West Goshen – Unionville, champions of the ICSHL Girls Varsity conference, completed their stellar season with a 5-1 victory against Downingtown East in the Flyers Cup championship final Friday evening at IceLine.
Unionville held a 40-5 advantage in shots on goal, while Downingtown East did not have a shot on goal until 10:00 was left in the second period.
For Unionville, Madison Doucette was named tournament MVP; Kaelen Speck was the tournament’s leading scorer; and Claire Donovan received the All-Team Toyota Award as the top forward.
Hannah Close scored the first two goals of the game in the first seven minutes (with assists from Kaitlyn Anderson, Speck and Lizzie Gaebel), and finished with a hat trick.
Unionville head coach Dave Elvin said, “Madison Doucette was the true leader of our offense, but she had great teammates in Claire Donovan and Kaelen Speck. Allie Ward, our junior defender and captain, has been doing a great job, freshman Maddie Miles played her heart out tonight, and defender Lizzie Gaebel played well too. Our team is deep [in talent], top to bottom.”
Ward said, “Winning both the league and the Flyers Cup is awesome; we’re not a one-person team, but we rely on everybody [on the team] – this is what makes it so special to me, that I can celebrate this [victory] with all of my teammates.”
Close scored her first two goals to give Unionville a 2-0 first period lead. By the end of the first period, Unionville had 14 shots on goal, D-town East none.
Donovan put Unionville ahead 3-0 with a goal with 12:35 to play in the second period (assisted by Kaitlyn Anderson and Kaelen Speck).
But Downingtown East kept battling, and D-town’s Emily Tinguely found some space in front of the net and fired in a goal (with an assist from Maddie Beauregard) to make it 3-1 with 6:25 to go in the second period.
Just 35 seconds later, Speck scored an unassisted goal to give Unionville a 4-1 lead that held up through the end of the second period.
Unionville had been outscoring opponents by large margins this season, and won the Flyers Cup semifinal by a 10-0 score, but Downingtown East, which held opponents to an average of two goals per game this season, played Unionville more or less evenly through the first half of the final period.
Doucette said, “[Downingtown East] gave us a great game. Everyone on our team played hard tonight, and we were dying on the bench early in the third period, we were feeling our low [roster] numbers. But it speaks to the heart of our girls how we were able to fight back.”
Unionville managed to keep D-town East off the scoreboard for the rest of the third period, and Close tallied her third goal of the night (with an assist from Doucette) with 1:21 left to give Unionville a 5-1 lead.
Downingtown East head coach Chris Capobianco was proud of his team’s effort against the Unionville juggernaut. His goalie, Emma Shannon had 35 saves, and some of them had the D-town crowd on its feet.
“I think we played a great game [against them] tonight,” said Capobianco. “Emma has been great for us all year, and she was tracking the puck better tonight than she has all [season] – she was really in the zone tonight. Alexa Weiderhold has been explosive all year for us, and I think Maddie Beauregard is the best two-way center in the area – she gets back quickly in the defensive zone.”
There are no seniors on the Unionville roster, which bodes well for the Flyers Cup champions next season.
“I’m so excited for next year,” said Ward.
Unionville 5, Downingtown East 1
Downingtown East 0 1 0 – 1
Unionville 2 2 1 – 5
Goals 1st period:
U – Hannah Close (assists Kaitlyn Anderson, Kaelen Speck)
U – Hannah Close (assist Lizzie Gaebel) 8:03
Goals 2nd period:
U – Claire Donovan (assists Kaitlyn Anderson, Kaelen Speck) 12:35
D – Emily Tinguely (assist Maddie Beauregard) 6:25
U – Kaelen Speck (unassisted) 5:50
Goals 3rd period:
U – Hannah Close (assist Madison Doucette) 1:21
Goalie saves – D- Emma Shannon 35 saves; U – Mackenzie Myers 4 saves.
