Sports

Braves fall twice to West Region rivals

By Staff reports

01/13/2015

After rattling off four wins in a row over the festive period, Bottineau-Rugby’s (B-R) boys’ hockey team crashed back to earth last weekend in a pair of road games against West Region opposition.

A week after winning a four-team tournament in Wadena, Minn., at the start of the month, the Braves fell hard last weekend. B-R traveled a long way to do it, too, falling 9-3 at Jamestown on Friday before dropping an 8-2 decision at Mandan the following night.

Problems started early on Friday against Jamestown. The Blue Jays’ Nick Urquart opened the scoring 1:27 into the game, and Jamestown scored another three goals before the frame ended. Noah Grant scored twice in the period for B-R, but the Braves still found themselves down 4-2 after the first 17 minutes.

Jamestown then scored another six goals - three in the second period and another three in the third - to put the result beyond doubt. 

An Austyn Lorenz goal at 8:46 of the third period ended up being a very small consolation prize for B-R.

Things weren’t much better for the Braves on Saturday in Mandan. Four Mandan goals in the second period gave the hosts a 5-1 lead to work with, and they scored another three goals in the third period.

B-R forward Luke Amsbaugh scored both of the Braves’ goals in the game. The first came an even 11 minutes into the second period, while the second came with 3:38 left in the contest.

The Braves now sit at 4-5-0 overall on the season and 2-4-0 in West Region play. B-R’s six points see the Braves tied with Dickinson for sixth place in the nine-team region.

B-R has a busy week ahead of it. The Braves will host an exhibition game today against Boissevain at 5 p.m. before facing Williston on Friday in Rugby and hosting Bismarck High on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.