The predicted snowfall turned out to be largely a fizzle, getting out and about on Monday was no issue at all. When La Academia played at McCaskey on the 16th I thought I was done with basketball for the season but the district committee had other ideas. Jerry's club fought back through the playback round and hosted the fifth-place game at JPM on the 26th. Conestoga Christian (from Morgantown, about twenty-five miles east of Lancaster) was the opponent, La Academia won to advance to the state tournament as the #5 seed from District Three. On Friday the Royals returned home from a seven-game road trip (3-2-2) for the first home game since February 3, for me it was my first game since January 19. During my infirmity I missed three games (three too many in my opinion but hospitalization doesn't play favorites), one of the members of our production crew subbed for me on the mic and by all accounts did an excellent job which I was glad to hear. When I arrived I was approached by quite a few people who asked what happened and how I was feeling, I told them the weight and vital signs are being monitored and everybody seems to be satisfied with the progress. I was discharged on the 5th and Truth Be Known if we would have been at home that weekend I probably would have worked (or at least I would have tried), the fact that the club was on the road for most of the month allowed me an extra three weeks to be 100% ready. On this night the Greenville Swamp Rabbits visited from the league's Southern Division, they are the lone non-divisional opponent on our home schedule. The game was scoreless into the second period, Ben Meehan scored early and Jeremy Michel scored late making it 2-0 at the second intermission. Greenville got on the board early in the third but Michel potted his second of the game just twenty-five seconds later, Liam Devlin's empty-netter in the closing minutes put away the 4-1 win for goaltender Yaniv Perets. Game #2 on Saturday was the annual Pink In The Rink game for breast cancer awareness, a sellout crowd of better than 6800 was in the house. This was one of those wacky last-shot-wins kind of game, Greenville prevailed in overtime 6-5. Garret Devine scored two goals for the Royals, single tallies came courtesy of Kyle Haskins, Austin Saint and Jacob Frasca with Keith Petruzzelli suffering the tough-luck loss. The boys stand at 27-18-7 (17-7-2 at home), the Worcester Railers visit on March 14. Take care, thanks for reading.
