The Piedmont Predators Bantam AA ice hockey team of Haymarket, Va. traveled to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania over the Thanksgiving weekend where they won the Liberty Cup.
The team started out Friday shutting out the Bristol Blazers 3-0 led by goalie James Lang with goals from Sam Morris, Nate Shellberg and Matt Rosenberger.
Saturday, the Predators tied the New Jersey Freeze 2-2 with a goal by Anthony Blakely, assisted by Jason Rose with less than one minute remaining in the game to tie it up. Saturday evening the team blanked the Glanbrook Rangers 9-0 led by Patrick Pratapas’s four goals and Peter Brown’s three assists.
Sunday morning, needing a win to advance to the finals, the Predators defeated the Wissahocken Warriors 4-3 coming back from a 3-2 deficit in the third period with two goals from Nate Shellberg.
“The fact that we won made us the number one seed and the Warriors were the number two seed,” said Coach Chris Borner. “We have never been outworked or outshot by any team before, but that team outshot us. We were a little bit against the ropes. We had two chances, and we kept our eyes on those chances.”
Meanwhile, the Predators had expected the Freeze to advance to the finals, so they were surprised when the Philadelphia Blazers defeated the Freeze, disqualifying them for the championship game.
“The Freeze was favored to beat the Blazers. Blazers had nothing to work for because even if they won they were not able to make the championship,” Borner said.
In the championship game, the team faced the Warriors again; this time blanking them 3-0 led by goalie James Lang and supported by defensemen Dawson Black, Kyle Owens, Michael Dejesus and Scott Oakman. Kevin Rose, Anthony Blakely and Patrick Pratapas all scored in the second period to lead the offense.
Borner said the Warriors' return to the ice lacked the fierceness they displayed in the tournament’s earlier rounds.
“ second game the Warriors didn’t look like the same team. They were tired, and my guys were super fresh. Our guys were pretty determined, and we ended up outshooting them,” Borner said.
Borner said that his goalie, James Lang, was definitely the MVP of the tournament. He shut out the Blazers, the Rangers and the Warriors in the championship and defended well against all the others, resulting in the Predators emerging undefeated in the tournament.
But he also credits his 12 skaters for their focus and determination, saying, “This group of players - they all hold each other accountable. A lot of time you have success when you have a bunch of players that want to compete."
He said the boys were very excited to win the tournament; after having won two of the three prior tournaments they entered this season, winning became “contagious” for the Predators.
Borner credits much of his team’s success to their conditioning at Next Level Fitness in Haymarket. He said the team does strength and agility training there, which frees up his practices to focus more on game play and strategy. He also believes conditioning allowed his players to remain energetic while others teams’ players were tiring.
And while the Piedmont team is smaller in numbers than many of their competitors, Borner said that has the advantage of keeping his players alert and their minds focused on the ice. Furthermore, Borner said that his team is unique in that they practice three days a week and bring in a goalie coach.
“It’s hard because ice is expensive, so we’ve been very creative. Sometimes we put three teams on the ice at the same time, but because we have smaller teams it has been working out.”
It also allowed them to demonstrate Virginia’s emerging prowess in hockey.
“We were in Rochester in October, and I got a lot of comments. There were many Canadian teams ‘Oh, you have hockey in Virginia.’ I heard that a lot. This time a couple of officials were really surprised,” Borner said.
Borner said he chose the tournament because it was both a rigorous tournament for AA teams and not too far from home.
Next up for the the Piedmont Predators Bantam team is the Crabtown Showdown in Laurel, Maryland over the winter break.
The Piedmont Predators include players from western Prince William and neighboring counties. They practice at the Haymarket IcePlex.
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