Sylvie Paillard
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The Howe Sound Novice ringette regular season is a wrap, and the team capped off the year in style last weekend with two back-to-back wins.
The season-ender began with a home game against North/West Van on Feb. 18 where the year-long unstoppable goalie Brenden Bantayen took to the ice to show his talent for other positions. Brenden soon proved that he's as good at scoring goals as he is at stopping them by netting a hat trick in the first period.
Gerwin Ariz volunteered to play between the pipes instead of Brenden and he showed off a bit of his own style, knocking away most of what North West Van could throw at him. Several players followed Brenden's lead including Jennifer Kion, Jacklin Warwick, Nicole Pederson and Jamie Lee Nelson with a goal each, and two goals from Ryan Fianza, Samantha Bedry and Sydney Fanzega. The final score was a decisive 13-5 for Howe Sound.
The team's final regular season game took place on Feb. 25 in Langley against Fraser Valley.
"The past meeting with them ended in an exciting 4-4 comeback tie, so we were expecting a thriller of a game here," said coach Kent Warwick.
The Howe Sound team had a tendency this year to start games "rather sluggish" then have to fight to come back, said Warwick. But that was not to be the case this game. After a strong pep talk in the dressing room prior to the game the players executed the game plan "to perfection."
"Our defence played big and would not let Fraser Valley penetrate the shooting zone," said Warwick. "Our forwards made heads up passes and accurate shots, shell-shocking the opposing goalie."
Fraser Valley fought a hard game but came up short because of the strong work and determination from the whole Howe Sound team. Goals were again scored by Ryan, Nicole and Madeline Feist for a final score of 5-2 for Howe Sound.
The team's final standings this season are 8 wins, 6 losses and 1 tie. The team heads off to Port Coquitlam this weekend (March 4 and 5) to finish the season with the President's Cup Tournament, said Warwick.
"Our kids are ready to play and have fun."
