Jacob Mueller leads Hatboro-Horsham past Plymouth Whitemarsh

HATFIELD TWP. >> Hatboro-Horsham dominated the final 20 minutes of a 6-3 Suburban High School Hockey League Varsity A win over Plymouth Whitemarsh Wednesday night at Hatfield Ice.

Sayvion Jones scored with two minutes left to give the Hatters (4-1, 4-1) a 2-1 lead and they never looked back. They had two more scoring opportunities in the second that came up empty and wasted no time getting on the board in the third.

Jacob Mueller scored just 2:20 into the final period to make it 3-1 and, after PW cut its deficit to one, Hatboro’s Jordan Gillis extended it back to 4-2.

Mueller scored again a little more than a minute later and tallied his third of the third period and fourth of the game less than three minutes after that to give the Hatters a commanding 6-2 lead with 6:33 to play.

“It was a good team effort,” Mueller said. “Everyone played real well. We passed the puck to each other, so that definitely helps out.”

Jones’ goal that got the Hatters run started was controversial. Bodies were all over the crease while HH tried to force the puck into the net and eventually Jones pushed it through. The refs huddled after calling a goal, talked for a minute and confirmed the call on the ice.

“I think there’s a disagreement between what the officials decided and how we see it on our end, but that’s OK,” PW coach Josh Aiello said. “It’s hockey. Sometimes you don’t see things eye-to-eye, but the call on the ice was a goal and we can’t change that.”

That was the Hatters first lead of the game.

“It gave us a little breathing room so that we could go out there and concentrate on playing,” Mueller said.

The Colonials (1-4, 1-3) got the scoring started just 1:03 into the second period when Brandon Pham found the back of the net with a wrister from the point on a power play.

That lead didn’t last long. Mueller scored his first of the game 12 seconds later.

“I just pushed the puck forward,” Mueller, who has 10 goals this season, said. “I had that mindset of just taking the puck in and that’s what I did.”

PW scored its other two goals in the third period. Daniel Isackman and Colin Franzoni both lit the lamp on power plays. Overall the Colonials were three-for-seven with a man-advantage and didn’t allow the Hatters to score on any of their three power plays.

“That was actually one thing we did well,” Aiello said. “The power play was good and the PK was OK. Even strength we just got beat. I think our goalies (Brendin Dudek and Ben Yuter) played well, I definitely commend our goalies, but I think our defense could move the puck a little quicker. I think offensively we could have been a little bit more aggressive and gotten more pucks to the net, but overall on special teams we did pretty well.”

Hatboro-Horsham 6, Plymouth Whitemarsh 0
Hatboro-Horsham 0 2 4 — 6
Plymouth Whitemarsh 0 1 2 — 3
Goals: HH: Jacob Mueller 4, Sayvion Jones, Jordan Gillis. PW: Brandon Pham, Daniel Isackman, Colin Franzoni.
Assists: HH: Ben Heywood, James McCoy 4, Jacob Mueller, Sayvion Jones. PW: Stephen Longo, Gavin Mulligan, Brandom Pham, Ben Lubas, Dean Keller.
Saves: HH: Ryan Bell 28. PW: Brendin Dudek 15, Ben Yuter 8.