Game Recap

Ice Prowlers away versus the Westerville Warcats
@ The Chiller North
Friday, November 18th, 2005

PROWLERS DROP TWO POINTS TO WARCATS

With the GCHSCHL standings so tight this season, each point counts. On Friday, the Prowlers went head to head with the Westerville Warcats for their second meeting of the season. The first match ended with a 5-5 tie (11/06/2005) and both teams getting a point. This time, the Prowlers weren't so lucky as the Warcats skated away with two points behind the goaltending of Bill Sorokas.

The game started with junior Nick Hess getting a breakaway 46 seconds into the game. He was stonewalled by Sorokas. That would be something the Prowlers would hear more than once in this match. The two teams battled it out all period, then with 2:09 remaining, Brandon Grim squeaked one past junior Justin Lohrman to put the Warcats on the scoreboard first. Just over a minute later, junior Cody Berkebile broke in from the point and fired a puck high on goal, but Sorokas made a quick glove save, robbing the Prowlers of a goal in the first period.

The second period started out with more of the same. With the Prowlers on the power play, there was a mad scramble in front of the Warcat net. The puck sat in the crease for a second, but no one was able to knock it in as somehow the Warcats were able to clear the puck out of the zone and avoid having the Prowlers tie up the score. The Warcats added to their lead late in the period while on the power play when Joseph Perruzzi scored. As the period wound down, the Prowlers took advantage of a misplay in the neutral zone and Hess turned the puck over for a 2-on-1 with freshman Adam McGrath. Hess sent a perfect pass across and McGrath fired the puck on net, but as luck would have it, hit the post. And the score remained 2-0 Warcats to end the second period.

Berkebile had another solid chance halfway through the third period, but Sorokas again robbed him with the glove keeping the Prowlers off the scoreboard and his team with a two goal lead. Then finally, with 5:02 remaining in the third, sophomore Austin Zurbriggen finally beat Sorokas (unassisted) to make it a one goal game and get his team back in it. As the momentum began to switch back into the Prowlers favor, Berkebile took a penalty to put his team down a man and give the momentum back to the Warcats. The Prowlers pulled Lohrman in the final minutes for the extra attacker, but were unable to mount a solid attack and the Warcats skated away with the win in the second of four matches between these two teams this season.

The Prowlers have one more league match before the league's Thanksgiving break. They have their third match of the season with the Hilliard/Southwest Wildcats at 5:00 PM on Sunday (11/20/2005) at the Chiller at Easton. The two teams split their first two meetings with a 4-2 Wildcats win in the first meeting (11/05/2005) and a 6-3 Prowler victory last Sunday (11/13/2005).

The Prowlers will then spend Thanksgiving weekend participating in the Midwest Thanksgiving High School Hockey Classic hosted by St. Charles Preparatory School. They will face Strongsville at 5:30PM on Friday (11/25/2005), then have Archbishop Moeller at 11:15 AM on Sunday (11/26/2005) and a rematch from last season's tournament with Marian (Mishawaka) at 9:30 PM. All of the Thanksgiving games will be held at the Chiller North. They then get back into their GCHSCHL league schedule on Friday (12/02/2005) when they travel back to Athens, Ohio to face the league leading Athens Bobcats. The Bobcats are undefeated at 6-0-1 with the only blemish on their record being a 3-3 tie in the Prowlers first visit to Athens this season (11/11/2005). The Prowlers will look to give the Bobcats their first loss of the season when they visit Athens at 8:00 PM on Friday (12/02/2005) at Ohio University Bird Arena.