Farmington remains unbeaten by icing Athens
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
TROY— Great teams find ways to win. Even without its best effort, Farmington found a way to remain unbeaten out on the ice Wednesday.
The Falcons, ranked seventh in the state, scored three times in the latter part of the first period then added a third-period goal in recording a 4-0 shutout of host Troy Athens in OAA Red Division boys hockey play at the Troy Sports Center.
Farmington outshot Athens 22-3 in the first period and 50-9 for the game, but had a hard time solving Athens netminder Justin Yochem. The senior finished the night with 46 saves in net for Athens, but could only slow down the unbeaten Falcons (14-0-1, 5-0-1) for stretches.
“We definitely didn’t finish, but their goalie deserves credit for that,” said veteran Farmington coach Mark Vellucci. “To Athens’ goalie’s credit, he kept them in the game. We made some great saves. Even when we had some rebound chances, we made a couple of really nice saves.”
Ethan Baker scored twice to pace Farmington, which has a showdown with Novi Friday in a battle of state-ranked teams. Evan Movighar and Alex Schmitt also scored and Mark Prokes served up two assists.
Baker scored what proved to the game-winner midway through the first period off feeds from Austin Cole and Rob Goldi.
Movghar and Schmitt also scored in the first period with Prokes, Mike Manzo and Nick Elliott recording the helpers for the 3-0 advantage.
After a scoreless second period, Farmington added it s fourth goal off the stick of Baker with Prokes drawing the assist to cap the scoring. Backup goaltender Zach Lietz gained the shutout between the pipes.
Athens (1-10-1, 0-6-0) is suffering through a major rebuilding season, graduating 11 players with two other key players opting not to play this season, one to travel hockey and the other to lacrosse. Still, with Yochem and Jamie Cattran have supplied solid goaltending all season and the youthful Red Hawks have not been mercied.
Athens held one of the state’s better offenses to only four goals.
“Out of a possible nine guys that could have returned, only seven came back, and that includes our goalies,” said Athens coach Joe Barone. “We lost quite a bit. We lost a kid over the (holidays) break, we lost another defensemen to a weekend off injury, so then were down even more. It’s been rough. The two games we played last week are the only two games we’ve played with a full lineup all year, and we are a very young team.
“We’re starting to play (better) hockey,” continued Barone, whose team was the best offensive team in the two-division OAA last season. “We played (Grosse Pointe Woods University) Liggett in overtime and lost by a goal. We played (Birmingham United) and only lost 3-2 to them. Farmington, I feel, is on a class of their own, in terms of our league. But I felt we came and played some good defensive hockey. I wasn’t mad. We were the underdog and we got some good goaltending. We are getting better.”
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Category: Prep Wraps, Troy Athens
