After dropping their first game of the season to Army, Marist club hockey’s home opener went the exact opposite way they had hoped, as the Farmingdale Rams overpowered them by a score of 8-1.
The start to this season is a complete 180 from what it was last year, now 0-2 after beginning last year’s campaign 2-0; they got outscored 13-2 through the first two games of the season.
“We have to see where we failed and adjust from there,” said Coach Anthony LoBianco, “I believe this will end, and once we get through this hard part of the beginning it’s gonna be great.”
The Red Foxes were utterly outmatched for most of the game, with Farmingdale easily controlling the pace of play and forcing many errors on their side.
Odd man rushes and bad passes killed the Red Foxes, and they failed to establish any offensive zone pressure. Farmingdale put the game out of reach with four second-period goals and another three in the third.
“When we go down one or two, we get that ‘oh poor us’ mentality, and it’s a problem,” said LoBianco, “We just have to battle through it – it’s peaks and valleys – and there’s adversity in this sport, and sometimes we don’t handle that in the capacity that we could.”
Farmingdale forwards Joe Quigley and Jace Lombardo lit up the scoreboard for the Rams. Lombardo had a hat trick and scored two of his goals within seconds of each other, and Quigley added two of his own to torch the Foxes.
Sophomore Adam D’Errico struggled in his first start, allowing eight goals and being left out to dry many times against Farmingdale’s offense. While he had his moments, it was not enough to keep the Rams at bay.
From the first puck drop, the Rams jumped all over Marist, getting an early scoring chance and applying pressure in the offensive zone. Marist struggled to get anything going and found themselves in the defensive zone for most of the opening minutes, and Farmingdale had some great chances that D’Errico stopped.
Farmingdale would take another penalty with Lombardo going off for roughing, but would once again easily kill it off with goaltender Andrew Barron solid against the few chances he faced.
Farmingdale’s efforts paid off late in the first period on a four-on-four after forward Sean O’Donnell and Marist defensemen James Stevens went to the box for roughing. A neutral zone clearing attempt by Marist defenseman Matt Sacco got blocked by Farmingdale forward Thomas Ivers, setting up an odd-man rush
He dished it to Quigley, who scored the first Farmingdale goal. The Rams controlled the pace of play until the end of the period, but Marist showed some fight by being physical.
The second period is where everything came crashing down for the Red Foxes. Farmingdale was once again explosive out of the gates, and forward Kyle Butchyk took a penalty for tripping.
Farmingdale defensemen John Leppet passed the puck to his fellow defensemen Frank Alessi, who walked into the zone and took every Marist penalty killer’s attention, only to feed it off to forward Tim Duffy in the slot. With everyone’s back turned at him, Duffy ripped it past D’Errico for the second goal.
Not even a minute later, forward Joseph Huber forced a turnover and turned it into an odd-man rush, generating a rebound that forward Anthony Rodriguez picked up and put in the net, making it a quick 3-0.
After much more control and domination by the Rams, they struck again after another Marist penalty by Sacco for roughing. Lombardo carried the puck through the neutral zone, split the defense and let off a soft backhand that D’Errico couldn’t control, trickling past him into the net.
The third period saw much of the same, with the Rams beating the Red Foxes in every aspect of the game. Lombardo put up two goals within seconds of each other to complete the hat trick, but Marist finally responded after forward Tommy Fragaso wrapped around the Farmingdale net for a goal.
Quigley put the final nail in the coffin for the Foxes with a crisp one-timer from Ivers for his second goal of the game.
On the road ahead, the Red Foxes will be participating in the UNYCHL crossover, still searching for their first win of the season.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Photo by Jaylen Rizzo
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