Columbus Sweeps Port Huron After Another 9-Goal Effort
Columbus, GA - The River Dragons swept the Port Huron Prowlers with a 9-5 win on Saturday night, their second straight night scoring nine goals.
Just 17 seconds into the game though it was Port Huron scoring first as Zachary Fresura found an open lane off some confusion around the net to give the Prowlers the early lead.
Columbus responded at the 2:53 mark with a goal from Marquis Grant-Mentis that MJ Graham got to the front of the net, leaving a juicy rebound to be tapped home. After a Joe Pace hooking call which put Columbus on the power play, Josh Pietrantonio cashed in on this advantage from a great feed from Austin Daae ripping home a one-timer to give Columbus a 2-1 lead.
Towards the end of the period, Port Huron went on a power play of their own and they capitalized on it just 14 seconds in with a goal from Alex Johnson at the 18:58 mark to tie things once again at 2-2 heading into the locker room.
The second period started off with a rematch tilt for the 5th time between Joe Pace and Justin Schmit, much to the delight of the Columbus crowd just two seconds in to the period. Off of that energy, Adam Vannelli gave Columbus the lead finding some space low blocker on Cory Simons at the 4:03 mark to put the River Dragons up 3-2.
Another Prowlers power play midway through the period gave Justin Barr a chance to tie the game up as he was able to get one past MacBurnie glove side at the 10:53 mark.
With the game tied at three, it stayed tied for a minute and five seconds until Jay Croop put the River Dragons back ahead with a perfect centering pass from Marquis Grant-Mentis. This would start a run of River Dragons goals as Austin Daae helped extend the lead at the 14:44 mark with a tip into the back of the net from Hunter Bersani and Josh Pietrantonio, putting Columbus up 5-3. Daae went on to score the next goal as well at the 18:16 mark on the power play, once again assisted by Bersani and Pietrantonio, extending the score to 6-3.
In the third, Josh Pietrantonio started things off with his second goal of the night at the 1:13 mark coming off a pass from Hunter Bersani that Pietrantonio was able to tuck past Cory Simons, putting the River Dragons up 7-3. 1:08 later Kirk Underwood scored his second professional goal in his second professional game off an assist behind the goal line from Graham, making the lead 8-3 in favor of Columbus.
Dalton Jay scored to give Port Huron some momentum at the 3:33 mark, cutting the lead to 8-4, then in an odd sequence of events Matt Graham capitalized on a play where Columbus thought they had scored, but play went on and a shorthanded goal at the 6:57 mark assisted by Nick Williams and Dalton Jay made the score 8-5.
Dalton Anderson added to the Columbus lead at the 13:43 mark with a putback goal to give the game its final score and shut down any Port Huron hope of a comeback.
Bailey MacBurnie gets his 7th win of the season making 25 saves on 30 shots. Cory Simons takes the loss with 20 saves on 28 shots, being relieved by Greg Harney who made 10 saves on 11 shots.
Columbus now looks forward to a bye week before welcoming in the Delaware Thunder for a 3-in-3 set February 11-13. Tickets available at the Civic Center Box Office or on TicketMaster.
Three Stars of the Game
Josh Pietrantonio
MJ Graham
Marquis Grant-Mentis