By Patrick Merritt (former Summit coach)

The Summit Falcons and the Oakville Tigers met at Mehlville to decide who would take 2nd place in the Suburban South Conference. It was a very exciting game with both teams scoring in spurts, culminating in a one goal differential for the majority of the fourth quarter. The Tigers got off to a significant lead courtesy of Brian Woods’ strong offensive presence in front of the goal. Oakville’s Clayton Darnell anchored a defense that did a good job of neutralizing Summit’s attack in the first two quarters, and the Tigers led 6-2 at half time.

Summit didn’t thrown in the towel, however, and clawed their way back into the game. Summit’s Evan Stelmachowicz found some rhythm on the right wing and made some nice passes to teammates Brad Gardner, Joe Pace and Joe Dubois, who all made some strong drives into the strike zone that resulted in a handful of goals and several ejections earned. Summit also started to find their rhythm on 6-on-5 situations, boasting the highest shooting percentage on powerplays that I’ve seen from them this year. If I recall correctly Summit’s Joe Pace notched 4 goals and Brad Gardner added 3 more. Utility Joe Dubois and driver Luke Kraemer were also persistent on offense; with both finding the back of the net following rebounds.

Despite Summit’s surge in the second half, Oakville was able to maintain a lead. In addition to Woods’ strong presence, the Tigers were aided by some slick moves at 2M from Dillon Werner, some very accurate outside shooting from Brennan Stoll, and from a counterattack led by Preston Donjon. Summit’s crash defense wasn’t firing on all cylinders and the Tigers were ultimately able to capitalize and take home second place in the conference, winning 11-9. Congratulations to both teams for a hard-fought game that was very exciting and fun to watch!