The Boji Mammoths Boys High School Hockey team was in Des Moines over the weekend at the Iowa Hockey High School Hockey Alliance State Tournament in defense of last year’s inaugural Championship.
The Mammoths were the number one seed heading into the tournament drawing the Des Moines Knights in Saturday’s quarterfinal action held at the Mid America Energy Rec Plex. The guys came out with intensity controlling a lot of puck possession leading to many quality scoring opportunities. The final was an 8-1 Mammoth victory with very balanced scoring throughout our lineup with our youngsters getting a lot of playing time and all 3 freshman (Jake Jacobs, Alex Schaub & Jackson Bradham) tallying points in the game.
The Mammoths faced the Des Moines Pirates in the semifinals Sunday morning. The guys took control of the game early with Sr. Assistant Captain Blake Danielson scoring 1:57 into the game. We shuffled the lineup around a bit swapping our top forward line with our defense. The Mammoths would have a big 2nd period netting 5 goals from Junior Josh Wavra, Senior Wes Radcliffe, Senior Regan Crichton, Sophomore Ethan Jerge and Sophomore McClain Robinson. A Mammoth record setting milestone was also accomplished during this game with Senior Captain Pierce Hetland assisting on 4 goals to put him over 100 points on the season and a first for the Mammoth program. Final 8-0.
The Mammoths would face the Iowa City Junior Heartlanders in the Championship Sunday afternoon. The Heartlanders had won an entertaining semifinal back and forth game with Quad Cities 1-0 to earn their spot in the title game. The Mammoths again would score early 2:35 into the first period by Jerge and Hetland would add another with 40 seconds left in the first. Schaub would net the only goal in the 2nd as the teams went to the locker rooms for intermission. Although the Mammoths had controlled most of the puck possession the message was simple, get pucks deep and clear our d-zone as one odd bounce could make it a tight game. The team responded and scored 2 more in the 3rd to earn a repeat championship in the 2nd year league.
This season’s journey has been a lot of fun with a mix of upper classman along with our rookie freshman that have grown so much as hockey players the last 5 months. We will be celebrating our 6 seniors on Thursday night 6:30 pm as we host Sioux Center. We sincerely appreciate the support of our community so dress warm and join us Thursday night and pack the Cave!
