October 26-31

Saturday night in downtown Reading for the twenty-third home opener in Royals history, the Wheeling Nailers were the opponent. Wheeling was last in our division in 2017-18, the following year they were replaced by Newfoundland and Maine. With the late Growlers now disbanded the Nailers are back in the fold as a divisional rival. On this night the game started about as poorly as you could imagine, in the early going of the second period the Royals trailed 3-0. Goals by Todd Skirving and Connor McMenamin a minute apart brought the club back to within one, early in the third Travis Broughman pulled the Royals even at 3-3. Wheeling retook the lead moments later and added an insurance marker, with a minute left Skirving made it 5-4 but the Royals could not find the equalizer as Parker Gahagen took the loss in net. Sunday was a busy day, it began with two games in Rothsville. One new player joined up raising the total to forty-eight, thirty-six were in attendance. On this day Warwick beat Hillside and Ephrata won over Township, the regular season finishes on November 3. We were done by 12:30, from there I highballed it north to the Arena for the back end of the weekend. This day was just about all Royals from the get-go, scores by Connor McMenamin and AHL Phantoms assignee Jacques Bouquot (pronounced "boo-coh") made it 2-0 in the first five minutes. Wheeling got one back midway through the period, that slim lead stood up until Todd Skirving made it 3-1 early in the third. In the late going the Nailers pulled the goalie, Powell Connor hit the net from the defensive zone putting the lid on a 4-1 Royals win. Goaltender Keith Petruzzelli (another Phantom assignee and a former teammate with Skirving in St. John's) picked the win as the Royals split the weekend at home and stand at 4-1-0 overall, the club returns home on November 6. I got back home around 6:15 to discover the power out in my neighborhood, the family next door said it had gone out about twenty minutes earlier. It was finally restored about three hours later, in the meantime there was little to do but sit in the dark and wait. Take care, thanks for reading.

October 21-25

Tuesday night at McCaskey, the boys soccer team qualified for district playoffs. This was a #11 vs #6 seed matchup with Mechanicsburg visiting from the suburban Harrisburg area, about a 45-mile drive. The Red Tornado took two separate one-goal leads but were caught both times, Mechanicsburg's second goal came with just two minutes left in regulation play. After eighty minutes of regulation and another thirty minutes of overtime the game was resolved via penalty kicks, the soccer equivalent of a hockey shootout. It took nine rounds and thirteen total goals for the visitors to prevail 3-2. The game started shortly after 7:00 and wasn't over until 9:50, with it all I got home almost three hours after it began. Jenny and I had our usual lunch date on Wednesday, on Friday evening we were back at McCaskey for the final game of football season. The team began with two wins in the first three games, from there it was all downhill if not outright freefall. On this night visiting Penn Manor entered having scored forty-eights points on the season and exited with a 44-6 win. The lone score for JPM came on a Jalen Cintron four-yard carry in the third quarter, the two-point convert failed. The last winning season for the program was in 2010, in fourteen years since the mark is 29-111 (if it was baseball we'd be entering serious White Sox territory). The two victories were by an average of seventeen points, the eight losses were by an average of thirty-five. The highlight of the night was the annual Senior Night activities, in the pregame I introduced thirteen players and twelve cheerleaders and at halftime one of the associate band directors emceed their festivities (gives me a chance to take a breath and relax). Take care, thanks for reading.

October 14-20

Picked up my car at the service center on Tuesday morning, I noticed the engine was running hot on Friday and it persisted into Saturday morning. Under the circumstances I did not feel good about driving it to Reading in the afternoon, I took a ride-for-hire to the game at the Arena and one of the good people in our front office brought me home (Jenny and Helen elected not to attend but they'll be around when the regular season starts). After the problem continued into Sunday I dropped the car at the service center when I got back from Rothsville. They discovered one of the hoses leading into the radiator was leaking and three others in various stages of decay, they replaced all of them and gave the car a clean bill of health. The rest of the week had little going save for one night at the Arena and one morning in Rothsville. On Tuesday evening the organization hosted its annual meet-and-great event, head coach Jason Binkley and the entire 23-man roster was present for autographs and photos. On Sunday morning we were back at Lions Park for street hockey week #6, thirty-six players were present among the four teams. Warwick won over Ephrata and Township defeated Hillside, the league continues on the 27th. Take care, thanks for reading.

