By Michael Battista / @MichaelB_96

All Colonial Conference action in Weekend 8 as nine of the ten members were in action against one-another. High scoring wins for The College of New Jersey and the University of Pennsylvania were the only action those schools as they remain at the top of the standings. The team they beat, Millersville University, endured a grueling three game set and was able to escape the weekend with some points against New Jersey Institute of Technology. 

The only school to not play, Princeton University, will make up for it with two games this upcoming weekend against Millersville and NJIT.

Here’s the recap:

Saturday, November 2

Millersville Marauders vs NJIT Highlanders (3-2)

The first win of the season finally arrived for Millersville University as the team beat the New Jersey Institute of Technology, 3-2, on Saturday night. 

The Marauders held the lead three times during the game as the Highlanders matched them goal for goal for almost the entire night. When Tyler Browne found Brendan Ward to open the scoring after six minutes, NJIT took less than a minute to respond. James Copeland smashed in a pass from James Lyle and Michael Caufield to even the score at one each.

The Highlanders’ Matthew Altomare faced 37 total shots while Millersville took a majority of the offensive chances. One of his three missed saves came as the second periods only score when David Andrews put his team up once again heading into the final 20 minutes.

Despite Ted Lee connecting off a Dalton Smith less than a minute into the final period, the team could not hold on for any points. Altomare held out for awhile but with penalties piling up for both teams and momentum shifting back and forth the game became a shootout. Tyler Browne intercepted a poor pass and took a breakaway down the ice and slapped the puck in for the games final score just under halfway through the third and the score remained  until the final horn.

Millersville’s win came sandwiched between two hard losses to TCNJ and UPenn where the team was outscored 19-2 across both games. Still, the two points put the Marauders in eighth place where a battle for sixth place may develop as the season progresses.

Scranton Royals vs Seton Hall Pirates (7-4)

An early lead did not hold back the Royals as Seton Hall University fell to the University of Scranton, 7-4, on home ice. The Pirates held two separate leads between the first and second periods thanks to a pair of Thomas Healy goals and an additional score from Benjamin Bala.

Scranton head coach Stephan Fusco said after the game that he was impressed with how much Hall had improved since the last time he’d seen them.

“Seton Hall is a much improved team. Tough team to handle,” Fusco said in an email. “For example, Ben Bala. Lot of respect for that kid. They came at us right from the start.”

His team didn’t take the goals lightly and before the first period concluded the visitors cut into the gap thanks to a Peter Cassidy goal with under a minute to play. Under eight minutes into the second, John Forlenza Ii passed to Ryan Fitzmaurice who tied the game at two goals each.

After Bala’s goal later in the period, which joined an assist off of one of Healy’s earlier scores to give the Annandale New Jersey native a two point game, the Royals started to take more control. Eleven seconds after the tie was broken, Kieran Gruby knotted the score once again for his team at 3-3. 

Gruby was the spark his team needed to get the comeback going, not only tying the game but scoring the go-ahead goal with under three minutes to play in the second period off an assist from Ryan Fitzmaurice.

A second goal from Fitzmaurice and one each from Matthew Piro and Kieran Regen created a hill to big from the Pirates to climb. The constant attack wore down the team and, despite a final score from  Jeremy Grabiec cutting the then lead to one, Stephen Brennan wore out the remaining attack in goal and went nearly perfect in the final 20 minutes.

Other Scores

Friday, Nov. 1

University of Pennsylvania (8) vs Millersville University (1)

UPenn Goals:

1) Robert Blend (Christian Rodriguez, Phil Foster)

2) Jonas Toupal (Brian Begley, Hayden Stephan)

3) Robert Blend (2) (Brett Rahbany, Matthew Keller)

4) Christian Rodriguez (Robert Blend, Jonas Toupal)

5) Brandon Labe (SH) (Andrew Lane)

6) Jonas Toupal (2) (Hayden Stephan, Steven Fandozzi)

7) Brett Rahbany (PP) (Alex Beckert, Robert Blend)

8) Jonas Toupal (3) (SH) (Hayden Stephan, Christian Rodriguez)

 

Millersville Goals:

1) Pat McAteer (Curtis Jonas, David Andrews)

 

Monmouth University (2) vs Seton Hall University (4)

            Monmouth Goals:

            1) Donald Califano (Michael Russ)

            2) Todd Zellars (SH)

 

            Seton Hall Goals:

            1) Nick Mangano (PP) (Nick Serapiglia)

            2) Cam Toussaint (Benjamin Bala)

            3) Jenson Labrecque (PP) (Justin Petracco, Max Allen)

            4) Nick Mangano (2)

 

Saturday, Nov. 2

Monmouth University (3) vs Rutgers University (6)

            Monmouth Goals:

            - Not Reported

 

            Rutgers Goals:

            1) 

            2) Anthony Margiotta

            3) Paul Stryker

            4) 

            5) Timothy Bizub

            6) 

 

Seton Hall University (4) vs University of Scranton (7)

            Seton Hall Goals:

            1) Thomas Healy (Jeremy Grabiec)

            2) Thomas Healy (2) (Cam Toussaint, Benjamin Bala)

            3) Benjamin Bala (Tanner Purcel)

            4) Jeremy Grabiec (Luke Kirkowski)

 

            Scranton Goals:

            1) Peter Cassidy (Cody Malyszek)

            2) Ryan Fitzmaurice (John Forlenza Ii)

            3) Kieran Gruby

            4) Kieran Gruby (2) (Ryan Fitzmaurice)

            5) Ryan Fitzmaurice (2) (John Forlenza Ii)

            6) Matthew Piro (Owen Mueller)

            6) Kieran Regen (Liam Feeley, Matthew Piro)

 

Sunday, Nov. 3

The College of New Jersey (11) vs Millersville University (1)

            TCNJ Goals:

            1) Ryan Anderson (Andrew Lem)

            2) Travis Beni (PP) (Anthony DeAlto)

            3) Michael Hannigan (PP) ( Andrew Lem, Matt Lojewski )

            4) Michael Hannigan (2) (Anthony DeAlto)

            5) Kristopher Hastings (Dan Martin, Jameson Dugan)

            6) JP Kelly (Patrick Coyle , Ryan Anderson)

            7) JP Kelly (2) 

            8) Marc Tietjen (PP) (Travis Beni, Anthony DeAlto)

            9) Jameson Dugan (Andrew Summa, Andrew Lem)

            10) Kristopher Hastings (2) (Michael Hannigan)

            11) Andrew Lem

 

            Millersville Goals:

            1) Jarrett Trexler (Christopher King)

 

West Chester University (2) vs New Jersey Institute of Technology (3)

            West Chester Goals:

            1) Gary Palmer (Trevor Yeager, Travis Czukoski)

            2) Weston Bainbridge (PP) (Dylan Storz)

 

NJIT Goals:

            1) Matthew Sendecki (Ted Lee, Michael Caufield)

            2) Dalton Smith (PP) (Dennis Sikorjak, James Lyle)

            3) John Jannone (Michael Caufield)