Bill's Pizza U10s surge in second half
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Tillsonburg Bill's Pizza U10 Twisters came from behind to win Sunday's Western Region ringette game against Seaforth-Exeter 15-9 in the Colin Campbell Community Arena.
The visitors led 4-2 and 6-3 in the first period, but Grace Baird's goal with 2:50 left marked a major shift in momentum. Gracyn McNinch added two more Twisters goals less than a minute apart to knot the score at 6-6 going into the second period.
The Twisters continued to pour it on in the second outscoring Seaforth, who had a shorter bench, 9-3.
Bill's Pizza coach Dan Behman called it one of the Twisters' best efforts of the season.
"Today, they were fired up," said Behman. "They played one of the best games I've seen them play. Seaforth is typically a strong centre as well and I think we played one of our best games – all of the girls skated really well.
"In the second half they just didn't let up, they kept going hard. That's one thing I really liked about it, they kept going hard the whole time. Once we got the lead, they didn't settle back and 'sit' on it. They kept going and played tough D, too. They did well helping out our goalie (Mackenzie Anderson)."
The Bill's Pizza 'Regional' U10s are "very young team this year," said Behman. "Right now we're cycling around the positions, including goalie, until we find out who plays what."
As they move into the second half of the season, players will start playing regular positions.
"I'm focused on development as much as possible. Of course it's nice to win, but I'm all about development and that's why I want to make sure the girls cycle around and get a chance to play all positions."
One of the focuses Sunday was changing on the fly.
"Today we had a pretty lengthy pre-game talk. I went over a couple things like line changes, and I think that was one of the big things that helped us today, too. We had quick line changes, so we always had fresh legs out there. We're working on changing on the fly because sometimes in previous games we'd get stuck out there – four minutes at a time. So I asked that everybody be fully dressed 15 minutes before today's game so we could do a mock line change scenario, using the dressing room floor as our end of the ice. I think that helped a lot.
"And I think it helped get the girls in the right frame of mind for the game, too. So even though it's Christmas time and all that, they weren't distracted at all. They were pretty fired up."
The first half of the 2013-14 season has been a bit of a mixed bag for the U10 Twisters. They've won big, lost big, and mixed in with sometimes lopsided scores, a 3-3 tie with Dorchester and on Saturday an 8-7 win over London-2.
"Chatham (Oct. 20) and Forest (Nov. 16) blew us out – but they are blowing out everybody in the league. They're just really strong, solid centres."
Bill's Pizza 15, Seaforth-Exeter 9
Bill's Pizza scoring: 1. Gracyn McNinch; 2. Myra Craig (Peyton Corriveau); 3. Gracyn McNinch; 4. Grace Baird; 5. Gracyn McNinch (Maclean Kyle); 6. Gracyn McNinch (Ally Verhoeve); 7. Ella Cattrysse; 8. Ally Verhoeve; 9. Gracyn McNinch; 10. Ally Verhoeve; 11. Katie Behman; 12. Gracyn McNinch (Camryn McIntyre); 13. Gracyn McNinch; 14. Peyton Corriveau; 15. Ella Cattrysse.
TWISTERFEST
Tillsonburg Twisters from U8 to U14 will be showcasing their talent on home ice the weekend of Jan. 17-19 during the annual Tillsonburg Ringette Tournament – TwistersFest.
"That will be our first tournament of the year," said Behman. "I imagine it'll be good competition. Last year there were teams from Kitchener and Guelph – some very good centres. So it'll be a very good challenge, but we'll give it our best shot, that's for sure."
New this year at TwisterFest, Tillsonburg will be hosting a National Ringette League game featuring league-leading Cambridge Turbos – and Tillsonburg's Taylor Campbell – and the Waterloo Wildfire at the Tillsonburg Community Centre on Sunday, Jan. 19 at 1 p.m.
Campbell, now in her second NRL season, was Cambridge's first-round selection in the 2012 draft. After putting up 52 points in a 22-game rookie season, Campbell has 41 points in just 13 games this season (4-37-41) and is eighth overall in league scoring.
General admission for Tillsonburg's first-ever National Ringette League game will be $8, or $4 for under-16, and players wearing a ringette jersey FREE.
An autograph session will be held with some of the pros. Other events will be planned for the TwisterFest weekend.