VIDEO: Brawl halts Flyers Cup game between Ridley and CB West (UPDATED)
Thursday night’s Flyers Cup AA quarterfinal game between Ridley and Central Bucks West didn’t quite reach the final whistle, thanks to an all-out brawl with seven minutes to go that led to a Ridley forfeit, giving the Bucks a 7-1 win.
Here’s video of the melee at Hatfield Ice (note: there’s a bit of adult language):
Ridley vs cv west pic.twitter.com/9yVGgfHmn5
— Jason Peters (@jasonp014) March 10, 2017
The video shows an ejected player reentering the ice surface to get into the fracas. The fights spilled over into the crowd, and Hatfield police were called, but according to The Intelligencer, no arrests were made. From the Intel:
Police were notified and a number of Hatfield Township officers responded to the scene. Several officers went onto the ice, and two of them escorted a member of the Ridley coaching staff to his dressing room.
After the teams left the ice, police were still on the scene interviewing witnesses, and an officer was present in the Central Bucks West dressing room.
In all, 100 penalty minutes were doled out in the game, 64 to Ridley, but the game was abandoned before tallying up what resulted from the brouhaha.
In the actual hockey part of the game, the top-seeded Bucks controlled the game throughout via two goals each from Shawn Philipps and Tucker Forte to oust the No. 8 seed Green Raiders.
Brawls seem sadly par for the course this time of year. A season ago, fans of Springfield were involved in an incident at IceLine after the Flyers Cup A final with Rustin. That scuffle, which involved fans, led to several arrests.
UPDATE (3-11): Hatfield police are still investigating the brawl, which led to the hospitalization of one player.
Ridley hockey club president Mike Dolan also released the following statement Friday:
“The Ridley Hockey Program views the actions of some of our players in the hockey game against Central Bucks West last night as ‘indefensible.’ We are disgusted and appalled with the decisions of our players, and in no way condone their actions. We have strived in the past to create a culture and organization that fosters respect and sportsmanship. Our player’s actions fall well below the standards we have set in the past. We whole heartedly apologize to the Central Bucks West Hockey players, coaching staff and parents for this incident. We also apologize to the Ridley community for portraying Ridley in this manner. The Ridley Hockey Program has taken action with the players and will support any discipline handed out by the league. We have also taken steps to ensure that these actions will never occur in the future.”
