Belleville’s Wild Wing/High Pointe Plumbing & Mechanical U13 Jr. Bulls recently travelled to Port Huron, Michigan to compete at the International Silver Stick Finals.
Matched against the top teams from all the Silver Stick regional qualifiers, the Jr. Bulls finished the round robin portion of the U13 AA tournament with two wins and a tie.
Wins came against Sarnia Sting, and Long Island Arrows while the tie was against the Plymouth Flyers as Belleville placed second in its pool to advance to the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals, the Jr. Bulls played against the top team from the second pool, Pelham Pelicans. With a whole team effort, they came out on top in overtime with a final score of 5-4. This sent the Bulls to the semifinals to face the Essex Southpoint Capitals in what was a thrilling three-overtime game. Belleville scored four minutes into the third extra frame to punch its ticket to the championship contest against the Vaughan Rangers, which proved to be a back-and-forth affair.
The final remained scoreless after two periods before Vaughan took a 1-0 lead two minutes into the third. The Bulls battled all period but couldn’t net the equalizer prior to the end of regular time. Vaughan added an empty-net goal with 36 seconds remaining to secure the victory.
Coach Dan Howard said it was a great showing for his Belleville U13 Jr. Bulls and the first international play for most of the players. Team members are Neve Scanlon, Eli Anderson, Ryan Jowett, Grayden Howard, Connor Sagriff, Kellum Phillips, Ben Callaghan, Brycen McCoy, Brock Rivers, Jax McMurter, Landon Hayes, Hudson Brown, Logan Hanna, Austin Preston, Dominic LaBarge and Ben Hunt. The coaching staff also includes Adam Rivers, Peter Sagriff, Jordy McMurter and Brian Hayes.