Peewee's Win 27th Annual Thanksgiving Tournament

AVON - HYHA's Peewee A1 team enjoyed the Thanksgiving break in championship style this weekend, winning the 27th Annual Avon Thanksgiving Tournament.

After going 1-1 in the opening 2 games of the round robin, the team needed to stay alive against a strong West Hartford team Saturday night to have any hope of staying alive. West Hartford, who’d become the tournament favorite, came out flying & it was thanks to heroic efforts by goalies Ralphie Iuliano and Brendan Silva plus a strong overall team defense that the team worked out a 3-3 tie.

“After the West Hartford game the feeling in the locker room was that we really had a chance,” said Coach Justin Nolan. Nolan, no stranger to championships after winning a Squirt B CHC championship last year, continued “We’ve got some kids on the team that have been in situations like this before. And we have some great veteran leadership.”

Sunday morning saw Hamden beat Central 4-1 to move into the championship against hometown favorite Avon. Avon was on a run of its own, having knocked off the very same West Hartford team 4-3 to reach the championship against Hamden. “Sometimes when you play a team more than once in these tournaments you don’t know how your team is going to come out.” said Coach Jimmy Carney referring to the 5-3 Hamden victory over Avon in the round robin.

Once the final started though the game was never in question. Hamden jumped all over Avon from the 1st shift & scored just 12 seconds into the game. That shift by Zoe Nolan, Emery Preuss, & Esther Schonberger kicked off what turned into a crushing 9-0 victory & a Thanksgiving Championship. What followed was goals from all over the lineup, total team defense, and a shutout to cap off what turned into a Thanksgiving to remember for the team.