Cougar Extravaganza Tournament

This weekend Andrew and the Medina Bees JV Hockey Team played in the Cougar Extravaganza Tournament in Mentor, OH. Sporting their new, official jerseys (or sweaters for you old schoolers), the Bees won 2 games and lost 2 to finish in third place out of six teams. The team continues to develop its chemistry and they finished strong, beating Rockey River 3-2 in their final game. Andrew (#97) had a solid tournament, contributing quality ice time and assisting at least 1 goal. Here a few miscellaneous clips I took while watching the games.

Andrew's First High School Hockey Goal

Andrew (wearing #15 since jerseys are in yet) and the Medina Hockey JV Bees played in their fist tournament of the season (their first real games other than two scrimmages earlier in November). The Bees played four games total in the tournament. We won only one of the four games, but played very competitively despite being the only JV team in the tournament (all other teams were Varsity). The highlight, however, was in game three when Andrew scored his first career High School hockey goal! One of the dad's is video taping the games again this year, so I was able to hack a few clips off his DVD of the game. Here it is.

Andrew's Salvation

I just noticed it's been nearly two months since I posted something new here (I've been too busy with work, work blogging and other stuff). So here's something new. For a school assignment, Andrew and a few of his buds had to ring the Salvation Army bell in front of the Wal-Mart store this past week. He also had to report on it to his class. In Hollywood Four fashion, here is the report he created.

Homecoming Dance

This was the Medina Homecoming weekend. This year, we had two high schoolers who went to the Homecoming Dance: one a freshman, the other a senior. Both went with a group of their friends rather than with a specific date. Abby looked absolutely beautiful, and Andrew looked very dapper. Here are some of the many pictures that were taken before the dance.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Today our baby boy turns 14 and he enters High School this fall. My how time flies (and my how big he has grown). Not sure what we'll be doing for his birthday this evening, but here is a short video I created in 2008 that includes some of his baby/kid pictures growing up (click link below to go to video).

 Andrew Birthday 2009 Video

For his birthday, mom and dad took Andrew to Tres Portillos Mexican restaurant. We promised not tell them it was his birthday (but our fingers were crossed).

Andrew Graduates 8th Grade

Today Andrew officially graduated from middle school and will be heading for high school as a freshman. He will also be joining his senior sister - meaning both Andrew and Abby will be attending the same school again for the first time since 2005. Here are a few pictures of Andrew and some of his fellow graduates; and a video clip of Andrew crossing over to high school.

Mustangs 2012-13 Season Recap

The 2012-13 Season is official over for Andrew (#97) and the Strongsville Mustangs. The only thing we have left is a year-end party for the kids sometime in the next few weeks. Using all of the video footage that was taken throughout the year by Mr. Finch (one of the other parents), I put together the following four segments that recap the entire season. The first segment introduces the team; the second recaps the preseason, the third is just a fun, fictional speech, and the last segment recaps the regular season and tournament play. I plan on burning this onto DVDs (along with all of the other footage I edited together throughout the season) for each of the players. Andrew will be playing some more casual Spring/Summer hockey in preparation for the Fall/Winter again (possibly with the Medina HS Club).

Mustangs Finish Season with Tournament Title

Last weekend, the 2012-13 hockey season came to an end for Andrew (#97) and Strongsville Mustangs. It was a very difficult season, but the Mustangs found a way to finish it on a very high note by winning the Killer B Tournament in Shaker Heights, OH. After a narrow 0-1 loss to Shaker Heights in the opening game, the Mustangs bounced back to defeat our nemesis Rocky River 3-1. The next game we defeated our arch enemy Geauga 2-1 setting a up a rematch with Geauga for the tournament championship game. The Mustangs buckled down and won that game 3-1 for a nice, walk-off championship title to end the year!

Mustangs Final Two Regular Season Games

I'm still catching up with video editing. Here are two of the Strongsville Mustangs final two games of the season. These are both against the Shaker Heights Raiders. We lost the first one 1-3, but won the second one 3-2 (to knock Shaker Heights out of the playoffs). It was a long, losing season, but nothing stays the same ... Mustangs finish strong!

