EAST ALTON – Bethalto's hockey team came off a big win over Triad on Monday night with another win at East Alton Ice Arena Tuesday night, this one an 8-2 Senior Night win over Highland.
While he was happy to get the two points in the standings, Eagle coach Derek Kahl wasn't entirely happy with how the Eagles played, however.
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“The scoreboard may have looked nice, but the way we played tonight wasn't good,” Kahl said after the game. “It was a very bad performance; if we come out and play like that next week (against Freeburg/Waterloo next week and Columbia the following week), we're going to get two losses hung on us.
“We've got to get back to our game; we didn't play our team game tonight. The first six minutes, we played decent. After that, it was all downhill from there.”
Still, getting the two points in the standings for the win was important. “Obviously, the two points are important,” Kahl said. “You get them however you can; it wasn't the way we wanted to go tonight.
“Wins are good things, especially for our seniors going out on Senior Night. It was a good thing, and five of my seven seniors scored tonight; that was very nice.”
Kahl's seniors – Jayden Kahl, Joe Watson, Anthony Russo, Brendan Bollini, Jacoby Robinson, Issac Vancil and Konnar Loewen – have made many contributions to the Bethalto hockey program over the years. “This senior group's probably the most talented group of seniors we've had come through Bethalto in a long time,” Kahl said. “The addition of Vancil this year – it's his first year playing – he got his first two goals of the season tonight. That was great to see that from him.”
Watson, coming off a five-goal performance against Triad, opened the scoring nearly three minutes into the game when he took a feed from Jayden Kahl and beat Bulldog goaltender Hunter Micheletto to put the Eagles up 1-0; that was followed by goals from Loewen (assisted by Nolan Kahl), Vancil (from Loewen) and Russo (from Jayden Kahl and Watson) for a 4-0 Bethalto lead through the first period.
Russo (from Watson and Matthew Winter) and Vancil (from Russo and Nolan Kahl) extended the lead to 6-0 before the Bulldogs got on the scoreboard when Brock Troxell (from Cameron Verson and Eric Vice) to cut the Eagle lead to 6-1; Vice scored with seven seconds left in the second to cut the lead to 6-2 going into the third period. Eagle goals in the final 14 minutes came from Loewen unassisted and Jayden Kahl (from Loewen).
The Eagles had 28 shots on goal, while the Bulldogs had 26 for the night.
Bethalto improved to 8-2-2 on the year (18 points), two points behind league-leading Edwardsville; the Bulldogs fell to 2-8-2 (six points) for the season. Bethalto's game against Freeburg/Waterloo is set for 7:15 p.m. Dec. 20 at EAIA before Bethalto takes on Columbia at 7:15 p.m. Dec. 26 at EAIA.
