A Monster Exhibition Game

Last week Friday, the Strongsville Mustangs (B2) team played a rematch game against the Geauga Maple Leafs  - the same team we beat a couple weeks ago in our season opener.  This game, however, was an exhibition game played at "The Q Arena" before the Lake Erie Monsters versus Rockford Ice Hogs game. This was our second year playing at The Q and, once again, the facilities and hosts were awesome. We ended up with a great game too. Unfortunately, Coach Mike was not able to make the game, so Coach Tony made his first appearance on the bench of the season along side Coach Todd. He even gave the team a nice pep talk before the game. Will "the kid" played goalie for us and did a nice job saving over 86% of the shots he faced. The Mustangs got off to an early lead in the first period on Gower (#20) goal assisted by Treible (#1). The Maple Leafs scored a goal in the second period making it a 1-1 tie game up until the final 30 seconds of the game. However, six penalties - two within the final two minutes - left the Mustangs short-handed two skaters; and a bouncing puck deflected in for the Maple Leafs giving them the late victory. After the game, the team grabbed dinner at The Clevelander and then headed back to The Q for the Monsters game.

Final Oireachtas Highlights

The 2012 Mid-America Oireachtas in done. Here are some video highlights of the weekend (of course, video taping of the actual competition in never allowed). Overall, Abby and the O'Hare Irish dancers had a very good showing. On Friday, Abby danced one hard shoe and one soft shoe dance in competition with around 125 other dancers. The top 60 were "recalled" to dance a longer "set" dance for final placement. Abby was one of those top 60 finalists. In the end, she finished a very respectable 44th overall (her friend Anne finished 7th). On Saturday the Ceili team took the stage. There were 36 teams competing with the O'Hare O15 Ceili team. Once again, only the top half "recalled" for the awards ceremony that evening. The O'Hare team was one of the 18 teams that recalled. Once the final scores were in, they finished 7th place overall. That was the best showing for the O'Hare school, which had a number of other Ceili teams competing at various levels. In fact, the Ceili team did so well, there is some discussion about entering them into the 2013 World Irish Dancing Competition in Boston next Spring.

Oireachtas Dress Rehearsal

Building up to this weekend's 2012 Mid-America Oireachtas in Grand Rapids, MI, Abby and the the O'Hare Irish dancers continued to practice hard, including this dress-rehearsal Monday night.

Oireachtas Pep Rally

Today Abby attended a booster club pep rally for the O'Hare Irish dancers that will be competing in the upcoming 2012 Mid-America Oireachtas in Grand Rapids, MI over Thanksgiving weekend. This annual event (see 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008) is a nice way to get the dancers pumped up for the big competition and celebrate all of their hard work leading up to it. 

Mustangs Beat Geauga 4-2

I finally got a hold of the game film for last Sunday's Strongsville Mustangs win over the Geauga Maple Leafs. It was the first game of the regular season and, after a winless preseason, the Mustangs pulled out the 4-2 victory. Even though we were the home team, the game was played at the Baron's arena in Parma. Goals were scored by Keane (#31), Crossman (#87), Frederick (#97), and Vandenbusche (#91). Maxwell was called down from our B1 team and he provided some great defense between the pipes. Our next regular season game is actually against Geauga once again the day after Thanksgiving. This next game will be played at "The Q Arena" before the Lake Erie Monsters game. Should be fun.

Poker Fest 25 Teaser Clip

As I have done in the past, here is a short "teaser clip" for the upcoming Poker Fest 25 tournament.

Click here for 2012 videos
Click here for 2011 video
Click here for 2009 videos
Click here for 2008 videos

The Strongsville Mustangs Bantam 2 team has had a rough preseason so far. After 5 games, we are 0-5. To our defense, the roster has been in flux, we haven't really had a permanent goalie yet, and the kids are still finding their "team chemistry." Still, the preseason is really just to benchmark all of the teams so they are properly placed for the regular season. One thing the coach implemented was a new dress-code policy: Nice pants, shoes, shirts and ties before and after all games. This will help the kids prepare for high school where that is generally required. Andrew - pictured here in his "Sunday best" - continues to skate hard, and he generally has a couple good hits per game. Yesterday he switched from Forward to Center. The team plays again today against a team that I think will be closer to our level, so it should be a good game.