Cody Rinkus bagged a hat trick, and Matt Emerick added two goals and an assist to fuel Whitehall/Salisbury (2-6-3) to an upset win over Northampton (6-6-1) on senior night last Monday at Lehigh Valley Ice Arena.

"It was awesome," the senior Rinkus said on the win. "It's been a rough season for us, just to get this tonight, it was a big win."

For Salisbury/Whitehall, they are back on a winning streak for the first time since a 3-1 win over Pleasant Valley/Quakertown on November 12th.

"We've been right there in all of the games pretty much," noted Rinkus. "Just to finally be able to pull one out feels great."

Northampton opened the scoring on a Tyler Feist slap shot that was flicked in by Daniel Farkas, which gave Tristan Collins (35 saves) little chance of stopping.

But Rinkus came up big, with his hustle getting to pucks, rewarding him with two first period goals. Brad Owens goal, off feeds from Ian and Gavin Carey, gave Whitehall/Salisbury a 3-2 lead after one.

Emerick and Rinkus combined to mount the lead to 5-2, seemingly putting the game out of reach in the second period. Again, the hustle by Rinkus led to a shorthanded goal.

"Our coach gave us a great strategy, and we executed it well," added Rinkus. "We have a great team. We may be undersized, but it's not about the size of the dog in the fight, it's about the size of the fight in the dog."

Emerick's second goal made it 6-3 early in the third, but the Konkrete Kids made them work until the final whistle.

Derrick Wruble scored twice in a matter of 20 seconds from each other to pull Northampton to 6-5 with 9:12 remaining. But Collins made spectacular save after spectacular save late in the game as Northampton pulled their goalie to bring on an extra skater.

Whitehall/Salisbury is now off until Monday, January 28th when they host Parkland at 6 p.m. at Lehigh Valley Ice Arena.