Sam Eisenhower and David Herbst each collected hat tricks, and Drew Archibald scored twice, as the Mechanicsburg Wildcats beat the Central Dauphin Rams 8-1 Wednesday night in a CPIHL Tier I clash at Twin Ponds West.
The Wildcats (4-2-1, 9 points) potted two early goals — both off the stick of Archibald — then got Eisenhower's first of the night to lead 3-0 after one.
Early leads are an integral part of Mechanicsburg's planned attack, and have been. When successful, like the Wildcats were Wednesday night, it makes things much easier on head coach Justin Yingling, who fields one of the smallest squads in terms of numbers in Tier I and counts just two full lines worth of heads on the bench.
"That is the main goal — to come out and put shots on the net early," Yingling said.
Sam Eisenhower's older brother Joel stopped 18 of the 19 shots he saw in net. Only Austin Patton found a way to beat him, with a marker that got CD (1-8-0, 2) on the board early in the second period to cut Mechanicsburg's lead to 4-1.
But the Wildcats' playmaking abilities in the offensive zone were just too strong for the greener Rams to handle.
"We really do have some phenomenal players out there. Joel's obviously the best netkeeper in the league, nobody's touching him," Yingling said. "Drew's a young kid out there who is doing senior-type puck-handling drills. Sam is a phenomenal stick-handler in his own right.
"It was an overall team effort. I didn't see a lot of single players playing the game. I saw the team effort tonight we've been preaching."
Even though he gave up eight goals on 46 shots, CD's Alex White did not play poorly. Too often his defense corps were getting beat through the neutral zone or were getting outcycled down low. White's positioning was sound and he made some solid stops, or else the final score could have been worse.
Sam Eisenhower's second of the night came 41 seconds into the second period and gave Mechanicsburg a 4-0 lead. Herbst got on the scoresheet late in the stanza to make it 5-1. Eisenhower completed his hat trick with 5:10 to go.
Herbst added his second and third goals later in the final period to complete his hattie. Eisenhower assisted on both, giving him three helpers on the night for a six-point game.
ELSEWHERE
First-place Cumberland Valley made it nine-for-nine with a come-from behind 4-3 win over Central York at York City Ice Arena. The Eagles (9-0-0, 18 points) trailed 3-2 with four minutes to go when Tristan Enck potted his second goal of the night to tie the game with 4:01 left. A scant 1:45 later, Jaryd Pietro netted the game-winner on assists from Enck and Tyler Gilbert. Adam Linker had two tallies for Central (4-4-0, 8).
In Tier II, Chase Weik had a four-goal game to lead Ephrata past Palmyra 8-3 at Klick-Lewis Arena. Weik had a hat trick by early in the second period. The Mounts (3-5-1, 7) led 6-0 after two. Palmyra fell to 3-3-1, 7 points. ... West York trounced Manheim Central 12-5 behind a five-goal night from Daren Lint, while Penn Manor pasted Warwick 11-3.
Carlisle/Cedar Cliff stayed unbeaten in Tier III (8-0-0, 16 points) with an 11-5 win over Susquhanna Twp./Crusaders. The "Thundering Colts" trailed after the first period 1-0, but got a second-period hat trick from Nick Wagner, part of his four-goal effort, to rally and then pull away with six third-period markers.
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