CB East edged CB South in a thriller in SHSHL ice hockey action Wednesday.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — There are a lot of rivalries in the Suburban High School Hockey League.
But none are as competitive as the ones between the three Central Bucks School District schools. CB East and West always play a hotly contested game right before Thanksgiving, and for quite a few years CB South was the dominant team in the league.
On Wednesday night at Hatfield Ice, East and South squared off in one of those intradistrict rivalries. The Patriots came out on the long end of this one 4-3, scoring the deciding goal with slightly over a minute and a half to play.
So, putting it in perspective, it was just like all the other rivalries, tightly contested.
“Since the schools are so close, it’s a natural rivalry,” said East coach Jeff Mitchell. “It’s usually good competition between the schools. There’s always a bit of ‘heat’ in the air.”
South coach Shaun McGinty had a bit of a spin on it, though.
“East and West have more of a history than we do because we’re so new,” he said. “Being in the Central Bucks district, these guys look forward to it.”
The Patriots’ Stephen DiRugeris, who scored two goals in the game including the game-winner, added his opinion.
“It’s always competitive between the CB schools,” he said. “(Playing the other CB schools) there’s always an amount of popularity surrounding it.
“It’s good to have the fans out here. Everyone supports us and it’s great to have the fans.”
The game itself went back and forth. East broke from the gate in the first period to take a 1-0 lead and then upped it to 2-0 in the second.
South came roaring back in the second period to tie the game and then take the lead at 3-2. But East rallied in the third period to tie and then win the game.
The key goal in the game was the final one. After Chris Asimakopoulos scored with 6:10 gone to tie the game, DiRugeris finished things off with 1:32 left in the third.
“It was a great pass from Phil McIntyre,” DiRugeris said. “We were going in the zone, and it just worked out good.”
Mitchell agreed.
“He got a good feed from McIntyre,” the coach said. “Stephen is always in the right spot at the right time, and luckily, he was able to bury it for us.”
What it actually turned out to be was a two-on-one for the Patriots as the clock ticked toward zero. And DiRugeris took the pass from McIntyre and beat South goalie Dominic Varacallo.
“We had a defenseman who didn’t step up in the neutral zone and gave up a two-on-one and they finished the two-on-one,” McGinty said. “(It was) small mistakes early on with us. We had guys making inappropriate decisions and they just can’t do that.”
There had to be some concern on the East bench in the second period. After DiRugeris had given the Patriots a 2-0 lead, the Titans came flying back to tie and then take the lead.
DiRugeris upped the East lead to 2-0 at 5:45 of the second. But suddenly South came alive.
Aidan Gaffney scored an unassisted goal off a scramble in front of the East net at 9:16. Then Aydin Thierolf tied the game off an assist from Aidan Linso at 11:50 and Justin Montagna untied at 13:25 with help from Matt Crouch.
“It really seemed like we had a mental breakdown,” Mitchell said. “The boys need to be able to set aside those emotions and go to work every shift.”
McGinty couldn’t help but feel good about the second period.
“That’s the first second period we have won all year,” he said. “We’re trying to change some things up and go back to just playing South hockey — getting to the blue line and finding the net, earning faceoffs, stop the East and West stuff.
“Our shot total was good again, That’s three games in a row now.”
South has always in past seasons won the shot battle. Against East, the Titans fired 40 shots at Varacallo to 28 shots on South netminder Matt Mangiacapre.
And, according to DiRugeris, it was a good ending.
“It was good that we came back from the deficit,” he said. “We were up, then South was up and we came back and ended it.”
CB East 4, CB South 3
CB East 1 1 2 — 4
CB South 0 3 0 — 3
First period: 1, Tyler Godown CBE (Nick Young) 7:28.
Second period: 2, Stephen DiRugeris CBE (Aiden Schmidt) 5:45; 3, Aidan Gaffney CBS (unassisted) 9:16; 4, Aydin Thierolf CBS (Aidan Linso) 11:50; 5, Justin Montagna CBS (Matt Crouch) 13:25.
Third period: 6, Chris Asimakopoulos CBE (DJ Brown) 6:10; 7, DiRugeris CBE (Phil McIntyre) 15:28.
Shots: CBE 28, CBS 40. Saves: Matt Mangiacapre (CBE) 37; Dominic Varacallo (CBS) 24.
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