On Saturday, December ninth, the junior varsity hockey Regis Jesuit Raiders faced off against the Valor Christian Eagles. Both locker rooms were blasting music before the game, crowds were flowing into the rink. Warmups looked great from both teams, as the goalies were getting warm, the players were locking in. The opening faceoff was between Regis captain, Anthony Otero, and Valor sophomore, Evan Jimenez.
In the first period the sense of competition was in the air. Throughout the whole first period of the game both teams gave one hundred percent effort, most of the period was spent on the offense for the raiders, but they couldn’t capitalize. Captain, Anthony Otero said, “we weren’t able to score, but I think we had a lot of good chances.” which resulted in a zero-to-zero first period.
The second period was very similar, both teams were competing equally, until a devastating goal late in the second by the Eagles. The raiders were let down at the start of the third, the momentum shift was clear. The Raiders struggled on the defensive end of the ice, and it felt like the defense was just letting in goals one after another. Anthony Otero said, “We just need to clean up those little mistakes, that’s what made us fall apart in that third period.”
The Raiders had so many powerplays and points in the game where they could have created opportunities for themselves, the offense was trying to their best to just get one goal to try to avoid this shut out. The game wrapped up a wholesome prayer at center ice. We never like to see a five to zero loss against valor, but the JV boys are getting better every day, and are ready for the next time the Raiders and Eagles face off.
