RallyNorth.net

Fri, Dec 28, 2007 06:00 PM @ Salem

Team	1	2	3	Final
Andover	0	1	0	1
Salem	1	2	0	3

Liberatore steps in, leads Salem to championship

Saturday, December, 29 By David Willis
Staff writer

SALEM, N.H. | As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Salem's Robbie Liberatore looked up at the impressive crowd that filled the Salem Icenter and absorbed the moment.

"It was really different playing in front of a crowd like this," said the Blue netminder. "I have never played in front of a crowd this big."

In his sixth career varsity start, the sophomore pitched a 23-save gem in leading Salem to a 3-1 victory over Andover in the championship game of the Salem Blue Devil Holiday Classic.

It was the second straight title for the host Blue Devils, and the fifth in the eight years of the tournament.

"Liberatore is really holding his own," said Salem senior Tyler Vigue. "He is keeping us in a lot of games and he has the same skills as his cousin."

His cousin happens to be 2007 Eagle-Tribune All-Star goalie Scott Crowther, who started all but one game for the Blue Devils over the past three seasons. But he chose forego his senior season in favor of Juniors, and Salem stayed within the family for his replacement.

"Robbie did just great," said Salem coach Mark McGinn. "The defense was playing very well, and he is making the saves he needs. He stays within himself and plays good, sound, technical hockey. And he makes those two or three really tough saves."

Liberatore, who played a year ago for the Junior Warriors, made a number of tough stops against the Golden Warriors, who controlled the pace of play for much of the game. The save of the day came when he made a butterfly stop on a Cam Smith breakaway early in the third.

"I only made a few mistakes and my teammates helped a lot," said the lanky netminder. "I knew this team was looking for a goalie and I wanted to have some fun. I really think this team could win a championship."

Salem grabbed the lead with 1:30 left in the first when Joel Vastl took a pass from Vigue and flipped a soft shot on net that squirted through Nick Drew's pads.

Vigue then added a goal of his own with 8:28 left in the second with assists going to Vastl and Josh Frahm. Mark Baroni finished off the scoring five minutes later off assists from Derek Tomes and Ryan Desroches.

"It's good to beat a top team like Andover that is coming from a league that plays Super 8 teams," said Vigue. "We have a tough schedule in January, so winning three games really gets our confidence up."

Vigue took home the tourney's Most Outstanding Player award. He scored three goals, one in each game, and added a pair of assists. Vastl chipped in with two goals while Desroches had a team-best four goals for the tourney.

"For the most part we played great," said McGinn. "We started off the first game with no zip, and as the tourney has gone by we played better teams and kept stepping up."

Mike Taylor scored Andover's goal, an unassisted tally 2:30 into the second period.

"Our kids played well, but just missed too many opportunities," said Andover coach Mario Martiniello.

"(Salem) is a very good team that moves the puck around very well."