The Athens Bobcat squirt squad hosted the Easton Ducks in a pair of early morning, non-league games on Sunday. Both games were hotly contested and were very entertaining to watch. However, when the day was done, Athens was able to shoot down the Ducks in just one of the two contests.
Game number one was a defensive struggle. The Bobcats were stymied by the Ducks' staunch defense all game long and were unable to scratch out any goals. However, the Bobcat defense was pretty tough as well, allowing only one goal per period. Nick Lutz made his debut in between the pipes and was very solid. Lutz made 14 saves on 17 shots. Easton’s quack attack turned out to be too much in the end taking the game 3-0.
In the second game, the ‘Cats were looking to get out of their offensive slump by declaring that it was officially duck season. And Athens looked as if they were well on their way to do this at the midpoint of the first when Chase Sammons broke away for a goal. However, the Ducks did not fly away by responding with two goals of their own at the end of the first. The ‘Cats answered right back in the second with three goals, two from the stick of Sammons and one from the stick of Nick Lutz. The Ducks scored two of their own in the second to make the score 4-4 when the horn blew. The ‘Cats answered first in the final period with a goal by Sammons with the aid of an Eli Kennedy assist. The Ducks got the goal back by scoring halfway through the third. Things looked a little grim in the third when Athens was forced to kill off a Duck power play around the 4:20 mark in the period. However, the ‘Cats responded with a short-handed goal by Sammons. The Ducks would still not go away and tied the score with 2:20 left. Just when the game appeared that it might end in a tie, Sammons scored with 26 seconds left in the game with the help on an assist by Finn Mitchell. Then, Sammons capped the game off with another goal just 8 seconds later. Final score 8-6.
The ‘Cats were led by Sammons with seven goals and an assist. Nick Lutz added a goal. Tallying assists for Athens were Eli Kennedy with three and Finn Mitchell with one. Anthony Koping did an excellent job in goal, making 25 saves on 31 shots. Defensemen, Mitchell, Nicholas Barga, Evan Adams, and Max Cook kept the Ducks off balance for the entire game. The addition of Rory O’Malley and Dominic Norris allowed the ‘Cats to play three offensive lines which kept the team fresh and skating hard in the third. The hustle of Storm Walburn, Gehrett Kerns, Teagan Ries, and Rhys Westenbarger helped apply pressure to the visitors from Easton.
The Bobcats hope to start a winning streak by making the long trek to Owensboro, KY to take on the Blast in BTHL play. The puck drops Sunday morning at 8:00 and 10:00.
Photo: Chase Sammons breaks away from the pack for a breakaway.