Archbishop Ryan Raiders

Pine Richland 3 Montour 0 NEVILLE ISLAND – A limited version who’s who night was in the works at RMU Island Sports Center as Frankie Valli and the 4 Spartans, along with many of the ‘Concerned Citizens of Montour’ and former ‘Concerned Citizens’ including Mike Arch, Gary Shiwarski, and Garry ‘Cheese Steak’ Panucci. Montour’s coach Dan Siegel has ramped up his program taking his team to play in competition outside of Western Pennsylvania and many thought this would a rebuilding year and it has been and an 9-0-0 has been re-built a lot quicker than expected mostly due to excellent goaltending of returnee Nick Gialloretto and freshman Matt Skoff and solid defense and consistent scoring led by Zach Perry. This game with Pine Richland would be a big test to see how far the rebuilding phase has come. Pine Richland was expected to be one of the top two teams in Class AA to challenge four time defending Penguins Cup champions Peters Twp. The Rams have cruised to blowout victories over the weaker competition, but have struggled over the past few games, particularly in a win over Moon 3-2 and a 2-2 tie against Canon McMillan. This is December and PR needs to gear up for a playoff run in January and February and head coach Jimmy Black is well aware its time to start playing with a little more intensity for 45 minutes as teams are marking that date with Pine Richland on the calender looking for a notch on the belt by defeating the # 2 ranked team, who has held the # 1 spot for 6 weeks. Montour had trouble getting the puck out of their own early on as Pine Richland pressed the attack dominating the opening minutes. Gialloretto made a terrific sliding stop on Steven Adams at 10:31 of the opening period. Shots were 8-1 in favor of the Rams and they would cash in as Jordan Yoklic pounced on a rebound and beat the Spartan goaltender at 10:14 after a great save on Fodor bounced on the doorstep to give PR a 1-0 lead. The Rams continued their domination in the period to the final whistle outshooting Montour 17-1 in the first period. With the ice tilted in the first period, Montour finally got the puck in the Rams zone and they got a little giddy as Phil Trombetta found Josh Fodor in alone on who made no mistake beating Nick Gialloretto up under the crossbar at 14:18 of the 2nd period for a 2-0 lead for the Rams. Montour would have an opportunity on the power play at 11:21, which would mark a very important chance for the Spartans to get back in the game or at least build some momentum in a hockey game owned by the road team, which continued with an easy penalty kill. At 8:36, the Spartans have a chance in front, but Stoney Hildreth turned aside a shot by Mario Victor. At 6:04 of the 2nd, Gialloretto made another tremendous save on Dylan Trombetta from point blank range. Shots were a little better for the Spartans in the middle period as the Rams held a 10-5 edge. On to the 3rd period and Montour finally mounted a little attack but could not score on Stoney Hildreth. A timeout with 5 minutes to go for Pine Richland and I am sure Jimmy Black reminded his team that this is a 45 minute game. Montour pulled the goalie for the extra attacker with 1:38 left and Josh Fodor made them pay scoring an empty netter with 1:21 remaining to make it 3-0 and would close it out with an impressive win on the road.