Shalom Sports- The Jewish Sports League Management Site

The 2006 Martin Weiselberg Memorial Tournament created much “buzz” around the tri-state area, as for the first time, New York and New Jersey would clash in the battle of elite elementary school teams. Although the tournament, named for the late father of Yeshiva Har Torah assistant coach Elliot Weiselberg, contained a small field, the level of competition could not have been higher. Along with Har Torah, the hosts, the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County (HANC) and Yavneh Academy of Paramus, NJ put on a show through five grueling hours of hockey.
The first match-up of the day pitted the New York rivals against one another. HANC scored the first goal of the tournament as Yehoshua Genuth scored twice and David Orenbuch punched one home put HANC up 3-0 before Har Torah’s Aaron Geffner scored on a laser-beam shot to end the half (games consisted of 2-15 minute halves). Har Torah would continue to fight back and at the 4:27 mark of the second half, Yossi Aharon brought them within one goal. HANC hung tough to a one-goal lead for the majority of the next 10 minutes. However, with almost a minute to go in the game, 6th grader Jesse Gordon knotted the game at 3-3 to send it to a shootout. Each team chose three shooters and a goalie to center-court to decide this heated battle. The Cavs’ went with Ahseph Weisz, Orenbuch and Genuth and goalie Max Orlofsky, while the Hat Trix countered with Ben Frager, Geffner and Aharon, with Josh Friedman in net. Frager got Har Torah on the board early and Friedman stopped all three shots that he faced to give Har Torah the shootout victory.
After a quick lunch of pizza and pasta, HANC regrouped to face the Yavneh Avalanche in a must-win game. Matthew Reichel put Yavneh on the board quickly, leaving HANC to wonder what it would take to remain in the tournament. The answer came shortly thereafter as Genuth and Ari Marks scored within 35 seconds of each other to put the Cavs’ up 2-1. Marks added another shortly before the break to give HANC a seemingly comfortable 3-1 lead at the half. However, just like in the first game, the lead slipped away as Boaz Greenzweig found the back of the net a little more than a minute into the half, and Yoni Stone slammed one past Orlofsky to tie it with about a minute and a half left in the game. It looked like another shootout for the Cavs’, however, with 15 seconds remaining, a penalty on the Avalanche gave HANC the opportunity it needed to keep themselves alive. With four seconds left in the game, the ball once again found its way onto Genuth’s stick before being deposited past Avalanche goalie Ari Stein to give HANC the win.
With Har Torah at 1-0, HANC at 1-1, and Yavneh at 0-1, there was a possibility that, with a Yavneh win, all three teams could end up at 1-1. Before the game, Weiselberg let all three coaches know what the scenarios were. If all three teams ended up tied, the team with the highest goal differential would automatically go to the championship while the other two would have to face in a play-in game. The goal differential before the game stood at a +1 for HANC, 0 for Har Torah, and -1 for Yavneh (the shootout win did not count as an extra goal). A Har Torah win, and they would face HANC again. A Yavneh win by two goals or less, and HANC would advance. If the Avalanche won by three or more, they would be sitting pretty.
The third game started off with Yavneh in the same position as HANC in the previous game. Only 25 seconds into the game, Aharon put one in from right in front to give Har Torah a 1-0 lead. But, as the trend was for the round-robin portion, the first team to score would not be the team to come up victorious, goals by Reichel, Yoni Blum, Adam Druck and Zach Goldschmeidt and solid goaltending by Stein preserved Yavneh’s 4-1 win, placing them in the championship game.
Har Torah coach, Rabbi Tuvia Fried and HANC coach Josh Liebman met at center-court for a coin-flip on how the second finalist would be decided. If the coin showed heads, there would be a shootout, if tails, we would go to a sudden-death game. Both sides watched with interest as the coin came up tails, and both sides prepared for a fast-paced play-in mini game. It took almost three and a half minutes before Orenbuch scored on a feed from Josh Strauss to eliminate the hosts and put the Cavs’ in the tournament finals.
Weiselberg then took the time to address the crowd and thanked the participants and their coaches for attending and donating time and money to their cause. The tournament, doubling as a charity event, raised over $1000 for Hatzolah over the two weeks leading up to it and will continue to collect donations until the end of the summer. After a few words about his father, Elliot unveiled commemorative t-shirts for all of the participants to take home with them.
After a five minute break, both teams reconvened on the gym to decide which state would take home with them the bragging rights for the tri-state area. Both teams started off strong, each having chances thwarted by solid defense, and swift goaltending. It took 12 minutes for Yoni Stone to put Yavneh on top 1-0 and another two minutes until Druck increased the lead to 2-0 before the break. Given the way that the day had gone, Yavneh coach, Yaniv Besterman, knew that the game was far from over and made sure to relay the message to his team. Both teams came out strong to start the second half, but neither would bend until the eight-minute mark when Druck took a roughing penalty giving HANC a power-play. Less than a minute later, Genuth took a pass from Weisz and deposited it into the net from about 20 feet out for his second power-play goal of the afternoon to cut the deficit to one. HANC would get another power-play opportunity with three minutes left in the game as Greenzweig was sent to the box for crosschecking. The Avalanche, however, buckled down and killed off the penalty and the remaining time to bring the championship back to Paramus.
The coaches reconvened on center-court as Elliot handed the championship trophy to Besterman and the rest of the Jersey crowd. He then handed out All-Tournament trophies to each team’s top player for the tournament. For Har Torah, there were several choices for the award, including Friedman, Gordon, both only 6th graders, and Geffner, however, the award went to Yossi Aharon who finished the tournament with two goals. Yavneh’s awardee was Adam Druck who scored twice and had two assists, including one of each in the championship game. Others considered were Reichel and Yoni Stone who finished with two goals apiece. HANC’s standout was Yehoshua Genuth who was also named the tournament MVP, capping a seven point effort, which included five goals, two on the power-play and one game-winner and two assists. Consideration was also given to 6th grade goaltender Max Orlofsky and Marks for their performances.
Special thank-you’s are in order to the following people:
Norman’s Wholesale Travel World LTD., Brooklyn, NY- Tournament sponsor
SPORTSCO Sporting Goods, Yonkers, NY- Tournament sponsor and supplier
Dougie’s 5-towns BBQ and Grill-Tournament sponsor
Mr. Alan Steinberg
Rabbi Gary Menchel
Rabbi Tuvia Freid, head coach, Har Torah Hat Trix
Josh Liebman, head coach, HANC Cavs’
Yaniv Besterman, head coach, Yavneh Avalanche
Yeshiva Har Torah
Hebrew Academy of Nassau County
Yavneh Academy
Gabi Novick, Aaron Geffner and all of the kids at Har Torah who helped make the event as great as it was.
Everyone who donated time or money to the event and/or Hatzolah.

(Posted: 2006-06-24)