Flyers hand Vipers first defeat; beat Lincs on road

By C. Scott Holland

LEAMINGTON — Thursday night, Oct. 14 was the second instalment of the Battle of Essex County here as the Flyers hosted the LaSalle Vipers. But unlike their first meeting on opening night, the contest was quick, full of gritty plays, and gave the 275 fans in attendance plenty of sighs.

Head coach Dale Mitchell was pleased with the Flyers’ really solid game.

“LaSalle is a good hockey team,” he said. “However, so are we. Both goalies played extremely well and made big saves when they needed to.”

Mitchell added that he was proud of the way in which the team battled back to earn the victory in the third plus their effort in not giving up. Both starting goalies, Matthew Tovell of LaSalle and Ryan Polidori of Leamington, stood tall in the nets for the first half of the game. With the score knotted at 0-0, a miscue by a Flyers’ defenceman led to a Vipers goal by Nick Pavia.

Leamington’s Conner MacPherson (25) looks for a feed from Ryan MacPherson (8).

Scott Holland photo

The difference in the game occurred only seconds after the start of the final stanza when the Flyers’ Koen Taves slammed a shot off the end boards which ricocheted right to Andrew Uturo who collected it then moved to tying the game at 17 seconds.

The Flyers’ game-winning marker came at 3:43 when Seth Martineau found Wyatt O’Neil, who in turn passed to Colton O’Brien. O’Brien, who was near the left boards, pumped a screen shot which sailed past Tovell.

With 90 seconds left, the Vipers lifted Tovell for an extra attacker and the Flyers’ offense and defense kept the Vipers off stride for the majority of that spell. One of the best chances LaSalle had to tie the contest came in the waning seconds, but when the final buzzer blew the Flyers had a 2-1 victory.

Against the Lincolns on Friday night, it was a close affair until the third period as the Flyers took a 5-1 win.

Conner MacPherson scored twice in this one, with O’Neil tabbing a single, along with Andrew Utero and Ryan MacPherson.

Flyers schedule:

Thurs. Oct. 21 vs St. Thomas at 7:10 p.m.;

Sun. Oct. 24 vs Sarnia at 2:10 p.m.