THE CHAMPS: Pearl River Pirates

"KROK ROCKS" Ray and Dillon

It Was 'Bad News' for the Bears

I had a thrilling weekend watching Dillon attain another wonderful goal (pun intended) that he had set for himself. Saturday morning was the championship game of the Hudson Valley Youth Hockey League (Mite Division). The Pearl River Pirates who had come in first place in the league faced the second place Bedford Bears in a one-game, winner-take-all playoff for the title. Both teams had easily eliminated lesser opponents in their respective first rounds to set up this, their third meeting of the year. An in-season win and a tie did not give me a high level of confidence. Especially after the stirring performance that had come at Madison Square Garden two days earlier. Would this be anticlimatic to a bunch of 8 year olds? So I got myself out of bed early on Saturday morning to make my way over to Coach Krok's (my son, Dillon's dad) house so that I would not have to make the one hour drive to Newburgh by myself. Pop Tom couldn't make it, and I couldn't miss it! And how I would have hated myself if I had!! In a great game which saw the Pirates rally from a two goal deficit, my little #22, Dillon Raymond Krok, Mr Fiesty himself, managed to net the winner with one of his booming drives late in the third period to lift the Pirates to a 4-3 victory. Congratulations to the Pirates and their coaches on attaining their season's objective. Well done guys!

Speaking of anticlamatic, well let's describe the (tired group of) Pirates drubbing by the NJ Devils (2-6) as being a minor glitch in what was a wonderful day.

The Greater New York City Holiday Tournament Champs

Pearl River Pirates Win....The Ice Cats Came Up Short in the New York City Holiday Tournament

On December 30, 2006 the Pearl River Pirates team beat the Long Island Green Machine Ice Cats 2-1 to win this Tournament. To achieve this, the Pirates in the opening round topped the New York Stars 7-1. The offense was lead by my grandson Dillon Krok, C.J. Greco and Ryan McLinskey who each had two goals and Brian Quinn adding one. The defense performance was strong. In the semifinals, the Pirates rallied from a 4-2 deficit with only 8 minutes left in the game to beat the Long Island Applecore 5-4. The Pearl River Pirates alone atop the Hudson Valley League with a record of 5-0. The coaches, Chris McGee, Sean Quinn and Ray Krok did an outstanding job. As you can see this Nana is very proud of Dillon and all his team mates, not to mention Coach Krok.