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The Bounces Did Not Go Foley’s Way Against Utica-Fraser

By Jim Mickiewicz    November 20, 2024 Page 1 of 2.

Fraser, Michigan

The Bishop Foley United hockey team just couldn’t turn-the-corner against Utica-Fraser in the game played Thursday evening at Big Boy Arena in Fraser. Foley lost by a 7 – 3 score.  However, the game was closer than the score indicates. 

“I don’t think the score did this game justice in terms of our effort, in terms of our play for the majority of the time” said Foley Head Coach John Cynowa..

In the first period, Foley scored one goal, Utica-Fraser scored two. Foley is down by one at the end of one despite massively out-shooting Utica-Fraser 13 – 5 in the period. It was a close game.

Utica-Fraser was up two goals to none in the first when Foley’s Nathan Copek picked-off an errant pass just inside the Utica-Fraser blue line. With no defenseman back to stop him, he skated in on Andrew Boice in the Utica-Fraser net and buried the puck to bring the game within one goal, 2 - 1. To make the goal even sweeter, Copek scored short-handed. It was his sixth goal of the season.

With 4:14 left in the first period, Utica-Fraser’s Niko Labj slammed Foley’s Christian Whitney into the boards from behind in the corner behind Foley’s net.  Checking is part of hockey. You just cannot check the other guy into the upper peninsula, and you cannot check from behind. Labj got a 5-minute major penalty and a game misconduct, typical for this type of infraction. Whitney was checked by the trainer and later returned to the game.

Utica-Fraser led by 3 – 1 in the second period when Foley’s Derek Townsend scored on a rebound shot in front of the net to bring the score ever so closer at 3 – 2. It was back to a one-shot game.

Foley’s Nate Hewson in net took a major drive-by hit at 9:38 in the period. Hewson also left Tuesday night’s game against New Boston after the first period with a lower body injury. He was cleared to play today, only to get his bell rung. Hewson will be out until November 30^th. Since the play that resulted in the hit involved a Foley player, no penalty was called on the incident. Andre Beltran took over in Foley’s net.

Late in the period, Utica-Fraser added two more goals, padding their lead to 5 – 2. Foley responded with just 5.8 seconds left in the period on a goal from the stick of Josh Cox to make it 5 – 3. It was Cox’s second goal of the season. 

It was a close period, but over two periods, Foley was now trailing by two goals. Shots on goal flipped to Utica-Fraser’s favor, 15 – 9.

The game was slipping away from Foley little by little. Time was getting short, down to the third period to fight back, to get in it again. It’s hard to play from behind. But things just got worse in the third period….

Utica-Fraser turned out to be the hammer in the third period, and Bishop Foley the nail. Instead of Foley playing catch-up in the third, Utica-Fraser scored two more unanswered goals to make it 7 – 3 for Utica-Fraser. Foley just couldn’t find the answer to the Utica-Fraser play. 

“There’s plenty of things I don’t like about this game,” said Cynowa with a critical assessment of his team, “(but) their effort isn’t one of them. They’ve been tired, but they’ve been tired all year, playing through it all year. I don’t have a problem with their effort. I have a problem with some of the x’s and o’s things, some of the missed passes, some of the whiffing on shots, but I don’t have a problem with the effort.”

Shots were close to even in the period. Foley ended the game with 34 shots on Boice in the Utica-Fraser net. Utica-Fraser had 33 on the Foley goaltenders. 

Utica-Fraser’s Ashtin Fertik led his team in scoring with two goals. Niko Labj, Nate Sheridan, Jax Cristodero, Jayden Walls, and Landen Tilney each had solo goals. Foley had 8 minor penalties in the game. Utica-Fraser had 5 minors, plus one major and game misconduct.

Final thought from Coach Cynowa: “We had plenty of good scoring chances similar to last night’s game. The difference is (the shots) were falling last night. The bounces were going our way. Plenty of good looks todays. We just weren’t finishing.”

Foley’s next game is Saturday afternoon at Lindell Arena as Foley takes on Legion from the Sandusky Thumb area. Game time is 5:00pm. 

##

By  Jim Mickiewicz Page 1 of 3.

Westland, Michigan

Starting in 1991, the winner of the Lions-Cowboys Thanksgiving football game was awarded a large smoked turkey with six legs, (four extra legs were added on). To get a leg, you had to be a game star. 

So, why talk about football in a hockey story? It’s for two reasons. 

First, Bishop Foley United’s hockey team won their game against New Boston by a 14 – 6 score. Kind of like two touchdowns and PATs versus two field goals. Second, Foley’s Derek Townsend scored an incredible six goals, a double hat-trick, like a 6-point touchdown – but better. He gets a leg of the turkey. There were plenty of other Foley stars to share the other five legs.

