LT Hockey Club First at WJOL Tournament

Senior captain Marcello Delfini scored the golden goal in overtime to lift Lyons Township’s hockey squad to a 5-4 victory over VJA High in last weekend’s WJOL Invitational Hockey Tournament in Joliet and start the season on a high note for the Lions squad.

Lions hockey, though not an IHSA varsity sport, is a force to be reckoned with, boasting six seniors and having spend much of the tournament running up the score on opponents.

After blowing out VJA in the opener of the 10-team tournament 9-2, the Lions then took down Lake Park High, 5-2, and then Plainfield High, 7-1, heading into the semi-finals with a perfect record. Barely half a day after first beating Plainfield, they won again by a much smaller 2-0 margin, with shutout credit to goalie Jimmy Andolfino.

Then in the finals, VJA put up a much fiercer fight than expected, quickly jumping out to a 2-0 lead. LT fought back to tie the game 2-2 by the end of the first period, and the score was 4-4 by the end of regulation. Delfini ended the game—and claimed the first-place prize—just over seven minutes into overtime.

“It was a grinding game,” said head coach Jim LaPorte, noting that goaltender Paolo Delfini was forced from the game due to an equipment malfunction, forcing Andolfino to come off the bench cold.

“Unfortunately, we gave up two leads in the game, which were uncharacteristic of us, but it all worked out with Marcello scoring the game-winner in overtime.”

Marcello Delfini had nine goals over the five games, including a four-goal hat trick; Blake Murray had five and Nick Wink four, each carding hat tricks of their own. Kevin Fuhr, Charlie Malay and Adam Misiewicz each had two goals apiece.

Also scoring a goal were Sam Brennan and Joe Power.

LaPorte said the discrepancy between blowouts and nailbiters against the same two teams was disconcerting—but nevertheless credited his defense and entire team for a solid tournament in which they outscored opponents 28-9 and were a perfect 5-0.

“It’s an early-bird tournament,” he said. “We like them to evaluate our players, our team, see where we’re at. We played well."