Following another losing weekend, the WCU Golden Rams club hockey team looked to finally salvage a weekend series and stop the bleeding set forth by five straight losses. Going into the weekend in which they played a game at Rutgers and a game at Towson, the Rams hoped to finally ignite some sort of spark in their seemingly dead play. On Friday, WCU journeyed to Rutgers to face a much improved squad who has been moving up the ladder annually.
The first period started out as they have been for the last few weeks. West Chester came out strong limiting the solid Rutgers team to a single goal in the first, a good sign for a struggling defense.
Captain Steve Jones added a goal in the first and both teams went into the tunnel with a goal apiece at intermission.
However, the game only got worse from there. In the second WCU managed one goal, a drive from Dan Griffiths. Once again the defense was not up to the task as Rutgers drove home three goals in the period to take a worrisome, but still surmountable, two-goal lead into the third.
Through the first forty minutes the Rams really kept themselves in the game and played with an intensity that was almost nonexistent at times in previous weeks.
The third period was when the floodgates opened. The fire that the team had seemed to leave itself in the locker room as Rutgers punished the Ram’s crease by adding four more goals, and taking a commanding 8-2 lead. West Chester would get a goal from the red hot Steve Meade, but to no avail, as the Rams dropped the first game of the weekend by a final of 8-3.
After the game, Coach Dorsey addressed the caliber of play he saw in the game.
“The boys played a little bit better, but it still wasn’t a full sixty minute effort. Rutgers was good, but there’s no way that our team should give up 8 goals to them.”
Lately it seems as though the theme is for the Ram’s to be aggressive for the first two periods and completely fall off in the third. Winning two periods and still losing by five just should not happen. Assistant Captain Steve Meade expressed his concern on the issue.
“We are capable of competing with all of the teams we face, and at times we have showed that but we have to compete for the full 60 minutes of play.”
The way to win games is to play hard for three periods.
On Saturday WCU hoped to at least split the weekend and pick up a win against Towson at their rink. Once again, the team followed their trend of hustling early on in the game. After one period the Ram’s had not scored, but they had not allowed a goal either and came out ready for a fresh start in the second.
The aggressive play continued as the Rams held Towson to one goal in the period and play halted with WCU trailing by a very manageable one-goal deficit. However, now the offense seemed to be lacking. Coach Dorsey said, “The guys were hustling a lot better, but they were over thinking the game…making too many passes, not putting the puck on the net.”
The final frame was when things got really interesting. Capitalizing on some penalties, Towson racked up three goals early and it seemed like things were going to get out of hand again, just in a much different way. After two blasts by Scocozza found the back of the net to make it a two-goal game, things got ugly.
With about six minutes left in the game Chris Baer was hit by an elbow by a Towson player, an illegal shot to the head.
Stepping in to protect their teammate, Joe Mango and Sean Coll got involved in a little push-and-shove with the Towson player. The common hockey fight escalated very quickly into an all-out brawl.
Following the unwritten and written rules of hockey, the five WCU guys on ice participated in the fisticuffs while the rest stayed on the bench and the goalie in his crease. Towson had other ideas. With men leaving the bench and their goalie eager to throw hands, Towson quickly put 10 men into the fight against the WCU five.
After a 10-minute melee and 10 more of sorting out penalties, seven Towson players (goalie and bench participants included), and four WCU players (Baer, Mango, Margadonna, and Coll), hit the showers early. WCU was left with a five-minute power play, a 4-on-3 for two minutes and a 5-on-3 for three.
On the extended power play Mike Ahle would score to pull the Rams within one and Tony Cordova delivered his first collegiate goal at the perfect time, tying the contest with a minute and twenty seconds on the clock.
The game remained locked up through over time and in the shootout Matt Murnane shut down the Towson attack by denying three of three shots. Who but the torrid Steve Meade blasted home the winner and gave WCU their first win in six contests.
Coach Dorsey expressed conflicting thoughts on this one but seemed ultimately happy with the end result.
“The Towson game carries mixed feelings for me”, Dorsey stated, “First, I don’t condone fighting and what happened was ugly. With that said, its hockey and it happens. It was good to see my guys stick up for each other. They need to have that family/team mentality. Second, it was good to see our guys battle back from a big deficit and get the win.”
The general consensus among the players in regard to the fight was the same. The mentality that they are all working in this together and they need to stand up for each other is a great sign.
“In hockey there is a respect for players and when Baer got elbowed it was very cheap,” Seve Cordova said. “Our players acted like they needed too. We are a family and you protect them no matter what.”
The downside of the brawl came the following week when The Rams realized that they would play without Mango, Baer, Nugent, Coll, and Margadonna due to suspensions, and Higgins, Scocozza, McInerny and Kuhlman due to injury.
Once again the 40 minutes strong and 20 minutes weak came into play in their game at Robert Morris on Friday the 29th of October. The Rams played into a hole early as they let three goals slide by in the first. A pair of goals by Griffiths and Meade got WCU right back into the mix, but the first period deficit killed any chance of a victory as RMU later scored on a power play and took the contest 4-2.
Dorsey, upset with the early deficits his team has fallen in, said, “Our guys still need to get it through their heads that they can’t dig themselves in a hole and expect to climb out in this league. It’s just too hard with the caliber of the ESCHL.” He has great reasons for his concerns. Working on a multiple-goal deficit early on does not translate into many wins. The only hope was to split the series and take Saturday’s contest.
Unfortunately, Saturday was much of the same. Facing a deficit of 3-0 early in the second, Steve Meade found net on his eight and ninth goals on the young season to make it a 3-2 game in the second, a period in which WCU dominated the offensive zone. As if it were written in a script, WCU let in another two goals in the third and as the twentieth minute ticked away, WCU found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-2 score.
Had they not allowed three early goals, the game would have gone to overtime and would have been anyone’s contest. That was not the case. The Rams knew they had players missing this weekend and knew it would be tough, but they also knew everyone needed to step up. Meade had an outstanding weekend but one player doesn’t win games, teams do.
A frustrated Dorsey, when asked about the missing players, said, “It is unfortunate that we were missing a lot of key players, but it’s no excuse. Everyone has to be ready to play whenever they’re called upon. We are really desperate for someone to step up now.
“We really need leadership and for the guys to take ownership of their team.”
Whereas the Ram’s did lose both games, and they do need some players to lead this team, a f
ew bright spots can be taken from the weekend.
The goaltending and defense showed signs of improvement over previous weeks as they held opponents to four and five goals respectively, as opposed to the nine, ten, or even eleven goals given up in weeks past.
Captain Steve Jones also addressed the fact that rookies filled in nicely for the missing players. Taking the positives and looking towards the upcoming weekend, Jones said, “I feel our team battled back from being down early in the games.
Some of our rookies showed a lot of heart while facing adversity this weekend even though we lost both games. We have to take the positives from this weekend and work towards next weekend vs. Penn State.”
Leaving the past in the past and focusing on changing is the only way to play. WCU has to figure out a way to get their hearts back into it. “Emotion will take a team further than talent every time.” If they follow these wise words by Seve Cordova, the Rams may begin their uphill climb back to the top.
Kenny Ayres is a first-year student. majoring in communications. He can be reached at KA739433@wcupa.edu.