Tommy Foley's four-goal performance leads Laker boys to victory over Brandon Valley
The Watertown Lakers' varsity boys and girls hockey teams each opened their 2023-24 seasons with home games over the weekend in the Maas Ice Arena.
The girls opened Friday with a 6-1 South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association loss to the Sioux Falls Flyers and the boys followed with an 8-1 SDAHA victory over the Brandon Valley Ice Cats on Saturday.
Laker Boys
The Lakers spotted the Ice Cats an early 1-0 advantage and then proceeded to score the final eight goals of the game, including four by Tommy Foley.
Mylan Evans, Jake Bramer, Austin McBride and Kowynn Muhl also found the net for Watertown, which outshot Brandon Valley 36-9.
The Lakers led 3-1 after one period and 5-1 after two periods before tacking on three more goals in the third period.
Bramer was credited with three assists, Hudson Hendricks and Evans each two, and Gunner Van Gilder, McBride and Jack Elshere one each.
Kohl Nygaard finished with eight saves in goal for the Lakers, who are slated to host Sioux Falls I at 8 p.m. on Friday and visit Yankton at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Caleb Poncelet scored an unassisted goal for Brandon Valley, which got 17 saves from Cole Clites and 11 from Becken Kasse in the loss.
More: The Last 35: Plenty of accomplishments for Arrow athletes in baseball, softball, hockey and swimming
Laker Girls
Sioux Falls used a good start and a good finish to turn back the Lakers.
The Flyers grabbed a 2-0 lead after one period and, after Watertown cut the lead to 2-1 after two periods, Sioux Falls pulled away with four goals in the final period.
Rylan Peska notched a hat trick for Sioux Falls, which also got goals from Juliana Chan, Lilyana Knutson and Emma Horner. Chan, Rebecca Harris, Aniston Murray, Callie Pederson and Zoe Gorra each had assists. Goalie Sydney Fornwald made 19 saves.
Janel Lloyd scored for the Lakers off an assist from Harper Hendricks. Watertown was outshot 43-20.
Angelyn Birnell recorded 24 saves and Kira Reppe 13 for the Lakers, who also fell to Oahe 4-2 on Sunday in the Maas Ice Arena.
Emma Schleusner and Kayla Randall each scored in Sunday's game. Schleusner, Hendricks, Rachel Skott and Kaelyn Melville each added assists. Birnell tallied 29 saves in net.
Follow Watertown Public Opinion sports reporter Roger Merriam on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PO_Sports or email: rmerriam@thepublicopinion.com
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Watertown Lakers' hockey teams open their seasons with home SDAHA games