“I had to crack a joke in there, telling (the Foley team) they put more points up there than the Jaguars this weekend… I’ve never been part of a high scoring game like that,” commented Foley Head Coach John Cynowa.

He also was also impressed with Townsend’s play, saying “We did some goal setting this year ahead of these games. Derek (Townsend) came into his coaches meeting with us with a goal of scoring a hat trick, and he crossed that off twice today.”

The game was played Tuesday evening at Modano Arena in Westland.

Other legs from that rare multi-legged turkey go to Foley’s Nathan Copek with a 3-goal hat-trick. Copek has five goals on the season. Turkey legs also go to Jeremy Slotnick and Caesar Soma with 2-goals each, and Ben Stella with a solo goal. The sixth leg goes to the entire Foley team. It was their first victory of the young season.

Foley’s Nathan Hewson started the game in goal. Hewson left the game after the first period with a lower body injury. His availability for Wednesday’s game against Utica-Fraser is questionable. Andre Beltran took over the goalie duties for the rest of the game. He gets the win in net.

Coach Cynowa feels that the Foley team took inspiration from Hewson. “I think part of it was playing for Nate, the goalie, too. Nate got hurt in-between the first and second there, and he pulled out, and I think part of that was rallying around him, too. Andre got his first win as a high schooler today. It came off of a great job getting in there in the game down one, and coming in there and supporting your goalie there after getting hurt.”

The play in the game was not sharp. The score is a good indication of that.

Scoring opened in the first period with a short-handed goal by New Boston’s Johnny Dembowski. Dembowski would lead New Boston in scoring with four goals in the game.

Foley returned the favor a minute later with Townsend’s first goal, assisted by his brother, Vincent Townsend. Goals came rapid fire in the period. One minute after Foley tied the game, New Boston retook the lead with Dembowski’s second goal, scored on a power-play.

2 of 3 Pages.

Less than a minute after that, Foley’s Jeremy Slotnick netted his first goal to tie the game. Caesar Soma and Christian Whitney, in his first game for Foley, assisted. The goal was even-handed. The game was tied at two.

That’s four total goals in less than four minutes. Later in the period, New Boston added two goals from the sticks of Jake Trythall  and Tanner Kuhn. Foley scored a goal late in the period to close the scoring gap to a single goal. Soma scored for Foley, assisted by Stella and Slotnick.  

New Boston led 4 – 3 at the end of one.  

“The first period, I definitely think, everyone wanted to have back. I’ll take responsibility for my part in that as well as the players.” Said Cynowa after the game. “In the locker room they took their responsibility. I don’t think we took them serious enough going out there in the first, and I think they kind of surprised us a little bit. I told them at the beginning of the game both teams were looking for their first win. I don’t think it was going to be easy. They really took it to us in the first. We had some inward thinking to do between the first and the second, and we were able to turn it around.”

Nine goals were scored in the second period, six by Foley and three by New Boston. By the end of the period, the score was 10 – 6 for Foley. Foley took command of the game. 

The score see-sawed for a while in the period. Here’s how it went down.

Thirty seconds into the period, Foley’s Copek tied the game at four. With twelve left, New Boston’s Dembowski took the lead back with his third goal of the game. It was now 5- 4  for New Boston. Jump ahead to ten minutes left and Foley’s Copek tied it back-up at five-all. Less than a minute later, Townsend retook the lead with his second game goal. Foley was ahead 6 – 5 when Dembowski tied it again 30 seconds later. 

By the time the second period was half over, the game was tied at 6-all. The see-saw was struck in mid-air. That’s 12 total goals in the first half of the game. If you like scoring, you came to the right game. 

From the mid-point of the second period, Bishop Foley went on to score the last eight goals in the game. New Boston’s offense was shutdown. It ended with Foley mercying New Boston at 7:32 of the third period, 14 – 6. The complete Foley box score is below.

Foley’s Hewson faced 14 New Boston shots on goal in the first period. Beltran faced 11 shots total in the second and third periods for a total of 25 for the game. Zaylin Zawodna faced 34 shots in the New Boston net. 

Final thought from Coach Cynowa: “Definitely a good offensive outing by everyone. I think we almost got everyone in on the point sheet somewhere today. Definitely a good offensive showing today… Got to enjoy that for the next 12 hours until we focus on our next one.”

(See Next Page for the Foley Box Score).

Page 3 of 3.

