Bremerton, WA - The expansion Cheney Ice Hawks came to town in first place and riding high off a sweep the previous weekend. The West Sound Warriors entered the series having won two hard faught games against Bellingham. Both teams looked to continue their winning ways but it was the Warriors that walked away with the points.

Friday turned out to be a lopsided victory as the bus-legged Ice Hawks had trouble getting a spark after the long trip from eastern Washington. The final score was 16-2 with goals from 10 different Warriors and points from all but 2 of the roster. "I don't think we saw the best of the Ice Hawks that night," Head Coach Miller stated, "they were tired and not quite ready for the pace. I was extremely excited to see the scoring from all aspects of the roster that night. Its good to know that we have a bit of depth this season." 

Saturday we saw a game much more fitting of the top billing. The first period had only one power play tally from Vance Siebert (McCartney, Morgan), though the Warriors were able to outshoot Cheney 20-1. The second period was more from the Warriors. Rookie Luke VanSchaack (Siebert, Morgan) scored his first junior goal on another power play. With a little more than 5 minutes remainig in the period, Tommy Bowe (Morgan, Siebert) put another power play goal in and the period ended 3-0 in favor of West Sound. The final term was back and forth until halfway through when Cheney finally got a shot behind rookie goal tender Joe Morgan. This appeared to light a fire under the Warriors because shortly after the Warriors scored three goals, and almost a forth, in under 2 minutes. The game ended with the 6-1 victory for the home team.

The final game had an early start and there was a fear of fatigue. That fear was put to rest with the Warriors going into the first intermission up 4-0 with goals from Carson Duggar (Siebert, Morgan), Luke VanSchaack (Cheeseboro, Tilly), Tommy Bowe (Siebert, Morgan) and Scotty Perkins (Turner). The Warriors would score first in the second period with another goal from Scotty Perkins (Cheeseboro). West Sound would then get complacent and the hard working Cheney team would take advantage of a few shorthanded situations and score three goals of their own in a 90 second span. The game looked completely different heading into the final period than it did going into the second with a score of 5-3 and the momentum in Cheney's corner. "I saw it coming. The boys stopped playing as a team and started playing like individuals. They forgot the discipline that made it possible to have success against the upstart Ice Hawks. Our opponents ability to compete was not indicitive of the score. They can play and it took 90 seconds for our team to be reminded of it," Jay Miller commented.

The final period of the weekend had the Warriors against the ropes. It took well into the last half of the period to get the momentum swinging in their favor again. After that the Warriors showed the type of game that has made them successful up to this point of the season. Cheney just couldn't hold back the onslaught of attackers from the West Sound side. The final three goals came from the Warriors, Carson Duggar (Bowe), Paul Frys (Perkins, Turner) and Luke VanSchaack (Heiser, Torres).

Warriors came away with the 8-3 win and the weekend sweep. Next week the Warriors will face the Vancouver Vipers in a home and home series. GO WARRIORS!