By Elliot Weiselberg
The HAFTR Hawks entered the realm of champions, taking home the biggest prize in Junior High Hockey this past Sunday at The 17th Annual Martin Weiselberg Memorial Hockey Tournament. The victors, also playing host for the 3rd straight event, joined seven other schools, HALB, HANC, Moriah, JEC, Yavneh, Noam and Har Torah for a full day of action in Cedarhurst, New York for the chance to earn the championship for the only hockey tournament on the age level.
The eight schools were split into two divisions, where each played two round-robin games with the top two moving on to the knockout rounds. The morning session was littered with shutouts as three of the four contests ended with zeros on the board. YMSSA Champion Noam began the day with a Zack Edell hat trick pacing the Knights to a 4-0 win over Har Torah, HALB blanked Moriah 2-0 and YJHSHL Champion HAFTR defeated JEC 3-0. The fourth game of the session saw defending champion Yavneh build a 3-0 lead, but had to brave two late goals from HANC to hang on to a 3-2 win.
The afternoon session saw Har Torah and Moriah go to a scoreless shootout where the Haganah outlasted the Mountaineers 2-1 to stay alive. With Noam riding a first period goal to a 1-0 shutout of HALB, the Lions would be forced into a shootout with Har Torah to advance to the playoffs, where Har Torah, a team that did not make the league playoffs, shocked the YJHSHL regular season champions 2-1 to move on. In the other division, a similar situation as HANC defeated JEC 5-1 and HAFTR blanked Yavneh 1-0, pitting HANC against Yavneh in a shootout to advance. The contest would last 10 rounds, where HANC’s Hunter Zeitlin would put an end to the hopes of a Redhawk repeat as the Hurricanes advanced to the knockout round.
The “A” Division semifinal was a repeat of the first game of the day and despite a valiant effort from the Haganah, Noam’s size and skill were too much to overcome, as the Knights advanced to the final for the first time since their 2016 win with another shutout 3-0. The “B” Division contest would be much closer as it featured two very familiar foes, HAFTR and HANC. The two also met up in the YJHSHL semifinals, where HAFTR staged a wild comeback to defeat HANC in HANC. They would need to come from behind again twice as HAFTR’s Mark Davidman tallied a shutout in the Hawks 3-2 win to move on to the “champion versus champion” final.
The contest was a worthy final as the skill of both squads were on display, but it was the grit and speed of HAFTR that would win out. Alex Scharaga would get HAFTR on the board in the first period, Evan Ellenberg would keep the Knights off the scoreboard and Sammy Fuchs would add an insurance goal late to lead HAFTR to their first championship with a 2-0 victory. Davidman would earn Tournament MVP honors with a 4-goal, 3-assist afternoon.
In addition, the tournament also served as a fundraiser for Hatzolah. Once again, the tournament set out a goal of raising $10,000.00 through donations, sponsorships and ticket purchases for a raffle that included phenomenal hockey memorabilia, including an autographed Martin Brodeur jersey, an autographed Mike Richter Helmet, an autographed Wayne Gretzky photo, an autographed Bobby Orr stick and an autographed Alex Ovechkin photo. Sponsors of the day included Weiselberg Law, LLC Real Estate Law Services, Crown Trophy of Brooklyn, Yeshiva League Pass and Yeshiva Sports Network. A special thank you is sent to HAFTR, the HAFTR administration and Athletic Director Joey Honig for opening HAFTR’s doors to the tournament. All participants walked away with a gift bag complete with a tournament t-shirt, water bottle and various other goodies provided by all of the event sponsors. A replay of the tournament can be found on the tournament website at www.mwtournament.com.