Bobcats Face Off Against Pitt-Johnstown Rivals

Following a tough couple of weekends, which included losses against Penn State Altoona and Carnegie Mellon University, the Pitt-Greensburg Bobcats felt they had something to prove.

“We knew that we were off our game and needed to get it back,” said offenseman Nathan Winebrenner. “We went into the weekend with our minds set to come out with two wins, especially after the overtime loss to CMU.”

With this in mind, on Friday, October 24, the Pitt-Greensburg Bobcats faced off against their rivals, the Pitt-Johnstown Icecats (UPJ). The Bobcats entered the game as the underdogs.

Forward Dan Merz set the tone with an unassisted goal at 0:12. Despite this quick strike, UPJ managed to answer with a goal at 1:26 into the period.

With six minutes left in the first period, forward Anthony Maroadi answered UPJ’s frequent shots with a goal assisted by Nico Vecchio, who responded with his own goal a couple of minutes later. Sophomore defenseman DJ Petrovay scored a goal that was assisted by Vecchio, with 1:38 left in the period.

At the end of the first, UPG was up four-to-one.

UPJ drew first blood in the second, with a goal at 2:30 into the period, after killing their two minor penalties at the start of the period.

Goals were traded back and forth in the second. UPG goals were scored by Vecchio, Dante Youhon, Zach Frantik, and Maroadi. UPG capitalized on two powerplays at the end of the period to make the score eight-to-five.

UPJ held on to the momentum with an early goal in the third.

Merz found a way to score an unassisted shorthanded goal, is second of the night, with 15:45 left in the period.

A five-minute major penalty resulted in the ejection of a UPJ player.

UPG took advantage of the extended powerplay with Youhon’s second goal of the night, assisted by Maroadi. Youhon quickly scored another goal for his first-hat trick as a Bobcat.

UPG finished the night with a score of eleven-to-six. Goalie Ryan Palonis stopped 51 of 57 shots on the night.