Hockey season is back at the CIF ice rink, as the Waterloo Warriors hosted the Brock Badgers Oct. 8 in their home opener. The Warriors took the game with a 5-4 win in overtime. </p>
Last season during their home opener, it only took the Warriors 30 seconds to score against the Badgers. This year it took them 40 seconds to take the lead with an early goal by second-year forward Phillip Fife, giving Waterloo a 1-0 lead. Fife was assisted by Tommy Tsicos and Stephen Silas. The Badgers tied the game eight minutes later with a goal by Dan Tanel making it 1-1 at the end of the first period.
During the beginning of the second period, the Warriors found themselves defending a 5-on-3 Brock power play, and Tanel gave Brock the 2-1 lead only 54 seconds after the initial whistle.
A minute later, Skylar Pacheco would add to Brock’s lead by scoring another power play goal, giving the Badgers a 3-1 lead. The Warriors didn’t quit and kept pushing Brock’s defence while trying to avoid giving away any more penalties. Fifth-year veteran Colin Behenna was essential to the Warriors offence, leading them to Brock’s net with strong plays and passes that paid off at 13:36 in the period when Tsicos registered his first goal as a Warrior, shortening Brock’s lead to 3-2. Then, with less than three minutes remaining in the second period, Warrior Daniel Perigo would score, tucking in Cam Wind’s rebound, tying the game at 3-3.
The third period saw both teams battling to score the goal that would give them the lead and secure the two points. The game progressively got more and more physical as players kept pushing towards their rivals’ net. With less than three minutes to go, Brock challenged the Warriors when a turnover by Tyson Dallman and Adam Lloyd resulted in a scramble in which the Badgers managed to score, making it 4-3. But the Warriors were anything but done for the night as 42 seconds later, Behenna, assisted by UW veteran Brett Mackie, tied the game at four goals apiece, sending the game to the first overtime of the season.
The Warriors went into overtime with a one-man disadvantage, as Mackie was given a two-minute hooking penalty. Waterloo looked superior to the Badgers in the first minutes of overtime. UW veteran Riley Sonnenburg secured the win for the Warriors by scoring on a 2-on-1 play that gave the Warriors their first victory of the 2015-2016 season.
