Spirit Earns Rematch with Freedom in Champion All-American Showcase Final
by Nicole Saavedra | Lax Magazine.com | Live Blog
|
|
Brown verbal committment Kylor Bellistri had three goals to help Team Spirit clinch a spot in the Champion All-American Showcase championship game. © Scott McCall |
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Six third quarter
goals, including a scoring burst of four goals in five minutes,
propelled Team Spirit to a 15-5 win over Team Liberty at the
Champion All-American Showcase at ESPN Wide World of Sports on
Thursday. The victory clinched a sport for Spirit in Friday’s
championship game against Team Freedom, which beat Team Pride 12-10
on Thursday afternoon to finish with a 3-0 mark in pool play.
The Spirit-Freedom championship match will also air on ESPNU on
Sunday, July 24 at 7 p.m. as part of ESPNU’s coverage of the
ESPN Rise Games at the ESPN Wide Worlds of Sports Complex.
Michael Parks, Will Rotatori, Cameron Dabir and Kylor Bellistri
scored in the first half to give Spirit a 4-2 lead heading into
halftime. Spirit then got untracked in the second half.
“We came in a little slow. Their defense was playing pretty
well,” said Bellistri, a rising high school senior at the
Bullis School (Md.) who has verbally committed to Brown.
“Then the second half started, our attack started getting
into a rhythm, and then we had three or four in a row in three or
four minutes. We’re playing as a team now.”
Brian Schlansker scored early in the third and Liberty answered
with a goal from Rick Lewis before the water break. After the
break, Spirit scored five more goals, including two by Dabir.
“We played probably the best game we have this
tournament,” said Dabir, a Washington and Lee recruit who
scored seven goals in the three pool play games. “Just on
both sides of the ball, our defense played amazing and our offense
putting up 15 goals was good. It shows how good this team can
really be.”
Dabir and Bellistri finished the game with three goals and one
assist each. Parks had one goal and two assists. Brendan Walker
finished with two goals. Bobby Gray finished with a goal and an
assist.
“It really helps, confidence-wise, knowing that you can go
up against the best and put up a good amount of points,”
Dabir said. “It helps confidence-wise and it helps your
skills.”
Bellistri agrees.
“The competition, it’s more fun, if anything, playing
with guys you are all the same skill level-- really good”
Bellistri said.
It was the third game for Spirit and Liberty and both teams came
into the game with 1-1 records. Liberty will play in the
consolation game at 9 a.m. on Friday against Team Pride. Spirit
earned another shot against Team Freedom. In the first meeting
between Spirit and Freedom on Wednesday evening, Freedom rallied
for a 14-10 victory. Spirit held a 5-2 lead before the rally.
“It’s going to be very important [to jump out
early],” Dabir said. “Every game we’ve gotten off
to a quick start, even against Freedom, we were up and managed to
let the lead die down. We’ve just got to get up early, which
I know we can do, and we’ve just got to keep it going, which
is going to be important.”
In the other afternoon game, Freedom rallied for the third time in
the tournament, defeating Team Pride 12-10 after falling behind by
three goals early in the second half. Kevin Rice and Christopher
Smith each had three goals in the win and Jason Ketchoyian made
seven second half saves while allowing just three goals. Michael
Ondrusek and Will Corrigan each had two goals for Pride.
In one of the morning games, Freedom made a dramatic late comeback
to beat Liberty 17-16. Liberty took a 16-14 lead with UMass recruit
Brandon Gamblin scoring his sixth goal of the game with just under
three minutes to play. Christopher Smith then scored with 1:37 to
play to cut the lead to one and then Patrick Worstell tied it on a
quick stick EMO goal with one minute to play. Future Syracuse
longpole Ralph D’Agistino won the faceoff and then Drew
Simoneau scored the game-winner with 22 seconds remaining.
D’Agistino then won his third straight faceoff to clinch the
win.
In the other morning game, Spirit rolled to a 13-4 win over Pride.
Spirit goalies Emil Weiss and Gunner Waldt combined to make 15
saves while allowing just four goals while Christopher Orban, Frank
Miller, Cameron Dabir, Kylor Bellistri, and Bobby Gray all scored
two goals.
