Sarnia
Legionnaires Fall in Chatham
October 18, 2015
COMMUNITY NEWS
by Dan
McCaffrey
The Chatham
Maroons pounded the Sarnia
Legionnaires 8-2 Sunday.
It was a contest that started
well for the Legion crew, which
stormed into a 2-0 lead before
the game was seven minutes old.
Zack Vanderwal scored the first
goal, firing home a rising
rebound shot from the faceoff
circle at the 5:56 mark. Assists
wen to P.J. Vandervaart and
Jarret Marks. Just 15 seconds
later, Jordan Fogarty finished
off a nifty tick-tack-toe play
by flipping the puck into a wide
open Maroons cage. Helpers went
to Brandon Layman and Ryan
Trottier.
Just moments later, Sarnia came
within an eyelash of taking a
3-0 lead, only to be foiled at
the last second.
Legionnaires head coach Mark
Davis felt that missed third
goal was a key turning point.
"If we'd gone up 3-0 it might
have been a different game," he
said.
Instead, the Maroons scored
three times in the last half of
the opening frame, with the
third tally coming with just two
seconds left on the clock.
"You could see the guys were
down when they came into the
dressing room," Davis commented.
With the loss Sarnia fell back
to .500 with a record of
5-5-1-1. That leaves them tied
for fifth with Strathroy in the
Western Jr. 'B' hockey
standings.
If there was a bright spot for
Sarnia it was the outstanding
play of goalie Jacob Knowles, a
midget 'AAA' callup who played
half the game, allowing only two
goals on 30 shots.
"I give the young lad credit, he
played hard," Davis said.
Shayne Battler, who started the
game, stopped 30 of 36 shots
directed at his net.
Officially, the Maroons were
credited with 66 shots on goal,
althoughDavis questioned the
accuracy of that statistic,
suggesting it was inflated by
some seriously inaccurate
counting.
The Legionnaires were credited
with 42 shots.
Sarnia returns to action
Wednesday when it travels to
London to face the Nationals.
The Legionnaires will be home
next Thursday (Oct. 22) when
they will host the St. Marys
Lincolns.
