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The Man in the Marble

Wiping the dust from his face, the Sculptor smiled at his marvelous marble creation. His face searching the creation for it’s story. He pondered the bleached figure, examining the smallest details, noting the blemishes, but more importantly the lack of blemishes.

The young man in marble was reaching skyward toward an unseen wonder. The colorless boy full of awe, stretching his imagination, growing. The boy’s face innocent, young, clear.

Picking up his chisel, the Sculptor began to chip away at the cheery resolve of the boy. The boy’s brow began to crease, and his eyes to sink, and his cheeks to more stark, his chin a little bolder. The boy now a man, the Sculptor set his chisel down.

The man reached skyward toward an unseen objective. His boyish face still hopeful and wondering. His brow creased slightly, though, as he strived for a goal yet unreached. His eyes fixed with purpose. His gaze unwavering, his outstretched arm untiring.

Raising his chisel, the Sculptor struck, swiftly and certainly, deepening sorrow into the man’s eyes. He carved away the wonder and replaced it knowing; he shaved the hope from the man’s face, leaving a bare understanding. The man now wizened, the Sculptor rested his chisel.

The man, beaten, his bleached face still raised, but he was searching as if uncertain. His eyes, showed pain, and his expression was graver. His body, had hunched a little, recoiling from reality’s harshnesses. The man’s outreached arm endured.

The Sculptor peered at the man with puzzlement. He lifted his chisel, and withered the man’s body, aging him beyond recognition, wrinkling his face, sagging his skin, curling his posture, resigning him.

The man, now experienced, had a rougher finish. Wary now; one step ahead of cruelty, yet his arms stayed outstretched, and his eyes fixed upward. Knowing what he knew, understanding what he now understood, he should crumble, yet the man had the heart of the boy he once was. His imagination continued, his hope prevailed, and his arm, stretched out, remained waiting.

The Sculptor set his tools down, finished. He left the man in the marble to rest.

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Ian’s Draft Mock

It’s Thursday, April 28th, 2016. Draft Day.

For the past two and a half months, football fans have discussed the top prospects that declared for the 2016 NFL Draft. Fans have exhausted numerous arguments on every player associated via rumor with their teams.

Media analysts have published enough mock drafts to choke a black hole, and they’re coming out with their “final” versions.

The NFL is basking in the glow of the only thing that’s happening related to football right now; the Draft. (Be quiet, Arena Football, I know your regular season just started, I meant real football.)

Unproven, underage, undersized, and sometimes unethical draft prospects have been national news stories for a month or more. They’re advertised as though they come in a package with a rebate for 10 free wins.

These players are paraded about as the next generation of Pro Bowlers, and Super Bowl Champions and Hall of Famers. Does (California, QB) Jared Goff have any right to be mentioned among the likes of, Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Jim Kelly, Joe Ferguson, or John Elway? No. Except of course to mention the fact that a lot of great QBs have first names that start with the letter ‘J’.

Until they make the rosters, and get past Training Camp, until they start a game and handle the pressure, until they contribute to a winning team meaningfully, until they make the clutch play to deliver the Super Bowl to their adoring fans, until they’ve payed their dues, they’re nothing but status quo football players.

Lauded as the Future Super Bowl Champions, these rookies bring a metaphor to my mind: Having your album release party before knowing how to play music.

The draft prospects that are being discussed as Hall of Famers have only proved one thing. They can play collegiate level football fairly well. This is the NFL, boys.

Now excuse me while I watch 4 hours of pre-draft coverage, and bite my fingernails down to the cuticles.

Boy, I hope the Bills take–

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All Sorta – a FREE place to post ads!

