The women’s ice hockey team returned to their home ice last Saturday evening when they took on rivals California University of Pennsylvania that resulted in an 8-2 West Chester loss.
Calif. made the most of the puck drop as they were on the forecheck aggressively fast in the first period. West Chester tried to subdue them by getting the puck in Calif.’s zone but they were unsuccessful. Calif. was heavy on their offensive play as they kept the play out of their zone and kept pushing the puck towards the West Chester goal.
West Chester’s goaltender Aly Golia tried to hold her own in the crease, but Calif. was able to slap the puck past her early in the first period around the twelfth-minute mark. The visiting team did not stop there, as they continued their assault on West Chester’s goal, which even led to the net being dislodged twice within a couple minutes of each other.
After Calif. scored the first goal of the game, West Chester tried to bring their offensive attack to Calif.’s goal, but goalie Nicole Jones was able to hold them off with a few good saves before the period ended.
Toward the end of the first period, tensions on the ice began to get heated and a scuffle occurred after the whistle had been blown to signal the end of the period. Two Calif. players took on West Chester’s defensive player Amanda Vito, and a fight broke out. The fight was short-lived, as the referees were quick to separate the players.
Before the start of the second period, the referee spoke to the captains of both teams about what happened. What resulted was only a two-minute penalty for Calif., and no penalty for West Chester.
West Chester had the upper hand in the second as they started the period on the power play, so they really took advantage of this in trying to get a goal. Shortly after, a Calif. player was penalized for cross checking and West Chester had more of an opportunity to score with a 5-3 powerplay.
West Chester forward Becky Dobson was on the attack due to this advantage as she scored shortly after the Calif. penalty, which tied up the game. Dobson remained on fire at this point as she scored a second goal seconds after her first goal, gaining West Chester the lead.
West Chester was awarded another power play opportunity around the 13th minute. Despite this, Calif. went hard on their penalty kill, and one of their players checked West Chester defense player Brittany Dalziel hard against the boards. Dalziel was hurt but was able to get up off the ice, which resulted in another Calif. penalty.
Despite all the penalties on Calif., they were still going after another goal, which they succeeded with five or so minutes left in the period.
With the game tied at 2-2, in final period, West Chester tried to be early on the forecheck, but Calif. continued to shut them out. Calif. continued their assault on West Chester as they scored another goal early in the period. The visiting team continued to slap pucks into the West Chester goal with two back-to-back goals around the ninth minute of play, leading the score at 5-2.
At this point in the game West Chester had seemed to lose their energy, but this came at a bad time because there was nothing stopping Calif. They scored their sixth goal at the seventh minute of play and they had no desire to let West Chester have it easy in the rest of the game.
Four-on-four play ensued with five minutes left in the game, which turned into a 3-5 against West Chester seconds later. This was unfortunate for West Chester, as Calif. took advantage of these opportunities by scoring their seventh and eighth goals of the night with only a few minutes of play left.
The game ended in an 8-2 loss.
“There was not enough team defense in front of our goaltender,” Dobson said, “So we let her down in that way. We need to know that two goals is not enough to win it.”
West Chester is now 5-4-0 and eager for more as the hockey season progresses.
Deanna Vasso is a fourth-year student majoring in English with a minor in creative writing. She can be reached at DV670502@wcupa.edu.