PeeWee A’ Train Keeps rolling…Win New England Regionals !!!!

The Burlington PeeWee A’s, fresh off their Massachusetts State tournament win traveled to Wallingford, CT this weekend to participate in the New England Regional championships against teams from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Burlington faced off Thursday night vs. Avon, CT and earned a hard fought 2-2 tie……With Paul Hogan out with a broken wrist, the A’s played an inspired first period  and goals were scored by Sean Gavin, assisted by Sean Murphy, and Derek Bastos…Scott Hospod, Dom Perfetti, Andrew Grasso, Ryan Sheldon all had good scoring chances throughout the game…Strong defensive play by Jake Matthews, Brendan Burke, Brian O’Connell and Mark Roberto held the Avon team at bay and Bryan Hunt came up with some big stops late in the 2nd period and numerous in the 3rd to preserve the tie……
 
On Friday, The A’s defeated Edgewood, RI behind the 5 goal performance by AJ Johnson…CJ Grinnell had 1 goal and 5 assists, other scorers were Sean Gavin (2), Derek Bastos and Sean Murphy… The A’s broke open a 4-2 game after 2 periods with 5 third period goals to blow it open….
Friday night’s game was a tough battle vs. the Maine Hurricanes…Solid play by all forwards, coupled with the stingy defense led the Burlington squad to a 3-1 victory, to earn the top seed in the semifinals…

The Semifinal matchup was a re-match with Maine…Bryan Hunt made numerous stops in the first period to keep Maine off the board, one of them was an ESPN play of the day according to one referee…Second period action was hot and heavy with the A’s taking the lead on a goal by Andrew Grasso….He converted a rebound of a Dom Perfetti shot (Perfetti was sent in on a 2 on 1 by a great pass from Scott Hospod) to give the locals a 1-0 lead….A couple minutes later, Derek Bastos converted a Sean Murphy and Sean Gavin pass in the slot to give the locals the 2-0 lead… From that point on, Hunt and his tireless defensive crew of Matthews, Burke, O’Connell and Roberto held the Maine team off the board….

On Saturday afternoon, the A’s faced Avon, CT in the finals….. 5 minutes into the first, CJ Grinnell and Ryan Sheldon broke AJ Johnson loose up the middle and Johnson buried breakaway to get a 1-0 lead..…Sean Murphy converted a Bastos rebound to give Burlington a 2-0 first period lead…The second was scoreless for all but 10 seconds of the period…Bryan Hunt making three glove saves on point blank Avon chances as well as a pad save on a blast from the point…Avon did cut the lead to 2-1 with a goal with 10 seconds left in the 2nd period…The 3rd was up and down with Burlington killing off 2 penalties as well as numerous Avon chances…Hunt was solid in goal throughout the 3rd…Matthews, O’Connell, Burke and Roberto cleared the slot of attackers to keep Avon at bay…Johnson and Grinnell combined once again to give Burlington a 3-1 lead…and Domenic Perfetti put the cherry on top with an open net goal, assists to Hospod and Grasso …

With their win, for the first time in 20+ years, the Burlington PeeWees have won both the State and New England Championships….

Congratulations the the PeeWee A’s: Bryan Hunt, Ryan Sheldon, CJ Grinnell, Brian O’Connell, Sean Gavin, Paul Hogan, Andrew Grasso, AJ Johnson, Eddie Ellis, Brendan Burke, Mark Roberto, Scott Hospod, Jake Matthews, Sean Murphy, Derek Bastos and Dom Perfetti…the A’s are coached by Jim Hunt, Frank Murphy, Kevin Johnson, Mike Grinnell and Doug Ellis.