Three early goals enough for Marksmen win

ROANOKE, Va.- The Fayetteville Marksmen, proud members of the Southern Professional Hockey League, took down the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs 3-1 at Berglund Center on Friday night.

The Marksmen opened the scoring just 4:09 into the game when Jarret Kup followed a rush from Shane Bednard and Taylor Best to score his second of the season. Identically to last night, it would be the only goal of the first period.

In the second, Taylor McCloy scored his third goal in four games to make it 2-0 just 0:18 seconds into the period. Zach Remers found him in front from behind the net.

5:44 into the second, F.X. Girard was the trailer on an odd-man rush and scored from Matt McNair and Don Olivieri to make it 3-0. The goal triggered Rail Yard Dawgs head coach Dan Bremner to pull starter Henry Dill who gave up three goals on nine shots.

Midway through the third period, Brady Heppner would score a shorthanded goal to make it 3-1, but Brent Moran would slam the door. Moran turned away 29 of 30 and received second star honors.

The Marksmen overcame having the fewest shots on net in a single game this season (17) and going 0-for-6 on the powerplay to secure the victory.

Fayetteville has won six straight games and back-to-back games vs. Roanoke to even the season series with the Rail Yard Dawgs at 6-5-1.

These two teams will face off again this coming Friday, February 11 in Fayetteville.

Friday’s night game will kick off Family Weekend presented by Manna Church and tickets are still available on marksmenhockey.com.