Men's team grabs silver medal and women's team gets 4th place at the 2010 Nationals
Las Vegas, NV - May, 2010 - by G. Haratyk and N. Shaar
Las Vegas hosted the New England Freeze men's and women's teams for the 2010 USA Team Handball Championships. This year, the nationals were special in many ways. It was the last tournament for the club under the name 'New England Freeze' (the team is now registered as Boston Team Handball), for the first time in many years, there was a deterministic qualification process for the Men's Elite-8 pool to which NEF made it, after four Northeast League Tournaments in the regular season, and, to cap the long season of hard work, the men's team took 2nd place and the women's 4th place at the nationals!
The Freeze reached the semi-final after finishing second of a group gathering Atlanta, Houston and San Francisco. The semi-final, against the 2009 champion of the USA, New York City, was won after a thrilling extra-time and a goal at the very last second scored by Marco Betsch. Los Angeles won the title despite a tough fight the Bostonian team put up.
This is the best result in the clubs history. It demonstrated the ability of Boston to compete with the best teams of the US, and is a true reward for all the efforts that were given by the players and the club's members throughout the season.
Thank you to all the fans around the world for their support during this unforgettable adventure 2009-10.
Boston wins the 4th League Tournament and qualifies to the elite nationals!
Cambridge, MA - April, 2010 - by M. Schwalbe
On April 10, the New England Freeze (NEF) hosted their Northeast League Tournament in hospitable town of Chatham, thanks to Radoslav Delchev. Unlike the previous tournaments, this one had only three of the four league teams. New York Athletic Club (NYAC), who had lost hope in qualifying to the Elite Nationals, forfeited their games. As a result, NEF, New York City Team Handball (NYCTH) and Army Black got to play 3 games of 30min halves.
In the first game, NEF played Army. Still highly motivated to win against them after the desperate loss in the previous tournament, NEF started with a very strong defense complimented by a solid organized offense, which gave them an early lead of 4:0. But Army did not give up easily. They fought their way back into the game and prevented the Freeze from increasing their lead margin. Towards the end of the first half, the Freeze started to slack off and Army caught up slowly. But with a solid performance of the NEF bench, they went into the half-time break with a 3-goal lead.
The second half started like the first one, with a solid performance by the Freeze. Army responded by switching their defense to a man-to-man press starting at the , center line of the court. NEF struggled to find an answer to that play and found themselve in a position where they also didn´t perform well in defense. In a period of total lack of focus on the Freeze’s part resulted in a few 2-min suspensions (8 in the whole game) leaving them with only 3 field players on the court, at one point. This gave Army the chance to catch up and tie the score with only 10 min left in game. The last 10 minutes were not for the lighthearted. Aided with a strong performace by Rado in the goal, NEF took the lead again and refused to give it up until the end of the game. The final score was 41:38 for the Freeze. Erik K. and Geoffrey H. had a great game with 9 goals each and almost no missed shots.
The second game between Army and NYCTH ended suprisingly with a 49:42 win for Army. NYC was missing a couple of core players, but Army deserves credit for showing the same aggressivness and pace as in their first game which NYC could not keep up with it.
The last and final game of the regular Northeast League was between NEF and NYC. NYC was playing very slow and NEF was following that way. NYC surprised the Freeze and too an early lead 5:1, forcing an early timeout from coach Andre B. The team came back in much more focused and gradually brought the score to a tie by the 20th minute. In offense NEF switched to a very efficient two-pivot strategy and Marcus, from the left back, launched sound-barrier-breaking shots into the opponent’s goal. With that big comeback, NEF finshed the first half 15:12. In the second half, the Freeze put in some fresh legs on the court, particularly those who had not played often during the season. Robin C. scored a crucial goal after a pass from Geoffrey on the fast break and Christopher scored his first official goal with the club. With two minutes left in the game, NEF led by 2 goals. However, they failed to score for the rest of the game while NYC managed to score twice, the second of which was 10 seconds before the end. The final score was 32:32.
In summary, NEF won the last tournament and earned themselves a spot in the Elite Nationals Championships taking place in Las Vegas May 21 – 23. The two teams representing the Northeast region in the Elite division are going to be New England Freeze and New York City.
Finally, many thanks to Nader who didn´t play but organized everything around the tournament and made sure the the table interacted well with the referees. ;)
(And organised the internet-broadcast.)
