Strongsville Moves On To Quarterfinals, As Born’s Hat Trick Leads Mustangs To 5-2 Win Over Avon Lake

BROOKLYN, Ohio- The Avon Lake Shoremen and Strongsville Mustangs took the ice for the last game of the second round, with the winner playing Rocky River.

The Mustangs started off the scoring with a goal by Adam Cook at the 1:43 mark of the opening frame, as the assists were credited to Kyle Mattson and Chris Wade. The Mustangs were looking to continue their strong offensive showing after coming off of a 6-3 win against North Olmsted. The Shoremen would retaliate with a Jared Aslaksen marker at the 12:43 mark. Aslaksen would weave his way through Mustang defenders and deliver a heater from the high slot to score the slap shot goal. The teams would head into the break even at one apiece.

Strongsville would strike first again in the second frame, as Greg Williams would work his way to the left side of the crease and send the puck to the back of the net at the 3:16 mark to put the Mustangs up 2-1. Bryce Born would stretch the lead to three with two goals in the span of nine seconds, working his way from the slot on the first goal and getting set up on the right side of the crease for the second goal. Those goals would be at the 7:16 and 7:25 marks, pushing the score to 4-1 in favor of Strongsville.

Avon Lake would strike for their second goal of the game at the 2:26 mark of the final frame, as Patrick Graney would fire a shot that would find the mark with 12:34 left in the third period. The momentum for the Shoremen would be halted, as Bryce Born would ice the game with his hat trick goal at the 10:14 mark.

Despite the victory tonight, Born was disappointed in his team’s performance.

“I feel like we didn’t play very well at all. We weren’t playing hard. We thought we were just gonna come out here and beat them but we didn’t do what we were supposed to do. Zach (Maxwell) stepped up a little bit and we all started to get momentum in the second period and score some goals, came together.”

With the 5-2 win, Strongsville will head into the quarterfinals to take on Rocky River Wednesday at 8pm.