Avengers End Islanders' Division Title Hopes

The Islanders entered the contest against with a chip on their shoulder.

The Avengers didn't have a regular season record to put a dent in that chip, but the two teams, seeded No. 6 and No. 7 went in to battle on Wednesday night with EG moving on to the Division II South Title game after winning 15-4.

EG went ahead early and big, dominating the Islanders in nearly every facet of the game. The Islanders battled but could not match the offensive output of the Avengers, going down 14-3 in the fourth period before the game was halted due to lightning strikes nearby.

While EG only scored one goal over the final nine minutes of play, the Islanders could only match the Avengers' offensive output, scoring a goal late in the fourth, unwillingly closing the book on their season.

"I thought we played with a lot of speed and a lot of maturity, despite being a team mostly comprised of sophomores and juniors," said EG's Coach Brian Tapani when asked how his young team performed. "I thought we passed well, better than we have before. I thought we played good team defense."

As for the team's hopes to take home the Division II South Title over Prout, he said, "Well, they beat us once and we beat them, you know, just like Middletown. So we match up pretty well with them. When all of our players are here, when they are all available, we're pretty okay.  I think it will be a great game. I think we will battle to the very end."

For the Islanders, their 2011 ride is over.  

For the Avengers, they advance to the Division II South title game against The Prout School at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 5 , on No. 1 seeded Prout's home field.