Scholarships Given Away at Thunderbolts Game
On Friday, January 26, Oakland City University, the title sponsor of Faith Night at the Thunderbolts, gave away three $12,000 scholarships throughout the night at the Evansville Thunderbolts hockey game.
Scholarship applicants submitted their applications via a QR Code advertised by OCU and the Thunderbolts. The three $12,000 scholarship winners are:
Faith Lindsey
Bonneville, IN - Boonville High School
Faith will major in Business Administration
Nolan Hitz
Newburgh, IN - Castle High School
Adrien Fox
Oakland City, IN - Wood Memorial High School
Adrien will major in Computer Technology
“We enjoy our continued relationship with the Thunderbolts. Faith Night is near and dear to our hearts as we award students who want to extend their academics to the next level and become Mighty Oaks, " said Oakland City University President Dr. Ron Dempsey.
The first 1,000 fans received a real OCU-branded hockey puck. Prior to the first drop of the puck between the Thunderbolts and the Birmingham Bulls, Contemporary Christian band Level Ground opened the show with their hard-hitting Christian sound.
Game Recap as Recorded on the Thunderbolts Facebook page:
Down by multiple goals on four different occasions, the Thunderbolts persisted and rallied late from 5-3 down to force overtime and defeat the Birmingham Bulls 6-5.
The Bulls grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period as Carson Rose scored on a loose puck at 5:09 and again on a cross-ice pass on a power play at 15:10. Just over a minute later at 16:27, Scott Kirton scored his first goal of the night off a deflected shot at 16:27, assisted by Brady Lynn and Vadim Vasjonkin to pull Evansville to within a 2-1 deficit after one period. 50 seconds into the second period, Brendan Soucie scored for Birmingham to make it a 3-1 Bulls lead before Kirton scored 50 seconds later at 1:40 from Lynn and Vasjonkin to cut the Bulls lead again to one goal, 3-2. 42 seconds after Kirton’s second goal, however, Rose completed his hat trick at 2:22 to make it 4-2 Birmingham. Not to be outdone, Kirton picked up his own hat trick by scoring on a rush to the net at 8:29, assisted by Vasjonkin and Benjamin Lindberg to trim Birmingham’s lead to 4-3.
The Thunderbolts ended the second period and started the third period by successfully killing a major and minor Bulls power play; however, Rose scored again for the Bulls off a With 5:46 remaining in regulation, the Thunderbolts got to within a goal once again as Bruno Kreisz scored off a great passing play from Brendan Harrogate and Dmitri Yushkevich to make it 5-4. With Cole Ceci pulled late, Matthew Hobbs tied the game off a face-off at 18:22, assisted by Kirton and Vasjonkin to force overtime.
In extra time, Myles Abbate became the hero for Evansville by scoring unassisted on a wrap-around at 1:13 to win it for the Thunderbolts 6-5.
Kirton finished with a hat trick as well as an assist, while Hobbs, Kreisz, and Abbate scored one goal each. Vasjonkin tallied three assists, while Lynn finished with two assists. In goal, Ceci finished with 27 saves on 32 shots faced for his 12th win of the season.