ROANOKE, VA. – The Rail Yard Dawgs announced on Thursday that rookie forward Andrew Harley has signed with the team and defenseman Stephen Alvo has been activated from injured reserve. Additionally, forward Tommy Munichiello (retroactive to December 7) and defenseman Brendan Pepe (retroactive to December 15) have each been placed on the 14-day injured reserve list.
Harley joins the Dawgs straight from Oswego State (NCAA-DIII), where the 25-year-old forward transferred to after four successful years at SUNY-Brockport (NCAA-DIII). In 80 career collegiate games, the five-foot-nine forward recorded 33 goals, 42 assists, 27 penalty minutes, and a plus-13 rating. Harley’s best season came in 2021-2022 in his first collegiate action, as he tallied 15 goals, 18 assists, and a plus-12 rating in just 27 games for Brockport alongside of former Dawgs defenseman Casey Winn. Prior to his college career, the Rochester, New York native played two years of junior hockey in the EHL with the East Coast Wizards, and also starred at Brockport High in USHS play. Harley is the 11th player from SUNY-Oswego and the third player from SUNY-Brockport to make his way to Roanoke.
Alvo is in his sixth professional season and third year with the Dawgs. In 10 games played so far for Roanoke this season, Alvo has one goal, four assists, and two penalty minutes. Last season, the Withrow Park, Ontario native had two goals, 24 assists, and a minus-one rating in 46 games played for the Dawgs, while also adding one goal and one assist in the President’s Cup Playoffs. In his SPHL career, the five-foot-eleven defenseman has totaled 10 goals, 53 assists, and a plus-10 rating in 137 regular season games, with an additional two goals, nine assists, a plus-nine rating, and a President’s Cup title with Roanoke in 2023 over the course of 12 career postseason games played. Alvo also played parts of two seasons in Slovakia2 with HK Spisska Nova Ves from 2019-2021.
Munichiello is in his sixth professional season this fall, appearing in 133 SPHL games, 67 FPHL games, and six ECHL games since 2019. This year, Munichiello has tallied seven goals, four assists, six penalty minutes, and a plus-two rating in 13 games for the Dawgs, including a four-game goal streak in late November. The five-foot-nine winger had 12 goals and 27 assists in 53 combined games for the Dawgs and the Macon Mayhem last season, including 12 points and a plus-six rating in 17 regular season games for the Dawgs. Munichiello also added one goal and two assists in six President’s Cup Playoff games for Roanoke. Prior to arriving in Roanoke last February via trade, Munichiello recorded 25 goals and 48 assists in his 103 career SPHL appearances between Macon and Huntsville. Prior to his professional career, Weymouth, Massachusetts native played four seasons of college hockey at Babson College (NCAA-DIII), with 27 goals and 38 assists in 95 career NCAA games, and he was also the team’s captain during his senior season. Munichiello grew up just a town over from Roanoke defenseman Billy Roche in the suburbs of Boston.
Pepe is in his third full professional season with Roanoke, having started this season in the ECHL with the Reading Royals before he was waived and claimed by the Adirondack Thunder. Since returning to the Dawgs on November 11 of this season, Pepe has notched two goals, two assists, four penalty minutes, and a plus-three rating in seven games for the Dawgs. Last year, Pepe led all SPHL defensemen with 13 goals, while his 41 points were tied for the league lead on his way to winning the league’s Defenseman of the Year award and being named to the All-SPHL First Team. The six-foot-three defenseman had the league’s largest increase in individual points from the 2022-23 season to the 2023-24 campaign, improving by 32 points from his nine-point total two seasons ago, and marking the largest single-season increase in points by a defenseman throughout the SPHL since Ed Snetsinger improved his point total by 33 points from 2010-2011 to 2011-2012 for the Augusta Riverhawks. The 28-year-old blue-liner also had a plus-24 rating in the 2023-24 regular season and was one of just 10 SPHL players to complete an ‘Ironman’ season by appearing in all 56 games for the Dawgs. Pepe had three power play goals and an assist in six postseason games last spring, and had two assists during Roanoke’s run to a President’s Cup in the 2022-23 season. The Essex Fells, New Jersey native previously played for the FPHL’s Danbury Hat Tricks and Stony Brook University (ACHA) before signing with Roanoke prior to the 2022-2023 season.
The Rail Yard Dawgs are on the road on Friday, December 20 against the Evansville Thunderbolts. Puck drop is slated for 8:05 P.M. EST at the Ford Center. Single game tickets for the season are on sale now online and at Berglund Center box office.
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