Friday afternoon: at McCaskey for the short bus ride into the northern suburbs, the destination was Neffsville for a divisional game at Manheim Township. The first two games within the league were both at home, this was the first of five straight on the road. The JV squad got the night started on the good side with their second win of the season, the varsity held serve with a 62-49 victory. Whenever we play within our division (and especially on the road) you know you're going to get the opponent's best shot but this night was unusual. We led by ten after one and fourteen at the half, Township never quite went away but at the same time they never seriously threatened. I wouldn't say it was an easy win because such things don't exist for us but it was not the usual dogfight most may have expected. Eleven players got into the game and six made the scoring column: Markelle Caine led with 16, Jonathan Byrd scored 12, Nemias Tirado added 11 and Eric Centeno hit double figures with ten, Elis Garcia had eight points and Aiden Burgess closed it out with five. The club reached the midpoint of its schedule at 7-4, by contrast the '21-22 team didn't get its seventh win until the season's seventeenth game. The guys didn't get a lot of time to enjoy the win, they were back at it early on Saturday afternoon at a showcase event at Red Lion HS in York County. I was absent but I saw later where the boys lost to Central York, they play next on Tuesday the 10th. Saturday was a hockey night on Penn Street in downtown Reading, the Worcester Railers were in town for the first of their three regular-season visits. The Royals went 3-1 on the most recent road swing including a come-from-behind OT win in Worcester on Friday. The rematch on Saturday night at the Arena remained scoreless until deep into the second period, Tyler Kirkup lit the lamp to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. Shane Sellar found the net early in the third making it 2-0 but the visitors from central Massachusetts pulled to within one with fifteen minutes left. There was no further scoring as the Royals earned the weekend sweep 2-1, Nolan Meier (back from a stint with the Phantoms) was the winning goaltender. The club hits the thirty-game mark at 20-9-1 overall, 10-4 at home. Since starting the season 0-3-1 they have won twenty of the last twenty-six, the next game at the Arena is on Friday the 13th. Take care, thanks for reading.
