BELOIT — Monroe faced an all-too familiar opponent in the Thanksgiving Shootout championship on Saturday, Nov. 25 — Beloit Memorial. The Cheesemakers and Purple Knights have met seven times in the last four seasons, including three times in the same tournament.
With an 8-3 win, Monroe improved its all-time record against Beloit, which now stands at 7-1. The victory also marked back-to-back Shootout titles for the Cheesemakers, who defeated Beloit 5-3 in 2022 and 6-3 in 2019.
“It’s a good start for us overall. I’m using the analogy for the kids that we are building a big stone, a foundation,” head coach Barry Einbeck said. “We want to keep building layers on that. If we can keep doing that and getting better every week, the wins will take care of themselves.”
That’s not to say the win came easily, though. Each team racked up 10 penalties, and five of the 11 total goals were scored on the power play.
“It’s always a challenge against Beloit,” senior Wyatt Janecke said. “We have a really nice power play, so we can score a lot of goals. When it’s us in the box, it messes up our playing. We try not to do it, but it happens.”
Brody Koehn put Monroe on the board first, as he took advantage of Beloit’s turnover at the blue line for an unassisted goal. Although Jayden Piccione knotted the score with a power-play goal, the Cheesemakers entered the locker room with a 2-1 advantage. Koehn put a shot on goal that Hans Brandt tipped out front, which slipped past Gentry Grant.
The Cheesemakers extended their lead to 6-1 in the second period with two goals from Janecke. He scored on a breakaway and rebound, both assisted by Cole Buholzer. Ethan Rosenstiel and Carter Nemergut scored in the second frame.
Beloit made a comeback in the third period with two goals in a span of three minutes. Marcus Allen put one over Brock Brandli’s shoulder, while assisted Max Allen for another score.
Monroe held on, though, thanks to Brandli’s defensive effort. Brandli saw 66 shots on goal and saved 63. While Einbeck was proud of Brandli’s performance in net, he knows it came at a cost.
“Yesterday, we outshot Milton. Today, we got outshot. It shows you how good our goaltending is,” Einbeck said. “That gives us added confidence to know we have someone back here like that. On the same hand, we want to be on the other side of that. We don’t want to be outshot that much (66-31).”
MONROE 4, MILTON 3
BELOIT — Monroe advanced to the championship with a 4-3 shootout win on Friday, Nov. 24. Janecke and Patrick Alt made their shots, and Kyle Theorin tallied two saves.
“They were excited and they got to feel that added pressure,” Einbeck said. “It was nice to see them respond in a good way.”
Eleven different players contributed to the Cheesemaker offense in the tournament, led by Janecke and Gavin Roth with four points each. Janecke had three goals and an assist, while Roth notched one goal with three assists.
Einbeck was happy with the offensive distribution, especially when Jaryn Fonseca scored on the fourth line.
“That’s what we are trying to do. We want to put three consistent lines out there and filter in that fourth line,” Einbeck said. “Yesterday, we got a goal from our fourth line, and that’s awesome. When your fourth line scores, everything is good after that. The idea is we need everybody to contribute.”
BELOIT 6, VIROQUA 3
BELOIT — Max Allen’s hat trick propelled Beloit over Viroqua in a semifinal on Friday, Nov. 24. The senior also had two assists for five points. In net, Grant stopped 19 of 22 shots on goal for a .864 save percentage.