Final League standings:
|
Win |
Loss |
Tie |
NYTHC |
10 |
1 |
1 |
NEF |
7 |
4 |
1 |
Army |
4 |
8 |
0 |
NYAC |
2 |
10 |
0 |
Boston wins the LWM Women's Tournament
West Point, NY - March, 2010 - by N. Shaar and M. Deterre
This weekend, the women's team of the Boston Team Handball (BTH) club delivered a strong message to their competitors at the Laura Walker Memorial Tournament, in West Point, NY. Boston finished the tournament with a lossless record, beating NYC 24-20 in the final match.
Six teams participated in the tournament and were split into two groups: Black Bracket included Army Black, Boston, Tar Heels and Gold Bracket included Army Gold, North Carolina and New York.
In their first game, Boston took on Army Black. Army started strong and took the lead (3-1); however, Boston quickly got in the rhythm of the game and caught up, thanks to Sarah Gascon's speed on fast breaks and the teams ability to control the ball on set offense. With 5 minutes left in the first half, Army got a 2min suspension and Boston continued to hammer in goals on fast breaks, increasing their lead to 12-7. With 2 minutes left on the clock Army had the chance to reduce Boston's lead to 4 goals with a 7m throw, but Dina, Boston's goal keeper, kept the lead at 5 with a great save. She then proceeded to start a fruitful counter attack, giving Boston a 13-7 lead at half-time. The second half was equally as energetic. Both teams fought hard for the ball and Boston continue to widen the gap in the score. They led 18-9 10min into the half and gradually increased the lead to 26-14 by the end of the game.
The first game's win meant that Boston was likely to rank first in their group, as they had to face the Tar Heels, a young handball team composed of players who are mostly new to the sport. The game was fairly easy for Boston, although their offense was relatively sterile. They took an early lead of 6-0 in the first 15 minutes of the game. From that point forward, it was smooth sailing for the team from New England. The half-time score was 9-2 for Boston. The second half was equally dominated by Boston, despite their relatively high turnover rate. The final score of the game was 20-6, with 3 of the 6 goals for the Tar Heels coming from 7m shots.
With two wins, Boston led their group's standings and went straight to the semi-final game in which they faced North Carolina. The score was close throughout the first half, with Carolina leading by a couple of goals most of the time - thanks to the many 7m calls they got from the referees! The half time score was 11-13 for Carolina. The second half started with a 3-0 run for Boston in the first 4 minutes, putting them in the lead (14-13). Both teams exchanged a 1-goal lead over the next 15 minutes until Boston broke the stalemate with a 2 goal lead that they held for a few minutes before slowly widening the gap to 4 with 5 minutes left in the game. A 4-goal differnce with 5 minutes on the clock sounded like the end for Carolina, but the Bostonians were not ready to settle for that. 3 minutes before the end, Dina saves another 7m shot. Following that, Carolina makes a last desperate attempt to save the game by going to a full-court press defense; however, Boston seemed immune to that. The loose man-to-man defense opened the door to a couple of additional goals for Boston bringing the score up to 27-21. The last word was delivered by Dina, on the goal, saving yet another 7m shot for Carolina in the last few seconds of the game. With that, Boston concluded the first day on a positive note. At the same time, New York were doing just as well and had won their semi-final game too. The two rivals, Boston and New York, were, thus, scheduled for a final showdown on Sunday.
Sunday's final game was certainly not for the light-hearted. The game started slowly with both teams missing a couple of shots each. New York were the first to score; their left half (number 32) giving them a 2-0 lead over Boston. Boston's first goal came from the left wing, Marie, in the 7th minute of the game. Despite the late arrival of the first goal, Boston's defense had kept them in the game, keeping New York's score at 2. Mel tied the score for Boston with a shot from the right wing. The score stayed close until the 18th minute of the game, when Boston made a 4-0 run and took a comfortable lead 8-4. Boston held on to their lead for the rest of the first half, which ended 12-8; No. 32 scoring 4 of the 8 goals for NY. Natuarally, Boston switched to an advanced 5+1 defense in the second half, paralizing the left half of NY. However, NY had an equally effective strategy. Knowing that Boston's strength is in set team plays, NY switched their defense to an offensive 4-2, disrupting Boston's set offense and forcing 3 consecutive turnovers at the begining of the half. That reduced Boston's lead to a mere goal and allowed New York to tie the game at 12-12 with 23 minutes left on the clock. Unable to handle the 4-2 pressure, Boston was forced to use an early timeout. After the timeout, Boston was back on top of their game. A missed 7m shot by NY, a good save by Dina and a shot by Sonja between the goalkeeper's legs gave Boston a 3-goal lead again. New York retaliated with 2 consecutive goals, but Sarah Whitley of Boston hit back. Boston held on to their 2-goal with Mel, Sarah W and T scoring from all angles against the good goalkeeper of NY. A couple of loose balls at in the last couple of minutes of the game sealed the deal for Boston and gave them a valuable victory over New York 24-20.
