December 1-4

The final month of 2014 began with a Monday morning visit to the health campus, my mother had an eye appointment and I was her driver. On Tuesday evening at McCaskey the basketball team had another scrimmage, this was a three-way with Wilson and Octorara (from Berks and Chester Counties respectively). Nine ten-minute running-time periods were played in rotation, each team played six and sat out three. Coach Powell was not there at the start, he had a doctor's appointment regarding his surgery and the recovery. The fact that he is actively coaching under the circumstances is remarkable, it just shows that you can't keep a good man down. Not much going on Wednesday, on Thursday we did our usual lunch date in Quarryville. In the evening I headed north to Reading, the Royals hosted the Toledo Walleye. This was the second and last of our Thursday home dates, Jenny and her mother were absent from both because of early Friday wake-up calls. The game started at 7:30 and for the Royals it started poorly, Toledo scored three goals in the first twelve minutes. Adam Hughesman put the Royals on the board in the second period but the Walleye responded with two of their own to make it 5-1. Mike Marcou lit the lamp in the period's final seconds to bring the Royals within three, early in the third Ryan Cruthers' goal shaved the deficit to two. The Royals made it 5-4 midway through the frame when Ian Watters found the back of the net but the comeback ended there, a Toledo empty-netter in the final minute brought the final to 6-4 in favor of the Walleye. Martin Ouellette (back from the Phantoms) got the start in goal and took the loss. The Walleye return for a double-dip in March, the current home stretch continues on the weekend with the South Carolina Stingrays as the opponent. Take care, thanks for reading.