Rough Riders Blanked by Walsh Jesuit

Within a 24-hour span, the Kent Roosevelt ice hockey team experienced the oft spoken of emotional roller coaster of sports, “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,” in their first two games of the Walsh Jesuit Invitational hockey tournament at Kent State Ice Arena.

Following an overtime, upset 2-1 victory over Holy Name in their first action of the tournament on Friday evening, the Riders were shut out, 6-0, by the Walsh Jesuit Warriors in round two of the tournament on Saturday.

“This is a story of two totally different games. This (Walsh Jesuit) is a very strong Red South team. They are very deep and probably one of the more highly skilled teams we’ve played,” commented Roosevelt coach Ben Barlow following the defeat.

“Moving forward against these teams and when you get into the Baron Cup and into the state playoffs we need to play close to flawless hockey in order for us to be successful. We forced ourselves into making mistakes and, of course, we’re high school kids and we’re going to make mistakes, but you just try to eliminate them,” continued Barlow when assessing the performance of his team.

After a first period in which Pete Myeroff netted the only goal of the stanza on a Walsh Jesuit power play, the Warriors opened up the game in the second period by scoring four goals, two by sophomore Dawson DiPietro and one each by Joe Lane and Ben Romanski.

DiPietro tallied the final goal of the game at 12:00 minutes of the third period, earning a hat trick for the evening.

The Riders continue play in the tournament on Sunday against another Red South division team, Hudson.

“We knew this tournament was going to be a real challenge for us. We accept that. We know we’re better now than we were this morning after playing that team and that level of play. Our kids are ready. They believe they can win,” observed Barlow.

Blue line notes:

• Following the Walsh Jesuit tournament, the Rough Riders return to White Division league play on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Parma Normandy at 8:30 p.m. and again on Thursday, Jan. 19, against Solon at 7:15 PM at Kent State Ice Arena. Solon is currently atop the White East Division, leading Roosevelt by two points.

• The Roosevelt Pep Band will perform at the Solon game on Thursday.

Scoring summary:

1st Period: 1) WJ: Myeroff (Musgrave, Matson) 4:24 PP

2nd Period: 2) WJ: Lane (DiPietro) 13:41, 3) WJ: DiPietro (Myeroff, Musgrave) 10:19 PP 4) WJ: DiPietro (Romanski) 8:02, 5) WJ: Romanski (DiPietro, Musgrave)
2:38 PP

3rd Period: 6) WJ: DiPietro 12:00