Mountaineer Men Come Out on Top

By: Samantha Puckhaber

 ------ After a well played season, the National Sports Academy boys are still on top and come home with a IJHL (International Junior Hockey League) Championship. The boys played two hard fought games, and came back after they were down two to zero in each game. The men's team for NSA this year has played the best season the school has seen.

Tyler Watts

National Sports Academy men's team member Tyler Watts had told me that the season had gone very well, and that winning the Championship was just the icing on the cake. The boys had two nail biting games against Syracuse. Watts had this to say “We played well, but it was hard to come back.” Syracuse was a solid team according to Watts, and it was a good win for the Mountaineers, but it was also a hard fought win.

In the first game face-off against Syracuse the boys started off rocky with 2 goals being scored on them. The team decided to kick it up a notch and ended up winning 3-2, Watts had this to say, “Even though it started off badly we came back,” continuing to say “We had character for both games, we were down by 2 and came back and won, it was awesome.” also saying that his team “had great chemistry through-out the season.”

During the first game Taylor Widenmaier stood out having two big goals to tie the game, while Wes Moon came up big scoring the winning goal in order to make the outcome 3-2.

The 2^nd game was it, the big game where they could either be Champions or have to battle one more time. This game started off just as the one before, the team had been lazying around until they finally kicked up. Down by 2 goals once again, they finally decided to move it up and came back to win the second game 5-3.

Fans Show Support.

Goals in the 2^nd game being scored by Taylor Widenmaier, Devin Desnoyers, and two goals by Zach White. According too Devin Desnoyers says “I think we had a slow start,” but continues to say “but with a few motivational words in between periods, we turned it around, and realized that this could be the last game together.”

Devin Desnoyers had this to say about the overall season “I felt that we had a great season,” like Watts he continues on in talking about the teams chemistry and says, “as the year went on we kept getting better as a team. And as the season progressed we became one.”

As his teams final moments together were counting down Devin had this to say, “Our team always showed a lot of heart,” also saying “We never gave up on ourselves, and were just awesome.” Desnoyers had said “We wanted this to be our last game together, knowing that we came out on a win and became champs together.”

Celebration

According to both Watts and Desnoyers, the Mountaineers showed heart, and character through-out the whole season and with that had one of the greatest seasons National Sports Academy (men's hockey) has seen in years. In the end of the season Coach Rod Simmons had this to say, “I was happy with our effort and I let our guys know how well they played.” In the end of the season the boys started out on top and end out on top as Champions.