Only a few months ago Gettysburg was counting down the seconds at the Hershey Park arena to it's first Mason Dixon title in over 10 years. Gettysburg defeated a tough Alvernia team 4-3 in a close back and forth game. Prior to the championship matchup Gettysburg had split the series with Alvernia in the season winning one and losing one. So going in to Saturday night's game the Bullets knew this game would be one of their most difficult. And coming off a heartbreaking game the night before they knew they would have to recharge and come ready to play.

The Bullets would be a little shorthanded for this matchup as they were missing a few players due to personal reasons and Assistant captain Matt Simeoni had suffered a concussion the night before, so they would be without his scoring abilities as well. Nonetheless they had a tough game ahead of them and just needed to dig that much further in order to come out on top.

First period started much better than the night before against St. Vincent as the Bullets sustained a number of shots but it would be Alvernia that struck first, slipping one past senior netminder Cory Waldron. Not letting it get them down, Gettysburg kept firing and kept the legs moving as minutes later they were awarded a powerplay and wasted little time as Junior Ryan Flanagan faked a shot and fired a pass to Sophomore Mike Schopp who buried it with a one timer, tying the game at 1-1. However, Alvernia would come right back and net another one giving them the 2-1 edge going in to the second period.

Gettysburg started the second period a man down and unfortunately Alvernia took advantage as they scored another goal, taking two goal lead. You could tell that this goal deflated the Bullets stamina as they had done very well on the penalty kill prior to this weekend. Alvernia would score the next two goals giving them a commanding four goal lead.

In the third period Gettysburg had the mindset that they were exhausted but knew they had come back the night before and could do it once again. A few minutes in Gettysburg was on a 3-on-3 and senior Captain Phil Deyette took advantage of the open ice and broke in all alone to roof it past the goaltender cutting the lead to 5-2. This could be the spark Gettysburg needed as they tried to claw their way back in to the game. But unfortuantely it was not their night and their fatigue set in and the Crusaders from Alvernia popped in another powerplay goal to finish off the Bullets 6-2.

Overall the weekend was a good wakeup call for the team as they now know they have to work that much harder if they want to repeat the MDCHA title. As a sidenote, Adams County Television was at the game and will air the game on Adams County TV as well as the GburgTV network tomorrow night, (11/17) at 7:00pm.