Foley United Lost, but Our Veterans Were the Winners At Foley's Military Appreciation Game

Foley United’s Saturday home game was the team’s military appreciation game, and charity fundraiser for K9’s for Warriors. Foley United Hockey raised $1,514 for the charity.

K9s For Warriors is an American charity and veterans service organization that provides service dogs to veterans. The organization trains rescue dogs to help veterans coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, and other psychological challenges associated with military service.

According to Lisa Cynowa, the team’s manager, “When we set up the fundraiser, the K9's suggested we shoot for a goal of $250! I'd say we went above and beyond.”

There was a lot of work that went into making the event happen. Cynowa thanked all Foley United family members who went above and beyond to make the fundraiser a success.

Chandra Corrado (mother to current Foley goalie Alex), and her son and recent Foley United alumni, Andrew, both came to the game in uniform. Chandra is an active-duty Master Sargent in the Air National Guard with 20 years of active duty. Andrew joined the Air Force to follow in his mother’s footsteps.

On the hockey side, the Foley team wore special camouflage jerseys and socks for the event that the players will get as keepsakes. The Shrine High School student choir performed the National Anthem live before the game. (Shrine is part of the Foley United hockey team).

Once the game against West Bloomfield began, it was a hard back-and-forth skate between the two teams. Until… Foley faced some major penalty problems in the opening period. These early penalties were an influence in Foley’s loss to West Bloomfield 5 – 3.

“We got into penalty trouble in the first period and played from behind all night,” said Foley Head Coach Dave Williamson. “Kind of set the tone, got in the boy’s head. For some reason, we started pressing early in the game, and it just continued through the whole game… The penalties got in our head and we didn’t execute.”

The first penalty was a minor against West Bloomfield at 12:22 of the opening period. Foley could not capitalize on the man advantage.

Foley’s first penalty was a minor at 7:53 of the first period. Like West Bloomfield, Foley killed the penalty. The problems started with the next penalty. Foley was hit with a 5-minute boarding major at 5:55. With a major penalty, the player must serve the entire 5 minutes, regardless of how many goals the other team scores.

West Bloomfield took full advantage. Just 21 seconds into the penalty, West Bloomfield’s Ryan Denawetz banged the puck home, unassisted, for the game’s first score.

And the major penalty against Foley continued.

To make matters worse, Foley then got hit with a 2-minute minor penalty for tripping at 4:46. Foley was now 2-men short.

The Foley defense played the penalty kill as well as it could. It took West Bloomfield a minute and a half of the two-man advantage to break through with a goal. Luke Peck made it 2 – 0 for West Bloomfield. And while the tripping minor penalty ended with the goal, the 5-minute major dragged on. Foley was still short- handed.

The team managed to kill-off the balance of the major penalty. But before the player could get back into the play at Foley’s end, West Bloomfield’s Logan Bride scored their third goal. I was just two seconds after the penalty ended. While this was not a power play goal, it basically was. West Bloomfield was in command 3 – 0 at the end of the opening period.

Two penalties cost Foley three goals.

West Bloomfield was called for a minor with 12 seconds left in the first period. It cost them in the second period. With 4-seconds left in the carry-over penalty, Foley’s Tyler Dempsey made it 3 – 1. Carter Penn got the sole assist.

The back and forth nature of the game continue for most of the period. Foley did break through with 4:30 left in the second period to make it 3 – 2 for West Bloomfield. The unassisted goal was scored by Peter Murphy, even-handed.

It was now a one goal, one shot game. A tie was within reach for Foley. West Bloomfield helped to bring that tie closer for Foley with a minor penalty called on them with 4:10 left in the second period. At 2:21, the goal was scored, but not by Foley. West Bloomfield’s Denawetz scored his second goal of the game, short-handed. It would eventually stand as the game winning goal.

The second period ended with West Bloomfield holding a 4 – 2 lead.

Half-way through the third stanza, West Bloomfield lengthened their lead to 5 – 2 on a Denawetz even handed goal. It was a hat trick for Denawetz.

Instead of giving up, Foley fought on. With 2:16 left in the third period, Bobby Kulka made it 5 – 3. Penn assisted again.

With slightly less than two minutes, Foley pulled Dominic Carnaghi from the net for an extra attacker. West Bloomfield aided Foley with a minor penalty with 41 seconds left in the game, giving Foley a two-man advantage with the empty net. West Bloomfield still held a 2-goal lead.

West Bloomfield went on a full prevent-defense. It was enough to shut Foley down and secure the 5 – 3 win.

“West Bloomfield, you got to give them credit,” said Williamson. “I thought their game plan was executed well. Every time we had the stick on the puck, there was a West Bloomfield stick on our stick. They clogged the middle really well. We never had a chance to set-up in front of the net. They played a really good game.”

Dominic Carnaghi was in net for Foley and faced 37 shots. Noah Sternberg was the goalie for West Bloomfield and saw 33 shots.

Final thought from Coach Williamson: “We were pressing, pressing, pressing. We put this one behind us. We’re not going to win every game. We got our Monday morning (game) and we’ll go from there.”

Foley lost the game, but disabled veterans, thanks to the fundraiser, were the winners.

Foley’s next game is against Port Huron on Monday morning at Mt. Clemens Arena.