Friday night was a blue moon as Allegany and the Redhawks squared off in their best of five series. The hometown Redhawks were looking to end the series while the visiting Arrows wanted to get the series back to their own floor. The “Once in a blue moon” theory seemed to be in effect a both teams were scoreless for the first ten minutes of play. Allegany struck first and the blue moon theory almost was becoming a reality. But Redhawk forward Pete Benedict quickly tied it up to end any notion of an upset as the offense kicked it into high gear to tally five more goals to Allegany’s three for a 6-4 first period lead.
With Edmund Cathers taking his turn between the pipes, Hunter Hemlock took advantage of a pass from Percy Booth for a 7-4 lead. Brett Bucktooth coming off of a great defensive shift beat the Arrow defense down the floor for a mini-break outside blast that drew admiration from the Redhawk faithful. A Redhawk penalty didn’t slow down Hunter as split the double team to score again for Onondaga. Brett loved his mini-break goal that he repeated the same play from exactly the same spot to make it 10-4 heading into the final period.
With a birth to the Can-Am finals insight, righty forward Cam Simpson worked inside to beat the Allegany goal tender for a 11-4 lead. The Arrows finally broke through the goaltending of Cathers with a power play goal only to see the momentum stay on the Redhawk side with Hunters second man-down goal. Allegany closed the gap to 12-5 before Lee Nantioke broke free for a beautiful one on one goal. Closing out the scoring for Onondaga was two goals by Cree Cathers and a goal by veteran forward Neal Powless for a clinching 16-10 series win.
Up next for the Redhawks is a best of seven matchup with Native Sons. The Redhawks are the higher seed and will host the first game of the series next weekend.
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