February 25-26

Saturday morning in Quarryville for the start of a busy weekend, after lunch Jenny and Helen came back to the city with me. In the evening we were in Reading as the Royals hosted the Greenville Road Warriors in the opener of a two-game set. For the second consecutive Saturday the Royals won at home via shutout as they defeated Greenville 1-0. Olivier Labelle scored the lone goal of the game in the first period and Jussi Rynnas made it stand up for his first shutout of the season. Saw on the internet where McCaskey lost in the district quarterfinals to York in OT 89-88, that puts the boys into the consolation round on Tuesday. The opponent will be Central Dauphin (from suburban Harrisburg), they were the #1 seed going into the tournament but they got bumped out on Saturday as well. The game on Tuesday is at the same gym we played in against York so it looks like I'll be making a bus trip to Enola after all. A win on Tuesday puts us in the fifth-place game on Thursday, a loss puts us in the seventh-place game that same night. Only seven teams from the district advance to the state tournament so it is imperative to win at least one of the next two or the season is over. On Sunday we were back on 222 early as the annual Battle Of The Badges got underway at 12:30. This was the seventh annual game between the Reading Fire and Police Departments, the firefighters took it 3-2 for their fifth win in the series. Later in the day the Royals lost to Greenville by that identical score, Denny Urban and Kyle Neuber (from AHL Toronto) lit the lamp for the Royals as Jussi Rynnas took the loss. The boys are in Elmira on Friday, they will host the Jackals on Saturday. Take care, thanks for reading.