Cougars' enthusiasm still high, despite three losses
By Bill Rea

There were some bright moments for the Cougars Saturday night, like when Eddie Wiederer picked up a loose puck in the Erin end and beat goalie Lucas Reid.

Last week was not a good one for the Schomberg Cougars, but the coaches are confident the young players are going to eventually find their grove.

The team played three games last week, posting three losses.

The closest of these matches was Thursday night, when they hosted the Midland Flyers, and this was a match the Cougars probably deserved to win. But some ill-timed penalties combined with a couple of miscues in their own end to put the side in a hole early. They made a solid effort to close the gap, but fell short and had to eat a 7-5 loss. The last Midland goal was into an empty Schomberg net, as they had pulled the goalie and were seeking the equalizer while killing a penalty at the same time.

Despite the score, Schomberg had the definite edge in shots on goal; 41-32.

Dan Naccarrato is emerging as a solid scorer for the cause in the early season, and he added to his totals with a pair of goals and an assist. Enrico Ferri contributed goal and an assist while Eddie Wiederer and Shane Jones notched singles. Mike Volpe helped out on two of the goals, while Matt Wolfenden and Justin Brooks each got one assist.

Head Coach Gary Waldrum admitted to being a little frustrated at the end of that outing, "but if you look at the game overall, we probably outshot them, and zone-wise, we played better."

This is still an inexperienced group of hockey players and Waldrum agreed they need to cut down on their mistakes. Five of the Midland goals came while the Cougars were killing penalties.

"We definitely have some talented kids," he declared.

Friday saw the team travel to Alliston for another match against the Hornets, and things didn't go much better for the Cougars than they did in their first encounter a couple of weeks ago. In fact, Alliston won 11-4.

The hosts piled up five unanswered markers in the first period and added a short-handed goal in the second before the Schomberg guys started hitting back. But three quick goals in the second and another in the third wasn't going to turn much around.

Naccarrato offered the bulk of the scoring punch again, popping two, while Ryan Christadler and Ferri got one apiece. Brandon Lisi, Justin Brooks, Ferri and Jamie Murrell contributed the assists.

The Cougars made their first trip of the season to Erin Saturday night for a game against the Shamrocks. This time, it was Schomberg that opened the scoring in the first minute and held the lead for the first half of the opening period. But Erin tied things on a power-play effort (the first of five for the evening) and were ahead 4-1 by the end of the period, on the way to a 10-4 final.

Naccarrato, Christadler and Wiederer each collected a goal and an assist during the evening, while Brooks got the other goal and Chris Case earned an assist.

Despite the rocky record so far, Waldrum maintained there is lots of enthusiasm in the dressing room.

"These kids enjoy playing with each other," he remarked. "They're going to get this corrected."

"There's no boy in there who wants to quit," he added, "who wants to bail, and they're all in there supporting each other."

"It'll get better," Waldrum vowed.

The Cougars get their next chance to make things better tomorrow (Thursday) night, when the Shamrocks come to town to return Saturday's visit. The game will start at 8:15 p.m.

Friday night will see the team take the trip to Midland for a rematch against the Flyers. The puck will drop at 8 p.m.