There is much to be said about the Eagles performance during this past season. With a new coach and a renewed drive for success, the Eagles began right from the get go with Friday practices almost every week. There were drills and dedication and that can only result in a winning combination - to be stated shortly! After 2013's 3rd place finish in the standings with 8 wins (2 by shootout) and 7 losses - 22 points (.488 winning pct); which at the time was the best record Eagles inline had since its beginning in 2008, they flew through the regular season amassing 11 wins, 2 losses and 1 shootout loss - 33 points (.810 winning pct) and finished in 2nd place, 1 point behind the 1st place and defending champions, Vikings.
The Eagles led the league this season in goals for with 105 goals scored in 14 games, goals against with only allowing 42, and goal differential with a +63! Talk about a turnaround! The regular season brought great memories, especially back in July when our Eagles beat the Ludwigshafen Scorpions' top team, a former Division 1 team, 7-3; the first time KMC has ever beaten them. This would prove to be a little foreshadowing, because by finishing 2nd in the standings, the Eagles would face the 3rd place Scorpions in the playoffs.
This 3 game semifinal round would prove to live up to its full potential. Game 1 went to the Scorpions 6-2, the Eagles were playing shorthanded and were overwhelmed, but then Game 2 went to the Eagles with a 5-3 win after going down early 2-0...their season was not going to end in a sweep (which unfortunately brought back memories to the 2013 semifinals - when the Vikings won 5-2 and 8-7 on OT to knock the Eagles out).
Game 3 was a showdown for the ages; a back and forth game that was exciting all the way to the last seconds - literally! The game was tied 5-5 when the Scorpions scored with 47 seconds left in the game to make it 6-5...it didn't look good for the moment, but then the Eagles went on a power play and had a face off in the Scorpions end. Coach "Boston" Sacchetti decided to gamble and pull the goalie, Gabe, out to create a 5 on 3...4 seconds after the puck dropped at the face-off, a one-timer slap shot taken by JP Spadaffor found its way to the back of the net with 30 seconds left in the game. This forced a shootout...3 men aside for each team.
For the Eagles it would be Brandyn Shelly, Brian Purcell and JP Spadaffor. Shelly took care of business and scored with a nice wrist shot glove side; Purcell and Spadaffor could not put the puck in the net after juking the Scorpion goalie unfortunately. The Scorpion shooters missed the net, hit the post, and Gabe came up with a clutch left pad save. The Eagles won and advanced to the Championship game against ERV K-Town, another previous Division 1 team.
Before the Finals, Coach went around the locker room and had all players hold the lucky gold coin that his father gave to him while visiting and was present to watch the finals game. The game was fast paced, but you could tell both teams didn't want to make mistakes.
At the end of the 1st period it was 2-2 with both teams trading goals back and forth - Eagles then K-Town both times. In the 2nd period, goals traded again and it was 3-3, then K-Town scored quickly to take the lead for the first time in the game 4-3; they were starting to dominate. The Eagles tied the game at 4-4 and evened up the play.
At the end of the 2nd period it remained 4-4. Between the 2nd and 3rd period, the Eagles were running around too much and not playing their game. As Coach called everyone in close; everyone expecting him to comment on the play, he simply said, "Boys breathe, just breathe. We have one 15 minute game left and its 0-0; win this 15 minutes."
Every one of the Eagles gave everything they had for those final 15 minutes and left it all out on the court winning the 6-4 and reigning in the Division II DPL Inline Championship! What a way to cap off such an amazing season. GO EAGLES!!! There's another title to defend next year!
