It’s been a coming together process with the returning
players from last year’s Bantam team and the new players moving up. Last Week
was a busy week for the Oxford Pallet Norwich Knighthawks Bantam Rep team.
Facing three games before the Port Dover tournament, the coaching staff have been working diligently trying to find the lines that work the best together, and help mold the individual players into a team. With two losses to Tillsonburg and Ingersol and a win against Six Nations, the boys were a little shaky going into Friday night’s game against Lampton Shores. With goals by Drake Simpson (assisted by Caleb Vankerrebroeck, Travis Vermeersch )and Brandon Moodie (assisted by Tyson Warboys and Ethan Butler) the boys managed a 2-2 tie for the first game. The second game against Port Dover you could see a noticeable improvement and the Knighthawks came away with a tight 3-2 win with goals coming from Copper Van Willigen ( assisted by Tyson Warboys and Brandon Moodie) Ethan Butler ( assisted by Lane van Boekel and Tyler Symons) and Lane Van Boekel (assisted by Ethan Butler and Gavin Leonard) This made the third game against the strong South Kent team a must win game to seal a place in the finals on Sunday, and with the points format being a by the period, the boys had to really step up their game, and set up their game is exactly what they did, they came out hard and fast winning 3-0 with a stellar shut out performance by goalie Ben Serrador and 2 goals by Travis Vermeersch (assisted by Caleb Vankerrebroeck and Blake Vanvliet) and the third goal by Lane VanBoekel. The Knighthawks held the South Kent team to half a point putting them into the “A” division finals with longtime rivals the Simcoe Warriors. The Knighthawks came out playing hard on Sunday but fell short on a 2-0 loss to the Warriors. Overall the team improved over the weekend and hopefully they will continue this into the weeks ahead.