Goulbourn RAMS Minor Bantam City B Hockey News
Nov 16, 1997
by Bob White

Sponsored by Kott Lumber

     Time for the long-awaited report on how the Goulbourn RAMS Minor Bantam Rep team is doing. Certainly the lack of news so far does not imply there is nothing good to report. Quite the contrary. The RAMS are having a tremendous hockey season. First, let me introduce the players who do all the hard work and adults who are helping them do it. Let's start with the dynamic goal-tending duo of Andrew Corbin and Scott Merriman; the skaters are Dan Arbour,Lee Carswell, Adrian Coulombe, Al Gordon, Mark Greer, Conor Higgins, Devin Knight, Corey Loverock, James Meades, Brad Neitzel, Jordan Scharfe, Andrew Spidle, Mike Thompson, Shawn Wallingford, and David White; the co-coaches are Bob Greer and Blair Scharfe; the trainer is Rick Neitzel, the co-managers are Alain Coulombe and Peter Merriman.

     Pre-season play back in early Oct consisted of first a couple of games against Nepean which the RAMS won handily in a 7-4 match with Dave White scoring a couple and James Meades picking up 3 assists, and an 11-2 masterpiece with James, Adrian Coulombe, Mark Greer, Conor Higgins, Devin Knight, Corey Loverock, Brad Neitzel, Jordan Scharfe, and Shawn Wallingford all scoring goals, and Dan Arbour assisting on 3. In a close 6-5 win over East Ottawa, Corey and Jordan scored a couple each, and Lee Carswell helped on 3. The final exhibition game was a 5-3 loss to South Ottawa.

     In ODMHL league play, the RAMS are undefeated, with a 5, 0, and 1 record, good enough for 11 points. Mark Greer picked up his first hat trick of the year in an 8-3 win over Metcalfe on Oct 16 with Jordan getting 3 assists. After trouncing Nepean in two pre-season exhibition games, the RAMS were surprised by a hard-fought 5-5 tie with the Raiders on Oct 30. A 4-1 win over Ottawa South on Oct 16 was followed up with back-to-back victories over a strong Gloucester Center team, 6-4 and 5-2. A couple of highlights to mention were Devin's 4 goals, and Lee's 5 assists in the 3-game set, and, just before the game set began, bad luck striking Conor Higgins with a broken foot caused by a skateboarding accident. Conor will be "sorely" missed for several weeks.

     The season's first tournament took place in Kemptville in late Oct. The RAMS won their first game against Kemptville 2-0 with Mark scoring both goals and Scott Merriman in nets getting his first shutout of the season. But in the second game, a very strong major bantam team from Renfrew defeated the RAMS soundly 7-2. Alas, this tournament was an expensive one, for the RAMS not only lost the final game, but also lost Mark, then the team's leading scorer, with a broken collar bone resulting from a wicked body check against the boards by the "jolly green giant"! Mark had already accumulated 9 goals and 7 assists in 7 games until then.

     The RAMS had a very successful second tournament in Nepean this past weekend playing 5 games in 24 hours. Although not the tournament winners, the RAMS played well all weekend and went right to the final game on Sunday evening. Game 1 was a lopsided 9-0 victory against an overmatched team from Toronto, out shooting them 57-20, with Devin, James, and Al Gordon getting a couple of goals each, Mike Thompson with 3 assists, and Dave White with four. Following that came wins against Kanata 2-1, Orleans 7-5, and then Kanata again 6-4 in the semi-final. The Kanata rivalry looks like it lives on from 2 years ago at the minor Peewee level. Much of the credit for the 2-1 victory goes to Andrew Corbin in nets for stopping 38 of 39 Kanata shots. The final game saw Nepean defeat the Rams 4-3. To this point in time, the Nepean team is also undefeated in league play so the tables are set for quite an exciting match up through the season with these two teams and into the playoffs.

     This season the Minor Bantam RAMS breed excitement with speedsters like Andrew Spidle and Corey Loverock, and bruising body checks from Dan Arbour and Shawn Wallingford. Shawn's bruising body checks on opposing players certainly have his team-mates happy to have him playing defence for the RAMS instead of for the opposition.

     By the way, for those of you with Internet access, keep an eye on the RAMS' Minor Bantam web site at http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/6846 (under construction) for up-to-date game info, reports, stats, etc., compliments of Alain Coulombe. And be sure to take in a home game or two on Monday's in Richmond or Thursday's in Stittsville. Check the web site for the exact schedule and game times.

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