Sachem Hockey Trounces St. John's, 10-2

Sachem beat St. John's the Baptist Monday night, 10-2, at The Rinx in Hauppague. The win improved Sachem to 4-4-1 this season, while St. John's fell to 0-7-1.

Sachem jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. It opened the scoring at 1:37 of the first period, and extended it moments later when Matt Battelli's wrist shot from the top of the cirlce rang off the post and in.

Michael Douros made it 3-0 when he tapped a loose puck into the net from the mouth of the crease. Chris Chizzoniti scored one of the more stranger goals seen this season, when his rising shot hit a St. John's player in the mask and found it's way to the net to give the Arrows a 4-0 lead.

Sachem got into penalty trouble late in the first, being called for playing without mouthpieces twice in succession. St. John's applied pressure, but goaltender Brandon Bassett and the rest of the penalty kill kept St. John's off the board.

"Brandon is playing excellent," said Sachem head coach Tom Kramer. "He's doing a great job of holding it together while our other goalie [William Harris] is hurt. The whole workload has been on him."

Sachem made it 5-0 early in the second when Chris Porcillo's high wrist shot beat St. John's goalie William Krause. Just eight seconds later, Erick Santiago made it 6-0 on a breakaway.

St. John's broke through moments later when Vincent Rizzotti's wrist shot beat Bassett to make it 6-1.

Sachem answered back quickly when Tom Tirelli's backhand shot on a breakaway put the Arrows up 7-1. Krause was pulled for Anthony Chille. St. John's Rizzotti tallied his second of the night by cashing in on a loose puck with Bassett out of the net to make it 7-2.

Sachem put the game out of reach for good late, with goals by Robert Donnelly, a second goal by Battelli and a power-play goal by Chris Haun.

Rizzotti was ejected with just over two minutes left for landing a punch on Sachem's Tirelli, leaving him an assist short of a Gordie Howe hat trick.

Although it was a lop-sided score, St. John's coach Jim Skopek believes his team played better than what the scoreboard reads.

"When you have this kind of game going on here, all I can ask for for some of these players is never give up, never lose their heart, and play as strong as they can, and I think that's what we did," he said.

"The score did not show the heart and the desire and integrity the boys from St. John's showed," he added.