Rocky River sophomore forward Matt Garibaldi ties the score at 3-3 with this goal early in the second period last Saturday against Holy Name. The Pirates won the tournament game, 7-4. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Pirates overcome slow start to get past Holy Name
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published Feb. 25, 2009

Maybe there was a bit of a letdown after winning the Baron Cup II championship. Maybe it was the fact that they had beaten Holy Name twice during the regular season.

But when the Green Wave took a 3-1 lead after one period of play, the Rocky River hockey team got a healthy dose of reality.

“I told them somebody had to step up and turn it on,” said Pirates head coach Chris Cogan.

Turn it on they did.

The Pirates scored three unanswered goals in the second period and fought off a Holy Name rally early in the third to come away with a 7-4 win last Saturday afternoon at the Brooklyn Sectional/District Tournament.

With the win, River moved to 22-3-2 overall and advanced to this Saturday’s 3 p.m. game against the winner of last night’s Lakewood-St. Ignatius contest.

Tonight, North Olmsted plays its second game of the tournament when the 23-7 Eagles take on Padua at 7 p.m. at the Brooklyn Recreation Center. The Eagles defeated Trinity, 4-0, last Wednesday to advance, while Padua took out Normandy, 6-2, last Thursday.

Rocky River, which was eliminated in the first round last year by North Olmsted, looked to be on the rocks early as Holy Name’s Bellivean Legal flicked the puck past River goalie Bridget Gipper less than two minutes into the game. River answered on a goal by captain Joe Emery at 7:02 off an assist from Travis Pescatrice.

But the Namers scored on a pair of slap shots later in the period to take a 3-1 lead. River had a pair of power play opportunities in the period, but failed to capitalize.

The momentum, however, swung the other way big time in the second period.

River missed on a breakaway in the first minute, then couldn’t score on its third power play try. But mere seconds after the Green Wave killed the penalty, captain Harry Hoppe found sophomore Ian Taylor at the 4:43 mark to cut the deficit to one goal.

Then at the 5:53 mark, sophomore Matt Garibaldi scored an unassisted goal to tie it at 3-3. River then got a break when it was awarded a penalty shot at 11:58, with junior captain Greg Soltes getting the puck past the left side of Namer goalie Stephane Legal.

Like they did in the first period, the Green Wave answered early in the fourth to tie the game back up at 4-4. They killed off another penalty, but River regained the lead a short time later as sophomore Robbie Plagens capped off a breakaway opportunity, with assists from Hoppe and sophomore Jimmy McFarland.

River was awarded its second penalty shot of the day after a slashing call against Holy Name, but failed to convert. It didn’t matter in the long run, because Soltes scored his second goal of the day at 12:04 off a nice pass from Garibaldi.

The Pirates put some icing on the cake in the final minutes as Hoppe scored an open-net goal off an assist from senior Dave Haas.

“We had just played them a week ago, so we knew we had to come out and play hard, that they’d be ready for us,” said Cogan. “We came out a little flat, but in the second period I thought we picked the pace up pretty well.

“We’ve got some kids banged up and out sick, but we can’t use that as an excuse. I think that penalty shot helped us big time. We just had to keep our feet moving and get the puck to the net,” he said.

Gipper wound up with 26 saves on the day to help tighten up the River defense as the game went on. Now, it’s round two coming up on Saturday.

“The kids are excited for it,” admitted Cogan. “We’ve got a week to heal up and get ready. I think this opportunity will be a good one for us.”