Sports

Bottineau-Rugby earns weekend sweep, jumps up to fourth place in West Region

Tyler Ohmann

01/08/2013

Bottineau-Rugby earned a weekend road trip sweep and gained six points in West Region play this past weekend.

The wins could not have been more different, as the Braves came from behind to best the Jamestown Blue Jays 7-4 on Friday night, and then stormed to a 6-3 win over Mandan on Saturday.

The wins vaulted the Braves (7-1-1, 4-1-1) to fourth place in the West Region standings.

“We had an excellent weekend on the road,” stated Braves head coach David Hoff. “We were very happy to pick up two region wins on the road.”

First on Friday BR pulled off a sensational comeback to earn three points against a tough Jamestown team. The Braves fell behind early as the Blue Jays scored twice in the opening period to take a 2-0 lead after one.

BR’s offense awoke in the second period though as Harrison Aide scored twice and assisted on a Luke Amsbaugh goal that drew the Braves within one.
Cody Longie assisted on Aide’s first marker, which came when the Braves were short handed. Aide’s second goal tied the game at two, and was short handed as well. Andrew Hill assisted on that goal.
Aide and Longie earned helpers on the Amsbaugh goal, which brought the score to 4-3 after two periods.

BR then went on a third period tear, as they notched four goals in the final frame, and goalie Riley Monson shutout the Blue Jays in the final period to earn a 7-4 win.

Andrew Hill scored twice in the period. Both times he was assisted by Aide and Longie. Longie scored the game-winner with an unassisted marker midway through the third.

Aide earned a hat trick with BR’s seventh goal. Hill assisted on that play, as Aide got the puck past Jamestown’s Tygh Yatskis.

BR out shot Jamestown 44-22 in the game. Monson finished with 18 saves.

“I thought we played with good energy in Jamestown. We moved the puck real well at times,” Hoff stated. “We only had 12 skaters for the weekend so it made it a little tough with not a lot of depth.”

The Braves played a much different game in Saturday’s 6-3 win over Mandan. BR did their goal scoring much earlier in this game. Aide scored his fourth goal of the weekend to open up the scoring. Longie assisted.

In the second period, BR went on a strong run, scoring four times and taking a 5-2 lead. First Braden Pewe took passes from Cody Belion and Nigel Hageness to put BR up 2-1.

Amsbaugh then scored as he was assisted by Hill and Aide.

Longie again came up with game-winner as the took a pass from Amsbaugh and fired it past Mandan goalie Logan McDowell.

Bedlion scored with helpers coming from Hageness and Noah Grant to round out the second period scoring.

After allowing another goal in the third, BR got one final goal as Aide notched his fifth of the weekend. Amsbaugh assisted.

Monson stopped 24-of-27 Mandan shots in the win as BR narrowly out shot Mandan 28-27 in the contest.

“The game in Mandan was definitely not our best,” Hoff stated. “I thought we were very sluggish. We looked like a tired hockey team, but we were disciplined and stayed out of the penalty box.”  

“We made a few plays offensively and did a pretty good job of limiting their opportunities,” Hoff added.

The Braves return home this weekend to try and add to their region victories. They host Williston at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Rugby, and then play Bismarck at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night in Bottineau.

Bottineau beat Williston 10-0 earlier this season, and Bismarck is tied for second place two points ahead of BR in the region standings.

Notes:

  •  After five goals and four assists this past weekend, Aide widened his gap as the state’s points leader. Through nine games he now has 12 goals and 24 assists for 36 points. The school record for assists is 40 by Seth Serhienko and points is 64 by Logan Millican last season according to the BHS gym plaque.
  •  Trailing Aide in second place in scoring is Longie, who after two goals and five assists this past weekend has 12 goals and 18 assists for 30 points.
  •  Amsbaugh is not far behind the two leaders, as the sophomore forward has 27 points after a two goal and two assists weekend.
  •  Hill, a junior now has 17 points after a two goal and three assist weekend.
  •  BR’s top four scorers have combined to score 46 of the Braves 58 goals or more than 79 percent of BR’s goal scoring.