The North Island Midget Eagles have had a great start to preseason tiering so far, going 2-0-1 at home and on the road.
“Sept. 23-24 we played in McNeill,” said Coach Marty Gage. “We beat Tier 3 Kerry Park on Saturday 7 – 4, and then on Sunday, we faced a fairly weak Comox B team. They are a tier 2 club, but their caliber is low at this point. The team will be better once the junior B team releases a couple players onto their A team, and they had a couple suspended.”
The Eagles stomped the Comox Valley Chiefs B team 22 – 1.
“Those were two tiering games,” said Gage. “We played Sooke on Oct 1., they dressed 17 skaters and two goalies. We dressed nine skaters and one goalie.”
The Eagles had two injured players and four other players who were in a ball hockey tournament in Port Alberni.
“Those nine skaters put on one hell of a gutsy performance!” said Gage. “We scored the first two goals, stunned them. They kept coming and scored five goals on us. They were up 5-2.”
The Eagles were down 4-2 at the half, and Gage told the team “we can come back,” adding the Eagles were “playing excellent, and every player was contributing. We ended up tying the game late in the third, and we got the go-ahead goal with four minutes left in the third.”
Sooke ended up scoring with 1:30 left to tie the game 6-6, which is how it came to an end.
“We left the rink feeling victorious,” said Gage. “Proud coach.”