Oh yes it's senior nite and it won't rain tonite, oh yes it's senior nite oh what a nite, ohhh what a nite. So much for the News-13-Now on your side weather forecast that suggested the rain would fall south of the city. Must be nice to be wrong all the time and still get paid. In the event that you were hiding under a rock on Tuesday 18-May and did not notice, it rained all day while the Thunder booster club was preparing for Senior Nite at Athena Stadium. As the senior parents, pinned with LAX ribbons, took turns greeting their sons one by one under the balloon arch for their final Thunder LAX kodak moment together, after years of cheering them on from the sidelines, the rain kept on falling and it continued throughout the Storm game that would ensue between your Greece Athena/Odyssey Thunder and the visiting Greece Arcadia/Olympia Lightning. It's all good though, because the rain provided the necessary camouflage for any tears running down the cheeks of the senior moms. When all was said and done and soaked, Thunder reigned on Lightning's parade, 20-6 before a capacity crowd, ok, well, there were a few people in the stands with umbrellas!
After Tyler Giorgione's uncle Ralph was finished announcing the seniors (quite a bit of funny material in there, like Conway thanking George Washington for the field we play on), Jenna Bruce (Thunder midfielder Parker Bonis' cousin) sang the anthem and then yours truly made his way through the puddles and upstairs to announce the starting lineups. It was a bit difficult to hear oneself think, what with the entire Thunder JV team hiding out in the press box - I thought LAX players were supposed to be tough and rugged but apparently they were all afraid of melting outside in the rain! With a few minor stumbles we got through the lineups and were underway with the game.
Striking first in the first for Thunder was Andrew Prestigiacomo (2g) as he rolled from right to left and hit the mark with a non-dominant left handed shot that had some mustard on it. Lightning's David Powlowski (2g-1a) and Rich Fischer (1g-1a) hooked up on the second and third goals of the game when Powlowski scored on a shot from the wing fed by Fischer up top and then Fischer finished off a mini fast break fed by Powlowski. Thunder senior captain Dan Vyverberg (5g-2a) said "not in my house" as he came right back with a goal of his own, driving out of the corner, rolling to the slot and muscling one by Trost to tie it at 2's. On the next series Vyper got a ground ball outside the box, ran it in and threaded a pass through traffic to fellow attackman Nick Kraft, who was hiding on the backside of the crease, for the quick-stick goal and the lead, 3-2 at the end of one.
Second frame was all thunder as Vyper bookended the quarter with a pair of goals, picking up the trash and putting it home on the first goal and then finishing off a fast break feed from Cheese on the last one. Also scoring in the second for Thunder were Eric Hostetter with a wide angle shot from GLE (that's goal line extended), Tyler Giorgione (4g-1a) with a one-hop powerball, Andrew Prestigiacomo this time rolling left to right and bouncing one under the crossbar. And so, it was 8-2 Thunder going to the half, with the rain in spain still falling mainly on the plain.
Thunder turned up the heat in the third with 7 more markers to just 2 for the Lightning, both from senior midfielder Kendrick Heintzelman (3g). Steve Cole (2s-1ga-10mins) entered the cage for Thunder at the 3:40 mark and went on to do his team proud in relief for Rudgers (4s-3ga-32mins). Leading the charge offsensively for Thunder in the third were Matt Keough (3g-2a), Mike LoFaso (2g), and Joe Trimboli (1g-1a), after Giorgione scored with on overhand ripper to open the quarter. Keough setup LoFaso for a pair of drives to the top right corner and took the handle from Vyper inbetween those 2 setups with an underhanded change-up through the close D screen that found the mark. Keough's final two tallies came on the run after being fed by Trimboli and Vyper. Trimboli had a run-n-gun goal of his own to round out the scoring in the third.
Thunder continued their roll in the fourth quarter with a pair from Giorgione (the last one coming from 3-point range), a pair from Vyper (assisted by Gorgione and Cheese), and one from Groundball-Cheeseman (1g-1a). Zack Cox (0s, 2ga, 6mins) came in to relieve Cole at the 5:14 mark for the balance and the fans went wild. Powlowski and Heintzelman scored unassisted for the Lightning in the final frame as well.
Thunder went 16/24 (66%) in the face off circle and scooped 51 ground balls to Lightning's 30. Kendrick Heinzelman had 10gb for the Lighting, while Joe Trimboli and Brandon Cheeseman came out with 9gb and 7gb respectively for Thunder. Clay Wyzykowski, Tim Chase, and Nick Caracci moved the ball well and contributed to the cause. Mike LoFaso got 5 ground balls and showed off his speed running it down the field like a cheetah. Chris D'Ambrosia did a nice job keeping the play wide and boxing out on D. Materise, Lepore and Cheeseman did a nice job moving the ball in transition as well, supported by sophomore long pole Keenan Mahoney, who was up from JV to help out while Jared Sangiorgi is on the mend. With this win, Thunder climbs to 10-5 (6-5 MC3) and are now poised to take over third place in MC3 with their final game of the regular season, a league game on Thursday 20-May at Spencerport.
Yeah Thun-Deeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
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