Late 1st period surge dooms Highland hockey as Belleville Township dismantles Bulldogs

Fresh off of a hard fought 6-6 tie against O’Fallon on Nov. 11, the Highland Bulldogs skaters appeared ready to get back in the win column.

However, a skilled and experienced Belleville Township club gave the Bulldogs a harsh reminder they have plenty of work left before they can call themselves an elite team.

Down 2-0 midway through the first period, a goal by Blaise Hawkins pulled the Bulldogs within 2-1 with 8:30 left. But a four-goal barrage keyed by a Barrett Nieweglowski goal pushed BTHS to a 6-1 lead in the final four minutes of the opening stanza. Belleville tacked on four more goals in the second period and rolled to a 13-3 mercy rule victory Tuesday, Nov. 16, in a Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association contest at East Alton Ice Arena.

HHS dropped to 2-2-1.

After winning two of their first three games and then tying O’Fallon, getting decked by BTHS was definitely an eye-opening experience.

“They were a lot better than us (tonight),” Highland coach Joel Hawkins said. “It was not close and we were not competitive and they were really good. That combination was the story of the evening.”

BTHS grabbed the early lead in the first six minutes on goals from Sam Karraker and Jacob Bliesch. After Hawkins scored on a nice feed from Dominick Emig to make the score 2-1, things went south quickly for Highland.

Three minutes later, Nieweglowski answered with a goal and then scores from Sean Keck, and back-to-back goals from Karraker gave BTHS a commanding five-goal bulge heading into the second period.

Belleville (4-1-1) added four more second period tallies for a 10-1 cushion and, by then, the Bulldogs were trying to force extra shots and began to unravel.

“They were trying, but what happens is you try to do too much and you try to skate through people and that makes it worse,” Hawkins said. “Our game is spacing and passing to the net and we didn’t do that.”

Although Highland was outshot 33-11, the Bulldogs managed two third period goals from Ella Burton and Jake Noll to finish the night on a somewhat positive note.

Highland will look to get back into the win column Thursday, Nov. 18, against always tough Granite City in an 8:30 p.m. clash at Granite City Ice Rink.

“We’ve got an even better team to face Thursday night, so we’ll see what happens,” Hawkins said.

This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 1:56 AM.