PORT HURON, MI – The Prowlers simply couldn’t be stopped as they posted a three-game winning weekend, one at home and two on the road. Forward Mark Rivera put up back to back hat tricks on both Saturday and Sunday night.
Beginning Friday night Dec. 11 in Port Huron, the Prowlers dominated the Berlin River Drivers in the early part of the game. Brian Soskin opened up the scoring at 4:04 into the 1st, followed by Justin Alonzo a minute later. A tic-tac-toe play from Len Pelletier and Chris Leveille would help net Brian Soskin’s 3rd goal and 8th point of the season.
The Prowlers scored four goals in the 1st and a total of five unanswered goals into the 2nd period, making the contest begin to look like a rout.
Berlin’s Curtis Warren, Benoit Charron and Troy Polino scored three unanswered goals in the 2nd and 3rd periods consecutively, but the mountain was just too tall to climb as the Prowlers hung on to win it 5-3.
On Saturday the Prowlers traveled to Notre Dame Arena and picked up where they left off on Friday, getting on the scoreboard first when Ahmed Mahfouz assisted by Justin Alonzo scored at just over the 3 minute mark of the 1st period. The River Drivers Matias Simontaival tied things up at one, taking assists from Steven Gallo and Sean Poitras at the 9:35 mark of the period. That was the end of Berlin’s momentum for the evening.
The 2nd period was owned by the Prowlers as they put four unanswered goals on the board. Prowlers’ goaltender Andy DiCristofaro stood tall during the period stopping all 13 shots he faced.
Prowlers’ Mark Rivera tallied his second goal of the night from an assist from Jack Callahan at 3:43 into the 3rd period putting the Prowlers ahead 7 to 1. With under a minute to play Rivera would tally his third goal of the night on assists from Robert Vanwysberghe and Jay Kenney.
River Drivers’ goaltender Bradley Barone faced 37 shots and registered 29 saves in the loss. Prowlers’ goaltender Andy DiCristofaro faced 44 shots and registered 43 saves in the win.
On Sunday Port Huron traveled to Brewster NY to face the Bulldogs, with similar results. Port Huron deftly out-shot Brewster, scoring double the goals in half of the attempts. Mark Rivera kicked off the festivities with an unassisted goal at 8:43 on his way to hat trick number two. With 1:36 remaining, Roger Tagoona followed up with assists by Justin Alonzo and Jack Callahan for an all Prowlers’ 1st period.
Brewster got on the board at 4:53 from a power play goal by Sean Maktaak. Rivera answered 2 minutes later with goal number two, the assists going to Robert Vanwysberge and Jay Kenney. The hat trick goal came at 1:08 into third, when RIvera netted a short-handed unassisted goal to make it 4-1.
Brewster mounted a small comeback with consecutive goals by Zack Hale and John Scully, but another unassisted goal by Tagoona and an empty-net goal with 12 seconds remaining from Jay Kenney sealed it. Port Huron goalie Jonah Imoo got the win with 58 saves on 61 shots, while Brewster’s James Robbins stopped 27 of 33.
“There’s nothing like Times Square,” Port Huron coach Trevor Karasiewicz posted hours after the game. That’s especially true after a 3-win weekend.
Text provided by D.J. Palm and official FHL media release
Photos courtesy of Anthony and Darci Essmaker
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