Owen J. Roberts shuts down Boyertown en route to 6-2 win

OAKS >> No letdown this time.

Owen J. Roberts, a month removed from blowing a big lead to Pioneer rival Boyertown, made sure to keep their advantage on lockdown en route to a 6-2 victory over the Bears Friday night at Center Ice.

The win is the second straight for the Wildcats — which is a mix of kids from Owen J. Roberts and Phoenixville ­— and their third in the last four games. It was also a complete reversal of their earlier result against the reigning Pioneer Champs on Nov. 23, in which the Wildcats blew a 4-1 lead, allowing the Bears to score four unanswered goals in the first before adding three more in the third to take an 8-5 victory.

“That’s a big game for us because last time we got a little sloppy when we got a lead,” OJR head coach Chris Gratton said. “We’ve been focusing the last couple games on playing consistent team defense throughout the whole game. The boys did fantastic with that tonight.”

“Last game we kind of cracked on defense with a three-goal lead,” Tyler Skomsky added. “We stopped playing for the team and started playing for ourselves and they capitalized on that. We learned from our mistakes and we came through today.”

Skomsky’s two-goal night led OJR, which moved to 6-2 in the conference. The senior forward found the back of the net on a nasty wrister to make it 2-0 before answering a Boyertown goal with a sensational effort with four seconds remaining in the second period, taking a feed from Kevin Hatten along the blue line before breaking free and labeling a shot above the shoulder of the Boyertown goalie to make it 5-1.

Shawn Fowler (two assists), Johnny Kettelle (assist), Sam Diehl and Hatten each scored in the win, Hatten’s penalty shot in the second period giving the Bears’ a sizable 4-0 lead.

The defense also did their part against a Bears squad that came in averaging more than seven goals per game, limiting the team to its lowest scoring output during conference play, all while shutting down its powerplay (Boyertown went 0-for-4 on the night).

OJR goalie Max Hunt finished with 17 saves on 19 shots, only allowing goals to Casey Sottanella, who scored his ninth goal of the season in the second period, and Chris Moccia, who added his own finish in the third, but the barrage of Wildcat goals in the first and second period was enough.

Diehl collected a turnover deep in the offensive zone before going top shelf to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead 10 minutes into the first before Skomsky’s aforementioned wrist-shot gave OJR a 2-0 cushion three minutes later. OJR then added a shorthanded goal early four minutes into the second, Kettelle picking off a pass across the blue line before skating away for a breakaway goal to make it 3-0. Sottanella’s goal sandwiched Hatten’s penalty shot and Skomsky’s second goal of the game before Fowler answered Moccia’s goal with a quick finish on the one-timer to make it 6-2 with three minutes left.

“There was a couple of shifts in the second period where they got some pressure but we were able to keep our composure,” Gratton said. “We’ve gotten into some trouble against teams that know who our top guys are and they try to get under their skin — like they should as a good hockey player — and occasionally they are successful. But we were able to overcome that tonight. Shutting them down on power-play opportunities that they had was huge for us.”

“We usually score a lot of goals,” Skomsky added. “Facing adversity in the second period, the first game we cracked on it, didn’t protect our net and scored. This game, when the going got tough we played good defense and that’s what really helped us in the end.”