Rough Rider Icers Skate Past Normandy, Move Into Tie For First Place

The Kent Roosevelt Rough Rider hockey teamed traveled to Parma Tuesday evening with the defined mission of defeating league foe Parma Normandy and thereby earning the Riders a tie for first place in the White East Division with Solon.

Mission accomplished – with some difficulty – in an 8 to 6 Rough Rider victory over the Invaders.

“Ultimately, we pull out the victory amid some adversity in the game. A few too many penalties, some tough calls that didn’t go our way and their power play was on a role for them,” summarized Roosevelt coach Ben Barlow.

The Riders had a comfortable 5-2 lead after two periods of play, with Kyle Manning, Gordie Fisher and Scott Rainey each finding the net once and captain Tom Fisher scoring two goals before the start of the final period.

Normandy’s goals were scored by Adam Cole and John Urmetz.

The third period was, according to Barlow, “safe to say, one our worst, if not the worst, period we have played all season. Allowing four goals (in one period) against anybody is extremely unacceptable. We need to be better than that. That’s a loss of focus through 45 minutes of play. We did just enough to get by.”

However, the Rough Riders were resilient in the final period.

“We just kept bouncing back, when they would score, we scored,” observed Barlow in reviewing a period that featured a total of seven goals.

Normandy scored four times in the final period, two by Dylan Burgbacher, one by Craig Jarzenand Cole’s second of the game.

For the Riders, Tom Fisher scored his third and fourth goals of the night and freshman Gabe Smith hit an empty net goal from near the red line giving the Riders the two goal margin of victory with 1:07 remaining in the game.

One of the game’s elements that pleased Barlow was the effort of his younger players.

“I like that we got production from our young guys again. Smith scored, Fisher (Gordie) scored, Rainey scored and Dontae Montemayor bounced back and forth from D (defense) to forward. Those kids played hard, we are seeing some real growth from our young guys.”

“We pull out the victory and in the end that’s the important piece,” concluded Barlow.