High School Ice Hockey:
Warwick Too Little Too Late To Battle East

Friday, September 25, 1998

By Forrest Robleto
SJSports Staff Writer

Warwick, a midget team from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, came to scrimmage Cherry Hill East Friday at the Coliseum in Voorhees. The Warwick team got caught in traffic and arrived late. One of the two referees refused to wait and the other, John Butley, apparently decided he was a good enough referee to do the game all by himself. The game was choppy and lopsided. Butley eventually called 26 penalties, 5 of which were misconduct's in a game that ended after two periods, 8-2 Cherry Hill.

Sedacca opened the scoring for Cherry Hill when he picked up the puck around the red line, carried it all by himself and just slammed it home at 11:21 of the first period. At 9:41 of the first period, Cornen of Warwick was called for interference. Two minutes later, matching roughing calls were made to Galasso and Plotkin. It looked like the call to Galasso was made to keep it even as Galasso did not appear to retaliate.

Cherry Hill had a lot of scoring opportunities. DiSalvatore made a beautiful pass to Davis who missed the open net. Warwick came right back and Keenan made a gorgeous save on a real tight shot at 6:40 of the first period. Things really started to pick up when Gunther came in from the left side and made a shot from outside the circle, and beat Luciani cleanly to the top right corner. This made the score two to nothing Cherry Hill. Six seconds later Cherry Hill scored again. Gunther made the first shot and Robleto banged it in off the rebound.

East would take advantage of a two minute minor and a ten minute misconduct for checking from behind. At 2:46 Zorfass picked up the puck and tossed it off to Gunther who lost it at the blue line trying to take on two defensemen by himself. Gunther then picked it up again, carried it in, fired, shot, and scored with twelve seconds left on the minor penalty to Wallace.

One of the Cherry Hill skaters made a beautiful dive and on the delayed penalty. East had several good shots during the delayed penalty. Lutz was sent to the penalty box, two minutes for holding. Six seconds later, Robleto took a couple of unanswered shots to the body from Plotkin but the referee gave them both 2 for roughing and 2 for unsportsmanlike conduct. The second period ended with 4 seconds left on the penalty to Lutz and the score 4-0 Cherry Hill.

Warwick got on the scoreboard when Mouney received a beautiful pass and buried it. Keenan never had a chance and it was 4-1 Cherry Hill. Seventeen seconds later D'Anella, who was having a terrific game, over skated the puck and gave it away. A Warwick player picked it up and skated coast to coast before being stopped by a perfect save by Keenan. When Robleto was called for interference, East would come up big to keep Warwick from scoring. Gunther, who's not known for defense did a terrific job killing the penalty. Just two seconds after killing that penalty, Galasso fought and fought and picked up the puck. He made a perfect pass to Vurgason who gave it to Sedacca who slipped it passed Luciani to make it 5-1 Cherry Hill.

Cherry Hill had several good scoring chances that didn't make the scoreboard. Galasso made a terrific steal which he had a two on one advantage with Sedacca who over skated the goal and missed the shot. At 9:15 Galasso took it down two on zero with Vurgason, passed it off to Vurgason who buried it in the goalies stomach. Later in the period, Gunther made a perfect steal and went down three on none with Davis and Rosen. The goalie committed to Gunther leaving either Davis or Rosen wide open but Gunther elected not to pass and the scoring opportunity was lost. Vurgason made a nice steal and took it down with Galasso two on one. Vurgason fed a perfect pass to Galasso who shot it way high and way wide.

Finally at 5:36 Zorfass picked up the puck on the left hand boards, made a couple of cute moves to get the puck in close and buried it for a 6-1 lead for Cherry Hill. Then less than thirty seconds later, Sedacca made a nice feed from the right point to Vurgason who timed a good pass to Galasso who made no mistake getting the puck into the net, 7-1. D'Anella would steal the puck and tapped it up to Davis who carried it in and up to the net for their final goal of the game.

For the next few minutes the game, play got worse and worse as a frustrated Warwick team began to get more physical. Then at 1:23 left in the period Mouney got 2 for holding, 2 for roughing and a 10 minute misconduct. Gunther got 2 for roughing, 2 for high sticking and a 10 minute misconduct and Robleto got 5 for fighting and a game misconduct. With just 50 second left in the game Plotkin made it 8-2 Cherry Hill. The frustration did not stop there. With 22 seconds left, Vurgason took a vicious cross check to the head. Sullivan got 5 minutes for head butting and an game misconduct. Plotkin got 2 for roughing, Vurgason 2 for roughing, DiSalvatore 2 for roughing, D'Anella 2 for slashing and #90 (a player not identified on the score sheet for Warwick) 2 for roughing.

Mercifully there was not time to play a third period and the game ended 8-2 Cherry Hill.

Photos by Forrest Robleto