Churchville-Chili 12 - HFL 10

 Churchville-Chili defeated divisional rival HFL 12-10 tonight. The Saints came out early to a 6-0 lead after the first quarter, however after losing the second quarter 0-4; both teams were still in the game.
  
The Saints's Ryan Yunker scored the first goal on a cross-crease pass from Keith Preston. Gino Marcello added his first after a face-off fast-break for the Saints. The Saints had a total of four face-off fast-breaks (and six total fast-break goals). At the draw Preston finished 16/23 (70%) and also finished with a team leading 15 ground balls. Zach Yehl scored his lone goal in the game with 8:41 left in the first quarter. Yunker scored the next three goals to take the quarter to a 6-0 lead for the Saints.
  
Although the first quarter was all Saints, the second quarter was all Cougars. HFL's Zach Yager scored the first Cougar goal of the game as Tyler Burgasser's shot hit the pipe and Yager picked up the lose ball and scored. The next three goals were all scored by Cade Norris. Norris dominated play, scoring 5 of the 10 goals. He took the ball to the outside and ran straight in, finished with side-arm shots all over the crease. Norris took 14 shots with 11 on cage. HFL only had 5 players take any shots (1 for Greg Coady and Zach Yager, 3 for Mickey Allan, and 4 for Zach Whyte). At the half to score was 6-4 Saints.
  
HFL scored the first two goals of the third quarter as Zach Whyte drove from behind the cage and jumped into the air to score the first goal at 7:33. Norris took another hard outside shot in EMO to tie the game at six with 5:55 remaining. The Saints stepped up the pace and scored the next two goals in 24 seconds. Both were scored on face-off fast-breaks. Both goals were scored by Marcello (the first assisted by Yunker, the second by Damien Pagano). The Saints finished out the quarter with two more goals (by Jon Hemink and Pagano). The score was 10-6 after three quarters.
  
In the fourth HFL scored the first two goals; Norris unassisted and Allan unassisted. Allan scored his goal after a broken clear attempt by the Saints. The Cougar were within two, but once again a face-off fast-break brought the Saints a three goal lead. This goal was scored by Yunker assisted by Preston. HFL scored another goal off the whistle at 8:28 as Whyte drove from the sideline and finished into the back of the crease. Each team added one more goal as Hemink and Whyte both scored (for CC and HFL respectively).
  
The second half finished tied 6-6 and showed how close a game the game was. Each team showed their strengths. A major factor in the win was the efforts of Preston, as his face-offs and ground balls give possession to the Saints on numerous occasions and the face-off fast-breaks were a key component to the CC momentum.
  
In the cage, both teams put 20 shots on the cage. Sean Kettles for CC saved 10s/10ga and Jay Tallon for HFL saved 8s/12ga.
  
Scoring for Churchville-Chili were Yunker (5g-3a), Marcello (3g-1a), Pagano (1g-2a), Hemink (2g), Preston (2a), Yehl (1g) and David Peck (1a).
  
Scoring for HFL were Norris (5g-1a), Whyte (3g), Allan (1g) and Yager (1g).
   
For a more complete look at the numbers, check out the full statistics.