I have used Homeschoolclassifieds.com for almost 10 years!!!! That’s awesome 🙂
It is similar to Craigslist because there are no fees to list or sell. Though they do have options to pay a little bit and be able to list more than 8 items at a time.AllSorta2 Now they are launching a sister site where we can list everything else other than homeschool materials for free. Here’s their blurb about themselves:
AllSorta is our sister site: A free marketplace for general goods and services. Both mobile-friendly and desktop sites. A list-based format similar to Homeschool Classifieds. Avoid the high fees of eBay and Etsy.
They also have several promotions right now where you can earn $ or credit to HomeschoolClassifieds.com if you prefer, by selling or buying on AllSorta.com.
Seems great 🙂
You can earn $7 if you refer a new user to AllSorta (so let me know if you end up using it 🙂 $20 to list 25 items. $25 to list 20 baby/child items.
Post up to 100 of your existing eBay, Etsy, Craigslist, or Instagram items* on AllSorta. We will pay $1/listing (offer limited to the next twelve responders).
AND this one for buying things on AllSorta!!!! Check it out:
Buy items from different AllSorta vendors (not your friends or family, please) with an average value of at least $5, and leave feedback on the transactions. We will pay $5/vendor, for up to 10 purchases.
Check it out today!
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Life With God

Imagine the Immensity

At_the_Edge_of_the_World Late one night I was reading and thinking about God. I was comparing us to him, as we, human beings, are created in his image. I was imagining the immensity of a being who could feel love for all of the people to ever walk on this planet.

Try to think of your own emotions. When acting, I try to portray an emotion as honestly as possible. It often helps me to analogize the emotion of the character, to an emotion I’m familiar with. The joy of winning a football game, for instance, could be likened to the joy of winning a battle. Though I’ve never been in, let alone won, a  war, I can express a similar emotion to sort of simulate the experience.

There are far more emotions than just joy, though, like love, fear, anger, hate. Depending on the person, each emotion can control that person. A person feeling fear will act irrationally, just as a person feeling love, hate, or anger, would also act irrationally.

That’s because we can’t control our emotions as well as we’d like. I’m sure everyone has, at one point or another, lost their temper, even if it’s just in your thoughts, you’ve been angry and lost control of yourself. I’m not accusing anyone, obviously, I’m just saying it’s part of being in a fallen world.

Now, the strongest of these emotions, in my humble opinion (the author laughs as he types the phrase “in my humble opinion”, knowing full well humility has nothing to do with his opinions) is love. Love is the root for nearly all emotions, if you look for a common denominator. Anger, hate, joy, sadness, all those really can be traced back to love.

Now imagine being in God’s situation. If you believe that God made each person, (which I do) then doesn’t it follow that he loves each person? I think it does 🙂 With that in mind, imagine the emotions that God feels just daily. In one day God deals with countless ups and downs in his emotions.

One could argue that God doesn’t have emotions, but the Bible has verses about his wrath, and love, and joy. I would also conclude, since people are so emotional, and they are made in his image, that he is an emotional being as well.

Each day we are faced with decisions. C.S. Lewis believed that we have a central self, and each decision we make moves us closer to, or further from, God. Imagine how God feels each time he sees someone make a decision that drives them away from him. Think of the tears he must cry. For each decision! This is not his reaction to the general state of humanity, this is for a single lie, for a thought, for a reaction, mere moments, yet I feel sure he cries over each.

God doesn’t just deal with the sadness of the world, and the sickness, but he feels joy with those who feel joy, and he rejoices for each decision that we make that brings us closer to him. These decisions probably bring tears to his eyes as well, but these are tears of joy, cried because he’s bursting with happiness.

I can’t fully realize the emotions God feels. If his joy for the man who says, “Please help me, God,” is higher than heaven, then his anger with Satan must burn hotter than hell. If he cares for each person’s soul individually, then his anger has to be enormous, compounded per individual, growing with each devious prodding of the devil.

His sadness can’t be any less than his anger, in fact, it may be twofold. Each time he sees one of his children hurting, how badly does he hurt? Imagine when someone you love is hurting. He weeps with those who weep, and rejoices with those who rejoice. How sad he must feel for them!

