Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/11/11
The Twist U15A team needed some help on Day 1 of the Sweet Laxin’ tournament.
On Day 2, Twist took care of its business all by itself.
Twist lost its first game of the tournament and did some scoreboard watching for the rest of Saturday to see if it would even have a chance to reach the playoff bracket for Sunday. Once the rest of the results fell into place, Twist had a new life and took full advantage.
Connor Howell scored four goals and had two assists and Grant Ament had three goals and three assists to lead Twist to a 10-5 win over the South Shore Ballers of Long Island in the championship game to give Twist the eighth grade A division title of the event, played in Bridgewater, N.J.
The championship was Twist’s third in four tournaments this summer. Twist, which reached the final of the only tournament it has not won, is now 19-2.
Twist opened the Sweet Laxin’ tournament with a 5-4 loss to Mountain Lakes (N.J.) and then came back to top Westfield (N.J.) and the Long Island Riptide.
Twist would have been relegated to Sunday’s consolation round had Mountain Lakes lost Saturday’s last game to Chatham (N.J.), but the Lakers won that game, forcing a three-way tie for second in the pool between Twist, Chatham and Carolina Select. Twist earned its semifinal spot by winning the tiebreaker of having allowed the fewest goals.
With a new life, Twist never trailed in either game Sunday. The championship game was 7-1 at the half over a South Shore team that had defeated Mountain Lakes 6-5 in the other semifinal.
Ament led Twist with nine goals and 17 points in the tournament, while Zach Drake added seven goals and eight assists for 15 points. Connor Howell had eight goals and two assists, and Michael Major, Ben Bala and Matt Vetter had five goals apiece.
Goalies Matt Eckles and Greg Price combined for a .667 save percentage in the five games for Twist.
Jack Auteri won 28 of 37 face-offs in the tournament.
