Cranford Beats Dayton 5-1 on Ice

Cranford defenseman Billy Davitt earned a hat trick while goaltender Mike Williams stopped 16 shots to pace the Cougars to a 5-1 win over Jonathan Dayton High School at Warinanco Park in Roselle.

"I felt like I really need to take leadership and get us on the right path," said Davitt. "We had three losses in a row and we really needed to come out and get a win to get us on a streak. It's always good to be a part of a big win."

Cranford, lit up the scoreboard first when Vince Fitzgerald scored at the 10:24 mark of the first period off an assist by Pat Hartnett to give the Cougars an early lead, which held up after the first 15 minutes.

At 7:20 of the second period, Davitt notched the first of his three goals, assisted by freshman Tom Fitzgerald to give Cranford a 2-0 lead.

"Billy's been playing fantastic," said Cranford head coach Rich Hurley. "He does a great job back on defense, has been our most solid defender, he's picking all the right times to step up into the offense and today he was able to bang a few past the goalie, which was great, I'm really happy for him."

Three minutes later, Dayton drew within one when senior forward Mike Tarantula lit the lamp unassisted for his 14th goal of the season.

"We're always working hard out there," said Tarantulo. "Unfortunately today, we didn't come out with a win. On my goal, it was a team effort, we were on a power play, we were in front of the net and I just got the rebound."

Dayton hurt their cause all night by making a few too many visits to the penalty box.

"We took 10 penalties, 20 minutes in the box," said said Dayton's first year coach Andrew Trimble. "You're never going to win a game when you're down a man that much. Some of these guys keep letting the little things irritate them to the point where they take their head out of the game. Whether it be life or hockey, you can't do those things."

Bulldogs goalie Dan Dubeau made 42 saves to keep his team within striking distance for much of the contest.

But Hartnett would answer back just :55 after Tarantula's goal, assisted by Dan Murphy to give Cranford a 3-1 heading into the third period.

"Coach Hurley has pretty much told me that my line has to start producing more, so I wanted to do a little more, get on the scoresheet, get my plus-minus up," said Hartnett. "I had two assists tonight and one goal. I was on for every goal, I thought I did a pretty good job. For the most part, the whole team played well."

"We did everything we wanted to do tonight," said Hurley. "We had some backdoor plays and almost scored on those. They packed it in front of the net, we kept kicking it back to the point. We did a pretty good job with that and we were able to get five goals by him, which is more than a lot of other teams have been able to do."

Davitt iced the game with a pair of goals in the final stanza. The last one, with two minutes left, gave Hartnett his second assist of the game, but he was quick to credit his defense.

"It was a solid effort," said Hartnett. "Our defense played great back there. We just have to keep clearing out the rebounds. It's been a weakness of ours, even today, the one goal was on a rebound we couldn't clear, so we gotta work on that."

Dayton will next face-off against Johnson on Friday. They lost to the Crusaders earlier in the season.

"We played them to 5-3 last time and I think we can play them strong again," said Trimble. "We can do well against them."

Cranford will next travel to Summit Tuesday for a 6:00 p.m. game against one of the best in the area.

"Summit's a good team," said Davitt. "They're one of the better teams in our county, but I think we can beat them. We're coming together as a team, the freshmen are starting to step up and take their roles on the team."

"Summit's tough. We're going to have to show up with our "A" game," said Hurley. "They've knocked off some decent teams', they tied Johnson the other night. They dominated us twice last season, so we're not taking anything for granted. We're going to have our hands full."