The Eckville Sr. Eagles soared to their first win of the season with an overtime goal.
On Sun., Oct. 7 the Eagles faced off in the “Battle of Highway 11” against the Sylvan Lake Pirates for their 2018/19 season opener.
“We played all right, you can definitely tell there was a lot of rust,” said Reed Watts, Eckville Sr. Eagles general manager and defenceman. “It would show at times that the system was there and then it would all go away and we’d get into scramble mode.”
The Sr. Eagles ended up victorious with a score of 7-6 over the Pirates with an overtime goal by forward Andrew Bergmann.
“Sylvan’s a young, fast team and we would start running around trying to play their game rather than stick to ours, which is more of a controlled game, but it was good,” commented Watts.
“We knew they’d [the Sylvan Lake Pirates] want a piece of us,” added Watts, “… Just the proximity of the two towns we knew there’d be a natural rivalry there and without a doubt they came raring to play.”
Going into next week, Watt says the team is going to work on managing the game correctly so they can play their style rather than get caught up in the system the other team is putting out.
The Sr. Eagles also had a few holes in their roster with their captain from last year and two defencemen missing on Sunday, all of which will be back next week.
“We had forwards playing defence again, so we’re just hoping we can get our roster back and we’ll be able to really solidify our systems and get back going,” explained Watts.
“We’re happy we came out with the win obviously, and it was an interesting first game of the year, but it’s done now and we’re looking forward to [Bonnyville] next week,” said Watts.
The Sr. Eagles’ game is in Bonnyville against the Pontiacs on Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
The Eagles will meet with their rival the Pontiacs again at their home opener on Oct. 27. Game time is at 5 p.m. at the Eckville Arena.
A banner ceremony for their 2017/18 first place regular season finish will be taking place.
