On Sunday, January 3rd, the AYHA squirt squad visited Bloomington, Indiana for a pair of early morning contests in BTHL action. While showing several signs of closing the gap on the well-oiled Bloomington Blade attack, the Bobcats still came up on the short end of the stick in both contests. The slick passing and tenacious skating of the Blades caught up the Bobcats in the end.
In the first contest, it appeared early the ‘Cats were up to the challenge. In fact, the score was tied 2-2 at the end of the first period until Blade attack wore down the ‘Cats. In the first period, Rhys Westenbarger started the scoring for the ‘Cats with a goal with an assist from Chase Sammons. A minute later Sammons scored one with the assist coming from the stick of Nicholas Barga. In the second, Bloomington stretched the gap with two quick goals. Sammons answered with a goal around the mid-point of the second. However, the ‘Cats could not draw any closer. When the final horn blew, the score was 11-3. Goalie, Teagan Ries and the Bobcat defense were under constant attack from the hard charging Blades. Ries made 32 saves on 43 shots.
The second game started nearly in the same fashion as the first one did. The ‘Cats started the scoring in this game on a great hustle play by Storm Walburn and Chase Sammons. While receiving pressure from behind, Walburn made an off balanced shot that was poked in by Sammons. The Blades answered quickly with two goals of their own. At the end of one, the ‘Cats were down 2-1. However, once again, the Blade attack proved to be too much for the ‘Cats to defend. The final score was 10-1. Ries made 27 saves on 37 shots in this game.
The ‘Cats return to action on Sunday the 10th when they host the Easton Ducks for a pair of non-league games. The puck drops at 7:30 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.
Photo: Gehrett Kerns looks for a pass from a teammate.