William Paterson and Rutgers met for a home and home series on December 6-7, 2019.  It had been a long time since the two NJ hockey clubs laced up to battle it out on the ice.  The teams last met in 2003, when the Rutgers D1 team defeated the Pioneers D2 squad.  The Pioneers were eager to take on a New Jersey D1 foe after going 31-5-2 against New Jersey D2 programs over the last decade.

WPU 4 RUTGERS 2

On Friday night, December 6, 2019, the Pioneers got off to a fast start in front of the home town fans at the Ice Vault in Wayne, NJ.  Alex Cavaluzzo (Lake Hiawatha, NJ) put home a pass from Zach Thompson (Anchorage, AK) to make it 1-0.  Freshman, Dillon Krok (Valley Cottage, NY) got his second of the season on a deflection from Walt Keiper (Wharton, NJ) and JP Foley (Roseland, NJ) to make it 2-0 Pioneers.  The Ice Knights would tie the score 2-2 late in the second period, however Tommy Bauer (Fords, NJ) would flip home a goal to make it 3-2 after 2 periods.  Tight play took over for much of the third period until freshman forward Ryan Moloughney (Secaucus, NJ) slammed a rebound into the net to make it 4-2.  Goaltender Cole Mulholland (Pompton Lakes, NJ) would keep the puck out the rest of way to seal the victory for the Pioneers in game 1.

WPU 3 RUTGERS 1

The Pioneers and Ice Knights met again for a Saturday matinee on December 7, 2019 at ProSkate Arena in Monmouth Junction, NJ.  The teams traded jabs for most of the first period until Pioneer captain Walt Keiper skated down from his point position and fired one home to make it 1-0 Pioneers.  Adam Marvin (New City, NY) showed his offensive prowess with 2 goals in 2 minutes to make it 3-0 Pioneers early in the second period.  The Pioneers would shut down the Ice Knights the rest of the way and sophomore goaltender Jeremy Hamerquist (Woodland Park, CO) would only yield 1 goal on the afternoon.  Head Coach Joe Ballance, "I liked our defensive game in the second game of the series, the attention to detail and focus away from the puck is what we need to see the rest of the year if we expect to be successful this late in the season." 

"Overall, goaltending played a key role as both Hamerquist and Mulholland gave us time to find our game and kept us in position to win these games. We were able to get some good contributions throughout the lineup this weekend. Getting some secondary scoring with depth guys and by defensemen is key for our success," summarized the 11th year Pioneer head coach.

With the win, the Pioneers close out the fall semester schedule at 11-5.  The team will be back at the Ice Vault in January with the following home games:

January 17 vs Villanova at 8:45pm

January 18 vs George Mason at 6:15pm

Happy holidays and all the best in 2020 from the Pioneers!

Photo credit: Marissa Vandenberg