Cardinals Use Big Second Half to Upset Rangers
MADISON, N.J. (May 5, 2010) – After both teams played the first two periods to a 3-3, the Cardinals offense erupted for 11 second-half goals to advance to their first ever Landmark Conference Championship Game.
The tale of two halves saw each team trade goals in the first half with Catholic (12-3) getting on the board first and Drew (8-7) coming back to tie the game on three separate occasions.
Greg Reading (Pennington, N.J./Hopewell Valley) tied the game up at one late in the first period when he set free by a great screen from
Tyler Morse (Middletown, N.Y./Minsink Valley). The Cardinals didn’t relinquish and kept the Rangers from stealing the momentum by scoring less than a minute later to grab a 2-1 lead.
Mike Sayers (Roseland, N.J./West Essex) begin the second period scoring but once again the Cardinals responded just over a minute and half later to grab its second lead of the day, 3-2.
Sam Nevpveaux (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater Raritan) netted his ninth goal of the year to tie the score just before the half.
The second half proved to be nothing like the first as Catholic scored the first two goals of the half to build a two-goal cushion. Sayers found the back of the net with 12:07 remaining to get the Rangers within one but it was Cardinals after that. Jimmy Bitonti score three of his five goals in the second half as Catholic would rattle off nine of the games last 10 goals for the 15-4 victory.
The loss is the largest margin of victory for an opponent this season for the Rangers and Catholic’s first win against Drew since Landmark play began. The 15 goals is the most surrendered by the the Drew defense all year.
The Rangers struggled on extra-man opportunities this afternoon and turned the ball over 22 times compared to Catholic’s 14.