Brandon Avezov ‘20 opened the scoring 5 minutes into the game and he wasn’t quite done yet. Just :37 seconds later the junior scored again giving Portledge a little cushion with a 2-0 lead. It seemed as if every puck the boys shot found the back of the net. Jeremy Wilmer ‘21, kept doing what he does best giving Portledge the 3-0 lead, and, just two minutes later, Nolan Ort ‘20 added his name to the stat sheet. After a wild 1st frame, the home team was up 4-0. It didn’t get any calmer as the second period supplied nine goals on the board. Portledge struck first with a goal by Frank D’Ancona ‘22 who kept his hot streak going. It seemed as if Portledge could sit back and relax despite Morristown-Beard continuing to battle. Unfortunately, Portledge relaxed too much and left the door open for Morristown-Beard. Well Mo-Beard busted through the door scoring three goals in just two minutes. When asked about letting their guard down, assistant coach Thomas Kolb said, “When we play sloppy it allows them to sneak back into games. We have to play complete games, that’s been our story all year, that we’re not playing complete games. We have to play the game with a little bit more maturity.” After the 3rd goal by Morristown, Portledge called a much needed and very effective timeout. When I asked about the message that was sent during the timeout Kolb said, “It was more or less to the terms of, we have to grow up and be more unselfish. The immaturity was unacceptable, and that’s the reason we found ourselves in a tight game.” Well, the boys took the words to heart as just two minutes later, the Boston University commit Wilmer ‘21 put the Panthers up by 3. However, Mo-Beard snuck back into it just :19 seconds later. Finally, Portledge calmed things down, stretching their lead to 9-4 with goals from Vitaly Levyy ‘21, Wilmer ‘21 who capped off a hat-trick, and Trent Midura ‘22 who added his first goal as a Panther. When asked what that meant to him, the freshman responded, “It felt great. My teammates around me were really happy for me. It was a great environment and everyone played hard today.” The third period saw Portledge stretch their advantage to eight with a goal from Mikey Stevens ‘20 to get things started. Then Spencer Hazen ‘19 added to the lead as the senior became a 7-time goal scorer. Stevens ‘20 had himself another goal later on as he scored the final goal in a 12-4 rout. The boys schedule doesn’t get any easier as they will head to Lawrenceville on Wednesday in a crucial game against a MAHL rival. The boys need to come out with a win if they want to stay in the hunt. When asked about the upcoming task Kolb said, “You play mature, you win, if you don’t you lose.”