Weekend Wrap Up

Nov 16, 2011

The El Paso Rhinos remain undefeated after playing against the Dallas Snipers in Euless, Texas

Friday’s game ended in a 14-3 win for the Rhinos with Tyler Basham, Mike Rivera, Brenden Gust, Trey Hughes, Chris Wilhite and Carl Graf each scoring 2 goals.  Brandon Smolarek was once again a key player, saving 23 of 26 shots, securing the first win of the weekend.

Saturday’s game was a great one for Brenden Manquen, who saved all 20 shots, making the final score a clean 11-0.  In total, nine players scored Saturday night, including Carl Graf and David Nelson, each with 2 goals.

Six players made it to the back of the net on Sunday, Brenden Gust scored 2 of the 6 goals, El Paso’s own Mike Rivera also scored 1 goal, and once again, Brandon Smolarek saved 39 shots, only allowing 2 goals for the Dallas team.

Coach Herman is now focused on getting them ready to play back at home during Thanksgiving weekend.  “We were relatively pleased with the overall weekend.  The penalty killers who have been struggling as of late played extremely well killing off all Rhino penalties.  Games like these are good in ways that players get out of slumps. We have ten days before our game against Idaho, so it is very important that we have a good ten days of practice and start to prepare for a very good Idaho team.”

Overall, the El Paso Rhinos’ key players this weekend were Trey Hughes, Tyler Basham and Carl Graf.  Both goalies did a terrific job not allowing the Snipers to generate any offense, now the Rhinos return home to get ready for the Idaho Steelheads, whom they will play Wednesday November 23, Friday November 25, and Saturday November 26 all games start at 7:30 pm

Nidia Flores can be reached at nflores@elpasorhinos.com.