U14 Combos Capture Thanksgiving Championship
By Jack Harris

 The Jr. Sun Devils rolled into Thanksgiving weekend on the back of a disappointing start to the month of November, in which they had lost two of their three games. Over Thanksgiving weekend however, the Bantams produced opposite results.

The U14 Combos captures the Bantam A Thanksgiving Shootout Championship in Phoenix, going 4-1-0 on their way to the title. The Bantams maneuvered their way through the group stage, before dominating on Sunday in their knockout stage games.

“We [were] trying to get each and every player to raise their individual compete level,” said head coach Todd Collins. “That is exactly what they did over the weekend.”

After splitting their opening two games (a 5-2 win over AHU-Black, and a 3-1 loss to the California Wave), the Jr. Devils clinched the #2 seed, and a spot in the semifinals, after a 11-0 rout of AHU-Purple. Garrett Burroughs exploded for five goals in the round robin finale, while Brendan Manning added three assists and a goal. The defensive effort was maybe the most impressive part of the win, as the Jr. Devils conceded just two shots, giving Zoe Manriquez little work to do to record a shutout.

In their semi-final on Sunday, DYHA again stifled their opponents, Mission U14 White, repeating their two-shots-allowed defensive effort from the day before. Manriquez was again the beneficiary in net, recording a second-straight shutout. The Jr Devils started slow offensively, not getting on the scoreboard until Caden Surchik’s 2nd period goal. From then on however, the Bantams dominated, as Colin Ormsby, Burroughs, Manning, and Surchik all scored en route to a 5-0 win.

In a rematch of their tournament opener, the U14s faced the AHU Black Knights. A third straight shutout, this time by Steven Noffke, was more than enough to capture the title. The Knights were marginally more successful against the suffocating Jr. Devil’s defense, generating nine shots on goal in the final, but could not solve Noffke in net. On the other end, the Bantams peppered AHU goalie Manu Carrasco with 40 shots. Surchik again opened the scoring for the champions, and Burroughs added an insurance goal in the 2nd. A two goal lead proved to be more than enough for the Jr. Devil’s defense to protect.

“It was a team effort as every player contributed to winning,” Collins added.

Over the five tournament games, the Bantams allowed just five total goals, and averaged just six shots against per game. Offensively, the Jr. Devils also got goal-scoring contributions from Garrett Ruiz (2 goals), Andrew Pessin (2 goals), Ty Seckman, Keaton Toenjes, Lukas Gabo, and Alec Teppenberg.

Collins is expecting more of the same from his team moving forward: “[I am looking] for them to continue to raise the bar, and take their game to the next level.”