Sweet Home/Amherst/Clarence senior Julia Mings doesn’t write checks, she pays in CASH.
Mings lead No. 3 CASH with five goals and scored her 100th career goal in their 10-4 win over No. 6 Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew (LID) in the Section VI girls hockey quarterfinals.
The high-scoring affair ended with the league’s highest scorer hitting the back of the net for the 100th time. Despite being shorthanded the Katz kept on pressing. Casey Adimey found Mings on a 2-on-1 breakaway in the game’s final minutes to reach the triple-digit mark.
“I’m so happy for her”, CASH head coach Nicola Adimey said. “She is not only a strong player but a leader. She doesn’t have an attitude. She is always in a good mood, never blames anyone for a goal or a loss and always is supporting her teammates.”
“I’m kind of speechless right now, it’s unbelievable”, Mings said. “This was something I had my eye on to start the season to finally get there is crazy.”
Mings got things started as her line mate and second-leading league scorer Emma Faso found her on the power play. LID came back a few minutes later as Brianna Keppner tapped in a pass from Jillian Blas to tie the game. The tie didn’t last for long as Renee Lauer found Mings for her second goal of the game. Lauer later found Charleigh Rondeau to give the Katz the 3-1 lead at the end of the first period.
Jamie King flipped a backhand shot in the net to get the second period started. Page Gross later went five-hole for a goal. Mings then returned the favor to Faso, with a beautiful centering pass which Faso converted on put to her team up 6-1 at the break.
The two teams went back and forth to start the third period, scoring three goals in a matter of a minute. Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew’s Jersey Phillips scored to cut the deficit to 6-2. CASH’s Stephanie Tool came right back to score. But LID responded as Morganne Dee found Hailey Keppner for a goal to make the game 7-3 in favor of CASH.
With less than 5:30 left, Mings picked up the hat trick to give her team back the five goal lead. But the game was far from over. LID was not going away easy as Brianna Keppner found the back of the net once again. Faso then found Mings for goal #99 with almost three minutes left in the game.
The win came in classic CASH style as Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew couldn’t keep up with the Katz. CASH leads the league in scoring with a total of 93 goals this season.
“The team stepped up”, Adimey said. “They played hard from the beginning they played hard for the not only the seniors but also for Julia.”
“I thought if we could hold back their top line we would have a chance”, Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew head coach Dave Santoro said. “But they have some talented girls and it showed.”
After going up a by a few goals, the Katz were doing everything they could get Mings the puck. She thanked her teammates for what they did for her Thursday night after the game.
After the 100th goal, Mings’ teammates cleared the bench and surrounded the senior against the glass.
“It’s something I won’t forget”, Mings said. “They are so supportive, I can’t ask for better teammates.”
Mings isn’t quite sure yet what the future holds but her coach knows wherever she goes, she will be a great addition.
“She’s someone who is going to give her all, support her teammates and even put the puck in the net when her coach tells her”, Adimey said.
With the win, CASH moves on to the Section VI semi-final against No. 2 Orchard Park/Frontier/Lake Shore on Monday at 5:30 p.m. at the Northtown Center. In order to pull off the upset, the Katz just have to play their game.
“We have to keep playing the same way. We’re going to forecheck hard, backcheck hard and leave it all out there”, Adimey said.
“Every single time we’ve play FLOP it has been a good game”, Mings said. “As a team, we believe that we can beat them.”
Comments