In a game that was dubbed the SHSHL ‘game of the week’, Council Rock South turned it into a laugher as Central Bucks East kept a steady parade to the penalty box going and South would dominate start to finish.
Golden Hawks News
CR South Golden Hawks Ghost Writer
2/5/2020Warwick, PA - The onslaught would start early, and with South pressuring, East would take a tripping penalty, putting the always dangerous Council Rock power play on the ice. The only reason South couldn’t take advantage was the stellar play of goaltender Chris McIntyre, who really worked to keep his team in this game all night. On this power play, and shortly after, he had several great stops as Council Rock always seemed to just miss a goal. They would eventually tally, as it was their top goal scorer Michael Roby Jr. with the games first goal, nicely one-timing a great pass from senior Billy Harrelson, who had a solid game. The Roby show continued on his next shift when he took a pass in the slot from Douglas Lopez. Roby would catch a break as the East defenseman would fall down and that allowed Roby to walk the puck right into McIntyre’s kitchen. Roby would make it look easy, blasting a wrister home for a 2-0 lead. At this point the game started to get chippy as the raucous CB East crowd was growing restless for some sign of life from their team, but South continued to dominate. Roby would complete the natural hat trick and bring on the jeers from the stands as he again was allowed to walk in on McIntyre and deposited the puck behind him. At this point CB East was just trying to keep up, chasing Council Rock around the ice, but when they caught up they were too preoccupied with physicality and cheap shots to get themselves back into the hockey game.
This point became obvious in the second period after Harrelson scored to give South a 4-0 lead less than a minute into the period. Sean Gorman would take a roughing penalty and South would continue to pepper McIntyre who continued to turn away shot after shot. After that power play expired there would be coincidental minors followed by another senseless Gorman penalty, this time for slashing. South would make him pay on this occasion as Jeremy Purcell would find the net after some good work by Roby and Brennen Wright, who South had been using as their big, net-front presence on the man advantage. Harrelson would then score his second goal, just twenty-two seconds later, with a nice individual effort and finishing shot. The score was 6-0 after two periods, but the game was not that close. Any pressure by East was limited, and second and third chances were almost nonexistent as South goalie Jimmy Sweeney would swallow the puck, or the defense would quickly clear the porch. Meanwhile, the penalties and raucousness would only increase in the third period.
David Vergules, a target of the CB East players and fans for most of the night, mostly of his own doing, would score two goals on the same shift, both assisted by Harrelson, and would quiet the fans with a Kovalchuk drive-by afterward. Tempers would continue to flare as every stoppage had to be attended to by the officials, the two teams combining for a total of 13 infractions in the frame, with East having eight. David Mueller would set the final score with a dump-in from center-ice that took a funny hop on McIntyre and bounced over his stick and glove, much to his disappointment. It was icing on the cake for South but unfortunate for McIntyre, who was the only East player to have a solid performance. He would face 40 shots, many of which were point-blank, high-quality chances.
FULL GAME REPLAY AND BOX SCORE: CR South Golden Hawks vs CB East Patriots 2 5 2020CB East has talent, enough talent to get themselves recognized on the Flyers Cup power rankings, just behind Council Rock South, but an effort like they had Wednesday will lead them to defeat every time as they seemed determined to show South who the tougher team was, not who the better team was. On the other side, Council Rock has also been a very undisciplined team at times this season, but credit head coach Joe Houk for keeping his team under control amid the chaos in this game. The contest should’ve lived up to the billing it was given, but East fans were cheated of that result and the large, supportive crowd went home disappointed as South showed they were the better hockey team with a consistent, dominant effort.