T he Reeths-Puffer hockey team struggled on Wednesday, falling 5-1 to Sparta in its first of three games in three days at the Grand Rapids Northview tournament at Griff's Ice House in Hudsonville.
Sparta opened the scoring with a goal 50 seconds into the contest, then R-P's Connor Stawski tied the game up 1-1 with a goal with six minutes left in the first period. Eli Cuti and Tyler Tindall assisted.
Sparta took the lead for good with a goal with 1:48 left in the opening period.
The Spartans added three goals within the first seven minutes of the second period to nail down the win. There was no scoring in the third period.
"We still struggled to get going in the beginning,” said R-P Coach Dustin Langlois. "We have been battling that all year so far. We even changed up our warmup before the game to try and spark something, but still let the other team set the tone of the game.
“It was a physical game and they brought it to us in the first half. Finally about halfway, we matched the pace but couldn’t get anything in the net.”
The Rockets are now 2-3 on the season.
