Prep Hockey: Campise, Fox Valley Hawks cruise past the Cobras in Rosemont

ROSEMONT – Saturday morning was the Fox Valley Hawks turn to play an outdoor game at the Ice Rink at MB Financial Park against the Cobras – a combined team made of players from Oak Lawn, Shepard, Tinley Park, Evergreen Park, Andrew and Stagg high schools.

The Hawks did not disappoint their fans who were in attendance with game time temperatures in the low 20’s as they would get four goals in the second half of the game for a 5-1 win.

“We just treated this game like any other game,” Hawks forward Tyler Campise (St. Charles East) said. “The last time we played the Cobras, they beat us. So we owed them one. They moved the puck pretty well on us today I thought. I think we started out slow because the ice was slower than what we are normally used to.”

The ice surface was not as smooth as the players were used to as there were ruts in the ice, the surface was exposed to bright sunshine throughout most of the game and ice shavings everywhere.

But this did not deter the Hawks from their winning ways. As the game would be played in two 25-minute halves, Fox Valley would take a 1-0 lead at the 16:20 mark of the opening half when forward Brock Williams (Kaneland) took a feed from Campise and beat Cobras goalie Cole Urban from in close.

“I got some good looks today at the net,” Campise said. “It was kind of like pond hockey out there. So it wasn’t too bad.”

Fox Valley would up their lead to 2-0 with 19:49 left in the second half when Campise pounced on a loose puck in front of Cobras net after an original shot by Morgan York (St. Charles East) was stopped by Urban. He would send the puck off a backhand shot into the net.

The Hawks would do an excellent job of staying out of the penalty box as they would only take one minor penalty at the 16:31 mark. But even when that took place, the Hawks would increase their lead to 3-0 with 15:48 remaining when forward Evan Anderson scored an unassisted, shorthanded goal.

“I think we were more just focused on coming and having fun here this morning,” Hawks forward Jake Raymer (St. Charles North) said. “It’s was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences for us as a team and so we just wanted to enjoy it. We just wanted to come out and force them (Cobras) into mistakes. We played them just after Christmas and we came out flat against them. We did not want that to happen again.”

Campise scored his second of the game, an unassisted goal with 13:58 left to play making it 4-0.

The goalie rotation was pre-determined by Hawks coach Phil Gabrielsen, who started the game with Aaron Karkos in net. Karkos would then be relieved by Will Lesswing, who finished the contest, giving up one goal at the 12:46 mark.

“The glare was pretty bad at times out there for sure,” Lesswing said. “The sun was like right in my eyes when I was out there. There was no goalie crease area so it was hard to adjust where the net was behind me at times and there was a lot of snow on the ice so it was hard to slide from side to side to cover the net.”

Raymer would get the final goal when he scored with one second left in the game off a feed from Devin Chrobak (St. Charles North) for the 5-1 advantage.