Foley Box Score:

Per Scorer Assist 1 Assist 2 Time Type

1 D. Townsend V. Townsend --- 12:56 Even

1 J. Slotnick C. Soma C. Whitney 10:44 Even

1 C. Soma B. Stella J. Slotnick 2:22 Even

2 N. Copek V. Townsend D. Townsend 16:32 Even

2 N. Copek A. Corrado J. Slotnick 10:08 PP

2 D. Townsend V. Townsend N. Bobcean 9:14  SH

2 J. Slotnick --- --- 5:39 Un

2 D. Townsend N. Copek A. Corrado 2:58 Even

2 D. Townsend --- --- 2:42 Un

2 C. Soma J. Cox N. Copek   :24 PP

3 N. Copek N. Bobcean B. Stella 15:34 Even

3 B. Stella --- --- 12:11 Un

3 D. Townsend N. Copek --- 11:17 Even

3 D. Townsend N. Copek --- 7:32 PP

Foley Hockey Closes Out Its Opening Home Stand with a Loss

By Jim Mickiewicz      November 16, 2024

Royal Oak, Michigan   Page 1 of 2. 

The word ‘Bishop Foley’ has an ‘L’ in it. What’s missing is a ‘W.’ The same is true about the Foley United hockey team. It has collected three ‘L’s so far, with no W’s. 

Foley United increased its goal production in a game to three in its 7 – 3 loss to Grand Blanc. Foley also upped its shots on goal in a game to an early season high of 22. The game was played Saturday at Lindell Arena. 

“We got pucks on net. We’re putting some of the puzzle pieces together,” said Foley Head Coach John Cynowa.

The second period was bad news for Foley. Grand Blanc scored five goals in the second period to tack onto its 1 - 0 lead from the first period. Foley scored two of its three goals in the game in the second period to close the gap. But Grand Blanc still left the period leading 6 – 2.

The third period saw both teams exchange goals to close out the game at a 7 – 3 score for Grand Blanc. This was Foley’s third game of the season, and Grand Blanc’s first.

Freshman Andre Beltran started his first game of the season in goal for Foley. Beltran faced 12 shots in the opening period and allowed only one goal. The second period was tougher. On 13 shots, five goals were scored, two of those on the power-play, including one power play that carried over from the first period.

Nathan Hewson was tapped to play the third period in Foley’s net. He equaled Beltran’s performance from the first period, allowing just one goal on 12 shots.

The second period was just plain old bad news all around for Foley.

Foley opened its scoring with 11:11 left in the second period. At that point, Grand Blanc lead by a 3 – 0 score. Josh Cox got his first goal of the season with assists going to Aiden Corrado and Noah Bobcean. 3 – 1 for Grand Blanc.

It was 5 – 1 for Grand Blanc when Nathan Copek closed the gap to 5 – 2 on his unassisted goal. It was Copek’s third goal on the season. Grand Blanc added a goal with 2:34 left in the period to make it 6 – 2 to close the second period. 

Foley made a game of it at 11:21 of the third period. Aiden Corrado, who assisted on the team’s first goal earlier in the game, scored on the power play. The goalie, Nathan Hewson, got the only assist on the play.

It was now 6 – 3, but not for long. Grand Blanc closed out the scoring with an even-handed goal three minutes later to reach the game ending score of 7 – 3 for Grand Blanc.

Foley got its first penalties of the season – three minors. Grand Blanc would score on two of them. Grand Blanc also had thee minors in the game. Foley converted on one of them.

Page 2 of 2.

Grand Blanc had a total of 37 shots on the Foley net, and Foley had 22 shots on Cooper Brocklehurst in the Grand Blanc net.

Final thought from the Head Coach, “I just told them in the locker room, you know, we’re going to win some, we’re going to lose some. But the one sure thing, that there’s no easy games. So, we knew what we were getting into this season, and we knew we were going to have to battle.”

Foley’s next game is Tuesday at Mike Modano Arena as Foley faces-off against New Boston. Game time is 7:30pm. On Wednesday, Foley takes on Utica-Fraser at Fraser’s Big Boy Arena at 7:30pm.

##

Port Huron Earns a Win Against Bishop Foley United

By Jim Mickiewicz       November 15, 2024   

Royal Oak, Michigan Page 1 of 1.

Bishop Foley United dropped its home opener at Lindell Arena Friday night against Port Huron Unified by a 4 – 1 score.

Port Huron opened the scoring with 3:05 left in the first period on a goal from Brendon Welker. It took 20 seconds for Foley to respond with a goal from Vincent Townsend. It was assisted by his brother, Derek Townsend. This was the first time that two brothers combined on a scoring play for Foley.

Port Huron retook the lead with 1:14 left in the period. Jimmie Nelson got the goal to make the score 2 – 1 for Port Huron. Although this would stand as the game winning goal, the game was within reach for Foley going into the second period. 

“It was a good first period,” said Foley Head Coach John Cynowa. “I’m not disappointed with how the game went today. I think today was definitely not for lack of effort.”

Looking at what needs improvement, Cynowa said “I think what we really noticed, what we saw there today, was a series of being one step too late, a series of lost battles that were all by a step or two. But I definitely think the effort was there today. We played a much better game than we played last week.” (What Cynowa is referring to is the scrimmage that Foley played against Port Huron last Thursday). “I’m definitely not disappointed with the play today. Just kind of unfortunate on the bounces not going our way.”

