AQUINAS-14 at PENN YAN-11 -Aquinas defeated Penn Yan to gain their second Section V Title in program history with a 14-11 win over the Mustangs. The last time that the Li`l Irish won the title was also against Penn Yan back in 2010; in that game they snapped a 12 year winning streak for the Mustangs. This year they broke another 12 year winning streak. For the first time since the installation of the Class D Tournament, Section V is sending a different team to the State Tournament. In today’s contest the game was dominated by junior attackman Noah Olbrich. Olbrich finished the game with 8 of the 14 goals for the Li`l Irish and was named Class D All Tournament MVP. Additionally, it was announced today that he was awarded the Section V Sportsman of the Year award for the entirety of the 2024 season throughout the Section. Olbrich was instrumental in leading his team to his victor. The remainder of the scoring was mostly spread out with sophomore attackman Jake Guggino adding 2g-3a and Tano Aurisano adding 2g; both were also named to the All Tournament team. For the Mustangs, Teagan Fingar (2g-2a) and Tukker Fisher (1g-3a) led in scoring with Braden Finger (2g-1a) and Mike Gigliotti (2g-1a) also adding to the tally.Teagan Finger just reached his 100th career assist in the game. Gigliotti and Fisher were both named to the All Tournament team for Penn Yan.

The game in general was a story of streaks. The Li`l Irish started off the game strong with the first four goals which included holding the Mustangs scoreless for the first 13 and a half minutes. Olbrich was the key to the streak with the first three goals of the contest. The first goal was scoring during a fast break off an assist from Jaiden White. The next two were both single player drives from behind the cage. The fourth Li`l Irish goal was scored by Auriuso on another fast-break. This time the assist came from Dom Siesto. The Li`l Irish led 4-0 going into the second quarter. The four-goal lead made all the difference as Penn Yan kept pace with the rest of the scoring, but could never quite catch up the Aquinas. Although they tied the game twice at 4-4 and 5-5, Aquinas never trailed throughout the game.

Penn Yan demonstrated their offensive talent in the opening six minutes of the second quarter with four straight goals of their own. Tukker Fisher was the key to this portion of the Mustang offense when he assisted the first two and scored the third goal. The first two were both scored by Teagan Fingar. With 10:24 remaining on the clock, Fisher pushing inside and dumping the ball off to Fingar. The second and third goals of the run were both fast-break goals with Fingar scoring (from Fisher) and Fisher scoring (from Fingar). The 4-4 goal came at 6:43 with Gigliotti driving from behind the cage and looking to the crease where Collin Bacher finished into the back of the net. The next goal was scored only 0:08 later with a face-off fast-break by Olbrich (assisted by Guggino), to keep the Li`l Irish in the lead. Play continued and Penn Yan responded again with Fingar assisted Bacher on the crease. With 4:50 remaining in the second quarter, the score was tied 5-5. It was last time that Aquinas did not outright lead the game. The Li`l Irish finished out the half with three unanswered goals. Guggino scored from a mid-range shot, followed quickly by an inside feed from Guggino to Ethan Copeland on the crease. The last goal was an unassisted goal by Auriuso. Aquinas led 8-5 going into the halftime break.

In the second half, every time that Penn Yan attempted a run to bring the score closer, Aquinas was able to stop the run with scoring of their own. Bryant VanHousen scored the opener for Penn Yan with a man-up goal with 9:35 left. Olbrich responded with back-to-back goals to increase the Li`l Irish lead to 10-6. Once gain, Penn Yan attempted to push for a come back. This time with scoring from VanHousen and Bryant; both scored with drives from behind the cage. This time the scoring was broken up by a goal from Jaiden White (assisted by Carter Wegman). The third quarter ended with Aquinas leading 11-8. In the final quarter, Fingar led off with two goals. This pulled the game to within a single point (11-10); however, the Li`l Irish had other plans. They added three of their own (two unassisted goals by Olbrich and an unassisted goal from Jack Bell) to secure the Championship. The final point of the game was scored by Penn Yan with Teagan Fingar scoring with a feed from Braden Fingar; however, it was not enough and the Li`l Irish held off the ball for the final two minutes to secure their second title.

Another key component of the win for Aquinas came in between the pipes. Sophomore goalie Jake Gibson finished with 14 saves in the contest including his 300th career save. Gibson was joined by defenseman TJ Geyer in being named to the All-Tournament team for Aquinas. For the Mustangs, defenseman Hunter Sheehan was named to the team. Rounding out the team was senior midfielder Brayen VanHousen (Penn Yan), as well as attackman Griffin Hilimere (Mynderse) and midfielder Tariku Blueye (Marcus Whitman) from the Semi-Final matchups. The Li`l Irish move on to the State Tournament with the Out-Bracket game on Wednesday the 29th playing Akron (Section VI).   [ BOX SCORE]  - - More images in the photo gallery.