Day 2 Pro Perspective

By Raine Hernandez

MISSISSAUGA - After a solid day of hockey on the first day of the NARCh Finals here at the Hershey Centre, the second day brought nothing but competitive action, especially in the Pro divsion.

Here are recaps of some of the games that took place today:

Excitement vs. Roadrunners

The first game of Pro today, featured the Excitement against the Roadrunners. Both squads are playing in their second game, after only playing once the day before. Excitement lost their opener 5-2 to the Verbero Cypress, while the Roadrunners defeated the ISCA Grizzlies 5-2 in their first game.

The Roadrunners welcomed some new talent to their pool of young talent. Nick Dellamorte and Mikey Colella were added to the Roadrunners Pro team, which already had players such as Joey DiMartino and Max Halvorsen. All of them play together for the Roadrunners '99, arguably the best youth team in the country.

However, their debuts as pro players on the Roadrunners were spoiled. The Excitement would find a way to solve world-class Goaltender Keith Johnson, as they would find the net five times to defeat the Roadrunners, 5-2. JC Campagna led the way for George Brown's club, scoring a goal and setting up an amazing play to Larry Adegoke in what would be the game-winning goal.

Labeda Snipers vs. OC Bears

In the second game of the day, the Labeda Snipers would continue their title defense, this time against the OC Bears. The Snipers opened up their NARCh tournament with wins over the Halton Coyotes and the Konixx/Revision ELE squad, while the Bears are 0-2 to start the tournament with losses that came from PAMA and Verbero.

The Snipers would continue their strong play, defeating the Bears by a score of 5-1. Matt White would lead the way once again scoring 2 goals, with support from Charlie Combs and PJ Kavaya as well. Troy Redmann was his usual self, only allowing 1 goal on roughly 12 shots.

PAMA Labeda Golden Knights vs. Halton Coyotes

The Halton Coyotes' Pro faced daunting tasks the first day in playing two of the premiere Roller Hockey Programs in the Labeda Snipers and Black Ice. Unfortunately for them, it would not get any easier for them as their next opponent would be the PAMA Labeda Golden Knights.

The Knights are playing without their top player Travis Noe, however it has not seemed to affect their play as they have strung up wins over the OC Bears and the ISCA Grizzlies. 

PAMA would quickly off to a two goal lead, with both goals set up by Darren Nowick. Goals from Andrew Oosterveld and Brandon Glover would bring the Coyotes back to an even game. Glover wouldn't stop there, as in the same shift the London Ontario native would bring home his second of the game to give his team the lead.

The Coyotes would be unable to hold the lead, as PAMA would tie it up with 6 minutes to go, from a great individual effort from Zach Walthers. With less than 3 minutes to go, Glover would complete the natural hat-trick off of a backdoor feed, leading the Coyotes to their first ever win in NARCh Pro, upsetting the Golden Knights by a score of 4-3.

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