HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—The eruption came without warning. For one period and part of another, LaSalle and Malvern Prep battled on even terms. But the Explorers took over the game by scoring four goals in a span of 5 minutes, 18 seconds in the second period.
Neither team scored thereafter and LaSalle left Hatfield Ice Friday night as 4-0 winners.
Four different players scored goals for the Explorers, who stand at 5-2 on the season and a perfect 3-0 in the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference, having defeated every other team in the league once.
Sophomore Daniel Sambuco scored LaSalle’s first goal at the 7:10 mark of the second frame with help from Michael Casey and Sam Lipkin. Casey made it a 2-0 game with Sambuco’s help at 9:15 and Fabrizio Mazzarelli extended the lead just 39 second later. Eric Ford finished the scoring at 12:28.
Sambuco, who leads the APAC in scoring with three goals and five assists for eight points in three conference games, said he and his mates on the Explorers’ top line took things up a notch in the second period. “We started running some quick passes and two-on-ones,” he said, “and started driving more pucks to the net That was just our game plan from there on out, put everything to the net.”
LaSalle coach Wally Meuhlbronner was pleased to get production from four lines, particularly in the early going. “We were rolling four (lines) right out of the gate,” he said, “and we switched up a little bit and and kind of got the Sambuco line out there every third (shift) and I think that got them energized a little bit more.”
At the other end of the ice, LaSalle goaltender Aidan McCabe stopped all 19 shots he saw. His best effort came two-and-a-half minutes into the third period when he turned aside Chris Blango’s slapshot from just inside the blue line.
McCabe noted that the effort of the defense corps in front of him expanded his comfort zone. “It allows me to be really confident in the net,” the junior said. “They keep the shots to the outside which lets me see the puck. So I just try to do my job.”
The loss was the first for Malvern Prep after three wins (1-1 in the APAC). Friar coach Dave Dorman saw the evening as another step in the maturation of his young team.
Danie”It was a very typical LaSalle-Malvern Prep hockey game,” he said. “For our younger guys it was baptism by fire. Not the result we want but you know what? That’s part of the learning process, the maturation process for these younger kids.”
Notes—Sambuco’s cousin Ryan, also a sophomore, was in uniform for Malvern Prep. The hitting was intense but clean; there was just five penalties called by referee Eric Michaels, three to LaSalle and two to Malvern Prep, and one of the Malvern penalties was a bench minor for too many men on the ice.
Malvern Prep 0 0 0—0
LaSalle 0 4 0—4
Second-period goals: Daniel Sambuco (L) from Michael Casey and Sam Lipkin, 7:10: Casey (L) from Sambuco, 9:15; Fabrizio Mazzarelli (L) from Ryan Walsh and David Kimmel, 9:54; Eric Ford (L) from Jan Olenginski, 12:28.
Shots: Malvern Prep 19, LaSalle 32; Saves: Dan Dougherty (MP) 28, Aidan McCabe (L) 19.
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