With that result, Boston's Women's team will be seeded first in the Northeast region. This weekend well-timed valuable victory for Boston and warning to teams participating at the women's open national championships in Las Vegas on May 21-23.
The Second Northeast League Tournament - New England Freeze getting closer to qualifying for the US Nationals
West Point, NY - December, 2009 - by M. Schwalbe
The second Northeast Handball League tournament brought us to The US Military Academy in West Point, NY. Army, a former national bronze medalist and many times the collegiate champion of the US, had had a bad start in the league and lost all three games in the first tournament ranking 4rth in the league. The New England Freeze, on the other hand, surprised everyone with a strong experienced team in the first tournament. With 2 wins against Army and NYAC, the Freeze ranked second going into the 2nd tournament. Based on the level of play at the former tournament, everyone's expectations for the tournament were no less than ‘spectacular'.
The first game for NEF was against NYAC. Once again, the Freeze started strong and got a fast 6 goal lead. After that, the New England coach started to rotate bench players, giving everyone a chance to get more game experience. Unfortunately, that backfired. A combination of hasty plays in offense and some communication problems in defense allowed NYAC to catch up, reducing New England's lead to a mere 2-goal at halftime (11:9). In the second half, New England's starting 6 went back in and regained control of the game. Aided by a strong performance by Fabricio Pereira, on goal, the Freeze held on to their lead, finishing the game with a score of 22:17. The top scorer of the game was Goeffrey Haratyk, New England's center player.
The second game for the Freeze was against Army, who had played 2 games already. The physically superior Army players tried to out run New England. However, the Freeze played a 3-2-1 defense, which disrupted Army's plays and held them back significantly. Surprised by the offensive defense, Army's turnover count went up, allowing New England to gradually increase their lead with fast breaks. The New England bench was full and deep and the bench players gave the starters some rest while keeping up the fight against army. In the second half, New England was as focused as the first half and never gave Army a chance to catch up with the score. Towards the end of the game, Army seemed pretty tired giving the New England bench players more chances to score. Neil Osborne, one of New Englands newest additions scored his first goal in an official Handball tournament. The Final score of the game was 25:18 for NEF. The top scorer of the game was Matias Glickman with 5 goals.
After only a short break, the Freeze played their third, and last, game of the day against the undefeated leader of the League, and the reigning US Champion, the New York City Team Handball club (NYCTH). The first few minutes of the game witnessed an evenly-fought battle between the two teams. However, a five minute “black-out” on the NEF side, both in offense and defense, gave NYCTH the advantage, forcing the Freeze to take a timeout. The timeout came a little too late, though, NYCTH had gained a sudden 7-goal lead. After the timeout, the defense started to solidify, and the offense was more fruitful. Despite the improvement in New England's performance, New York kept the lead to 5 goals at half-time (12:7). Going into the second half with a 5-goal deficit was tough for New England, but it was equally as motivating. The team had won their first two games and had no reason to preserve any energy. The competition level started to pick up significantly shortly after the start of the second half. Every player gave his best. A strong defense and an exemplary performance by Radoslav, on goal, the Freeze started to catch up – something New York is not used to. Time was running out, though, and New York intelligently used that to their advantage, they slowed down the game whenever they could and held on to whatever was left of their lead. The final score of the game was 20:18 for New York. The top scorer of the third game was Matthias Schwalbe for New England with 5 goals.
The NEF-NYCTH rivalry seems to be the highlight of the Northeast League. Will NYCTH hold on to their undefeated record, or will New England have a say in that? The next league tournament will be in West Point again on the 27th of Feb, 2010. Stay tuned for exciting handball reports.
