View All Scores

NCRHA

National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association

A Trip to Old Bethpage

by Vincent Matula

ECRHA  November 13th, 2019 at 6:56AM  November 13th, 2019 12:57PM

A weekend in Old Bethpage, NY is officially completed and means that every team within the ECRHA has played at least two games this season.

In Division 1, Slippery Rock and Farmingdale State continued their best-of-five series with two games on Saturday. With this being their home weekend, the Rams of Farmingdale had their top three of Jake Corso, Joey DiMartino and Max Halvorsen back for the weekend. Despite a five point performance by DiMartino in their first game, Slippery Rock scored two goals in a 1:04 span late in the third period to tie the game at 5 and send it into overtime. When it was all said and done, the Pride of Slippery Rock won 6-5 in a shootout with Gannon Warrick scoring the winner. Now being down 2-0 in the series, Farmingdale needed a win later in the day if they wanted to keep their hopes alive of hosting Regionals. A four point game by Max Halvorsen lead the Rams to a 4-2 victory and cut the series deficit down to 2-1. Outside of Corso, DiMartino and Halvorsen, only one other person got on the scoresheet in both those D1 games. That player would be Colin Tinschert who recorded power play goals in both games. Farmingdale’s other win of the weekend came in blowout fashion against West Chester while Slippery Rock defeated Northeastern 6-1 and UMass 6-3. Farmingdale has finished their first semester of play with a 2-3-1 record while Slippery Rock concludes their first semester this upcoming weekend in Export, PA. 

Like Farmingdale, Division 2 Stony Brook also returned home for their home weekend. After starting the season 0-2-1 in Dracut, the Seawolves of Stony Brook needed a big weekend before going into next semester. A rematch with UMass was first on the schedule, but the result remained the same; a one goal loss. Stony Brook also fell to West Chester in another one goal defeat and concluded the weekend with another 8-5 loss against Northeastern. Now sitting at 0-5-1, Stony Brook’s season could be in jeopardy if they cannot turn this around in the second semester. As for West Chester University, they began their regular season this weekend and were able to grab a 2-1 win against the previously mentioned Stony Brook. Their losses came against Northeastern University and D1 Farmingdale. A trip to Export, PA is up next for the Golden Rams of West Chester.

Speaking of Northeastern, the Huskies currently sit atop the D2 standings with a 5-2 record. Despite losing their first two games of the weekend by a 6-1 score to D1 Slippery Rock and 7-3 against UMass, Northeastern took care of West Chester in a 6-3 win and defeated Stony Brook for their second straight 8-5 victory against the Sea Wolves this season. Thomas Keith continues to dominate D2 in scoring after recording 14 points on the weekend. Keith has scored at least three points in all five of Northeastern’s victories this season with three hat tricks as well. The final D2 team to come into Old Bethpage this past weekend was the University of Massachusetts. The Minutemen suffered their only loss of the weekend against Slippery Rock after beating Stony Brook and Northeastern on Saturday. Right behind Keith in scoring is UMass senior Trevor Shea. Shea also had a phenomenal weekend with 11 points in three games played. Shea has tallied at least four points in each of his teams four wins this season and has had two or more points in every regular season contest. Keith is on top of all major scoring categories in D2 while Shea is second and leads Keith in star points. Both players have been the cause of at least 60% of their teams goals this season. These two teams end their first semester later this month in Feasterville, PA.

Three teams from Division 3 opened up their season this weekend. Montclair State began their inaugural regular season with a 6-1 victory over the Catamounts of Vermont. They continued on against Cortland where the Red Hawks of Montclair surrendered 3-1 and 6-4 leads in the game. Cortland managed to score three straight third period goals with the final one being scored with 11 seconds remaining and resulting in a 7-6 defeat. Montclair ended the weekend with a Sunday morning matchup against Endicott that resulted in a 5-3 loss. Their season continues this coming weekend in Export, PA. Another team to being their regular season journey was Temple University. The Owls flew out of Old Bethpage with dominant wins over Boston and Vermont and suffered their only loss against Syracuse. Every skater on Temple’s roster recorded at least one point on the weekend. Neumann was the final team from D3 to open their season this past weekend. They too had blowout wins over Boston and Vermont and also handed Endicott a 5-1 loss. Neumann’s Michael Strofe was a man amongst boys this weekend after tallying 20 points in those three games and featured a ten point performance against Vermont. All three of these teams mentioned continue their season in Export, PA this weekend.

