Last Thursday, Holyoke High School’s very own Class of 2015 hosted the first ever floor hockey tournament. Floor hockey is one of the most popular gym-played sports at Holyoke High. So, as anyone could imagine, this led to a lot of hype before the big games on April 9th.

A total of thirteen teams competed in the tournament and there were many exciting games throughout the whole night. However the most excitement came when the semifinals arrived and the four teams left were The Red Team (who ironically all wore blue shirts), Unpucking Believable, Book Hockey, and Summer’s Team.

The first game of the semifinals had The Red Team matched up against Unpucking Believable. Leading up to the semifinals Unpucking Believable was extremely confident and blew out their first team. So, when getting matched up against freshman they all assumed they had an easy ride to the championship game.

Despite the clear disadvantage, The Red Team didn’t let this bother them. Unpucking Believable, as expected, came out strong and struck first with a beautiful wrist shot from Tim Girard (who scored 5 out of the teams 6 goals in the tournament). The Red Team did not take long to answer and scored a quick goal to tie the game up. The pressure began to build and then out of nowhere Taryn O’Sullivan ’18 crashed the net and scored on the rebound to put The Red Team ahead 2-1.

Pressure began to mount and it was showing. After a game of stellar goal tending, Katie Keane ’18 just let one slide by and the game was now tied. After regulation play, the game went into overtime and there were some great chances but the game still remained tied through overtime.

The game now moved on to 3 on 3, and after several minutes there were still no goals. Until a freshman by the name of Joe Cavanaugh ’18 stepped up big time, fired a wrist shot from the shooting slot, and scored. The crowd went wild after such a huge upset that nobody was expecting.

Now came the second match of the semifinals between Book Hockey and Summer’s Team. These two teams knew that they could not take anything for granted and had to leave all they had out there on that small gym after witnessing that great upset.

This game was very close throughout all of regulation play, but after several good chances from both teams, the game was still left scoreless. This was clearly a defensive game and both teams experienced some scary moments in which they though their tournament run might be over. After another tight five minutes the game had to be settled in a 3 on 3 format.

Not too far into the 3 on 3, Jack Moskal ’16 of Summer’s team found a lane in the offensive zone and took the puck towards the net. After Moskal’s rocket of a wrist shot deflected off Carter Theriault ’15, Alex Glanville ’16 dove and batted the rebound in.

The championship game was up next and it was the dark horses, The Red Team, up against Summer’s Team, whose amazing defensive play and teamwork throughout the whole tournament left them not giving up a single goal up until this point. Once the game started, Summer’s Team came out flat and their defense seemed to be struggling, letting up two great chances almost immediately.

However, right after the defense cleared the puck out of their zone, Devan “Dárrel” Kane ’17 put the team on his back and placed a wrist shot in the top left corner of the net.  This gave Summer’s Team all the momentum and they quickly tallied on two more goals thanks to a beautiful pass from Summer Kaeppel ’16 (team captain) and a sweet backhand from Jack Moskal. After going up 3-0, Summer’s Team decided to just bleed out the clock until they were victorious.

It was a truly amazing performance from the offense (Summer Kaeppel, Jack Moskal, and Devan “Dárrel” Kane), defense (Matt Antil ’16 and Alex Glanville), and goalie (Tyler Beauregard ’16), as teamwork and communication played a big part in their success.

Despite the all the close opportunities and having to face a very hot team fresh off a previous game with a lot of adrenaline, Summer’s Team allowed no goals against throughout the entire tournament, and were crowned the 2015 Floor Hockey Champions.