If you’ve never been to the Turkey Bowl the night before Thanksgiving, just imagine two suburban rivals going at it hard on the ice, with teenage adrenaline, parents rooting for their kid, and high expectations. The Turkey Bowl is the annual Boys’ Ice Hockey match. On November 26th, with anticipation building coupled with a prior streak of six straight wins against CB West at the Turkey Bowl, the team came ready to play. It was an absolute thrill to be a fan and the atmosphere could not have been better. There was tons of excitement as East took a commanding early lead. The boys got physical early, and it paid off in the long run. It was everything you would want to see from CB East: They annihilated the team from across town, CB West. The boys got physical early, and it paid off in the long run.
Timothy Fuhrmeister said, “It was the most fun time I’ve had at any East sporting event. The student section was active, and they put the belt to West which made it even better.”
The first period ended 1-0, but East dominated with a pile of shots on goal. Matt Korelsky and Anthony Niro said, “It was electric watching such a beat down. It was awesome to see Ethan Cenci and Alex Wilson lay some hits on West.”
The second period gave the student section plenty of fun as it ended 4-0. Matt Tegano said, “The game got chippy, which we love to see, especially when dominating.”
East won 5-0, keeping the seven-peat alive and rolling for next year. Jackson Lutz said, “This is what high school is all about: Having fun and making lifelong memories.”
From the players’ point of view, you could feel the intensity in the air as Braedon Hahn, Ethan Cenci, and Alex Wilson all lined up for the face off to start the game. Right at the start of the game the pace was fast, and every shift demanded full effort. Ethan Cenci, one of the assistant captains said, “West started out hungry and hot, telling us we could not take this team lightly.”
We had to make sure every decision we made was fast and sharp. Even when West pushed us hard through the game, Alex Wilson, captain of the East Hockey Team expressed how, “we stayed calm and trusted the plays we had been working on for weeks now in practice.”
Staying calm helped us take the lead in the first period and score our first goal, motivating us to ramp up our physical play. Even with the fierce rivalry between our two teams, our players kept their cool throughout the game when West started to take some dirty penalties. One goal came after another and a main contributor to our victory, Ben Dempsey, who scored two goals, described how he scored his goals: “All I needed to do is work with my teammates and find the open holes in the net for me to shoot at.”
By the third period we started to play more defensively minded because all we needed to do was hold our lead. We stopped making risky plays and even the younger players got a little more ice time than usual. Like Braedon Hahn, the other assistant captain, says, “Defense wins games.”
After a hard-fought victory, we celebrated with the Turkey Bowl trophy with our fans who supported us the whole way.