But God doesn’t just laugh and cry like a person in the movie theater. God created time, and therefore exists outside of it, and he is able to laugh with us, cry with us, and at the same time lead us. Each time something happens, God tries to show us something. I think I might have whole other article on that concept, but I’ll write that later 🙂

Any time you’re having a hard time getting through something, know that you’ve got (literally) the biggest cheerleader, who loves and supports you, and is trying to show you the right way, and not only that, but he’s big enough to do that for you, and every other person. His immensity dwarfs your problems. He will always be bigger.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

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Heaven and Hell

Heaven_and_Hell_by_RedXen

 

If a man is united with God how could he not live forever? If a man is separated from God, how could he not wither and die? —C. S. Lewis

No argument that is founded on logic can answer those questions. Our relationship with God is our eternity.

Heaven, simply put, is a oneness with God. There is no doubting yourself, there is no questioning him. Everything is set so you can be the person you were meant to be. You also get a relationship with the maker of the universe, so, there’s that, too.

Hell is the opposite. Hell is life with no God. For real. You aren’t pretending there’s no God, God just is not there. It is chaos, it is disorder, it is pain, it is suffering. It’s everything we were not meant to be. All with no hope.

Heaven isn’t a place we earn. Heaven is a place we “inherit” because of a relationship with God. It follows our bond with him. It is the natural course. If you love him, you are bound through eternity to the one who created eternity and you. We don’t inherit it by friending God as if he were on facebook, keeping him in your contacts in case you need him. You need a real relationship founded on trust, and love. It’s not required by rule, but by law. The law of this world. If you’re not united with God, what is keeping you from withering and dying?

Hell is not a place that God sends us. It is a place we send ourselves. When God created us, he gave us the freedom of choice, because otherwise it wouldn’t be an honest relationship if he created us to naturally love him.

Neither Heaven, nor Hell, can be used as a coercive bludgeon in an honest relationship. God doesn’t hold anything over our heads, he simply presents information and allows us to make an informed decision.

We play games with ourselves, though. Our fears of hell drive us to falsify a relationship with God, and our desire for Heaven, without a loving relationship with God, does the same.

Leave it to us to screw up the relationship, right?

Thank God for Jesus, because he’s so much wider than our narrow-mindedness. He’s so much longer than our short-sighted views. So much taller than our shortcomings.

He’s so much more than our less.

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Chaos is in the Eye of the Beholder

I realized something: I’m sorta afraid of death.

It made me wonder why. Death is the doorway to heaven. It’s the end of pain, and hardships, the end of imperfections. For those who know they need God (and earnestly seek him) it’s a one-way ticket to eternal happiness.

On the other side of the coin, it’s the end. It’s the dark sucking hole that is impossibly empty. For those who don’t believe, it’s just the end of existence. That doesn’t seem so very bad. You do what you can while you’re here, and when you die, you don’t care, you’re dead.

(Plus there’s Hell, that’s scary, but that’s another article.)

But I realized why it’s scary to us people. Here’s what I think:

I’ve been reading about people and God, more specifically the intimate relationships between individual people and God. In his book The Normal Christian Life, Watchman Nee talks about how living for God is absolute. You don’t act upon your own ambitions any more. You either do, or you don’t.

In a world where your career, or what you’re going to do when you grow up, or how you’re going to support yourself (let alone a family!), are questions weighing down most jobless people, it’s very hard for us to trust in God. Especially because God’s rewards aren’t often physical rewards. His rewards come in spiritual formatting, more regularly. And that software doesn’t compute with our hardware: the physical.

All that to say, people have a hard time surrendering themselves to God, more so when they’re pressured by whatever problem is directly in front of them. They can be forced into having tunnel vision, where they can’t see God and the spiritual aspects of life, because what’s happening in front of their physical being is seemingly more pressing.

When this happens, it becomes even more difficult to let go.

