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Congratulations to our STATE CHAMPIONS!!

16U TB State Champions!

New York State Champion Bedford Bears 16U (TB) The Bedford Bears 16U (TB) team captured the New York State championship title the weekend of March 22nd to 24th in Buffalo, NY. For some of the boys, it was their second State title in back to back years. For some others, it was a first after losing out in the pool play round two years earlier. The Bears began their quest for the State title on Friday, March 22nd in the pool play round at Northtown Center Arena in Amherst, NY. In Game 1, the Bears faced-off against the Thousand Islands Pirates from Clayton, NY. Thousand Island was the number 2 seed from the North. Thousand Island opened the scoring with a wrap-around goal with 1:45 left in the first period to take a 1-0 led. At intermission, the Bears were able to collect themselves and stressed using their speed. Frank Vigiletti did just that by picking up a loose puck and burying a nice shot 7 seconds into second period. Thousand Islands took the lead again just over 2 minutes later, but the Bears would respond. At the 8:43 mark of the second period, Gabe Adams (Chappaqua) scored a power-play goal to tie the game off a nice feed from Michael McKeon (Waccabuc). Paddy Irwin (Pawling) gave the Bears the lead for good with 4:53 remaining in the second period, scoring off a Jack Tuite (Shrub Oak) assist. The Bears finished the second period with another power-play goal at the 2:35 mark by Nick Biagini (Mahopac) with assists going to Tuite and Adams. After an ice flood, the teams returned to the ice and with 7:48 left in the third period the Bears scored their third power-play goal of the game. Irwin scored off a redirection from Tuite. The Bears finished the scoring with 27 seconds left in the game on a goal by Dylan Mutkoski (Chappaqua) with the assist going to Danny Schum (Mahopac). Nick Petrella (Bedford) finished the game with 20 saves on 22 shots and the Bears won 6-2. On Saturday, the Bears had to play the final two games of the pool play at the CornerStone Arena in Lockport, NY. The Bears opened the day against Jamestown Lakers the top seed from the West and the team that the Bantam A TB team defeated a year earlier 3-2 in the State championship. The Lakers scored with 2:58 remaining in the first to take a 1-0 lead but the Bears answered quickly with a goal by Gabe Adams with 1:51 left in the first with an assist going to Frank Vigiletti. Ben Sfarra (Armonk) made 12 of his 29 saves in the 1st period as the Lakers came out strong to avenge the loss in the title game a year ago. The second period saw a lot of action at both ends, but both goaltenders came up with solid saves. The Bears went on the power-play early in the 3rd period when Tuite scored with assists going to Adams and Biagini, giving the Bears a 2 -1 lead. Jamestown continued to apply pressure, but the Bears were able to keep a lot of shots to the outside and also block a lot of shots that never ended up reaching our net. Joe Cipriano (Armonk) sealed the win with an open net goal with 38 seconds remaining in the game. Ben Sfarra (Armonk) made 29 saves on 30 shots and the Bears secured themselves a spot in the Medal round to compete for the State Title. In second game of the day, the Bears faced Palisades Predators (East 3rd seed) and built an early lead in the first period. Dylan Mutkoski started the scoring with a goal at the 15:18 mark from McKeon and Max Levine (Mahopac) assisting and then four minutes later Mutkoski added his second goal on a nice feed from McKeon. The Bears then scored to make it 3-0 on a goal by Biagini with Tuite and Chris Stiller (Mahopac) assisting with 6:19 left in the first. They added to the score in the second at the 12:49 mark when Mutkoski completed his hat trick with Levine and McKeon getting the assists. The Bears scored their fifth power-play goal of the tournament when McKeon scored at 8:16 of the 3rd period with assists going to Irwin and Mutkoski. Nick Petrella recorded the shut-out, stopping all 19 shots he faced. On the back of those 3 solid wins in Pool play, the Bears finished top of their group and ready to face a tough Oswego team in the semi-finals. On Sunday, the Bears traveled back to Northtown Center Arena in Amherst, NY to face Oswego (number 1 seed from the Central region). Oswego went 2 and 1 in pool play, losing to Norfolk/Norwood (number 1 seed from the North region) 3-1 in pool play. The game saw a scoreless first period with a fast pace to it. Both teams had a few scoring chances, but both goaltenders did not give up any ground. Sfarra faced 16 shots of his 37 of the game in this period. The Bears were able to score first with a goal at 12:22 of the second period off of the stick of McKeon with Mutkoski assisting. About 8 minutes later Schum scored with Adams and Vigiletti assisting to give the Bears two goal lead. Mutkoski added to that with 2:59 remaining in the second period with a great individual effort as he was pulled to the ground at the side of the net with McKeon assisting on the play. The period ended and the Bears headed to the locker room with a 3-0 lead and 17 minutes away from a chance to play in the championship game. The Bears were faced with starting the third period on a 5 on 3 penalty kill situation as they were whistled for 2 penalties late in the second. Oswego struck quickly scoring 17 seconds into the third to cut the lead to 3-1. The Bears still had a minute and thirty-four seconds to kill on the second minor penalty and they came through. They then had to kill penalties at the 13:15 mark and then another at the 7:17 mark. Both Sfarra and the penalty units came up big with blocking shots and Sfarra making some big saves to keep the score at 3-1. Oswego took a timeout with 1:48 left to go to pull their goaltender. The Bears were called for their 6th penalty of the game with 1:41 left to play. Oswego continued the pressure with six attackers on four but once again the Bear penalty killers blocked a few shots and Sfarra stood tall not letting any second chance attempts for Oswego. With 38 seconds left in the game, Oswego was awarded a penalty shot on a play where an official ruled one of the Bears defenseman closed their hand on the puck in the crease area. Again, Sfarra would not give any ground up to Oswego and made a huge save to seal the game for the Bears on the penalty shot. Bedford went on to kill the final 38 seconds of the penalty to seal a chance at another State title. Sfarra finished the game stopping 36 of 37 shots. After a short rest back at the hotel, the Bears had to pack their bags, check out, and make their way to the 5:00 PM championship game at Northtown Center’s feature rink against a tough Norfolk/Norwood Iceman (1 seed from North) team who beat Jamestown 7-4 in the other semifinal. The Bears came out strong and showed no signs of a letdown after beating Oswego earlier that morning. Gabe Adams started the scoring at the 15:09 mark of the first on an even strength goal with an assist going to Danny Schum. About a minute later, Jack Tuite scored another even strength goal with assists going to Paddy Irwin and Joe Cipriano to make it 2-0. With 35 seconds remaining in the period and a face deep in the Norfolk end, the Bears struck on the power-play to make it 3-0. The Bears won the face-off, Gabe Adams moved the puck back to Chris Stiller on the point, and Chris found his defensive partner with a clean pass. Joe Cipriano fired a low shot through traffic which beat the Norfolk/Norwood goalie. Nick Petrella continued to keep Norfolk/Norwood off the board making 12 saves in the second and bringing his total to 24 in 2 periods. The Bears were only able to mount 2 shots in that second period, as they headed to the locker room for intermission and an ice cut. The third period started and both teams traded some scoring opportunities. It looked like the Bears were going to extend their lead early in the third period, but the Norfolk goaltender robbed both Paddy Irwin and Jack Tuite by making two tremendous saves and igniting the Norfolk team who then mounted a 16 shot attack at Nick Petrella. Norfolk was eventually able to break through at the 7:05 mark remaining in the 3rd period on a screen shot that Petralla never saw. Then at the 4:07 mark, Norfolk made it 3-2 on one of the few turnovers the Bears committed all weekend. The Iceman continued to apply pressure in the Bears zone, but the Bears held strong again keeping shots to the outside and clogging up passing lanes down low and blocking a few shots as well. The Iceman finally took a time-out with 27 seconds remaining with a face-off deep in the Bears zone. The Bears were able to win the face-off but sent the puck the length of the ice for an icing which resulted in another face deep in the Bears zone. The Bears won another face-off and managed to get the puck to the side boards where Gabe Adams was able to keep the puck along the side boards as the clock clicked from 10 seconds to the sound of the horn. Petrella finished the 3rd period with 14 saves on 16 shots and ultimately faced 40 shots total in the game. The celebration began around Petrella as the Bears won 3-2 to claim the State Championship. It was the same score that the Bears won the previous year on the same ice surface in Amherst. The only difference was that they were the home team this year. The Bears capped off a perfect record going 5-0 overall to win the State Title. It was a total team effort from the goaltenders to the defenseman to the forwards. Sfarra and Petrella faced a combined 145 shots during the weekend, only allowing 6 goals for a combined save percentage of 96%. The power-play unit scored 6 goals on 24 attempts while the penalty-killing unit only surrendered 1 goal in 13 attempts - that coming on a 5-3 against Oswego in the 3rd period of the semi-final game. Congratulations to Bedford’s 16U TB team for winning the second State Championship in the Bears history. The team finished the season with 28 wins, 6 losses and 4 ties. Bedford forwards were led by the following players: Gabe Adams (Chappaqua) Nick Biagini (Mahopac) Paddy Irwin (Pawling) Sava Makarenko (Yorktown) Michael McKeon (Waccabuc) Dylan Mutkoski (Chappaqua) Danny Schum (Mahopac) Jack Tuite (Shrub Oak) Frank Vigiletti (Brewster) Bedford's defense was led by the following players: Joe Cipriano (Armonk) Connor Craigen (Ridgefield) Ryan Kaplan (Katonah) Max Levine (Mahopac) Chris Stiller (Mahopac) Bedford goaltenders were: Nick Petrella (Bedford) Ben Sfarra (Armonk)