Mustangs Parry with the Pirates

I am a bit behind with hockey game video editing; but a couple weekends ago Andrew and the Strongsville Mustangs had two brutal games against the Rocky River Pirates. In the first game, which was away, we had 12 penalties in the first two periods, the head coach got thrown out of the game, and the Rocky River police showed up to provide "crowd control." The latter was a little bit overkill, but clearly our parents were upset about the horrendous officiating. We lost that game 0-6. In the rematch, a home game, the officiating didn't get much better. We had one collision where a Rocky River kids had to get carried off the ice. That resulted in a penalty on us, and one of our best players being suspended a game. There was a second collision in the game where one of our players got carrier off the ice - the other team didn't even get a penalty! We lost that game 2-5 (Andrew had a nice assist).

RIP Rico

This week we lost a family member. Andrew's little buddy Rico passed away. The memorial service was held on Thursday. We will all miss little Rico. Here is a short tribute in memory of our furry family member.

MLHA Classic Tournament

This weekend, Andrew and the Strongville Mustangs participated in the MLHA Classic Tournament in Pittsburgh, PA. The Mustangs played some good hockey, and every match was very competitive. In the opener, we skated to a 1-1 tie with North Pittsburgh. In the second game, we lost 2-4 to Southpointe.We almost tied our final game 3-3 against the tournament champs, the MLHA Hornets; however, our coach rolled the dice with a little less than two minutes remaining and pulled our goalie to see if we could get the win (which backfired, leading to a 3-4 loss). Still, it was one of our best all-around games of the year. Dunlay did outstanding in his goalie debut for the Mustangs in games 1 and 3. Here are some highlights:

Mustangs Versus Raiders in a Shootout

This past Sunday, Andrew and the Strongsville Mustangs took to the road to play their seventh regular season game of the season against the Shaker Heights Raiders. After falling behind 1-4, the Mustangs stormed back to take the lead 5-4 with only a few minutes left in the third period. Unfortunately, the Raiders snuck in two late goals past our goalie to win the game 6-5. Still, the team played hard and outshot the Raiders 33-22. Goals were scored by Keane (#31), Frederick (#97), Kanzig (#13), Treible (#51), and Dunlay (#15). Here are the highlights.

Mustangs Versus Pirates

This past Saturday, the Strongsville Mustangs resumed regular season league play in an away game against the Rock River Pirates. Overall, the Mustangs played pretty well, generating a lot of scoring chances. However, in the end, we let in more goals than the opposing team allowed. The final score was 1-8. Here are some good highlights of the many scoring chances we had, including the one goal scored by Kanzig (#13) that was assisted by Frederick (#97) and Vandenbusche (#91)

Motown Cup Recap

Over the weekend before New Year's Day, the Strongsville Mustangs played in the Motown Cup Tournament Series in Detroit/Ann Arbor, MI. As it turned out, all three of our games were played at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor, MI which was very cool (despite the fact that this is the home to the U of M Wolverines). It was a tough series, and one of the teams very good and clearly "misplaced" in the tournament. Nonetheless, the kids played hard for the most part. Andrew (#97) had a pretty good series assisting one of our only two goals, laying down a few nice hits, and ending up with a descent plus/minus score (despite the team giving up 14 goals in the tournament). Here are a few of the highlights.

Mustangs Exhibition Versus Fremont

A couple weeks ago, Andrew (#97) and the Strongsville Mustangs played an exhibition game against the Fremont Ice Wolves in Fremont, OH. The Fremont team was not allowed into the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League because they couldn't field a full team with kids at the proper ages. So, their team is made up of kids with birth years '99, '98, and '97 (older kids). Although they cannot participate in the league, they can still scrimmage other teams. Our agreement to scrimmage them was that their older kids would "take it easy" on our younger kids. In the end, they reneged on that agreement and the game got out of hand. In any event, here are the highlights, including two goals scored by our own Eisnaugle (#12) and a nice penalty shot stop by our goalie, Crossman (making one of his first starts between the pipes).

Mustangs Versus Cyclones x3

I am a little behind with my hockey highlight editing. Since my last hockey posting, Andrew (aka, "Freddie" wearing number 97) and the Strongsville Mustangs have played three regular season games, one exhibition game and three tournament games. Here are highlights for our last three regular season games - all played consecutively against the league leading Tri-County Cyclones. Unfortunately, our Mustangs lost all three games. However, we played a close game the third time around as our defense and goal-tending has improved.