The Upper Montgomery Lightning junior varsity finds itself in an unfamiliar position. It has been almost two years since the team suffered a regular season defeat. The Upper Montgomery junior varsity program had been 12-0-4 in its prior sixteen games over the past three seasons prior to last Friday’s 4-3 loss to the BCC Barons. The team will look to rebound this upcoming Friday against the Churchill Bulldogs. Game time is 10:00 pm at Cabin John Ice Rink.
Both teams enter the early season matchup in the middle of the standing having similar results against the same opponents. Churchill lost their opening game of the season against BCC by one goal giving up the game winning goal with 45 seconds remaining in the game. Churchill then beat Richard Montgomery by a score of 11-1. Upper Montgomery had beaten Richard Montgomery 8-0 to open the season and lost to the aforementioned BCC Barons by one goal. In their other contest, the Lightning took last season’s top regular season team, the Wootton Patriots to overtime, before eventually falling 3-2. Churchill was the only junior varsity team not to lose to Upper Montgomery last season as the Bulldogs eeked out a 4-4 overtime tie after being soundly outplayed by the Lightning.
In goal for the Lightning junior varsity will again be ninth grade netminder Porter Stutsrim-Lyons. Stutsrim-Lyons plays for the Caps Academy 14U lower A external travel team. He has begun his high school career in excellent style with a fine 22 save shutout performance in the season opening win over Richard Montgomery followed up by making a career high and junior varsity program record 47 saves to keep the team in the game against Wootton. Stutsrim-Lyons also played well against BCC last week and currently sports a 2.27 goals against average and a .929 save percentage. Churchill will start a ninth grade goalie of their own, Cooper Glazer. Glazer has allowed three goals in his first two high school hockey games and sports a 1.50 goals against average and a .927 save percentage. The outstanding goalie matchup should lead to a low scoring contest Friday night.
On defense the Lightning will again play without a full compliment of defenders. Missing this week will be a sizeable contingent of the Upper Montgomery defensive corps. Upper Montgomery will dress three core defenders, senior captain Cole Howerton who scored his first goal of the season late in the game against BCC, senior alternate captain Patrick Sell, and ninth grade newcomer Matt Rivera. Missing will be sophomores Miles Wendland (an assist in each game this season), Avery Evans, and Max Curtusan as well as ninth grade defenders Lillian Robbins and Luke Hudson.
Churchill will be led on the back line by junior Samuel Lifsey. Joining Lifsey on the top defensive pairing is expected to be sophomore Andrew Liu. The Bulldogs second defensive pairing will be sophomores Cyrus Sawyer who registered a goal and an assist against Richard Montgomery and Gabriel Li who also found the back of the net against the Rockets.
Offensively, the Lightning will be missing two top scorers in ninth grade forward Siddy Bhasin (3GP, 3G, 4A) and sophomore Jake Hudson (3GP, 3G, 2A). It is expected that Aiden Zheng will return to the lineup after missing the last two games. Zheng scored twice in the season opening win over Richard Montgomery. Newcomer, sophomore Mason Jagoz has contributed (3GP, 1G, 2A). Senior AJ Marks will need to step up on the offensive end. He has transitioned to playing a lot of center the past two games and he is more productive offensively on the wing. Lightning varsity goalie Ilan Shterenberg is likely to skate out and play forward against the Bulldogs. Shterenberg has some experience as a forward having played forward for Upper Montgomery in spring league. Upper Montgomery will be without junior forward and alternate captain Jason Woodman who will begin serving the first game of a multiple game suspension for the game misconduct penalty he was assessed against the Barons. Other Lightning forwards who will miss the Churchill game are Max Israfilbek, Decklin Hughes, and Jackson Schickler.
Churchill has one primary offensive threat. Sophomore Elias Elhallou has scored five goals in two games and he has added four assists. He had eight points against Richard Montgomery last time out and he scored the Bulldogs only goal against BCC in the season opener. Sophomore Rama Allsopp had a three point game versus the Rockets, the beneficiary of Elhallou’s performance.
Friday’s game might be a tough one as the Lightning roster will be vastly depleted. Let’s see how the available student athletes perform in a trying situation with the odds stacked against them.
#UML, #Bleed Green, #Go Bolts!