Other results from the tournament:
NYAC vs Army 20:24
NYAC vs NYTHC 19:24
Army vs NYTHC 23:26
Standings after the second league tournament:
|
Win |
Loss |
Points |
Goals |
Goaldifference |
NYTHC |
6 |
0 |
12 |
170:134 |
+39 |
NEF |
4 |
2 |
8 |
153:141 |
+12 |
Army |
1 |
5 |
2 |
148:173 |
-25 |
NYAC |
1 |
5 |
2 |
130:156 |
-26 |
The New England Freeze makes a strong showing at the kick-off tournament of the the Northeast League
New York, NY - November, 2009 - by M. Schwalbe
The newly organized Northeast Team Handball League in the US will be divided into two Divisions. In Division A, the four competing teams are New York Team Handball Club, Army Black, New York Athletic Club and New England Freeze. The teams will play in four tournaments. The top two teams will proceed to the US Team Handball Nationals as the representatives of the Northeast region.
On Saturday, November 14, 2009, the league started with a tournament in New York City. New England showed up with a 19-player-strong team (2 goalies and 17 field players). Despite the difficultly in managing such a large group, the coaches managed to field a competitive team in each game.
The first game of the tournament was between NEF and NYCTH. The first half reflected the strong preparations of New England for the league. However, some of the shots were still not placed well enough, and too many balls were saved by the goalkeeper of NY, who was doing a great job in the goal. The first half ended with a 17:10 lead for NY. In the second half, the Freeze started with some fresh legs from the bench who were up to the level of the starting six. The Freeze kept up the fight against the reigning champions. Aided with a better shooting efficiency, New England only lost the second half only by one goal. The game ended with a win for NYTHC 32:24.
After an hour‘s break, New England took on Army Black. The Freeze started the game with a strong offense, but the defense gave Army too many shots. Radoslav Delchev, the team’s goalkeeper, kept the Freeze in the game, though. Rado’s superb performance gave the Freeze a 4-goal lead, forcing Army to take there first time out. Following that Army seemed more coherent, giving the New England offense a hard time scoring, but the Freeze held on to a 3-goal lead until the half-time (18:15). Army started the second half very aggressive and fast and managed to take the lead by 1 goal. New England reacted by switching up the defense to 5-1 forcing Army to lose some balls. New England regained the lead and held on to it until the end of the game (Final score 35:31). It was a very exciting game in the last 10 minutes: very thrilling and close.
After another hour of break, New England faced New York Athletic Club (NYAC), in their last game of the day. With only 2 bench players, and having played 2 games, NYAC looked pretty worn out. New England had a very strong start. An aggressive defense, nice fast breaks and safe shots gave the Freeze a quick 8-goal lead (10:2). With that comfortable lead, New England rotated through their bench players to give them more playing time. NYAC used that to reduce New England’s lead. However, Rado had another great game; making great saves and keeping New England ahead. With NYAC getting more tired, the Freeze kept up the pace by rotating bench players and kept a comfortable lead until the end of the game (29:23).
At the end of the day, New England ranked second in the first tournament, with NYTHC in first place and a suprising 27:26 win for NYAC over Army, earning them 3rd place.
Next stop: West Point, NY, on Dec 5
NE Freeze Men's team places 5th at the Tar Heel Invitational Tournament
Chapel Hill, NC - October, 2009 - by N. Shaar
After a 14-hour drive from Boston the New England team arrived in Chapel Hill, NC, at 2:30am on Saturday. With a total of only 9 players, including a field player as a goal keeper, everything seemed to indicate that the team was far from being ready for any competition, let alone something as intense as handball. If you know about the history of Boston, though, you would know that the Bostonian team was ready to brave any tedious obstacles, even the 3 games of 30min halves scheduled for the next day. Army Gold was kind enough to offer their second goal keeper for assistance, though.
In their first game, the Freeze took on the Tar Heels, a group of young players who are new to handball. The game was fairly easy for New England, who won the game 32-10.
After a break of 1 hour, the NE Freeze faced Army black. The Freeze led the score for most of the game finishing the first half by a 4-goal lead. However, Army, with their larger bench and fitter players, went on a streak of fast breaks that put them in the lead towards the end of the game, finishing the game with a 2-goal victory 28-26.
The last game of the first day for the New England team was against Carolina Blue. After the game against Army Black, the Freeze looked pretty drained of energy. The tournament had slowly become a physical endurance tournament more than a Handball tournament. The game started evenly with Vilim Pozar scoring consistently for the Freeze from the pivot position. However, Carolina had had an easy game against the Tar Heels and had restored their stamina. They took the lead from early in the game and the score margin slowly increased, reaching 35-17 at the end of the game.
