Marksmen swallow tough loss at Roanoke

ROANOKE, Va.- The Fayetteville Marksmen, proud members of the Southern Professional Hockey League, fell in a hotly contested game to the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs 3-2 at Berglund Center on Saturday night.

Of note for the Marksmen, Bryan Moore made his road debut with the Marksmen this season and Matt Williams made his first professional start in net.

Roanoke opened the scoring with a C.J. Stubbs goal 7:40 into the game. Stubbs has now scored in three of the last four vs. Fayetteville.

The Marksmen would outshoot the Rail Yard Dawgs 17-6 in the second period and Drake Glover broke through on Dawgs goalie Henry Dill 12:27 into the middle frame to tie the game. Glover has now scored five goals on the season, three of them coming vs. Roanoke.

With the period ending, Jeff Jones found a loose puck on the near side post and jammed it home to put Roanoke up 2-1 going into the second intermission.

In the third period the Marksmen were unable to convert on seven minutes of powerplay time. First, Mac Jansen high-sticked Shane Bednard and Alex Renaud hit the post on the powerplay, and then Vojtech Zemlicka boarded Taylor McCloy but the Marksmen couldn’t score on the major powerplay.

Zemlicka, the only active player-assistant in the SPHL, was ejected for the hit. McCloy did not return to the game.

Taylor Best would take the puck down the left wing side boards and cut to the middle, lifting a backhand over Dill’s shoulder to tie the game at two with just over seven minutes left.

However, Nick DeVito, fresh from a call up to Idaho, scored with under five minutes remaining to seal a Rail Yard Dawg 3-2 win.

Roanoke has now defeated Fayetteville in four straight games and the Marksmen have only taken one standings point of the last eight available vs. the Dawgs.

Dill finished with weekend with 58 saves on 61 shots across two games, while Matt Williams stopped 22 of 25 in his first pro start.

The two teams will next meet on Thursday, February 3, the rescheduled date of a game originally supposed to happen tomorrow.

The Marksmen will remain on the road this coming weekend, taking on Knoxville on Friday, Jan. 21 and Birmingham on Saturday, Jan. 22.

Fayetteville is now one point ahead of Roanoke in the SPHL standings.