by Brendan Gill
Top row L to R: Coach Eddie Besinger, Paul Halloran, Sebastian Henault, Jake Donahoe, Anthony Golden, Tommy Rooney, Coach Bill Besinger, John Pender.
Bottom Row L to R:Matthew Gill, Bobby Carew, Sean Connolly, Luke Calcagno, Aiden Skillin, Tyler Macneil, Michael Donahoe
Missing due to illness: Gavin Conner
It was a thrilling weekend for Milton’s Pee Wee A Team as they represented our community at the State Championship at Loring Arena in Framingham. Milton went in with high expectations and didn’t disappoint in the Round Robin format that included 10 teams. Milton started strong out of the gates with a decisive Game 1 victory against neighboring Dorchester on Thursday night. Saturday proved to be a challenging day. Game 2 was a contest against their South Shore Conference rivals the Taunton Brewins. After going down two goals early, Milton played The Brewins tough, but could not overcome the deficit and lost the game 3-1. Game 3 was a must win and Milton came out firing on all cylinders and was able to handle a talented Junior Crusaders team by a score of 6-3. At that point, Milton had to wait for the bracket to fill out to see who would advance as a Wild Card team to the semi-final round. By way of allowing the least goals against, Milton earned the Wild Card slot that set up a rematch against The Brewins in Sunday Morning’s Semi-Final.
The rematch lived up to all the hype. Milton came out strong and opened the scoring on a beautiful play by John Pender who stole the puck and skated down the ice to score unassisted and put Milton up 1-0. Shortly thereafter, Paul Halloran put home a nice shot to give Milton a 2-0 lead. Not to be outdone, The Brewins opened up the second period on a Power Play and scored 2 very quick goals to tie the game at 2. Toward the end of the second period, Matthew Gill found himself in front of the net and put home a rebound past The Brewins goalie to allow Milton to regain the lead. A spirited 3rd period full of hustle, grit, and guts by all the players allowed Milton to revenge the previous days loss and book themselves a trip to the finals.
The Championship Game Sunday Night pitted Milton against a big, strong, ferocious Winchester squad who was 4-0 in tournament play after beating host town Framingham in the other semi-final. Milton came out real strong and before you knew it some outstanding play had Milton up 2-0 due to Tommy “Top-Shelf” Rooney’s two impressive goals. Winchester was down, but not out and scored to get within one. After an amazing pass from Bobby Carew, Top-Shelf Rooney completed his hat trick to put Milton up two goals. Winchester dug deep and before the crowd knew it, we were deep in the third period tied at three goals apiece. As the clock was winding down, Milton Players were fighting fatigue as Winchester was seemingly hitting a stride. Before you know it, Milton gets a shot on goal, save, but Sebastian Henault was able to sneak the puck on a rebound under the goalies arm to put Milton up 4-3 with :43 remaining in the game. With Winchester’s goalie pulled Milton was able to stave off the rush and capped off the victory with an open-net goal that “Top-Shelf” kept on the ice surface to seal the victory and The State Championship. The play of Aiden Skillin in net throughout the tournament is to be commended as he stood on his head and was nothing short of amazing.
Each and every one of these kids, led by top-notch coaches in Milton’s own The Brothers Besinger-or Beastie Boys, to some, Bill and Ed to others-played with serious heart, guts, and desire to realize this tremendous achievement. They will go on to play in The New England Sectionals March 27-29, in Pawtucket against the top teams from VT, NH, ME, CT, and RI. Let’s wish them well.