Listowel Novice LL Red came away victorious in their final
contest of the 2017-18 season, winning 4-1 in West Grey on Sunday.
Red jumped on the offense early, getting on the board just 52 seconds into the game. Ruby Hillier cleared the puck out of her own end to Spencer Henhoeffer who moved the disc on to Kole Shiestel. The center then drove the net with a shot, with the rebound finally corralled and put away by Grayson Matheson.
Less than half a minute later, Red was rolling again. Noah Hiemstra scored, wristing home a pass from fellow winger, Nehemiah Dyck, after some hard digging along the boards.
Listowel took a 2-0 lead into the intermission and then stretched it to three in the final minute of the middle period. Finn Molenhuis stole the puck in the right corner behind the West Grey net and found Hiemstra alone in front for his second tally of the afternoon.
On the first shift of the final frame, the Warriors quickly scored and narrowed the gap to two. But Red put the game away later in the third with a solid forecheck leading to a Molenhuis marker.
Goaltender Noah Szasz came up large when needed. But Sunday was perhaps his most relaxed effort of the postseason, as his defensemen, Oliver Hershey, Warner Hurst, Brynn Berfelz and Matheson, skated smoothly and hustled hard, laying waste to nearly all West Grey chances.
The great team effort resulted in each member being named the Player of the Game, a reward which resulted in cupcakes from Coach Chris.