DeSales Hockey Misses Expectations

On a weekend where the Desales hockey family looked to come away with a championship trophy, the only thing they got was another set of bookends. The Stallions repeated their record of a week ago by taking a win on Saturday versus Dublin Scioto and bookending it with losses to Centerville on Friday and Hilliard-Southwest on Sunday.

Desales Team Captain, Corbin Steinhaus, with his thoughts on the weekend; "I felt we as a team did not play as good as we are."

Game 1
The Stallions first opponent was the Centerville Elks Club team on Friday night. DeSales out-shot the Elks in all three periods but it was DeSales who would come up short on the scoreboard.

The Elks stuck first, getting a goal off of a neutral zone turnover. The period ended with Centerville up by one and Desales looking to use the intermission to re-focus.

The Elks toke three shots on net in the second period and scored on two of them leading the DeSales coaching staff to replace starting goaltender Joe Salerno (sophomore) with Pat Slattery (junior).

"The plan from the beginning was to put Pat in sooner or later. Joe seemed a little off so it ended up being sooner rather than later," said Coach Edwards. "We all have an off night every now and then. I expect Joe to come back strong."

Williamson Scores His First
DeSales saw a ray of hope when defenseman Ryan Williamson (sophomore) decided to go hard at the Elks and was rewarded for his effort with his first goal of the season to bring the Stallions within two.

Juniors Score
Goals by Colton Mieskoski (junior) and Josh Stemen (junior) brought the Stallions even with the Elks at the conclusion of the second.

The Stallions lack luster play continued in the third and another turn-over resulted in a Centerville goal.

DeSales pressured with an extra skater after pulling Slattery for an extra skater late in the third but it was for not and the Centerville Elks would come away with an upset; 4-3 win over the Stallions.

Desales out shot the Elks by a tally of 42-13, not including 9 blocked shots by the Elks, but turnovers led to all four Centerville goals. "You can't turn the puck over as much as we did and expect to win the game," said Head Coach Tom Maxwell after the loss.

Game 2
The second game of the tournament changed venues to the Chillers North facility where the Stallions will took on Capital Hockey Conference (CHC) foe Dublin Scioto in non-conference play. These two previously met in the Midwest Thanksgiving Tournament with the Stallions winning by a final of 9-1.

Shut Out #1
Junior Goaltender Pat Slattery stood tall against the Irish to earn both his and the team's first shutout off the season. Slattery stopped all 14 shots to reach him and get help from his teammates who blocked four shots.

The first period saw defenseman Ian Schnied (junior) score unassisted on a breakaway.

Dominic Locilento (junior) fed Colton Mieskoski (junior) in the low slot for the team's second goal of the period.

Period two featured two goals from Locilento with assists from the Janszen cousins.

Senior Mike Willoughby scored his first career high school goal to a raucous cheer from the fans and his teammates. Willoughby skated hard and got the puck from Locilento in the slot and drove towards the net, stuffing the puck between the Scioto goalies pads.

Two Hats for the Rookie
Locilento completed his second hat trick of the year when he took a pass from Josh Stemen (junior) and scored to make the game 6 - 0.

Dan Hwang (senior) capped the scoring with assists from the defensive pair of Corbin Steinhaus (senior Captain) and Matt Farkas (senior).

"Our guys played a good game today. They stuck to the system and in the final minutes the team skated harder than they had all game to help Pat (Slattery) get the shutout. It's never easy to get a shutout, especially against a conference opponent because they know you so well. I'm proud of the effort they all put in, they deserved the win." Coach Jon Edwards on the teams 7-0 win over Dublin Scioto.

Game 3 - A bookeneded loss
The final game of the weekend was against the Hilliard-Southwest Wildcats. High of the win over Dublin Scioto the Stallions looked to secure a win over the Wildcats and a spot in the championship game.

More turnovers and poor defensive zone play would lead to 5 goals for the Wildcats. The lone Desales goal was scored with the outcome already decided. Josh Stemen fed Dominic Locilento who sped down the left wing and popped a wrist shot over the Wildcat goalie for his fourth goal of the weekend.

"We work hard in practice but still are very inconsistent with our play. We will continue to work hard; these players are a resilient bunch and will learn from this weekend." Coach Edwards on the Allgeyer Tournament.

"Being consistent has defiantly been a struggle for us this season. We need to be more mentally focused and take every game seriously no matter who the opponent." Senior Captain Corbin Steinhaus on the team's inconsistency.

Weekend Notes:
Dominic Locilento followed up his Hat Trick performance in the Ramirez Tournament a week ago with a total of 4 goals and 2 assists including his second hat trick of the year, for a total of 6 points in 3 games.

Pat Slattery allowed only one goal on the weekend with a shutout over Dublin Scioto. He allowed 1 goal in one and a half periods while splitting time in the Centerville game.

Defense Contribute
The Stallions defense is looking to keep getting in on the offensive action after registering 2 goals and 3 assists in the Allgeyer Tournament.

UP NEXT:
The Stallions travel this weekend; going to Dayton and then Cincinnati. Up first are the Springboro Panthers in Dayton on Friday, December 21st at 4:30pm. The Stallions will return home for the evening only to leave for Cincinnati the next afternoon to face the Sycamore Aves on Saturday, December 22nd at 8pm. Both Springboro and Sycamore are members of the Southwest Ohio Highs School Hockey League (SWOHSHL).