Cougars lost a close one, then 'ran out of legs' in Penetang
By Bill Rea

Cougars' Larry Volpe was helping his mates press Fergus in the late stages of Thursday's match.

The Schomberg Cougars will play their last game of the regular season tomorrow (Thursday) night, and they are hoping a fuller bench will help change their recent fortunes.

The local side put up a strong effort to mount a comeback Thursday night at home against the Fergus Devils. They bagged one goal with about four seconds remaining, but they needed one more to tie the score. As it was, they lost 6- 5.

Friday night saw the team head north to Penetang to face the high-flying Kings.

"We basically ran out of legs," observed Head Coach Gary Waldrum, as the side fell 11-3.

Thursday's match was a much closer affair, and even Waldrum agreed at the end that "it was entertaining."

"We did pretty well," he remarked. "A short bench and we didn't get a great start."

The Cougars are still battling some injury and suspension problems, and added to that were a couple of guys who were just under the weather.

"But I'm proud of their effort," he commented.

Colin Murray led his mates with two goals and an assist. Brandon Lisi, Enriko Ferri and Dan Naccaratto collected the other goals. Dan Valente collected three assists and Justin Brooks contributed a pair. Singles were earned by Larry Volpe and Shane Jones.

Brooks has been adding a lot of scoring punch to the cause over recent weeks. He said it's been the result of nothing really special; "just trying to put it in and win the game," he said, "do my best out there."

Despite the loss, Brooks was still feeling good about evening's effort.

"We came out hard hitting," the 17-year-old Aurora resident observed. "We have to play defence a lot better."

Brooks had a goal and an assist in Friday's action in Penetang. Naccaratto and Jason McMann notched the other two markers, and Adam Green and Lisi contributed assists.

Waldrum is looking forward to a somewhat fuller bench tomorrow night, when the Cougars will host the Erin Shamrocks, starting at 8:15 p.m. He's hoping some of the injured players will be back on their skates, and Todd Cantelon will have completed his suspension.

"We should be better prepared for Thursday," the coach remarked.

The prevoous week saw the Cougars host the Alliston Hornets last Thursday night, and they played them even for the first half of the game. The hosts even got the first goal in the opening period, about five minute before they surrendered a short-handed goal. But the Hornets started connecting with two goals late in the second, then added five in the third to take the 8-2 decision.

Lisi and Naccaratto collected the goals for the Cougars, with Jamie Murrell and McMann assisting on both.

"We did not play smart in the third period," Waldrum observed after the match. "We battled for much of the game, but we just didn't show up for the third period."

The team didn't do too bad last Saturday night when they travelled to Midland, but the short-bench problem stood in the way of a good effort and the Flyers prevailed 3-0.

Waldrum said they started with just eight players (including two goalies) dressed, although three more arrived after the puck dropped.

Despite that, Waldrum said his men turned in "a good effort for a short bench."

"I think we had more fans there than Midland did," he added.