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Newburyport routes Amesbury in incident-free rivalry game

Monday, January, 14 By Jim Sullivan
Correspondent

The Amesbury hockey team's quest to record its first win will continue as the Indians were treated to an old fashioned spanking from their cross-town rival Newburyport Saturday night.

The Clippers (4-3-1) pasted Amesbury (0-8) by a count of 9-1.

With a refreshing lack of foreign objects or bench-clearing brawls on the ice (perhaps it was the full-page dissertation on sportsmanship gracing the program or the stepped up police presence), the close-to-capacity crowd created a playoff atmosphere. Clippers forward Corey Ruane brought the spectators to their feet early, scoring less than two and half minutes in with an assist from Sean Hickman and Kirk Dillon.

Fifty-eight seconds later, Amesbury fans had their only opportunity to cheer as Zachary Pizzo answered with a goal assisted by Justin Isaac and Matt Bean.

The Clippers immediately put an end to any notion of a close game by camping out in their opponent's end of the ice and showing no mercy.

Less than 20 seconds after Amesbury's score, Clippers senior Kevin Holmes stormed down the ice with the Newburyport fans chanting "Let's throw golf balls!" to score the first of two first-period goals. Collin Cusack and Gaven LaValley assisted on both Holmes scores.

Then Clippers captain Derek McCoy weighed in with a goal assisted by Kevin Ryan and Derek Freeman.

The chant changed to "It's all over!" at the 3:14 mark as Cusack scored a goal assisted by Holmes. Dillon brought the score to 6-1 on an unassisted goal minutes later. Kyle McElroy tallied the final first-period goal assisted by Freeman and McCoy, bringing the high-scoring 15-minute stretch to an end with Newburyport leading 7-1.

The second and third periods saw most of Amesbury's "die-hard" fans wandering off into the night, as Clipper goals eight and nine were scored by Calvin Fournier, assisted by Kevin Ryan and Ryan Cutter and then Freeman, respectively.

"Amesbury works hard. They're a young team. They'll get better as they go," said Newburyport Coach Paul Yameen. "(Amesbury coach Peter Cignetti) does a good job. It won't be too long until their first win."

With the score well out of reach, Yameen was also happy to give some of his reserve players some much-needed game experience, pulling starting goalie Brendan Doherty in favor of Kyle Trafford in the third and playing defensemen Ed O'Connor and Alex Silvio.

"It's good to be able to get a few guys in that don't get much time," Yameen said. "O'Connor and Silvio are great team players. They know their roles. It's good to get them out there."

And what does Yameen think about the challenges of a Clippers-Indians tilt?

"We enjoy the rivalry. But that's what it is." Yameen adds. "We play some hard hockey and when it's over, it's over." With his team hanging tough in the Cape Ann League, Yameen is starting to like what he sees.

"We've been playing good in the last three games," Yameen said. "We're taking it one game at a time and taking care of business."