Council Rock North defeated Hatboro-Horsham 11-1. Check out the recaps of SOL SHSHL games played Wednesday. Photos of the CR North/Hatboro-Horsham game and CB South/CB East game are provided courtesy of Dara King, DNK Photography. Check back for a gallery of both games.
By Ben Reese
WARWICK -- It isn't often that you see a high school ice hockey coach split up his highest scoring combination.
But that's exactly what Council Rock North's Eric Tye has done. He broke up his top line of Mark Tosti, John Vanni and Cavan Tully, and he did it in order to get more offense.
It certainly worked on Thursday night as the Indians rolled over Hatboro-Horsham at the Revolution Ice Gardens 11-1 in a mercy rule victory. In the win, Tully scored five goals, Daniel Guest and Kameron Bontempo scored two each and Tosti and Jacob Borden one apiece. Jacob Mueller tallied the Hatters' lone goal.
"We switched some things around a couple weeks ago," Tye explained. "We had the three big guys on one line and we were too easy to defend when we had 34 (Tully), 16 (Vanni) and 12 (Tosti) on the same line.
"I've been telling them for weeks that we couldn't be a one-line team, and I wasn't sure we could be successful as a two-line team although we're being successful with two lines right now. We need to become a three-line team if we want to win the division and make some noise in the playoffs."
Tully, for one, buys into that theory.
"Our coach said that if we play with two lines, we win, but if you play with more lines, then we'll be a lot harder to beat and we just did that," Tully said. "It helped us balance the lines out and makes our team a lot better with two lines."
So far, it looks like the split is doing what it was intended to do. Since the beginning of the new year, the Indians have scored 34 goals in four games, an average of more than eight goals a game.
"If we can be a two-line team, we're going to be hard to defend," Tye said. "If we become a three-line team, we're going to be very, very difficult to defend."
Hatboro-Horham coach Gus Salfiti found that out first-hand.
"It didn't hurt (them) that we were not moving either," Salfiti said. "When you have a fast team playing against a team that isn't moving as fast as they could, it doubles the damage."
The Hatters actually scored the first goal of the game. Mueller fired the puck past Rock North goalie Chase D'Arcangelo with only 58 seconds elapsed in the first period for a quick 1-0 lead.
That lead lasted only five seconds, however. Tosti, with assists from Zachary Herman and Christian Zemzik, found the net behind Hatter goalie Ryan McElroy and the rout was on.
Four more Indian goals were scored in the period, one of them on the power play. Tosti's goal was followed by one from Bontempo, two by Guest and one from Borden.
Tully had assists on Bontempo's goal and the first goal by Guest on the power play. All totaled, he finished the night with seven points.
Another example of how the Indian offense dominated the Hatters was in shots. In the first period, Rock North outshot Hatboro-Horsham 19-2 and the margin was 17-4 in the second period.
Trailing 5-1 going into the second period, things only got worse for the Hatters. The Indians pelted McElroy with 10 shots in the second and scored on two of them, causing Salfiti to replace his net-minder with Ryan Bell, who allowed the final four Rock North goals.
The second period was also the time when Tully got his scoring started. He opened the period with an unassisted goal at the 4:43 mark and followed it with two goals within 38 seconds of each other to end the stanza. In between Tully's first and third goals, Bontempo netted his second marker.
It was also a period in which a Hatter was called for a five-minute major penalty, giving the Indians a five-on-four advantage for five minutes. But, slightly more than a minute after that call, an Indian was called for a two-minute penalty, putting the teams back on an even four-on-four footing.
During the time when the two players were off the ice, Tully scored his last two goals of the second period. However, a goal does not negate a five-minute major so neither of the goals were power play tallies.
Just for good measure, Tully finished up the scoring and ended the game in the third period. His second of the stanza stopped the game at the 8:59 mark.
After the game, Tully was asked if he had ever scored five goals in a high school game, to which he answered "No."
And how did it feel to score five goals?
"Pretty exhilarating," he said with a smile.
Council Rock North 11, Hatboro-Horsham 1
Hatboro-Horsham 1 0 0 – 1
Council Rock North 5 4 2 – 11
First period: 1. Jacob Mueller HH (Ryan Sharp) 0:58; 2. Mark Tosti CRN (Zachary Herman, Christian Zemzik) 1:03; 3. Kameron Bontempo CRN (Jacob Borden, Cavan Tully) 3:12; 4. Daniel Guest CRN (Tully, John Vanni) 10:02 PP: 5. Guest CRN (Zemzik, Tosti) 11:46; 6. Borden CRN (unassisted) 13:50.
Second period: 7. Tully CRN (unassisted) 4:43; 8. Bontempo CRN (Vanni, Andrew Speeney) 11:04; 9. Tully CRN (Dante Rienzi) 14:03; 10. Tully CRN (Bontempo) 14:41.
Third period: 11. Tully CRN (Vanni, Tosti) 1:12; 12. Tully CRN (Vanni, Rienzi) 8:59.
Wednesday, Jan. 27
WILLIAM TENNENT 9, NESHAMINY 3
The Redskins had a 2-1 lead after one period, but the conference-leading Panthers exploded for five goals in the second period to seize control of the game on their way to the big win.
Alec Dugan (three goals, one assist) and Sean Ovington (four assists) led a balanced Panther attack with four points each.
Jack McKeever scored in the opening minutes of the game using a John Dern assist to spot the Panthers a 1-0 lead, but goals by Anthony Sabatini (Aric Miller assist) and Nicholas Ruggero (Chase Jordan/Antonio Alicea assists) put the ‘Skins on top 2-1.
Chris Kreider’s power play goal 28 seconds in the second period (Ovington assist) knotted the score, and Chris Bremer (Dern/Bobby Markus assists) scored to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead only to watch Neshaminy knot the score. Back-to-back goals by Dugan and a goal by Kreider within a 63-second span gave the Panthers a 6-3 lead.
They closed it out with three unanswered goals in the third period with Blake Bagdon connecting on a short-handed goal and Dugan and Kreider each adding single goals.
Eric Lineman turned away 20 shots to earn the win in goal for the Panthers, who held a 38-23 advantage in shots
Williama Tennent 1-5-3 9
Neshaminy 2-1-0 3
ABINGTON 7, ARCHBISHOP WOOD 7
Four players had four-point nights in Wednesday’s tie. Abington was led by Perry Carpenter (one goal, three assists) while Wood was led by the efforts of Declan Cole (two goals, two assists), Brendan Cullura (two goals, two assists) and Timothy Cordero (one goal, three assists).
The two teams exchanged goals in the opening period with Cordero (Kevin Tiers assist) putting Wood on the board. Carpenter (Spencer Heuges/Thomas Panella assists) got that goal back for the Ghosts.
Wood led 3-1 after goals by Cullura and Tiers, but the Ghosts answered with back-to-back-to-back goals by Heuges, Panella and Tommy Carroll to go on top 4-3. Consecutive goals by Cullura, Ryan McGettigan and Cole gave the Vikings a 6-4 lead, but Carroll’s second goal of the period made it a 6-5 game heading into the final period.
Heuges and Hayden O’Hara found the net with back-to-back goals to put the Ghosts on top 7-6, but Cole scored the equalizer at the 15:10 mark of the period to knot the score.
Wood held a 28-25 edge in shots on goal. Abington’s Mason Large was credited with 21 saves while Wood’s David Casper had 18 saves.
Abington 1-4-2 7
Archbishop Wood 1-5-1 7
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 10, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 0
- Log in to post comments
