Vinnie's Pizza delivers first THL win

for the review)
Published: March 10, 2010

Article Tools
Font size: [A] [A] [A]
Sign Up newsletter

Vinnie's Pizza 4-Mt. Pisgah Snack Bar 3

Hayden White wasted no time testing Mt. Pisgah's backup goaltender Brian Wolfe during Week 6 of the Troy Hockey League. Only seven seconds into the game, White tallied a first shot goal to get a winless Vinnie's squad believing. Protection of that lead would fall to Jeremiah Dyer, making his goaltending debut for Vinnie's. White's goal held up until Mt. Pisgah's Mason Jones struck back with a rip that blazed past Dyer at 9:09 of the first period to even the game.

The second period was all Pizza Men. With Dyer's aggressive goaltending earning him his first shutout period, White was able to beat Wolfe again before Ben McBratney launched a second unanswered goal to push Vinnie's to their biggest lead of the season, 3-1.

Vinnie's surge of confidence continued in the third period. White muscled a shot through defenders and past Wolfe that earned him a hat trick and gave Vinnie's a daunting 4-1 lead with 13 minutes to play. Pisgah's leader responded two minutes later. Jones stickhandled his way through defenders and finally beat Dyer high side to tighten the game to 4-2.

Vinnie's maintained composure, and Dyer came up huge by gloving down a blast from Jones minutes later. Defensemen Shayne Good and John Gowin cleared away pressure repeatedly as the period wore down. With under a minute to play, Jordan Campbell launched a drive from the wing that beat Dyer and added some final drama at 4-3. But Mt. Pisgah was unable to register another shot, and suddenly it was raining gloves and sticks as Vinnie's circled together in vibrant celebration as the THL universe looked on.

"I feel really good tonight," White commented. "I think this could be the start of something for this team." Vinnie's win puts them at 1-5 on the season, while Mt. Pisgah is even at 3-3.

In His Service Catering 6-

First Citizen's National Bank 4

"I can feel the tension in the air," Brandon Frisbie smiled half way through the much-anticipated rematch of In His Service Catering (6-0) and First Citizen's National Bank (2-3-1). With THL scoring leader Duke Opdyke and teammate Ty Rockwell of First Citizen's blazing sticks against the league's most dangerous offensive line (Justin Fitzwater, Billy Bruce, and Brandon Frisbie of In His Service), the game seemed destined for offensive fireworks.

Opdyke, suffering from a fractured rib sustained in last week's game, kept a low profile all week before suiting up minutes before game time. The game held scoreless for the first eight minutes until Justin Fitzwater slipped near the wall leaving Opdyke with a wide-open shot that he razored past Austin Blank for the only score of the first period. Fitzwater sat himself to begin the second period, but he struck back halfway through. Fitzwater intercepted a Clint Vermilya pass and dished to Bruce who sent the puck on net off Chris Saik's blocker. Fitzwater found the rebound and tapped it home for a 1-1 tie. Only 25 seconds later, Fitzwater launched a blue line shot past Saik for a 2-1 In His Service lead. Continuing to gut it out, Opdyke worked himself open with 1:45 left in the second and juked a shot past Blank to again draw First Citizen's even.

As the third period began, one player would become an absolute game changer. With 10:02 remaining, Billy Bruce flexed a drive that beat Saik, and 24 seconds later Bruce slapped another missile past him for a sudden 4-2 In His Service lead. Much like Fitzwater last week, Bruce continued his one-man Rambo attack with two more seismic blasts that found net. In just under five minutes, Bruce lit the lamp four times to propel In His Service to a stunning 6-2 lead.

With 2:56 to play, Brad Bailey chopped a loose puck past Blank to make the score 6-3. Opdyke, hawked all game by Dylan Havens and Jimmy Shedden, connected with a late 10-foot wrister to end the game at 6-4.

"I was actually hoping for another overtime shootout," Bruce said. "All my shots were from the same place. I just hit them as hard as I can."

Ads by Yahoo!






Type in the characters you see in the picture below. If you have trouble reading the characters in the picture, click it to see a new one.



Be the first to comment on this article!