Post Messenger Recorder -

For their first hockey game of the year, the Monroe Avalanche Co-op team traveled to Sparta on Saturday, November 19th, to play a non-conference game. They lost to Sparta, 3-7.

In the first period, Sparta scored three goals.

Sparta started the second period by scoring another goal, but Monroe’s Tyler Johnson scored the first goal for the Avalanche. After another Sparta goal, Travis Edmunds, assisted by Jared Dillon and Tyler Johnson, scored again for the Avalanche. Sparta ended the second by scoring yet again, and the score at the end of the second was 6 to 2.

The Avalanche’s Joe Wyss, assisted by Dennis Neary, scored on a power play in the third period, but Sparta came back less than a minute later to score their final point.

Despite being short two defensemen and a forward, due to eligibility, the coaches all agreed that their team played well and were quite surprised by how well the freshmen played. “Especially with the freshman comprising half of our roster,” commented Coach Josh Smith. “The freshman defensemen Payton Stauffacher and Jeremy Kolasa played especially well. All in all we saw a lot of good things we can build off of and are looking forward to the rest of the season.”

The team traveled to LaBahn Arena to take on Madison Edgewood on November 22nd and will host DeForest at SLICE in Monroe on November 29th.