Outside of Neumann University, their were a few other D3 teams that swept their competition this weekend. After dropping their opening game of the season to Oswego, the Syracuse Orange have not looked back. Syracuse scored seven goals in each of their victories this weekend which came against St. Joseph’s, Temple and Yeshiva. Their 53 goals in seven games is tops amongst D3 and is a big reason why they currently sit in first place. With three players in the top five of scoring and four players with more than 15 points, it’s going to be tough slowing them down. The Orange wrap up the first semester this coming weekend in Export, PA. With two forfeit wins under their belt, Drexel was in search of their first gameplay win of the regular season. The Dragons opened up with a 3-2 overtime victory against St. Joseph's where John Gattone scored the winner and had nine total points for the weekend. Drexel followed that up with another one goal win over Hofstra University and concluded the weekend with a rout over Boston University. Cortland is the remaining team from D3 who took care of all their opponents this weekend. The Red Dragons came back in the third period on two separate occasions to take down Montclair 7-6 and Farmingdale Green (non-conference) 3-2 while also grabbing wins against St. Joseph’s and Boston. Cortland’s Kyle Jermyn leads the division with 14 goals and had game winners in three of their four wins this weekend. Both Drexel and Cortland will roll into Feasterville, PA later this month in hopes of maintaining their respective winning streaks.

As for other teams in D3, Endicott, Oswego and Hofstra all won at least two games during the weekend. In their first meeting since the Regional Championship game last season, Endicott took down Oswego by a 3-1 score which featured a Matt Kaski hat trick. The Gulls of Endicott also beat Montclair 5-3, but fell to Neumann by a count of 5-1. That is Endicott’s first loss since Regionals and their first regular season defeat since February of 2018. Despite the loss to Endicott, Oswego was able to win the remaining three games they had scheduled. The Lakers victories came in at 3-1 against Hofstra, 8-2 over Yeshiva and  beating D4 Farmingdale Black (non-conference) 6-1. Rookie Anthony Angelo continues his fantastic start with 17 points in six games to lead Oswego in scoring. Hofstra started their home weekend with two losses to Oswego and Drexel, but were able to end the weekend on a high note with victories over D4 Slippery Rock (non-conference) and Yeshiva. Colin Ewald continues to be the main man for the Pride as he leads his club in every major scoring category. These three teams all head to Feasterville, PA where their first semester will come to an end.

With the success of some teams, other teams had to endure a couple of losses along the way. St. Joseph’s returned home hoping to build upon a three game winning streak from their previous games in Dracut. The Golden Eagles were able to grab a point against Drexel University as two third period goals by Anthony Fellows was not enough to spark a comeback win as they fell 3-2 in overtime. St. Joe’s also took losses later in the day against Syracuse 7-3 and Cortland 6-2, which resulted in a winless weekend. However, a decent takeaway for St. Joseph’s is their rookie goaltender Timothy Dupuis who leads D3 in saves with 168 through seven games. Yeshiva University also failed to win a game this weekend as they were defeated by Syracuse, Hofstra and Oswego. A positive for the Maccabees so far is David Soffer who has almost matched his point total from last season in just half the games played. Boston University remains winless on the season as the Terriers allowed ten or more goals in each of their four games played during the weekend. Vermont University did not win any of their regular season matches, but were able to grab a non-conference victory over D4 Northeastern. Like the Terriers, they too are winless in D3 this season. These four clubs will hope to get back on track in Feasterville, PA next weekend as they wrap-up their first semester games.

Oswego was the only Division 4 team that was not in Old Bethpage this past weekend, but three teams from the division did begin their regular season play. After being shutout in their first two games by Stony Brook and Slippery Rock, Northeastern was able to salvage the weekend with a 5-4 overtime victory over UMass. The Huskies also fell to Vermont in non-conference play. Northeastern finishes the first semester later this month in Feasterville, PA. Another club that began their regular season action was Stony Brook University. The D4 Seawolves opened the weekend with goaltender Joshua Knox posting consecutive shutouts over Northeastern and Farmingdale Black. However, Stony Brook ended the weekend at an even 2-2 record losing to Slippery Rock and Farmingdale Green allowing a total of 24 goals in those final two games. This was D4 Stony Brook’s only weekend of the first semester and will return to action in January when the team travels to Sewell, NJ. UMass was the final D4 school to begin regular season games this weekend, but failed to secure a win. They did manage to get two points courtesy of two 5-4 extra time losses to Northeastern and Farmingdale Black. The Minutemen conclude their first semester games in Feasterville, PA.

Outside of a non-conference loss to Hofstra, Slippery Rock’s D4 team has been a force to be reckoned with to start the season. In their last four regular season games, goaltender Andrew Smeltzer has faced 15 shots or less and has stopped them all. At the moment, four of the top five leading scorers in D4 are on Slippery Rock. With 64 goals for and just five against, the Pride control their own destiny as they sit in first place and look to remain undefeated going into Feasterville, PA. Farmingdale Green managed to win all three of their regular season games with their only defeat of the weekend coming in a non-conference game against Cortland. As for the Black Rams, they won their first game of the season in a shootout over UMass where Joe Dwyer capped off a hat trick and now leads the Black Rams in scoring. All of these D4 teams end their first semester in Feasterville, PA.

 Coming up next on the ECRHA schedule is trip to Export, Pennsylvania where teams from Division 2 and 3 will carry on with their season as well as Division 1 Slippery Rock.

 

League News

Sponsors and Supporters