Imagine you’re holding your infant child, and you are going to hand it to your most-trusted friend. You can judge the distance with your eyes. With your arms and hands you can feel their arms wrapping around your child. You reach out slowly, transferring the child into your most-trusted friend’s arms. Piece of cake.

Now imagine your most-trusted friend is invisible. Not only that, you can’t feel him. You cannot sense him. Would you trust yourself to hand over that newborn baby?

I know I wouldn’t. Because, when I let go, I can’t control what happens.

Control is something that we people think we can have. We can’t. Even if you don’t believe in God, you know that each individual has their own choices. They’re all going to choose something. You may be able coordinate large groups of people, maybe even whole countries, but you’ll never be able to control each individual.

When planning a summer BBQ, Sharon can’t make sure Lisa brings the potato salad, that’s up to Lisa, to put in the car and drive the car to Sharon’s. And that’s not to say that it’s up to Lisa entirely, her husband Frank may decide he doesn’t want to share the deliciousness his wife made, or their dog Dennis may not be able to resist the aroma. As you can (hopefully) see, control is impossible. But we like to think it’s not.

This element of chaos, the fact that we don’t have any control, is obvious in trusting God, because he may lead you one way, and then slam the door in your face, in order for you to find the other doorway. His methods aren’t chaotic, they just appear that way to those who are only capable of seeing one side of the story.

For me, personally, it is very hard to trust God. Whether he is asking me to respect my siblings or my parents, or he’s showing me something I’m not sure I want to happen, or even trusting him in the things I do want to happen, that he allows to happen. All these things are difficult, because if they’re out of my hands, I am not sure I’ll get the result that I want.

His will, not ours. That is the hardest part, I believe. What he wants, not what I want.

I think that when you allow the Holy Spirit to be with your spirit, you can be in concordance with God. It is then, and only then. We all act outside of the Spirit, it’s nearly impossible not to, but if we could get to the point where we trust God enough to do all that he says, then we’ll be at a point where the consequences are always for the best, regardless of the immediate affect.

When we can trust God that deeply, death isn’t something to worry about. It’s not something to even think about, because we can’t control it (or anything), and we trust God to know that when he chooses to take us will be for the best.

It’s easy for our spirit to reach this level of trust, but difficult for our soul, our body, to reach this level. And that comes back to my point about the physical being more obvious to us, thus hindering our perception of, and willingness to trust, God.

I don’t think I’m scared anymore. Now, I’m anxious to reach that level of intimacy.

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Shadows

ShadowA man once told me, “What you do when you’re alone defines who you are.”

He continued on to say, with that said, you want to do good when you’re alone, then, don’t you? So you should work hard and try to always do the right thing, because if you do the right things, God loves it.

Of course, God does love it when we do good (because he knows it’s much better for us), but he knows the truth. The truth, in my mind, is that we cannot do that. We cannot be a vine of poison ivy, and grow plump, juicy plums. Mmm… plums.

We can’t do good without being loved by God. Another man told me that the desire to do good is not from the flesh, but that it’s from God.

The cool thing is, there’s a neat (I mean, really neat) opportunity given to us by the creator of the entire universe, an opportunity to  be saved from the person in the dark. Our shadow. In the bible it talks about our bodies being flesh (as opposed to spirit), and how we’re broken, and that because of that we want those things that will only hurt us. It’s who we are. Not who we were intended to be, but who we are, nonetheless.

I would say I always found truth in the the statement “What you do when you’re alone defines who you are.” Today, for the first time, I was able to see it differently.

Originally, I said, “Of course, that makes sense. We are who we are when no one’s watching. It’s easier to be good when other people are wrong. So we should strive to be better without the extra help.” As a competitive person, I took it as a challenge. But, I’ve been coming to the realization (through reading books provided by my dad) that I cannot accomplish that goal, without God. At the point that you accept God’s love and grace, I don’t think it’s a goal anymore, anyway.

