January 10-12

Friday lunch with Jenny and her mother, in the afternoon we made our way into downtown Reading, The Royals hosted the Wheeling Nailers for the third of their four regular-season visits. It was Country Music Night at the Arena, singer-songwriter Kendal Conrad (from neighboring Montgomery County) performed on the concourse during the pregame. On the ice the Royals took a 2-0 lead in the first on scores from Matthew Strome and Thomas Ebbing, Brayden Low lit the lame early in the second to extend the lead to three. The Nailers scored two of their own later in the second, the game remained 3-2 into the closing minutes. Wheeling pulled the goalie in favor of the extra attacker, empty-net scores by Steven Swavely and Ebbing (his second of the night) salted away the 5-2 victory for goaltender Karill Ustemenko. The Royals hit the overall midway point at 20-12-4, the record at home improves to 14-4-1. The club hosts Adirondack on Friday the 17th. On Saturday afternoon we convened early at McCaskey for the 130-mile bus trip north to Williamsport, we departed shortly after 1:00 and arrived around 3:40 or so. The JV game tipped at 4:30 and required two overtime periods for JPM to prevail 92-88, in the varsity game we were in control almost from the get-go but Williamsport hung tough and never really went away. We were up by four at the quarter and fourteen at the half, the second half was dead even as we won 81-67. Elijah Terry had the big night with 22, Makai Ortiz-Gray added 13, Samir Gordon 11 and Isaiah Thomas hit double figures with ten. The club has won five straight and stands at 8-4 overall with an NBA-style week looming, the boys play at Penn Manor on Monday (the makeup game from the 7th) and host Cedar Crest on Tuesday with another back-to-back on the docket for Friday and Saturday. Thanks to the earlier start we were back in Lancaster by 11:15, a rainy Sunday was spent in the comfort of home. Take care, thanks for reading.