HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—The Pennridge Ram just keep rolling along. Andrew Savona’s three goals and two assists led the way as the Ram bested North Penn 7-0 Friday night in a SHSHL National Division encounter at Hatfield Ice.
The win was the fourth straight without a blemish for Pennridge, which came into the season off an appearance in the Class AA Flyers Cup finals last March and seemingly hasn’t lost a beat
The formula for this year’s success however includes different elements from a year ago when the Rams were one of the area’s most potent offensive juggernauts.
Senior Colin Dachowski is Pennridge’s captain. He notes the Rams are employing a more workmanlike, grind-it-out-style this season.
“That’s the style we have to play,” he said. “Grind every team out, wear them down.”
Which is more or less how Friday’s game played out. Pennridge had the better of the play in the first period but could only solve North Penn netminder Ian McAteer once; Shane Dachowski found the net at the 5:40 mark, but North Penn (2-1) outshot the Rams 10-9 in the opening session.
Kevin Pico and Savona added goals in the middle period but the game was still competitive until the third frame when Savona scored twice, before and after a tally from Josh Kelly, in a span of five minutes, nine seconds to make it a 6-0 game halfway through the period.
Dachowski said he and his teammates have adapted to the new approach.
“I think everyone understands their role,” he said, “and we know the scorers and we know the grinders. We just go by that.”
Savona stressed the importance of the veterans in the lineup showing the way for their less-experienced teammates.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “We want to be leaders on this team and have them follow us along and work hard and keep going.”
North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis had reason to be optimistic at evening’s end. The Knights played hard at both ends of the ice and made the Rams work for their chances until using up their energy reserves in the third period.
“We came out in the first period and I think we were kind of taken by surprise a little bit,” Vaitis said. “They’ve got a lot of talent on that team and they jumped on us early with some pressure.
“But, we hung with them, we continued to battle back. It was 1-0 after the first and we were doing all the things we needed to do, playing some good hockey.”
Vaitis cited McAteer for keeping his team in the game; the sophomore finished with 36 saves.
“We’ve got three goalies on the team and all three are very capable goalies at the varsity level,” he said. “It was Ian’s job tonight and he played really well for us.”
North Penn 0 0 0—0
Pennridge 1 2 4—7
First-period goal: Shane Dachowski (P) from Andrew Savona, 5:40
Second-period goals: Kevin Pico (P) from Savona and Dachowski, 6:29; Savona (P) from Dachowski and James Rush, 8:25 (pp)
Third-period goals: Savona (P) from Dachowski, 3:11; Josh Kelly (P) from Nolan Shaw, 5:16 (sh); Savona (P) from Tyler Manto, 8:20; Rush (P) from Pico and Manto, 12:06
Shots: North Penn 18, Pennridge 43; Saves: Ian McAteer(NP) 36, Jacob Winton (P) 18
Hockey Happenings 