TORONTO, ON (June 20, 2024) – The Toronto Beaches took on the Whitby Warriors for the first half of their head-to-head Thursday night at Ted Reeve Arena. The Beaches battled for a 14-11 victory over the Warriors – with Will Sheehan and Eric McDonald both making their respective Beaches debuts.
Greg Palmer and Willem Firth both found themselves bolstering seven points apiece, leading the Beaches’ offence. Firth chalked four goals and three assists while Palmer grabbed one goal and six assists.
Defender David Peterkin stepped up big on both ends, netting himself two goals while shutting down the defensive side of the ball.
Beaches opened the scoring quickly with Defender Eoin MacKay stepping up and scoring one on the run less than a minute in. Peterkin, wanting some early action of his own, snagged his first eight seconds later, helping Toronto to an early two-goal lead.
Whitby came back with a three-goal stretch – one of which was on the power play. Gabriel Sorichetti, Riley Knox, and Lucas Littlejohn buried goals for the visitors. Peterkin double-dipped after a heads-up pass from Caden Hewitt sprung him on the run. Knox and Sorichetti nabbed two more to give the Warriors a two-goal lead with less than 10 minutes to go in the first. Beaches Forward Peyton Booth got the last touch on a passing play with Matt Collison and Hunter Lubiniecki. Liam MacLeod added another with a low shot on a transition play to tie the game at five a piece.
But Whitby closed out the period with two more from Max Taylor and Treysen Stewart.
After a high-scoring streaky first period, the Warriors lead the Beaches 7-5.
Beaches lit a fire during the first intermission and came out the gate swinging, scoring four consecutive to flip the script, grabbing a two-goal advantage of their own. Firth, secured yet another hat trick this year by scoring three of those four tallies – Lubiniecki snagged one for himself during the stretch. Warriors got on the scoresheet in the second at the 4:08 mark with a power-play goal – Sorichetti puts it in. Firth added his fourth with a ripper from far to close the period.
Toronto held a two-goal lead over the Warriors heading into the final 20.
Sorichetti closed the gap in the opening minute of the third, scoring a pair to knot the game at 10. Six minutes elapsed before Hamish McPherson placed a shot perfectly into the top corner – kicking off a three-goal run for the Beaches. Collision and Palmer etch the other two into the scoresheet. Warriors forward Ryan Langille pinned Whitby’s third of the period.
Newly acquired Beaches Forward Will Sheehan put his mark on the game, scoring his first in the Blue and Gold at the 1:56 mark with a quick rebound goal.
The Beaches edged out the Whitby Warriors by three with a final score of 14-11.
The Beach Boys head to Whitby tomorrow for the other half of the head-to-head. Opening face-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET at Iroquois Park Arena.