Monday night at McCaskey for one last girls' game, this was recently added as a makeup from a snow weekend in January. Cedar Cliff (from suburban Harrisburg, not to be confused with Cedar CREST) was the opponent, it was a rough night for JPM with both JV and varsity coming out on the losing end. Tuesday was a long day that started early, we'll review its events in reverse order. In late afternoon we boarded the bus at McCaskey for the final game of the boys' season, the scene was Cedar Crest (in suburban Lebanon, not to be confused with Cedar CLIFF). The JV squad suffered its fifth consecutive loss to finish at 9-13, the varsity game was regrettably never really in doubt. We were down nineteen at the quarter and twenty-three at halftime, the mercy rule kicked in midway through the third quarter. The final was 67-44 bringing the final varsity record to 7-15. We had only eight players available for the varsity game, every JV player not already on the varsity roster was made eligible to appear if needed. I've been at it at McCaskey for thirty-six years now and each one seems to go faster and faster, this season ended a mere nine weeks and four days after it started. This day began with a 7:00 wakeup call, by 7:30 I was on the road north. The annual Education Day faced off at 10:30 with the Wheeling Nailers as the opposition, this was the first home game of the season that featured an opponent making just this one appearance. Tyson Fawcett gave the Royals a 1-0 lead late in the first period but from there it was all Wheeling, the Nailers tied it in the second and scored twice in the third to win 3-1. Nolan Maier was goalie of record as the club falls to 17-20-6, 9-11-3 at the Arena. The club returns home from a three-game road trip on Saturday the 17th. Take care, thanks for reading.