Box Scores
Freedom 17, Liberty 16
Freedom Goals: Jamie Shand 3, Christopher Smith 2, Halston
Harding 2, Patrick Worstell 2, Troy Haefele 1, Kevin Rice 1,
Matthew Goldman 1, Kyle Keenan 1, Drew Simoneau 1, Mitchell Hugdahl
1
Freedom Assists: Kyle Keenan 4, Kevin Rice 3, Troy Haefele 1,
Thomas Grimm 1, Bobby Schmitt 1
Freedom Goalies: Jason Ketchoyian 24:00, 4 saves, 6 GA; Patrick
McGushin 24:00, 4 saves, 10 GA
Liberty Goals: Brandon Gamblin 6, Adam McCall 3, Jake Rooney 1,
Nikko Pontrello 1, Andrew Blundin 1, Ryan Poirier 1, James Tjarksen
1, Geoffrey Sullivan 1, Colin Laviola 1
Liberty Assists: Adam McCall 2, Brandon Gamblin 1
Liberty Goalies: Zach Oliveri 24:00, 3 saves, 11 GA; Austin
Andersen 24:00, 3 saves 6 GA
Spirit 13, Pride 4
Spirit Goals: Christopher Orban 2, Frank Miller 2, Cameron Dabir
2, Kylor Bellistri 2, Bobby Gray 2, Michael Parks 1, Greg
Cuccinello 1, Kris Lankford 1
Spirit Assists: Michael Parks 1, Frank Miller 1, Cameron Dabir 1,
Kylor Bellistri 1, Will Rotatori 1
Spirit Goalies: Gunner Waldt 24:00, 5 saves, 2 GA; Emil Weiss
24:00, 10 saves, 2 GA
Pride Goals: Austin Spaulding 1, Mike Power 1, Chris White 1,
Matthew Johnson 1
Pride Goalies: Ryan Laplante 24:00, 5 saves, 7 GA; Dan Harvey
24:00, 8 saves, 6 GA
Spirit 15, Liberty 5
Spirit Goals: Kylor Bellistri 3, Cameron Dabir 3, Brendan Walker
2, Will Rotatori 1, Frank Miller 1, Bobby Gray 1, Brian Schlansker
1, Christopher Orban 1, Michael Parks 1, Casey O’Donnell
1
Spirit Assists: Tim Edwards 2, Michael Parks 2, Bobby Gray 1,
Kylor Bellistri 1
Spirit Goalies: Gunner Waldt 24:00, 3 saves, 3 GA; Emil Weiss,
24:00, 4 saves, 2 GA
Liberty Goals: Jake Rooney 1, Nikko Pontrello 1, Brandon Gamblin
1, Rick Lewis 1, Thomas Farrell 1
Liberty Assists: Adam McCall 1, James Tjarksen 1
Liberty Goalies: Zach Oliveri 24:00, 8 saves, 4 GA; Austin
Andersen 24:00, 4 saves, 11 GA
Freedom 12, Pride 10
Freedom Goals: Christopher Smith 3, Kevin Rice 3, Matthew
Goldman 2, Mitchell Dupere 1, Halston Harding 1, Thomas Grimm 1,
Patrick Worstell 1
Freedom Assists: Kyle Keenan 3, Mitchell Chapman 1, Jamie Shand
1
Freedom Goalies: Patrick McGushin 24:00, 5 saves, 7 GA; Jason
Ketchoyian 24:00, 7 saves, 3 GA
Pride Goals: Michael Ondrusek 2, Will Corrigan 2, Matt Hugdahl
2, Brett Wilson 1, Connor Buczek 1, Benjamin Dunlavey 1, Mike
Pelligrino 1
Pride Assists: Connor Buczek 2, Bryce McNeely 1, Austin Spaulding
1, Matt Hugdahl 1, Chris White 1
Pride Goalies: Dan Harvey 24:00, 9 saves, 5 GA; Ryan Laplante
24:00, 11 saves, 7