Today, though, I thought that it makes total sense that way. (It’s interesting how confident I am in my changed perspective.) I mean that we’re prone (pre-love/grace) to be that person in the dark who does bad things in the dark, because we don’t want the good things, we’re broken. Deep down it’s the good things that we’re looking for, but we find the bad things first, and more easily.

It’s the eternal struggle: we’re trying to be who we were created to be, but we’re fighting with what we are. We will always be fighting the person we don’t want to be, our dark side, our shadow. Our flesh is exactly like our shadow. It’s a dark form, shaped like us, that will always be with us, and surrounds us in the dark. It’s a sad reality, but that’s what sin creates: sad realities.

My point, I would suppose, is that we will always want what is bad, but that through God’s grace, we have a chance to… I was going to say overshadow, you know, to be clever, but I think that’s wrong. God’s grace is an amazing chance to beat the system. To be able to fight off the inner desires, that harm us. The desires even we don’t want, deep in our souls. That’s the part of us that’s created in God’s image.

My other point, is that the fruit can’t come before the the plant is planted. We cannot change, and stand zero chance against our flesh, our shadow, if we don’t accept Jesus. I don’t mean that you can’t be a good person without Jesus, rather, I mean this: without Jesus, we tend to screw things up.

I can only speak for myself, but, that’s my two cents.

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Knights Fight (Futilely) in Sunday’s Plight

4679Sunday’s game left a “strange taste” in the mouth of Canandaigua Knights goalie Ian Campbell. When asked to elaborate  he said, “… Yeah, you know, it’s a weird feeling. We lost, horribly, but it’s not like no one else has lost to this team. I thought it was a good game as far as what we were capable of doing. But obviously we couldn’t beat them today, and honestly, I don’t think our team is built to beat them at all. I guess I feel like we just showed some promise finally. Through these losses, no one’s been able to see our upside, but today, I felt like today we showed we can win some hockey games.”

The game was against the Monroe County Youth Hockey South-1 Eagles. (Yes, more Eagles. In total there are five teams whose mascot is the eagle.) The MCYH S-1 Eagles are one of the teams that has been blessed with the gift of a large pool of players to draft from. Apparently, when you aren’t beggars, you get to be choosers! With a roster full of players better, both physically and mentally, than 90% of the Knights’ team, they were a strong favorite coming into the game.

Their strength had already been demonstrated, as they were 10-1-0 coming into the game, beating every team in the league, and trading games with the Eagles of Brockport (who, by the way, are, according to their website, 7-1-1, as of 1-13-15. Too many commas, man!)

The game started out as expected with the MCYH S-1 Eagles jumping up 2-0 pretty much instantly.

“The first goal was a group effort on both sides,” said Coach Nick Van Stralen. “It was a combination of beautiful passing from them, and a lack of focus from us. They put Ian in an undesirable position, and capitalized.”

The second goal was just the consummation of the Eagles working harder than the Knights.

“This team was different than almost everyone else, even Brockport,” Noah Kurz, who played an excellent game positioned at defenseman. “I found it tough to match their intensity, you know, they just battled everywhere, in the corners, and in the open ice. It didn’t matter they battled wherever.”

The Eagles followed up with two unmemorable goals to finish out the period with a lead of 4-0. It was a tough, demoralizing period, but, the Knights knew this was a possibility and were rather even-keel in the intermission huddle.

“Guys, you can’t stop, you’ve got to keep skating,” Van Stralen reminded. “Just like I said before, these guys will never stop, so you gotta keep going with them!”

Campbell followed that by asking each player for their very best. Whatever they had, that’s what the Knights needed.

The second period started out with the Knights being out shot about 20 to 3, in seven minutes. The Eagles were heavily pressuring the Knights, and the Knights defense was stepping up, despite the amount of shots.

