Northern Elite A Advances to Top Four on Back of Wayne, Archbold and Berquist

In a day where Northern Elite had to play three games and the most important coming in the later hours of the evening, the Lions showed why they fared well in Winterfest. On the back of Ari Wayne's four goals, including an 8 meter bar down shot which became the game winner, Northern Elite pushed the envelope against a team who had only played one game during that day, which happened to allow them to play their subs the majority of the time. The Lions took on Xtreme with a lackluster first quarter, giving up 3 straight goals. While the defense was somewhat in question, Peter Berquist looked over at the bench and yelled "We're not losing this game!" Shortly after, the team settled down. George Archbold found the back of the net on three straight possessions with a counter attack goal, a beautiful layout goal from set and an absolutely mind blowing backhand that sailed right past the head of the goalie. The first quarter ended 4-3 with the Lions on top. From then on, Northern Elite would not relent, but neither would Xtreme. The Corona based club continued to push the envelope and counter hard after every missed shot that the Lions took, keeping the game within reach until the waning moments of the fourth quarter when Jace Blazensky linked up with Brandon Plihal who in turn flipped an incredibly aware pass to George Archbold who fired and hit the bar only to fall 3 feet from Matt Baszucki who would not miss despite a man on his back as he shifted from left to right hand and found a gap just above the shoulder of the Xtreme goalie. It was Matt's first and only goal of the tournament thus far. With :12 seconds left, the Northern Elite Lions stole the ball and the victory was theirs as was a guaranteed top four finish. While Ari Wayne and George Archbold led the team on the offensive end, it should be well noted that Trevor Raisch, Brandon Plihal, Jed Rosen and Matt Baszucki played tremendous defense to keep their opponents at bay on a number of possessions. Finally, After the three goals were allowed so quickly in the first quarter, Peter Berquist stopped numerous 1 on nobody attacks and even blocked two in the same possession. It took great defense to fuel the offense. Something that Northern Elite truly prides itself on. Northern Elite will face Regency tomorrow morning at 940am to decide who advances to top 2 or 3rd and 4th. Go Lions!