Alex Waddell found himself one win away from a draft league championship, but once again, fell victim to some misfortunes. Zac Gray was unavailable when his Brockway team had 2 chances to win back in October. This time, he was available but limited on what he could do. Despite missing him for some games in the playoffs, team Orange found itself in a favorable position after beating yellow and black by a goal to start out the playoffs and then pulled away from Team Red in last week's game to get to within a win of a championship. Unfortunately for them last night, their season ended on the short side of a championship.
Team Gray had to win twice last week just for a chance to play last night with one of the wins coming in an overtime thriller over Team Red. Gray scored 5 first-period goals to go up 5 to 1 at the end of the first period. Joe Roush scored the first goal of the game but Gray scored the next 7 goals. All 6 skaters scored at least 1 goal for Team Gray. Orange scored 2 goals to close out the 2nd period (Gray and Stamler) but Gray answered with a couple of goals to start the 3rd period. Alex Waddell and Joe Roush scored 3rd period goals for team Orange but could not get any closer than a 4-goal deficit. The 11 to 6 win for Gray set up a 2nd and deciding game.
The 2nd game was much more of what we expected to see in the first game. Orange went up again to start the game when Zac Gray scored but Bob set Brian up for a goal soon after to tie it at 1. Jason Stamler scored 2 first-period goals including a breakaway for orange to put them up 3 to 1 before Zach Smith set Bob up for a goal late in the first period to close the gap to 3 to 2. Bob would tie the game at 3 to start the 2nd period. The game remained tied for a while before John Matchock scored for orange to put them up 4 to 3 in the early stages of the 3rd period. Team Gray scored 2 power-play goals in a 6-minute span (both from Cory) to close out the game. Bob set Cory up for the winning goal with just under 2 minutes left to play. Tony Dodd did not get mentioned above, but he played a big role in the teams championship clinching win last night.
Team Orange had some chances to keep their momentum going but Dodd kept his team to within a goal when Orange was ahead. Clint was not quite himself in game 1 last night but he bounced back in the 2nd game. If not for 2 power-play goals for team gray, Clint may not have given up another goal after Bob scored on him early in the 2nd period. Congratulations to both teams on a great season and for making it to the final game of the 2024 fall league season. Like all championships, it’s a shame someone has to lose. With that said, we look forward to next week's tournament to close out 2024 and the xhl season to kick off 2025. Thanks again to everyone who participated in this year's fall league.
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