“I was having a hard time with rebound control. I was able to get some [rebounds] in to the corners, but most of the time, I was leaving them hanging out in front of the net, and I was able to make follow-up… [saves], and the defense got a bunch out of the crease for me. I was saying ‘Thank you!’ a lot today.”

Campbell was hurt in a scrum, near the seven minute mark in the second period. It was an upper body injury that hadn’t been announced earlier in the week, that he tweaked.

“I don’t really want to talk about it too much, ’cause, you know, it’s hockey, and we don’t actually talk about injuries, but I hurt it in the early fall, and it’s been getting better, but I tweaked it earlier in the week, and today, I hurt it again pretty badly.”

Despite that, the Knights were forced, by lack of another goalie, to play Campbell. “I was fine, as far as continuing to play, I can feel how much I’m going to be hurting later today, and into tomorrow. I’ll be ready to go for this weekend though.”

Note: Campbell missed Monday’s practice.

Campbell was indeed fine during the rest of the game, though he allowed four more goals, his play was exceptional.

“If you guys want to talk about me, that’s fine, but my defense put me in pretty good position. I’ll admit I had a few good saves,” he smiles. “But I know why I was able to make a majority of those saves: my defense.”

While Campbell was right, the defense held better than usual, they also hung him out to dry a few times.

Immediately following his injury, the Eagles got a 2-on-0 break away, and capitalized rather easily. They followed it up with another 2-on-0, and went up 6-0

The Knights modified top line* was able to put in a goal to bring it closer, and someone else (who wasn’t able to be seen) scored to make it 6-2, a comeback had begun.

*The top line was Karekos, Furhmann, Reston, because Jeremy Trillaud (illness) and Alec Melroy (parents weren’t home) were unable to attend the game, and therefore Kody Laird, and Noah Kurz stepped up to fill those positions. (Another notable absence was left wing Ryan Mack, who was out for undisclosed reasons.)

The Knights carried the momentum into the third, and they were able to keep the puck in the Eagles’ defensive zone for sustained amounts of time, it was an interesting turn of events, and it got even more interesting when the Knights most awesome player (MAP) Nick Colucci, put in a great one-timer (well, failed one-timer) goal, to bring the Knights within three goals.

“This is me being the eternal optimist,” Campbell said. “But I always think we have a chance to win, and when we went on a three goal streak I thought for sure we could tie or beat these guys. I’ll bet even Pete[ermichael Karekos] thought we could win.”

“Even I thought we could win!” said Karekos. “I had some sexy passes with Gavin [Furhmann], and Mac [Reston]. We were on fire!”

The Knights played extremely well defensively, up until the last three minutes of the game where they were caught being aggressive on offense, and the Eagles got a pair of breakaways and made the Knights pay.

“Like I said, there’s weird taste in my mouth after this one. I’ve never been in a better competition with anyone, and we lost eight to three. It was just a great atmosphere, and I can’t wait to play them again.”

Before they meet again, the Knights have a promising stretch of schedule ahead of them. They have four games in which the odds are even or in their favor. And if they were to run the table, they’d be that much closer to the third seed in the league.

Buckle up, folks, stuff’s about to go down.

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Knights Two-Faced in Doubleheader

Two-Face (Harvey Dent)The Canandaigua Knights are proving to be quite the conundrum. They are 3-5-1 in nine games; just one game past halfway and two games out of .500. They’ve shown they can beat the teams they should, but have been spotty in games facing opponents of a higher caliber.

The story line for the 2014-15 Knights has been defensive struggles contrasted by offensive successes.  They’ve scored 32 goals, but conversely, they have allowed 41 goals.

In a barn-burner on Saturday, the Knights put 5 goals past the Perinton Blades goaltender, but they also allowed 9 (NINE!!!!!!) goals. In games with nine goals against, “no one can take enough [blame]” according to the Knights goaltender Ian Campbell.

