ROANOKE, VA. – The Rail Yard Dawgs announced Monday that forward Dillon Radin has signed a standard player contract with the team, while forward Hunter Bersani has been placed on the 21-day injured reserve list.
Radin is in his first full professional season after playing in two games and scoring one goal for the Evansville Thunderbolts last season, and has appeared in four games so far for Roanoke. Radin earned the first star in Roanoke’s 3-1 win at Knoxville on November 5, tying the score in the first period on an unassisted goal. The five-foot-eleven winger had signed with the Dawgs prior to training camp, was released on October 31 before clearing SPHL waivers and returning to the Dawgs on a five-game player tryout contract. That PTO expired on Saturday prior to Roanoke’s loss at Pensacola, but now Radin will return to the Roanoke roster again. The Long Beach, New York native had started his pro career with Evansville last March after his collegiate career at UMass-Dartmouth (NCAA-DIII) concluded. While at UMass-Dartmouth, Radin put up an impressive stat line of 32 goals and 50 assists in 99 career games played, and played alongside fellow Dawg Sean Leonard for two seasons.
Bersani enjoyed his first full rookie season last year with the Columbus River Dragons after tallying one goal and one assist in a brief two-game stint with Columbus in the 2020-2021 campaign. Last season, the Buffalo, New York native notched 16 goals and 37 assists in 53 regular season games for the River Dragons, then added five additional points in five postseason games for Columbus. So far this season in Roanoke, Bersani has six shots and nine penalty minutes (including a fight) in his eight games for the Dawgs. Prior to his professional career, Bersani played in the NA3HL and EHL primarily, recording 44 goals and 73 assists over 92 games in the NA3HL with the Texas Junior Brahmas from 2016-2018. The six-foot-two forward also put up 19 goals and 29 assists in 43 games for the EHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights in the 2018-2019 season.
Roanoke will be back at home to take on the Knoxville Ice Bears on Wednesday, November 23, at 7:05 p.m. EST, and you can watch the game on HockeyTV or listen for free on Mixlr. Wednesday night’s game is the Fall Food Drive sponsored by Kroger, and fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable food to donate to Feeding America. Season tickets and single-game tickets are available by calling the Rail Yard Dawgs office, visiting the ‘Tickets’ page on our website, or by visiting the Berglund Center box office.