as Thunder went on the powerplay in the third. Much to our surprise though, the AQ camp was quiet. Must be the middle-aged male cheerleaders from AQ froze their pom-poms off at the tailgate. Tightly gripping onto a 1-0 lead, Thunder lined up for the final face-off of the game, in their own end, with an empty net glaring at them from across the way. Tensions were high as AQ cycled the puck out to the point, but Riley Bourbonnais was right there to block the AQ defenseman's attempted shot. The puck squirted out into the neutral zone, JT Stenglein pounced on it, carried it down the ice and dumped it wide of the gaping net just as the horn sounded. There was much rejoicing in this 1-0 victory, where shots were essentially even and play was in both ends of the rink. In the end, we wanted it more. Yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, Thun-Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

First star of the game goes to Parker Bonis. Coach Webb said he knew going in that Bonis was a good match for AQ as "he has a great glove and they like to shoot high". Bonis snared everything that came his way, making 23 saves for a huge shut-out win. Second star goes to Matt Lane for the game winner and third star goes to Riley Bourbonnais for the huge block at the end of the game. In closing, Webby felt the key to this win was our commitment to team defense as we did not give up a single rebound attempt. Next victim is Fairport, 5:30pm @ the creek on Tues, Dec 2nd. Don't eat too much turkey boys, gotta save some room for that road 'plate'.