Youth Sports Report:

Manatee, Wharton advance to hockey final

Posted Mar 6, 2010 by Nick Murray

Updated Mar 6, 2010 at 11:53 AM

BRANDON – Wharton and Manatee advanced to the final of the Lightning Hockey Conference Central Division playoffs after both secured overtime victories on Friday night at the Ice Sports Forum.

Wharton’s Julian Baron-Clarke gave the Wildcats a 4-3 victory against Newsome Blue as he scored with 6.8 seconds to play in overtime as he scored from close range off a feed from Flip Akermark as the Wildcats executed on a 2-on-1 perfectly as time wound down.

“It was a great pass,” Wildcats coach Tom Leechin said. “We’ve been telling Julian to go hard to the net all year long, and he went hard to the net and we scored with just a little over six seconds left.”

After a scoreless first period Wharton had opened up a 3-0 lead early in the third period, Jake Nager and Jake Kools each scored short-handed goals for the Wildcats. Newsome got back into the game with five minutes to play, as Nick Clark and Brandon Diaz each scored within a 30-second span to make the score 3-2. The Wolves then tied the game with 2.5 seconds to play as Clark scored his second of the game as his long shot eluded Wildcats goalkeeper JP d’Ambrosio.

Despite the loss, Newsome coach Dan Rondeau was pleased with the way his side fought back from a three-goal deficit, and hoped his side learned from the defeat ahead of the state championships in two weeks.

“We’re going to play some really tough teams in states,” Rondeau said. “The periods get longer, they’re 15-minute periods so we’ve been conditioning our players more and more now in the last month. To lose a game like this, you try to take a positive out of it, and we battled back from three goals down.”

Manatee also let a lead slip before edging out Jesuit 7-6, Chase Anderson scoring the game-winning goal with 1:17 to play in overtime after a centering pass by Paul Lochner from behind the net.

Manatee had jumped out to an early lead, Anderson scoring a hat trick as the Golden Manatees took a 5-1 lead after the first period, but the Tigers then rallied as Will Polmear scored twice in the second period to make the score 6-4 entering the third.

“Usually we come out a little bit slow,” Manatee coach Phil Atkinson said. “This time we decided to come out a little hard and go after the first, second goal, and we did, we were 5-1, and then after the second they came back like that.”

Jesuit continued to press, and came within one with 1:22 to play as Brandon Cherry converted on a power play opportunity. The Tigers then tied the game with 30 seconds to play as Polmear completed his hat trick, and almost stole victory with under 10 seconds to play, but Jake Owens made a sprawling save to send the game to overtime.

“I think our guys came out in the first period and they were just a little nervous,” Jesuit coach Mark Kroeten said. “They knew they were playing the best team in the league and they were a little tight and it showed. They just weren’t ready to go, and we spotted them some goals early.

“Our top line of Zack White and Brandon Cherry and Will Polmear, they were just working so well together. Once they got going, you could tell the other team was a little nervous at the end there. The goalie, I thought, was a little nervous and I thought if we kept putting pressure on him good things would happen, and right at the end of the game after we tied it up we had another close chance. I thought we were going to win it right at the end of regulation, but it didn’t get in.”

Manatee and Wharton will meet on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at the Ice Sports Forum for the league title.