CB South defeated CB East in an SHSHL contest on Friday night.
By Ben Reese
WARRINGTON — Anyone who has seen Central Bucks South play ice hockey pretty much knows what to expect.
Well, this season, the Titans haven’t been looking too much like Titans of old. But, on Friday night at Bucks County Ice, the old CB South came roaring back.
In the space of 13 minutes, the Titans scored three goals and rode them to a 4-1 win over district rival Central Bucks East.
“We did come out like we normally should,” said South coach Shaun McGinty. “We’ve had a couple of slow starts.
“We have to come out the way we always come out. We say we have to own the first five minutes and tonight we did that.”
East coach Jeff Mitchell thinks his team contributed to the effort South put forth.
“I think we came out a little flat-footed,” he said. “We do have a lot of younger classmen and they got a little bit intimidated the first couple of shifts.
“I just feel like we didn’t put the pressure on to get out at the start as much as we wanted to. I feel like we start slow, and we dig ourselves a hole that we don’t get out of. We did that in the first four, five games of the season and now it seems to be coming a trend.”
Whichever explanation you like doesn’t really matter. The Titans came out and started hitting anything in a different colored sweater.
It seemed as if the puck never left the East defensive zone during the first half of the opening period. And if it did, it wasn’t for any prolonged period of time.
South scored twice in the first 8:19 of the game. Ryan Frey, assisted by Colin Mendham and Keith Waldron, got the Titans on the board at 7:06, and Justin Montagna notched the second goal with help from Jonah Smith.
Aydin Thierolf added the third South goal at 13:05 before Drew Trask got one back for the Patriots on a two-on-one break.
“We had a lot of good pressure,” said McGinty. “That’s the MO we want to go with.
“We want to ride what we’ve always done here. We want to work hard.”
It was obvious that the Titan players liked the way they were playing. They just kept hitting and hitting and shooting the puck and shooting the puck.
“It was our first game where we actually started throwing the body around, playing physical,” DJ Lindenmuth said. “Playing CB South ice hockey as people know it.
“We stretch the ice. Step on their throats and just didn’t let go.”
Obviously, he meant that figuratively, not literally, but his point was well taken.
Also typical for a CB South game is a large number of shots on goal. The Titans took 17 in the first period and 17 in the second, finishing the game with 58 total shots on goal.
McGinty also liked how his team came together during a particularly tough stretch in the second period.
“There was a time in the second period where I thought it was the best part of the game,” he said. “I had the top three D (defensemen) in the box.
“We were shuffling guys around and that’s when the team just has to figure out a way to overcome that adversity. Thierolf had to go back on D and guys were jumping on lines and that’s big for us.”
The final goal of the game also came in that second period. Lindenmuth batted the puck past East goalie Matt Mangiacapre with assists from Mendham and Thierolf.
“They’re a solid team,” Mitchell said. “I can’t argue with anything they did out there.
“We weren’t able to capitalize on the couple chances that we were able to have.
“And we have to stay out of the box. Just silly penalties.”
Lindenmuth might have said it best.
“The Central Bucks rivalry,” he said. “They just wanted to win so bad.”
CB South 4, CB East 1
CB South 3 1 0 — 4
CB East 1 0 0 — 1
First period: 1, Ryan Frey CBS (Colin Mendham, Keith Waldron) 7:06; 2, Justin Montagna CBS (Jonah Smith) 8:19; 3, Aydin Thierolf CBS (unassisted) 13:04; 4, Drew Trask CBE (Ethan Cenci, Evan Asimakopoulos) 14:11.
Second period: 5, DJ Lindenuth CBS (Mendham, Thierolf) 11:15.
Third period: No scoring.
Shots: CBS 58, CBE 18. Saves: Jason Magaruh (CBS) 17, Matt Mangiacapre (CBE) 54.
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