RAYNHAM – For the second straight season, the Natick Chill captured the Varsity Skills Challenge crown. The foursome of Trevor Kaplan, Xander Mavrogiannis, Kurt Borgman and Andrew Carr just edged out the North Shore Stingrays team of Joe and John LaPiana, Jon Andrews and Nolan Arbuckle by one point, 6-5, winning the Team Relay, finishing second in the Target Shooting and third in the Agility Race.
The Stingrays second place finish came courtesy of a win in the Target Shooting and second place finish in the Team Relay, while the Raynham Raiders squad of Girro Brancaccio, Jeff Gordon, Johnny Gildea and Max Siegel celebrated a third place finish in front of the home fans following a win in the Agility Race and third place finish in the Target Shooting.
In the All-Star Game, it was the tale of two halves for the Black All-Stars en route to their 8-3 victory.
The White All-Stars were in control for much of the first half, opening up a 3-0 lead on their opposition once the scoring started on a goal from Kaplan at 13:34. That, however, is as good as things got for White as Black got on the board late in the half as Scott Shorrock of the Southeastern Grizzlies beat starting goaltender Michael Putnam of Central Mass Cobras on a penalty shot and then John LaPiana scored with just 1:03 left to make it 3-2 in favor of White at the half.
Starting with Shorrock’s tally, the Black All-Stars reeled off eight unanswered goals for the authoritative, five-goal win. Michael Champigny of the Marlboro Thunder got the game back to even at three aside with another penalty shot goal for Black less than two minutes into the second half. Owen Sylvia of the Grizzlies then came up with a natural hat trick that would garner him the First Star of the Game Award and blew Black’s lead up to 6-3. Goals by Brady McLaughlin of the Stingrays and Sean Boisvert of the Thunder capped the 8-3 final.
Following Sylvia in the Stars of the Game Awards was North Shore’s Ryan Cote, who stepped in net for Black to start the second half and shutout the White offense. Kaplan added to his Skills Challenge hardware by tacking on a Third Star of the Game medal, scoring two of White’s three goals.