River Dell clinches Big North Patriot Division title by Jim McConville special to The Record
HACKENSACK – Two teams struggling for consistency met at The Ice House on Saturday. While neither found their way out of the scoring slump, one found its way to a division title.
Joey Ragno’s goal with 27 seconds left in the game salvaged a 1-1 tie for River Dell in its Big North Patriot Division matchup with Paramus Catholic. The one point was good enough to clinch the division title for the Golden Hawks at 6-0-1 with one game remaining.
Paramus Catholic’s point keeps it in second place in the division, which is important because the top two teams in each of the four Big North Divisions will play for the Big North Cup next month.
For the Paladins (4-6-4, 3-1-1 in their last five), it was another frustrating moment in a season of frustrating games. They took the lead just 1:15 into the game on a fortunate bounce, as a Hawk clearance hit a skate and caromed directly to an onrushing Christian Brunelle. He passed to Eyan Helm, who scored from in front.
“We really didn’t play a good first period, but we came away with the lead,” PC coach Keith Bland said. “We were much better in the second period, but I think we were back on our heels a little in the third.”
The Paladins also took a tripping penalty with 1:08 left, which allowed the Golden Hawks (12-4-1) to go on a 6-on-4 power play with the goaltender pulled. That helped set up Ragno’s tying goal.
“That was the first time we threw it in front of the net all game,” Ragno said. “We got the goalie screened and it was a perfect pass from (Eddie Dahdah). He chipped it to me and I had the whole net to shoot at.”
“That’s been the frustrating part,” Bland said. “We don’t have that guy who’s going to score 30 goals, and we’ve been struggling to score goals all year. We’ve probably had four or five games where we came into the third period poised to win and either tied or lost. We’ve got to hope that we can learn from games like this and find ways to win these games.’
One of those games was last weekend against this same River Dell team, when they entered the third period up 1-0 only to see the Hawks get a pair of goals to come from behind and win 2-1.
“We’re going through a rough patch right now,” RD coach Kevin Sabella said. “We’re playing a lot tighter than we did earlier in the season. Whether it’s passing or shooting, we’re not in any rhythm right now.”
River Dell could have easily won the game, but they couldn’t take advantage of opportunities. Christian Proot had a breakaway chance in second period, only to see the puck come off his stick as he was about to shoot. Vinny Ruff had a golden chance at the right post with 6:39 left, but PC goalie Denis McGarry (26 saves) sat on the shot.
Proot seemed to have scored with 5:55 left but the referee did not see it go in, thinking it hit off the crossbar. It was another example of the rough times the Hawks have been enduring.
“We’ve had a hard time scoring lately,” Ragno said. “We found a way to get the one today, but going forward we’ve definitely got to find a way to score goals.”