October 12-13

Saturday night at the Arena for the unofficial beginning of the 2024-25 hockey season, the Royals hosted the Adirondack Thunder in an exhibition (oh, I'm sorry, excuse me....PRESEASON) game. When we started in 2001 the late Trenton Titans were our usual preseason foe, in the latter part of the decade we played the also-defunct Elmira Jackals and still later we scheduled Wheeling and Norfolk but since 2017 the Thunder has been our exclusive preseason opponent. The Royals were in Glens Falls on Friday and won 4-2, on this night the Thunder came to town and left with a win by the exact same score. Tyler Gratton and former Newfoundland Growler Todd Skirving scored for the Royals, Parker Gahagen was goaltender of record. Skirving is a six-year veteran who played in St. John's for the last five, he's been named team captain and his presence should be huge in the locker room. The season starts for real on the 18th, the club opens at home with a Saturday date on the 26th. Sunday morning in Rothsville was warm and clear for week #5 of street hockey at Lions Park, thirty-four of the league's forty-seven players were on hand. Warwick defeated Township and Ephrata won over Hillside, we're back for week #6 on the 20th. Take care, thanks for reading. 

October 7-11

A quiet start to the new week, on Thursday I was at the Arena on Penn Street for the first time since April 13. This was the annual run-through night for the production staff in anticipation of the new season, the club plays a home exhibition game on the 12th. Training Camp started earlier in the week, head coach Jason Binkley's roster includes returning forwards Shane Sellar, Tyler Gratton and Connor McMenamin, defensemen Tony Malinowski, Kenny Johnson and Powell Connor plus goaltender Parker Gahagen (Yvan Mongo is also on the roster but is recovering from injury, he's expected to report when healthy). The league season starts with three on the road before the home opener on the 26th. The Royals host their six divisional opponents (with our old friends the Wheeling Nailers replacing the now-defunct Newfoundland Growlers), also on the home schedule are the Indy Fuel who last visited in October of 2022 and the Jacksonville Icemen for the first time since November of 2017. Friday was a football night at McCaskey, after two weeks away the Red Tornado was at home versus Cedar Crest. It was Hall-Of-Fame Night and Homecoming, all the festivities took place at halftime and of course I was at the mic for All Of It. The game itself was very similar to any number of game nights in recent years, JPM fell behind early and could never quite catch up. The final score was 39-18, the Red Tornado scored three unconverted touchdowns and DeAndre Jones was involved in each. Dre passed to Quinnes Jones-Hawkins for a 23-yard score and ran for two himself from five and thirty yards respectively. The club has two games left including the final home date on the 25th. Take care, thanks for reading.

September 30-October 6

Three straight nights of work started the new week thanks to three straight Senior Nights at McCaskey. All three took place at 7:00 on the turf field which opened at the tail-end of the 2023 Fall sports season and all were very well-attended. On Monday the field hockey team saluted its graduating seniors, the next night it was girls soccer and on Wednesday it was the boys soccer team's turn. These are all sports that do not generally utilize a PA announcer, the Senior Nights are the exception and I'm only too glad to be called upon if I'm available. In the games themselves the school was 2-1 with field hockey and boys soccer earning victories. The latter part of the week was quiet except for Saturday lunch with Jenny, on Sunday it was sunny and dry as we convened at Lions Park in Rothsville for street hockey week #4. No new players joined up on this day but thirty-five of the forty-seven currently enrolled were present, Warwick won over Hillside and Township defeated Ephrata. Take care, thanks for reading.