The Bedford Bears organization would like to congratulate the following Bears players who received honors for outstanding effort during the 2018-2019 high school season! Journal News Awards Westchester Putnam County 1st team members: TJ McKee (Mahopac) Forward Charlie Oestreicher (John Jay) Defenseman Westchester Putnam County 2nd team members: Eric Sasimovich (John Jay) Goalie Westchester Putnam County Honorable Mention team members: Justin Groux (Brewtown) Forward/Defenseman Nick Bricker (Mahopac) Forward Thomas Marks (Brewtown) Defenseman Annual Section 1 Awards SPECIAL AWARDS TJ McKee (Mahopac) MVP Award Conference 2 Justin Groux (Brewtown) Sportsmanship Award Conference 2 Logan MacDougall (Mahopac) Dick Kittle Memorial Scholarship All-Section Team Jack Browne (John Jay) TJ McKee (Mahopac) All-Section Honorable Mention Team Justin Groux (Brewtown) Charlie Oestreicher (John Jay) Eric Sasimovich (John Jay) Nick Bricker (Mahopac) All-League Team Jack Browne (John Jay) TJ McKee (Mahopac) Justin Groux (Brewtown) Charlie Oestreicher (John Jay) Eric Sasimovich (John Jay) Nick Bricker (Mahopac) Patrick Erwin/Pawling All-League All-League Honorable Mention Team Aidan Martin (Mahopac) Matt Gergley (Brewtown) Thomas Mark (Brewtown) Frank Vigiletti (Brewtown) Matt LaFontaine (Carmel)

Pee Wee B Champs

Congratulations to Pee Wee B for winning the HVHL 12U Kensico Championship this afternoon vs. Scarsdale, 5-0!  The Bears finished with a record of 20-0 in league play while scoring 113 goals and only giving up 24!

GO BEARS!