High School Ice Hockey: Eights are Wild as Cherry Hill Ends Drought Monday, November 1, 2004 By Mike Costantino SJSports Staff Writer It's been eight long years since Cherry Hill East beat the Eastern Vikings, but led by senior defenseman Kevin Smith, East ended the drought with a 4-2 win over Eastern. Smith, along with the rest of his team, was disappointed with their power ranking, which had them listed at number eight. Coach Deroschers took the opportunity prior to the game to point out the ranking and challenged his team to prove us wrong. Smith went as far as predicting he would score a few goals and lead his team to victory. After Derrick Schemmel scored on a breakaway to give Eastern its only lead, Smith responded forty seconds later to tie the game at 1-1, also scoring on a break. East started sophomore goalie Mike McNulty and had played solid all night. Smith scored early in the second again on a break to put East ahead 2-1. Andrew Roth increased the lead to 3-1, scoring a power play goal on a giveaway in front of the net. Eastern scored what could have been a back breaking goal as Dan Drazen scored with one second left in the period. East however did not fold and built the lead to 4-2, but Eastern had a power play chance late in the game to try and cut into the lead, but Smith and Louis Stommel were outstanding on the penalty kill. Notes: With their win against Eastern, East should move up in the rankings, but with Moorestown on the horizon maybe we should drop them to tenth. Photos by Art Redd