Roberto's hat trick leads Squirt White Sabres past Flyers

Jim Roberto's hat trick paced the White Sabres over the Flyers, 6-4, in a wide open and exciting Squirt division Amherst Hockey Association game held on Sunday.

The White Sabres came out flying as Roberto netted his first goal 42 seconds into the game as he converted a pass from George Korn. Less than two minutes later, Jon Utech scored the White Sabres' second goal with Korn and James Bassett picking up assists.

The Flyers cut the White Sabres lead to 2-1 as Trevor Shaw scored with James Mueller and Connor Mulvey picking up assists.

The White Sabres' Chris Comtois upped the score to 3-1 with his first goal of the season. Comtois took a nice pass from Utech and beat goalie Peter Masters.

Midway through the second period, Bassett scored an unassisted goal to put the White Sabres up by three. The White Sabres continued to dominate play and two minutes later, Roberto netted his second as the White Sabres increased the lead to 5-1.

With time running out in the period, the Flyers' Gregory Sibick scored an unassisted goal to cut the lead to 5-2. This provided the Flyers with a big spark and gave them momentum going into the third period.

Thirty-two seconds into the third period, Shaw scored his second of the game and again both Muller and Mulvey assisted, making the score 5-3.

The Flyers continued to apply pressure

and it paid off at the seven minute mark. Once again, the Flyers

line of Shaw, Mulvey and Muller combined to score only this time it was Mulvey who beat White Sabres goaltender Alex Jackson to get the Flyers within one.

The next four minutes featured great scoring opportunities for both teams only to have the goaltenders foil them. Jamey Irish-Ryan of the White Sabres skated the length of the ice only to be stopped by Masters. Masters then stopped Bassett on a breakaway and made a glove save on a great play by Joe Phillips. Not to be outdone, Jackson stopped Eric Bailey and Mark Christy, the latter save, a three on zero break as both White Sabre defensemen were caught up ice.

With a little over three minutes remaining, Roberto completed his hat trick and gave the White Sabres some breathing room as scored an unassisted goal to make the score 6-4.

The White Sabres were able to hold the Flyers off the scoreboard as the defense of Irish-Ryan, Phillips, Ethan Evenson, Samantha Johnson and Jacob DiStasio aided Jackson. Also chipping in with some fine offensive play for the White Sabres were Alley Lillis, Dan Dirrigl, Dan Carosi and Justin LaMonto.

In addition to the Flyer goal scorers Amir Gulati, Austin Ballard and Anthony Macchia provided some offensive spark while Austin Gallagher, James Williams and Dean Battaglia had some fine defensive plays.