Colts to Face Frisco Sunday

Although far too early in the season for any sort of prediction, the Mesquite Colts proved last week that they can compete in this league.

After a tough defeat last week by McKinney, the Colts will have to be on their game for three full periods when they face Frisco this Sunday at 6:30 in Farmers Branch. Frisco is 2-0 after beating both McKinney and Allen.

What seems to be clear from a review of the box scores on last Sunday's Frisco defeat over Allen is this team plays a great defensive game and has one heck of a good goalie. Last week Allen attacked Frisco goalie Cameron Boudreau with 42 shots on goal, and Boudreau stopped all but two.

On the other side of the ice, Frisco took only 20 shots on Allen goalie Noah Wardlow, but they made them count, getting three in net to win the game.

Stats on Frisco don't show any one dominant player, but instead a good all-around team. Last week against Allen three different players scored: #28 Kyle Flowers, #64 Chris Thomas, and #3 Geoffrey Giacoman, who is credited with the game winning goal.

Looking back on Frisco's contest against McKinney, the team scored five goals, all by different players. Other goal scorers for Frisco include #21 Michael Ely, #53 Austin Cox, #98 Pierce Petry, and #32 Rick Acosta, who scored two, including the game winner two weeks ago.

Moral of this story: the team looks good on paper, but when looking at Mesquite, our boys look darn good too.

Thus far in the season, Mesquite has put points on the board with goals by #19 Tanner Holubar, #21 Coby Benson (2), #6 Ethan Fox (2), #5 Defenseman Justin Ivy,#9 Cody Hanson, and #8 Brian Hall.

The game this Sunday will mostly likely be another physical contest, and the Colts may get a chance to use their Power Play game against this Frisco team, which racked up 11 penalties in its first game with McKinney and another seven last week against Allen.

Roughing seemed to be the penalty of choice for Frisco last week, as Frisco's #28 Kyle Flowers got called twice to spend four minutes in the box for roughing, while #64 Chris Thomas and #27 Taylor Carlat did their two minutes time for roughing, as well.

If the Frisco team is analyzing the Colts, they may feel like they have an easy game ahead, as the Colts' 6-3 loss to McKinney belies how well the team actually played.

The Colts do anticipate having senior goalie Paul Hinojo back in net this week, after missing last week's McKinney game due to the flu. 8th grade goalie John Seitzler did an awesome job for the Colts last week, and if needed, he'll be there for the Colts again this week.

Coach Hall might possibly be switching up the lines a bit once again, possibly making a change between Nick Adams, who has been playing defense, and Tanner Holubar who has been playing center. Adams and Holubar, who each play both offense and defense, approached the coach about the strategy after the loss to McKinney, believing that the front lines would benefit from Adams' speed and that Holubar's size might be valuable in keeping Frisco out of scoring position near the net.

Team Captain Ethan Fox, who doesn't like to lose, says the Colts will be looking for a "W" this week. He hopes for a strong practice on decent ice tomorrow with the full squad. Last week several seniors missed practice to sit for college entrance exams, and the team was forced to practice in Addison on lousy ice that wreaked havoc on just about everyone's skates.

Excuses aside, a good practice Saturday, the return of all seniors to the ice, and a healthy Hinojo should prepare the team for a strong game and a win against the Frisco team. Go Colts!