Rye Defeats Cross Town Rival RCDS 4-1

rocco v gf

On Wednesday night at Playland the Rye Garnets won the first of the two meetings this season between the Garnets and the Rye Country Day Wildcats in the “Battle For Rye”. The re-match will be on February 6th  at the RCDS rink. This was an important game for the Garnets: they defeated a cross town rival that had won the last two annual contests, and the Garnets extended their win streak to 5 games!

But the victory was not as easy as the scoreboard would lead you to believe: the score was 1-0 for Rye going into the third period with the Garnets being outshot 13-12 by the Wildcats! Rye took some early penalties that gave the Wildcats momentum and the Garnets had to hold them off and battle back. Finally, at 5:15 of the second period Defenseman Captain DEREK MULLANE took matters into his own hands. He started out in his own end, accelerated through the neutral zone, split the Wildcat’s defense and surprised the RCDS goalie with a very quick release wrist shot through the five –hole giving the Garnets a 1-0 lead.

The penalty battle shifted the other way over the course of the game, with the Garnets getting the lion share in the third frame – and they capitalized! In two back-to-back Power Plays DEREK MULLANE passed to Alternate Captain TOMMY O’BRIEN who put the puck on the stick of Junior ROCCO MACRI – and both times MACRI buried the puck in the back of the net.  But MACRI was not done, determined and hot he forced a turnover in the neutral zone with the Wildcats pressing 6-on-5. Shielding the puck while being chased by two Wildcats and getting hooked by one of them, he fought them off, and patiently and confidently snapped the puck into the empty net – the game was sealed and the hat trick was his!

The Player of the Game as selected by Coach Thomas was ROCCO MACRI with a “natural Rye” hat-trick in the third period (including two successive Power Play goals) and the game winning goal.

COACH PETER THOMAS  said “we battled hard, it was a great win, and we extended our win streak!”.

DEREK MULLANE had a goal and two Power Play assists; TOMMY O’BRIEN also assisted on both Power Play goals; and ROCCO MACRI had a “natural Rye” hat trick (three Rye goals in a row).

Goalie Captain NAT DEEN stopped 20 of 21 shots by the Wildcats.

Shots on Goal we even at 21 each. Rye went 2 for 8 on the Power Play versus RCDS going 1 for 4.

NEXT UP: New Rochelle on Wednesday, January 21st at Playland at 7:45pm

The Garnet’s face off against the New Rochelle Huguenots on Wednesday, January 21st at Playland at 7:45pm.

Garnets 6-6-0 are now on a 5 game win streak! They are getting hot just at the right time, there are 8 regular season games remaining.

January is “Hockey Versus Hunger” Month for Rye Varsity Hockey

For the second year in a row, the Varsity Hockey Program will be collecting non-perishable food items for the Carver Center Food Pantry in Port Chester, NY.

The Team will be setting up collection boxes at Rye High School, Rye Middle School, and Playland during the next two weeks in January – please donate.

So COME OUT and CHEER your Garnets on – they are playing very exciting hockey!

Don’t forget to bring a non-perishable food item to the next two games!

REMEMBER the Garnets play EVERY WEDNESDAY in JANUARY at PLAYLAND at 7:45pm !

Let’s Go Garnets!

See www.RyeVarsityHockey.com  for all the details, photos, articles, schedule and more.

Follow the game live on twitter at @RyeVarsityHocky  especially if you can’t be at a game!