January 15-17

Up and at it early on Monday for the annual MLK Day game at the Arena, the Royals hosted the Maine Mariners in the rubber game of the three-game set. The Royals' offensive struggles continued on this day with a 4-1 loss, Joseph Nardi scored the lone goal early in the third after the Mariners had scored the game's first three. Nolan Meier was goaltender of record as the Royals fall to 14-17-2 overall and 8-8-1 at home. The club plays its next three on the road which will mark the season's midway point, the next home date is on Wednesday the 24th. On the way home I did the errand run I would have otherwise made in the morning, that was by design because winter weather was expected overnight into Tuesday. It was gone for the most part by the time I was up for the day, I got the front walk cleared and the car cleaned off and warmed up. That was the extent of the day's activities, the basketball team had a game in the evening which was postponed and reset for Wednesday night. On Wednesday a newspaper story said we had about four inches of the slop in the city with the northern part of the county getting hit a little harder. Morning temperatures were only in the 20s but driving was no issue, I had lunch with Jenny and her mother as usual. At 3:30 we boarded the bus at McCaskey for the game rescheduled from the night before, the destination was Unionville in southern Chester County about forty miles from Lancaster. We had played Unionville at home in 2023, this night in their gym was a case of deja vu in the worst way. The JV lost by three points, the varsity lost 75-58. When you play an opponent whose entire offensive strategy revolves around shooting three-point goals and that team absolutely DOES NOT MISS there is nothing you can do. Unionville scored eleven "threes" in the JV game and twelve more in the varsity game, when a team shoots the ball like that the greatest coaching in the world isn't going to be able to stop it. On the bright side JPM had three guys in double figures, DeAndre Jones with 15, Kamryn Pugh with 12 and Aiden Burgess with 10 but it all added up to a tenth loss through fifteen games of a season that has gone off the rails in a hurry. Take care, thanks for reading.