The last game of the tournament, for the Freeze, was on Sunday. They took on Army Gold in a game that determined who would take 5th place. The game was fairly close. During the first half, the teams took turns in leading by a couple of goals at most. The half ended with Army leading by 1 goal. In the second half, the Freeze took charge of the game. With 10 minutes left, the Freeze had a 5-goal lead. Victory seemed inevitable, but Army did not make it easy. With the aid of the goal posts and a couple of bad shots from the Freeze, Army had a late come-back and reduced the NEF lead to 1 goal. The Freeze responded with Mike Waite scoring from the pivot position. The lead fluctuated between 1 and 2 goals until Marti Mestieri secured the victory for the Freeze with a goal from the 6-meter line, with just over a minute left on the clock, putting the Freeze ahead by 2 goals. Army managed to score once in the last minute and the game ended with a victory for the Freeze 38-37.
Despite ranking 5th in the tournament, the New England Freeze's coach, Matthias Schwalbe, was "happy about [the team's] performance," given the limited number of players who were available at the tournament. He described the result as "a little victory" and promised the Freeze fans a good season ahead.
The next competition for the Freeze will be in New York City, on Nov 14, with the kick-off tournament of the US Northeast Handball League
NE Freeze Men's and Women's teams rank 10th and 4rth at the US Open Nationals
Elgin, IL - May, 2009 - by N. Shaar
On Thursday, May 7, a group of 36 NE Freeze players, coaches and fans were on their way to Elgin, IL, to compete in the US Team Handball Open National Championships. This was, by far, the largest group the team has sent to nationals in the past 5+ years. The expectations were high and the adrenaline levels were expected to get even higher! Arguably, the NEF teams, were among the most balanced teams at the competition with the ability to threaten the opponents from almost all positions on the field. The women's team, on paper, seemed to be a favorite to win the nationals this year.
Friday was the first day of the competition. The men's team was scheduled to play two games and the women's team had one game later in the day. The first men's game was against Florida Hurricanes. The Hurricanes had a couple of good players, but seemed to be inferior to the Freeze, as a team. Nonetheless, the game was close with a couple of goals' lead alternating between the two teams. The game ended with a tie , and, as weird as it may sound, the two teams had to settle it via a 7m penalty shout-out (soccer style). Matthias Schwalbe and Vilim Pozar scored for the Freeze, and the Freeze's awesome goal keeper Jens Zuther ended it for the Hurricanes by saving two of their shots.
The ending of the second game for the men's team was not as pleasant, though. The team had to face Houston in their second game of the day. Houston had strategically lost their first game so that they wouldn't have to compete in the same pool as NYC's first team. The plan proved to be effective, because they ended up facing NYC in the final and losing to them in overtime, after managing to have a lead of 8 goals during the game! A combination of steady performance by Houston, who were playing their 3rd game of the day, and an under performance from the NEF led to the miserable loss of the Freeze. With the poor structuring of the tournament, combined with Houston's sly move of losing the first game, the NEF men's team was knocked out of the pool competing for the top 8 position.
The women's team, on the other hand, had a great start on the first day. They faced North Carolina in their first game. The team had to win this game, because they were in a tough group with Chicago being the third team of the group. Only two teams were going to make it to the playoff round. NC, pumped up with an 'injection' of national players, thought that they can be a match for the NEF women, since, historically, NC was always a challenge to win against. This was certainly not the case this time around. The NEF women's team crushed NC 25 to 17, to kick-off what looked to be a very promising tournament for them.
The second day started with a relatively easy game for the men's team against Seattle. The team played much more cohesively and seemed to be in good control of the game. They maintained a lead of around 4 goals in the first half and around 8 in the second finishing the game with a 23 to 13 lead.
The women's team was up for a tough game against the former US champion, Chicago Inter, the game was close and the Freeze's women's team looked like a good candidate for winning the national title. the game ended with Chicago winning by only a 2 goal difference 18-16. Once again, the NEF women's team was cohesive on defense and threatening on offense. Despite their loss, they moved on to the semi finals, as the second team from their group. They were going to face the Condors, who led the second group after Houston's loss to the Smurfs.
The women's semi final game was shortly after their game against Chicago. Exhausted from the first highly competitive game of the day, the Freeze were down 0-3 in the first 10 minutes of the game and were catching up for the most part of it. Despite shrinking the Condor's lead to only 1 goal at half time, the psychological advantage the condors had, combined with the fact that they had a less tiring game earlier that day, allowed them to defeat the NEF women 22-20.
