The Peewee A team competed in the Andover Cup tournament at Phillips Academy in Andover on MLK weekend. The tournament featured 8 local teams including Greater Lowell, Tewksbury, Andover, North Andover, North Reading, Danvers, Marblehead, and Methuen. The Hawks were the only team in the round robin to go 3-0, beating North Reading, Danvers and Marblehead.
The Hawks got it going against N. Reading when Ryan Bellerose banked one off the N. Reading goalie from a tough angle assisted by Josh DiIorio. Andrew Giroux added another first period goal assisted by Brian Walsh and Tyler Dempsey. Late in the first, N. Reading made it 2 -1, but the Hawks kept coming with goals from Bellerose assisted by Pat Florence and Pat Garrigan from Florence and Matthew Mandeville. The Hawks capped the second period with another goal from Giroux assisted by Dempsey and Matt Lee. Brian Walsh added one in the third assisted by Rory O’Connor and Florence to make it a 6-1 final. Garrett “G” Beaulieu kept the door closed for the rest of the game after the late first period goal, facing a total of 20 shots.
Sunday morning brought on a tough Danvers team. After a scoreless first period the Hawks busted it open in the second with goals from Florence assisted by Garrigan and then Garrigan assisted by Eric Harper. After killing 3 penalties in the third, the Hawks got another from Giroux, assisted by Harper and Bellerose. Shaun Conley pocketed an empty netter from 120 feet after taking a nice breakout pass from Josh DiIorio in a 6 on 4 situation. Beaulieu was once again sharp in the net, stopping all 13 Danvers attempts en route to a 4-0 shut out win.
Marblehead was the opponent for the third game of the weekend. After a scoreless first period of up and down hockey, Matthew Mandeville buried what turned out to be the game winner in the second period on a fine tic-tac-toe feed from Walsh and Garrigan. Beaulieu again kept the door closed - knocking aside all 14 shots for the second shut out of the weekend to secure the Hawks a 1-0 victory and a playoff berth against North Andover in the championship game Monday afternoon.
Beaulieu made some big saves in the first to keep the game knotted at zero, until two late period goals from Mandeville and Florence, both assisted by Giroux. The Hawks never looked back from there. Florence added another in the third assisted by O’Connor and Garrigan and Mandeville capped it off assisted by Giroux and Walsh. North Andover broke what would have been Beaulieu’s third shutout with only 1:35 minutes remaining in the game to make the final 4-1. The Hawks got outstanding defensive play from the blue line trio of Matt Lee, Josh DiIorio and Tyler Dempsey. Over 10 consecutive periods of shutout goaltending from Beaulieu contributed to the two shut-out games. Giroux and Florence also added playmakers as the Hawks outscored their opponents 15-2 in the four games.
When asked about the teams performance, the coaches agreed that it was a true team effort, like none they have seen this year and noted that every player reached the score sheet at least once.