Tuscarora at Newtown

For the second Friday in a row the crowded Gil Lay Arena gave fans an exciting CanAm matchup as the Tuscarora Tomahawks met the Newtown Golden Eagles on the turf at 8pm.  A tough and physical 4 game playoff series in the 2012 assured that there is no love lost between these two teams.

After the late game incident against Onondaga last Friday, the NGE were missing 5 runners due to suspension.  Dressing 16 runners and 2 goalies, the short benched team came into the game knowing it wouldn't be easy against a team they played 6 times last year.  The quickly growing rivalry got off to a slow start as both teams struggled to find quality shots early.  The three Tuscarora goals in the first were answered one by one as Preston Lay (3,0) netted a first period hat-trick to tie the game for his team.

The second period saw more back and forth scoring as Rudi George (3,0) and Tyler Strassburg (1,3) found the net.  2012 Defender of the Year Josh Kacprzak (1,0) tallied a breakaway goal and Drew Stevens (2,1) added a short-handed goal to put Newtown up 9-7 at the final break. 

In the third period it was a tale of power plays and penalty kills as both teams would find themselves dealing with a little of each.  After trading goals, the NGE found themselves down a man for both two and four minutes almost back-to-back.  During this stretch the Penalty Kill allowed only 1 goal with netminder Clint Jones making clutch save after save as the Tomahawks threatened to tie.  The NGE appeared to take a 2 goal lead that was called back on a crease-violation.  A high hit after the play and following scrum resulted in the NGE on a 4-on-3 powerplay.  Bobby DeFreze (1,1) found the net on an overhand shot and Newtown would maintain the lead from there.  Rudi George sealed his hat-trick and the game, as the NGE finished with a 12-9 victory.

Brian Stevens added six assists as well as four from Donald Stevens. The Golden Eagles finished with 29 penalty minutes.