Right after the women's game the men's team played the Florida Hurricanes again. A game refereed by two of the worst US league referees who got suspended after the nationals based on their performance in that game. Throughout the game, the refs were throwing 2-minutes at everyone, mostly people on the New England team. At one point, the NEF had only 2 players on the field!! The game overall, was close, again. The Freeze made a last push in the last few minutes ending the game with a lead of 3 goals (24-21). The men's team then moved on to the final match of their bracket, competing with Chicago for the 9th overall position, later that evening.
Chicago had been just as unlucky as the NEF men having been a strong team that got knocked out of the top-8 pool. The game was fairly close with both teams alternating in taking the lead, despite a relatively slow start on offense for the Freeze. However, with 6 minutes left, the NEF were leading Chicago by 3 goals and Chicago had 2 players with 2-minute suspensions. The win, at that point, seemed to be well within reach for the Freeze. Unfortunately, a couple of mistakes on offense, primarily caused by a slippery ball and the lack of coherence among the players on the field, cost the team a lot. During the last 6 minutes of the game, the Freeze failed to score a single goal, received 3 goals and picked up a red card... the end of the game couldn't have been any worse. The game ended with a tie, and, once again, the teams went into a 7m shout-out. Matthias Schwalbe and Adrien Saloui scored for the Freeze, while Nader Shaar missed the second shot for the team. Chicago scored all three shots and won the game with a final score of 21-20.
With the men's team done on the second day, the women's team had one last game on Sunday. They were competing for the bronze medal. The team faced Houston Firehawks in their last game. Despite the clear size disadvantage, the Firehawks managed to win the game and place 3rd in the tournament.
The final results did not meet the club's expectations nor did they reflect the actual level of the club compared to the rest of the US teams. A combination of poor tournament structuring, bad luck and some bad decisions resulted in less-than-optimal results for the New England teams. Nonetheless, the seriousness of the team preparation throughout this season was certainly a great experience and will be a great starting point for the next season.
NE Freeze returns from West Point undefeated
West Point, NY - November, 2008 - by N. Shaar
Two weeks after ranking 2nd at the North Carolina Classic Tournament, the New England Freeze handball team was on the US Military Academy (USMA) campus to participate in a practice tournament, hosted by Army. The team played three games, reaping a tie against Army Black, a long-awaited win against New York City and a relatively easy win in the last game against Army Gold.
At 6:30am, the NE Freeze players were already on the road heading to West Point to make it to their first game, scheduled at 11:15am. The NE Freeze took on Army Black in the first game. The fatigue of four hours of driving was obvious on the players' faces as they ran from defense to offense and back, trying hard to keep up with the Army's well-trained fast players. The score was close throughout the game, with the Freeze leading most of the time. Coach Andre B. used up as much of the energy stored on the bench by continuously switching players on the field. After one hour of playing, the game ended with a tie, well deserved by both teams for a great effort.
After a one-hour break for NE Freeze, their next game was against New York City (NYC); their rival in the northeast conference for many years. NYC had just played Army Black and won, after putting on a fierce fight for victory. With both teams' energy mostly consumed in their previous games, the pace of the game was pretty mellow. Unlike the morning games, it was mostly about experience, patience and good management of whatever energy each team had saved up. A few fast breaks, here and there, kept the excitement level high. On the offense, for NE Freeze, Matthias Schwalbe was practically unstoppable, with a great performance only matched by Jens Taz, the NE Freeze goal keeper, at the defensive end of the field. Along with the good individual performances, the organized team plays kept NE Freeze leading in the first half, leaving NYC confused as they tried to catch up. In the second half, NE Freeze held on to their lead. Backed up with their bench, they managed to earn a long-awaited and well-earned win against NYC, the 2006 US Champions.
The day was far from ending for the Boston team. Their last game agaisnt Army Gold was scheduled right after the NYC game. Drained of energy from the first two games, the NE Freeze players were clearly out of breath. Nonetheless, they hung in there, ran the clock and used the experience advantage they had over the Army team to stay in the game. After a slow start, NE Freeze was trailing by a couple of goals, 15 minutes into the first half. The team gradually took control and maintained an average lead of 3 goals throughout the rest of game.
With one tie and two wins, NE Freeze concluded a long day of handball with the best results they have had in years. With the 2nd place in North Carolina still on their mind, they sure are on a good performance streak. Going back to Boston, the team has one thing in mind: the annual West Point Invitational Tournament in January. NYC had just won over NE Freeze in North Carolina, on November 2nd. They will be at West Point in January for a possible rematch and record-settlement with the NE Freeze.