Archbishop Ryan Raiders

This report provided by the Plum Hockey Club -HARMARVILLE The Plum Mustangs earned their third consecutive victory in a span of seven days with a 6-2 win over the Shaler Titans. The Mustangs came out smoking in the opening period and scored early. At 12:41, Senior Jonathan Smith took a feed through the slot from Senior Matt Giunta and one-timed the puck into the Shaler net to put Plum on top. Junior Shawn O'Connor got the second assist on the goal. Just 1:02 later, Shaler's Jesse Grossman capitalized on a one-timer of his own in front of the Plum net and knotted the game at one. The Mustangs then took over, registering the next 13 shots on goal. At 8:11, Junior Chad Covol backhanded a rebound of a shot from Junior Ben Colosmo into the net to give Plum a lead they would not relinquish. Junior Andy Weston also assisted on Covol's goal. With 3:48 left in the first, Smith got his second of the night. O'Connor passed the puck to Giunta who fed Smith as he entered the Titan's zone. Smith broke free, waited for the Shaler goalie to go down and fired the puck into the net over the goalie's blocker, making the score 3-1. Exactly one minute later, Colosmo one-timed a perfect pass from Covol past the Shaler netminder to give Plum a three-goal lead. Weston picked up his second assist of the game on Colosmo's goal. After a scoreless second period, the Mustangs stretched their lead to 5-1 at 12:46 of the third. Giunta slid the puck to O'Connor from behind the net, and O'Connor wristed a shot past the Titan goalie's short side. The Titans answered that goal 1:16 later when Patrick Sullivan scored for Shaler on a traffic jam in front of the Plum net. At 4:02 of the third, Smith completed his second hat trick of the season, scoring his tenth goal unassisted on and end-to-end rush that he finished off by cutting across the slot and ripping a forehand shot over the sprawling Titan goalie. Plum outshot Shaler 36-11 in the game.