“There’s way more than enough blame to go around,” says Campbell. “No one can take enough of it. We had a lack of focus, effort, and execution. It’s on me first and foremost, because I’m the goalie, but the other guys also know what they did wrong, and what they did right. We know what we have to fix to win. We did nothing right today. So whatever we did today, if we don’t do it next game, we’ll win.”

Alex Melroy, a forward, and team leader said of his play, “I [stunk].” During this part of Melroy’s interview, Campbell, the goalie, came up behind Melroy in the locker room, and nodded vigorously.

“It was a total defensive breakdown,” said the defenseman Noah Van Stralen. “We were horrible.”

On the offensive side of things, the Knights were excellent with five goals. The problem was getting offensive pressure (not goals, but goals are nice, too) out of any line except the top line. The first line (Karekos, Furhmann, Kurz) had at least three goals, if not four. (Sorry, this is all done by memory and you tend to forget games that you lose 9-5.) The rest of the lines had spotty pressure, but nonetheless accounted for one or two of the other goals.

The Knights were thankful that they were given an opportunity to rebound the next day in Geneseo against the Livingston Cnty. Blues. The Knights went into the game a little cowed, but they were determined to redeem a little respect.

“I yelled at ’em before the game,” Asst. Coach Scott Reston said. “I told them to work hard, and love the game. It’s important to work hard all the way through.”

The Knights played a great first period, dominating a lesser team, as they should have, but the opposing goaltender did exceptionally racking up eleven saves in the first period.

In a particularly offensive offensive-zone possession for the Blues, they set up an excellent shooting lane, and they deflected the puck past Knights goalie Ian Campbell.

“I didn’t even get mad after that one. I was a little disappointed because my defense had done so well forcing long shots all game, but I couldn’t have done anything about it when they tipped it.”

Soon after though, Knights top goal-scorer Gavin Furhmann scored a beautiful goal to tie.

At the start of the second period the Knights continued their pressure getting a little aid from the refs in the way of penalties. Their problem was they weren’t scoring.  Even more problematic was the fact that about five minutes into the second period there was a scrum for the puck at the Knights’ defensive zone blue-line. Knight’s defenseman Sid Klass stepped up and got caught in the kerfuffle, thus when the Blues offensive player retrieved the puck, there was no defense, leaving an indefensible two on none, which the Blues scored on.

“That was unfortunate, it really was,” Head Coach Nick Van Stralen said. Because we had been dominating as far as skill, effort, time of possession, offensive attack time, and general overall domination.”

Fortunately for the Knights, Logan Davis scored. It was a excellent goal  that occurred on a freak breakaway.

“I deked the two guys, fell on my [bottom] and put it top shelf. Then I sat there thinking, ‘Did I just score?’.”

After that the Knights took over in the third period. They put away two goals, and pressured the Blues the rest of the game.

INJURY NOTES

Alec Melroy was NOT wearing a mouthguard, and he chipped his tooth, and it looks sick.

Also, Ian Campbell is suffering a stiff neck after a tough hit he took in the first period of Sunday’s game. (It was almost unbearable to watch. Any normal person would have most likely, probably died. Vicious, vi-cious hit.)

The Knights are enjoying themselves and that’s what’s important. They’re refocussed after being spanked on Saturday, and Sunday was a launching point to get ahead in a tight league.

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Knights Hustle in Hard Loss

4679This past weekend the Canandaigua Knights played the Tri-County Eagles, the number one team (undefeated) and they fought valiantly. After losing the first game 7-2, leaving some to question the effort of the team, they showed that they wouldn’t back down from a challenge, even against a team that clearly outmatched them as far as speed, and overall skill.

“Before the game, I asked the guys why they were here,” assistant coach, Scott Reston said. “When everybody finished answering I told everyone that anything worth doing was worth doing right.”

The first period began with both teams getting pressure, but the Knights dominated most of the play for the first half of the period. Tri-County took over in the second half of the period, and they pressured the Knights heavily. With some back and forth action toward the end, Tri-County swarmed, and created an open shot that went top-shelf, glove-side, past Knights goalie Ian Campbell.

