It was an exciting Cortaca Cup game last night where the Cortland-Homer Golden Eagles suffered an unfortunate 2-3 overtime loss to the Ithaca Lil' Reds.
"We had a great crowd tonight for the Cortaca Cup and played really well for the most part," stated Cortland-Homer head coach Chad Totman. "We knew it would be a tight game. This is the 5th year in a row it has been a 1 goal game."
The game started off with the Golden-Eagles going straight into the attack, as they were able to get a 2-0 lead in the first period of the game.
The first goal came from junior, Nate Evans about one minute into the game with 13:58 left in the first period. Evans' goal was assisted by both Ben McGrath and Nick Gravel. The Golden Eagles' second goal was then scored by freshman, Andrew Partigianoni to give Cortland-Homer a 2-0 lead at the end of the first half. Partigianoni's goal was assisted by sophomore Jed Brazo.
"We made some changes to our lines after the Clinton game bringing Nate Evans to forward to try to boost our second lines productivity," stated coach Totman. "He (Evans) did just that 1-minute into the game when he found a seam between their defense for a break away goal. We got our second goal on a two on one when Jed passed it over to Partigianoni who had a nice shot top right. We hit the post probably 7-10 times tonight and had a couple great backdoor opportunities that Mielbrecht (Ithaca's goalie) made some great saves on.”
Coming into the second period, the Golden Eagles wanted to put the game away by getting more shots on goal. However, Ithaca's momentum rose up after senior Samuel Hynes-Klempa scored Ithaca's first goal of the game with 10:03 left in the period.
Cortland-Homer was then able to contain Ithaca for the rest of the second period and for a big amount of time in the third. But with Ithaca's desperate need to get a goal to tie the game, they were able to put one away with about six minutes left in the period to force the game into overtime.
At overtime, the game became much more aggressive, with both teams pressuring each other to make plays. However, Ithaca came out victorious after junior Keven Morse scored the winning goal for Ithaca coming off a rebound as Cortland-Homer's freshman goalie Garret Clark saved the first shot in.
Even after a loss, Clark had a great game for the Golden Eagles, as he recorded a total of 25 saves.
"We gave up all our goals from being on the penalty kill," coach Totman stated. "The 4-minute major in second for checking from behind really hurt our legs and let them back in when we gave up one with 30 seconds left in the kill. Between the penalties and line matches I wasn't able to get my third line out as much as I would have liked to. Garrett played much better in goal today, All three goals were second chance rebounds that we failed to clear."
Up next the Golden-Eagles will be going against Saratoga Springs on Friday, December 27th, 2019, as they host the Cortland-Homer Christmas Hockey Tournament. The game is scheduled to start at 5 p.m.
Here are some more photos of last night's game:
