Photo courtesy of Tracy Valko: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f710114994
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — Wednesday night’s game at Hatfield Ice matched two teams with a combined total of two wins between them, evenly divided.
In the previous matchup between Neshaminy and Central Bucks West, the game ended in a 3-3 tie. Unfortunately, many of the losses for both teams have been, well, not pretty.
While this one wasn’t a work of art, one team, CB West, came out with the 9-1 victory, and the Bucks could give a lot of the credit for the win to the first period.
West scored six goals in the stanza, getting off to a quick start. And pretty much coasted to the end.
Anthony Dowd had a hand in all six goals in the first, He scored four and assisted on the other two.
That big offensive output appeared to surprise the ‘Skins. They never recovered.
“It surprised them; surprised us; surprised the fans,” said CB West coach Dave Baun. “Some of the games are evenly matched, some of them are not evenly matched.
“We’ve faced opponents who have taken it to us and, once in a while, we take it to someone else. That’s the way high school sports are supposed to work.”
Dowd gave a lot of credit to his teammates.
“We came out hot,” he said. “We put shots on net and got some goals in the back of the net and just went from there.
“We really got the momentum in the first and took it from there. We just started moving the puck.
“Some games we come out sleeping, and it doesn’t go the way we want it to. Tonight, it came out the way we wanted it to.”
Neshaminy coach Bill Keyser wasn’t really surprised at the way the Bucks played. He had seen it before.
“They came out firing,” said Keyser. “They were very well prepared.
“The last time we played, it was a great game. We knew they were very compatible with us.
“I think they knew they had a shot, that they could beat us if they played their game. They came out with the right mindset.”
Baun kept coming back to his first thought, though.
“When our guys shoot the puck and go to the net, good things happen,” he said. “I know they had a young goalie in the net.”
And that is the rub.
Neshaminy was woefully undermanned for the game. There were only seven skaters on its bench and the goalie was a young girl called up from the junior varsity squad.
“With the Martin Luther King tournament and everything, my kids are going away to tournaments and all,” Keyser said. “But we’ve been undermanned for two weeks now, so they are kind of getting accustomed to it. They’re workers; they come out and they love the game.
“We knew they (West) were going to be tough. With bringing the underclassman for goaltending, I knew we had our work cut out for us.”
The Neshaminy goalie, Gianna Raggio, acquitted herself pretty well. After getting bombed for six goals in the first, she only allowed three more in the final two periods, facing a total of 29 shots.
That is not to say that the West netminder, Liam Rogers, didn’t play well. He kicked out a lot of shots, allowing only the one goal against 34 shots on goal.
In that first period, Dowd started things off with his first goal at the 2:47 mark and followed that up with one at 4:27. After Adam Ricci scored at 8:48, Dowd collected two more markers, one at 10:45 and one at 11:30, before Nick Bruno finished off the scoring at 14:02. By the way, Dowd had assists on both Ricci’s and Bruno’s goals.
Things didn’t get any better for Neshaminy in the second period as the Bucks scored twice, getting goals from Brandon March and Thomas Schlotter. However, the ‘Skins did get their lone goal at 4:19 of the period off the stick of Jake Delaney.
West finished up the scoring in the third period. Bruno collected his second goal with only 2:06 left in the game.
The win lifts West past Neshaminy in the standings and puts the Bucks closer to Pennsbury, which is only two points ahead of them.
CB West 9, Neshaminy 1
Neshaminy 0 1 0 — 1
CB West 6 2 1 — 9
First period: 1, Anthony Dowd CBW (Nick Bruno) 2:47; 2, Dowd CBW (Colin Murray) 4:27; 3, Adam Ricci CBW (Bruno, Dowd) 8:48; 4, Dowd CBW (Bruno) 10:45; 5, Dowd CBW (Ricci) 11:30; 6, Bruno CBW (Dowd, Christian Kulesh) 14:02.
Second period: 7, Brandon March CBW (unassisted) 1:01 PP; 8, Thomas Schlotter CBW (Ricci) 4:13; 9, Jake Delaney N (unassisted) 4:19.
Third period: 10, Bruno CBW (Ricci) 14:54.
Shots: N 34, CBW 29. Saves: Gianna Raggio (N) 20, Liam Rogers (CBW) 33.
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