Eels Part Two

This and That from the Tournament

According to Sports Information Director Young Ted Knorr, 36 cases of beer were consumed by team personnel and "assorted nuts" accompanying the Eels.

The team mascot,Jerry the Eel,was taken out of his gallon jug and placed in a bathtub upon arrival at the motel. The manager of the Royal Allegheny where we stayed quickly learned of this and asked to see him and he was duly impressed.

Curfew restrictions were implemented by the "Coach" to keep the players in their best form for Saturday's action. A few actually adhered to them.

The Eels opened the tourny with a 5-0 victory over the Springdale Drop Inn as Goalie Tim "Fus" Stoltzfus recorded the shutout relatively easily as the Eels outshot the Inn by a 35-9 count. Steve "Wong Lee" Graybill recorded the first goal in Eel history with an assist to Marty Hornberger. "Wong Lee" later added another tally as did Art Moshos,Desi Deeter and Captain Ron Mathiot.

Game # 2 action saw "Fus" get another whitewash as the Eels outshot Team Roscoe 54-9 enroute to a 9-0 victory,sparked by a hat trick from Desi Deeter. Bobby Rife and Marty Hornberger chipped in with two goals apiece while Steve Dellinger and Phil Zangari each added a goal.

"Fus" garnered his third consecutive shutout in the next contest as the Eels blanked Penn Hills Daily's Juice by a 3-0 verdict. This was an early Sunday morning game and the effects of not abiding by the team's curfew rules was evident as the team struggled until they banged in two third period goals. The Eels outshot the Juice by a 28-8 margin. Marty Hornberger scored twice and Phil Zangari added the final score.

Game # 4 featured a match-up between the tournament favorite,The Islington Kings,from Canada and the Eels. The final score was 6-2 but it was a closer game than that,. The shots on goal were 31-22,Eels. The Canadians tried a psychological ploy before the game in arriving seconds before the game was too start,risking a delay of game penalty. Coach had his players,straddle their opponents blue line while tapping our sticks on the rink in obvious defiance. I remember being told that a member of the Kings group ran back and told them this team (The Eels) were serious. A first period four goal explosion with Keith Musser,Hornberger,Moshos and Deeter scoring seemed to bode an easy victory but that was not the case as the Kings dominated play in the second period but could only cut the deficit

to 4-1 before Sam "Space" Wickersham, a crowd favorite,because of his barrel-chested frame combined with slick ball handling skills made it 5-1 near the end of the period. Ron Mathiot took the steam out of any Islington comeback hopes when he tallied a shorthanded goal directly off a face off won by Art Moshos early in the final period. Young Ted Knorr took the gallon jug that contained Jerry the Eel and dangled it in front of a King player who then took a menacing swipe at it with his hockey stick but Ted calling on his old football playing agility withdrew it from harm's way.

When the horn sounded to end the game the Eels imbibed freely of our favorite beverage only to be warned by a member of the Kings that we hadn't won anything yet. There was still a game to go for the Championship against the Aetna Islanders,a team that consisted of five Lancaster area street hockey stalwarts and numerous other local stars.

It was the most closely contested game of the tourny for the Eels,Steve Dellinger tallied in the first but Aetna tied it up in the second before Art Moshos gave the Eels a 2-1 lead going into the third period. Dave Singleton,a Lancastrian scored with a few minutes left for the Islanders to knot the game 2-2 before Marty Hornberger,fittingly on an assist from Tournament MVP Goalie Tim Stoltzfus, picked up the game winner a few seconds later to give the Eels a 3-2 victory and the Championship. The shots on goal were Eels 23,Aetna 22,Islander centerman,Chip Ream,another Lancastrian (and 340 visitor) was voted the Offensive MVP of the Tourny. We finished what beer we could and still leave some for the journey home as visions of an Eels of Death victory party at the 340 the following weekend began to materialize but that will be a later post.

Click here for Eels Stats

Coach hard at work,creating the master plan for victory.
The Players,Bobby Rife,Phil Z. and Desi Deeter with Woody K. securing the area in the upper right.
The Players continued,Tommy Roschel,Steve Graybill,Keith Musser and Jimmy Z.
The team's macot,Jerry the Eel
The culmination of hard work,partying,fan support and excellent coaching as admired by Jason Z.