Catasauqua Press

When the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, it ended their hopes of reaching the NHL playoffs.

The Colonial League released it’s first list of top track and field performers for the 2019 season. Here’s a listing of the top five performers in each event through the first week of regular season meets.

GIRLS

4x100 relay: 1. Southern Lehigh (Amelia Cassaday, Madison Trout, Imani Hollie, Sierra Williams) 50.80, 2. Palisades 53.10, 3. Notre Dame (GP) 54.3, 4. Wilson 54.4, 5. Northwestern 54.7;

The 44th Annual Via All-Star Basketball Classic is slated for Saturday, March 30, at Northampton Community College.

The event features four games involving all-star senior players from all parts of the Lehigh Valley.

The Via All-Star Classic raises funds to support Via of the Lehigh Valley’s services for children and adults with disabilities, showcases the basketball talents of area student athletes, and educates attendees about Via and the need for community support through financial, partnership and advocacy support.

On the surface, Catasauqua’s baseball team will enter the season with an inexperienced squad with little depth.

How the Roughies develop from there, however, can determine their season.

“We’re young,” said head coach Steve Bradley. “We don’t have a lot of numbers, but we have young players who have promise.

“We’ll see in about a month how we can move forward as a team.”

Andrew Martinez, Jason Schneck, and Bradshaw Henning are the lone seniors from a 6-14 team a year ago.

It likely will take some time before Catasauqua head track coach Kyle Rusnock sees his full contributions from his team this spring.

Rusnock lost a number of key contributors from last year’s squad, and he has watched a core of returning letter winners and promising newcomers combine to form the new transition.

“So far, things have been going pretty well,” said the ever-optimistic Rusnock. “We have a number of kids out and we have more of a foundation than last year. We have around 60-70 kids at practices and we have a number of freshmen who joined us this year.”

Catasauqua head baseball coach Steve Bradley knows he and his team have to be patient.

His team is small, young and inexperienced, but the Roughies are not short on heart and hustle.

After having their scheduled opener against Northampton postponed last Friday, the Roughies opened the season with a 14-3 loss at Bangor, a game that didn’t truly reflected the game.

“We played well through five innings,” said Bradley. “We ran into a team that was really fast and they stole bases and got squeeze bunts down.

In what may be the wildest game of the season, Lehigh Valley pulled off a stunning, 4-3 win over the defending AHL champion Toronto Marlies Saturday night at the PPL Center. The win gave Lehigh Valley a season sweep of their two games with Toronto and three wins in their last four games against the Marlies. Going back five years, the Phantoms have played Toronto well, going 6-2-1-1.

In her first season at the helm of the Catasauqua softball program, Paige Kogelman is focusing mainly on the future and de-emphasizing the present.

She inherited a program that posted two wins in each of its previous two seasons.

“It’s about building,” said the former Rough Rider standout. “It is a day-by-day process. We will try to get better every game. We’re not looking at it as a win or a loss, but did we get better.”

The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commissions fleet of white stocking trucks are on the roll, stocking trout for the March 23 Youth Fishing Day and regional trout opener on March 30 in 18 southeast region waters.

If you’d like to introduce your youngster to the sport of fishing, the Youth Fishing Day is an opportune time for them to experience catching their first trout. It’s also an opportune time since there’s no fishing pressure from adults, and there will be loads of freshly stocked trout to be caught.

Eric Snyder never dreamed a 1-20 season could be like this.

The longtime Catasauqua boys’ basketball coach has watched his team practice and play like a team with a 20-1 record instead of their current fate.

It was a refreshing season.

The Roughies captured their lone victory at Pen Argyl Dec. 12 and then dropped 16-straight games.

Despite that, the work ethic remained.

“These guys came to practice and always worked hard,” said Snyder. “The seniors were always there leading and they never blew anything off.