Jake Longo scored two goals for Port Huron in the second period, one early in the period, one late. Foley had no answer for these goals. The period closed out with a 4 – 1 lead for Port Huron. 

Foley could not break through the Port Huron defense. Despite having five power plays in the game, getting shots on the Port Huron net was difficult. 

Cynowa said, “Their team took a few today. It was a very well officiated game. I think our players understand that with a small bench,” (Foley played with 12 total players), “it’s even worse playing with a man down. Playing a very disciplined game. Focusing more on the game than any of the extra-curricular activites.”

Foley placed 13 shots on Maverick Dyer in the Port Huron Net. Nathan Hewson had a load of work in the Foley net. He faced 38 Port Huron shots, and had a solid .894 saves percentage. Foley had no penalties in the game.

This was a much different Port Huron squad from the one Foley played last season. Port Huron unified with several other area schools in the off-season.  Last season, the Port Huron team had ten total players. This year, the bench was full with 21 players. Fifteen of these players were new to the team. 

Final thought from Cynowa, “I think (whether) it was the power play or five-on-five, I think what we saw was we were doing a good job of gaining the offensive zone and gaining entry into it and then we are not connecting once we get there. We missed the net a lot today.” 

Foley’s next game is Saturday against Grand Blanc at Lindell Arena. The puck drops at 5:00p.  ##

Troy United Takes the Season Opener in Hockey

By Jim Mickiewicz November 13, 2024 Royal Oak, Michigan
Page 1 of 2.

The new hockey season did not start the way that Bishop Foley United’s Head Hockey Coach
John Cynowa had hoped. Foley lost 9 – 1 to Troy United Wednesday night in the season opening game
for both teams. The game was played at Buffalo Wild Wings Arena in Troy.

Getting shots on the Troy net was problematic throughout the game. Troy had 34 shots on
Foley’s Nathan Hewson in net. Foley managed 6 shots on Nathan Homes in the Troy net. How does Foley
improve on getting shots on net?
“(Troy) did a real good job cycling the puck in our offensive zone, which by the time we were
clearing the puck out of our zone, we were already gassed, way too tired by the time we got down there
in their zone,” according to Cynowa. “So, playing a little more disciplined down in our zone, not chasing,
not being so tired, allowing us to have a little bit of legs left by the time we get to the offensive zone will
create more shots.”
This was also opening the season against an experienced opponent.
“We knew (Troy) was pretty good. They moved the puck well. They graduated one senior, who
was their back-up goalie last year, so we knew they were going to move well as a team. We knew they
had almost double the amount of players as we did. We knew it was going to be a fast game. Our first
period was our worst. That’s what we need to clean up,” said Cynowa.
Troy did not net their first goal until six and half minutes into the first period. Half-way through
the period they took a 2 – 0 lead and held it until there was 2:34 left in the first period. That’s when Troy
made it a 3 – 0 game. They widened their lead to 4 – 0 just 19 seconds later.
Foley, down only two goals, was in the game throughout most of the first period until the
bottom fell out at the end of the period. A four-goal deficit is a big hole to climb out of, especially
against an experienced team.
The second period was an improvement for Foley. The team cut the goals against in half. Close
to four minutes into the period, Troy widened the gap to 5 – 0. That’s where the score stayed until the
last three minutes in the period when they added their sixth goal of the game.
Foley came out competing in the third period. They did not give up, but it was just not to be
their game.
Coach Cynowa said, “I told (the team) in the post-game talk, I appreciate the team not laying
down in the third period knowing that it was already six-nothing. They came out fighting and that’s all
we can ask for.”
Troy got a good bounce and scored just 15 seconds into the period. Now at 7 – 0, Foley’s Nathan
Copek picked-up the puck, skated around the Troy defense and stuffed the puck in. The unassisted goal
came just 30 seconds after Troy scored. At 7- 1, it spoiled the shut-out for Troy.
“I’m happy with the goal,” said Cynowa. “From (Copek’s) perspective, I’m sure it’s a tough game
to get your first goal in. It was a good one. Got it off a nice break.”

Page 2 of 2.
Copek and Brian Noe also accounted for Foley’s two goals in a scrimmage earlier in the week
against Port Huron.
Troy added two more goals in the third to end the game at 9 – 1. Foley took no penalties in the
game. All of Troy’s goals were even-handed. Troy was assessed three minor penalties in the game.
Copek’s goal was scored even-handed.
Troy’s Ben Dumas and Joey Clark led their teams with two goals each. Solo goals were scored by
Caleb Dominguez, Gavin Blaeske, Yuto Kuwabara, Brody Gibb, and Quinn Corbett.
Foley’s next game is Friday against Port Huron at 7:00pm at Lindell Arena in Royal Oak. Saturday
Foley faces-off at 5:00pm against Grand Blanc at Lindell.