Berkley, Ferndale, West Bloomfield

Berkley-Ferndale Unified improves to 2-0 in outdoor games, beats West Bloomfield 4-0

By Mike Moore
C & G Sports Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by Donna Agusti Berkley-Ferndale Unified's Luc Hammerle (66) tries to get the puck in front of West Bloomfield's Anton Marinelli. The teams played outdoors at Clark Park Jan. 15. Unified won the game 4-0. Photo by Donna Agusti Berkley-Ferndale Unified's Luc Hammerle (66) tries to get the puck in front of West Bloomfield's Anton Marinelli. The teams played outdoors at Clark Park Jan. 15. Unified won the game 4-0.

DETROIT — Jeff Fleming and his Berkley-Ferndale Unified hockey team are sure getting used to this.

For the second winter in a row, the Unified squad participated in an outdoor game at Clark Park in downtown Detroit.

And for the second year in a row, the guys exited from the ice frozen, but with a win.

“It was great, we had the puck bounce our way a few times, and once we got off to a lead, I think we started to take over,” Fleming said after his guys beat West Bloomfield High 4-0 in the Jan. 15 game. “It’s such an awesome experience, and starting the way we did was huge.”

Senior forward Luc Hammerle set the tone for the game just 35 seconds in, giving the Unified squad a 1-0 lead before anyone had a chance to really feel the 24-degrees temperature at the 3 p.m. puck drop.

Junior Sage Stuart and senior Brad Zucker scored in the second period, and Zucker  added a third-period goal at the 9:25 mark to seal the win. Final shots were not totaled, but the Unified squad clearly controlled the flow of play from start to finish.

“I wasn’t worried at all when they scored early, because I know we’re a team that can score and a team that can battle back,” said Lakers coach Rick Reed, who coached Bloomfield Hills Unified last year in its loss to Berkley-Ferndale at Clark Park. “The thing is, we just didn’t execute at all like we can. We hardly got anything at the net, and they played like a 12-1 team today. They were better than us.”

Sophomore Stephen Wroe earned the shutout in net for the Unified squad, which improved to 13-1-0 overall and 6-0-0 in the Oakland Activities Association White Division.

“We played very unselfish hockey, including Brad, who had an awesome game,” Fleming added. “We moved the puck and put good pressure on them all afternoon.”

West Bloomfield falls to 8-5-0 and 4-2-0 in White play.
 

You can reach C & G Sports Writer Mike Moore at mmoore@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1038.