“On that play, Melroy, I think, asked if I got screened,” said Campbell of the goal. “I could see the whole way, but the problem was I played it cautiously, and I backed down in my crease. I didn’t play it as aggressively as I needed to.”

The period ended 1-0. Tri-County up.

Second period play began with immense offensive pressure from Tri-County, and it was all the Knights could do to keep the puck out of their net.

“We got a little too sloppy in our own end,” admitted Jeremy Trillaud, senior defenseman. “We needed to stay focussed and not run around as much as we were.”

“I think the game really slowed down, you know, in that second period where I froze a bunch of pucks,” said Campbell. “I was just trying to stop (Tri-County) from getting so much pressure.”

The Knights were able to break out for some offensive pressure, and play solid defense with the play going back and forth, a lot of the later part of the second period being played in the neutral zone. But on one particularly promising offensive attack, Knights center Kody Laird, pinched up to help in a corner, and the puck went to one of the fastest skaters in the league, and starting at the far end of the ice, he diggled, and wiggled his way past four of five guys, going in between two converging defenders to go in on the breakaway, for an goal that he made look easy.

“I had broken one of the laces on my right pad,” Campbell said. “And he was right-handed, so I figured he would steer to my left, and I was right. Anyway, when he did that he eliminated my ability to skate, because I couldn’t push off with my right leg, so I tried to poke check, and he just slid it in past me.”

On this play Campbell also mentioned he re-injured his upper body injury.

The second period ended 2-0.

“I told the boys, that wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but we kept it close by hustling,” said Nick Van Stralen, the coach of the Knights. “I could tell they were tired, so we needed to get out there and score quickly.”

That’s what they needed, and that’s what Gavin Furhmann gave them.

“I kinda saw a little bit of space, I don’t know, and I just passed to Pete, who made it happen, and Kurz finished it off for us,” he said. “We needed a goal so, you know, we got one.”

The score for most of the third was 2-1, a lot of good plays on offense and defense leaving the crowd in a great deal of suspense but, the Knights got a penalty late. The Knights were doing all they could to stop the high-flying power play of Tri-County. Eventually, in a scrum play at the net a goal went in.

“Of all the goals,” said Campbell. “That one angered me the most. Somebody was hooking my leg, so I couldn’t get my legs together to seal my butterfly, and it ended up dribbling past me, five-hole.”

The period was almost over when a bit of a fight broke out in front of the Knights net.

“I had hurt my (upper body) in the second period, and one of the players from the other team tweaked it when they were jamming the puck, so I hacked at his leg a little, and he got a mad, so they were talking trash, and it ended up, in a twisted way, giving them a goal.”

Number 9, the player who Campbell spoke of, was fired up after the scrap, and he got the puck, circled around the net, just like most of Tri-County’s cycle plays, but instead of looking for the weak side pass like they did every time before, the angry player looking to make a vengeful play, sniped top right, off the post, off the goalie, off the other post, and, of course, across the goal line.

“I knew he was mad, and he was looking to make a play, so I tried to stay against my post, but if there was one thing I learned, it was that they always passed to the weak side or the top of the slot. That time, though, he looked for the shot, took it, and got it. A sick play really.”

The Knights were able to get a late goal with a six on three advantage with Tri-County taking penalties late. But it was too little, too late,  and they left the game without any points.

4-2 was the final score, and it was indicative of the entire game. Tri-County was a couple steps ahead of the Knights, who showed their best defensive effort of the season.

They fell to 2-4-1* Their motto going forward, is stated by Coach Phil Priolo.

“If we just keep moving in the right direction we’ll be fine.”

 

*The post Knights Keeper Lacks, Offense Attacks, was about a game that was considered illegitimate by the league, and will be replayed on 1/16/15.