roadhockey.net

Eye of the storm

With angry grey clouds roiling all around the road hockey courts, Nibs was the placid eye of the storm.

The unlikely netminder, who stepped between the pipes when regular rearguards Gump and Pig Farming Goalie were inexcusably absent, was a calming influence on his sometimes harried teammates as they weathered a furious five goal comeback midway through Sunday's game. Having bought them some time to regain their focus, Nibs and his mates romped the rest of the way to a 20-12 win.

"Nibs kept us in it by making some good saves in the early part of the game," said Lak Attack of his shotstopper's steady play.

Instead of feasting on the neophyte netminder, Nibs' opponents were frustrated and flustered time and again by his lightning toe and smothering glove hand.

"It was hard to get the ball by him," said the Colonel. "If you can get a few softies by him, that can be the difference in the game. But Nibs didn't really give up any softies today. He was pretty focused."

His teammates were equally impressed.

"Nibs is always entertaining when he's playing net because you never really know what you're going to get from breakout to breakout," said Smith. "You never know if you're going to get the stellar save or one that bounces off his hip and goes into the net."

More importantly, they were inspired. After faltering on their defensive assignments to allow their foes to crawl back to within two goals at the game's halfway point, they buckled down and started to run up the goals.

"I think the courts got a bit drier in the second half and that helped up to be a bit quicker than the other team," said Lak Attack.

"We started to take a little more time with the ball and make good plays to create space," said Smith. "We started to move the ball like we can."

That was bad news for their opponents, who were outscored 10-3 through the game's second half.

"We were outmatched," said Colonel. "They had a lot of good players, you can't take much away from them. They had better legs than our team."

Cowboy Bill was unable to reprise his 12-goal effort from a week ago, a feat that went unrecognized by the road hockey press after they were called away to cover a major breaking international news story at another venue.

With the roadsters champing at the bit to maximize their playing time, there are no plans for the traditional Christmas holiday break; games are tentatively scheduled for Dec. 23 and 30. The annual Shrimp Ring Bowl, the highlite of road hockey's social calendar, will be held Jan. 6.

Posted by jaysuburb at December 16, 2007 06:22 PM