Marist club hockey opened the second semester and playoff home stretch, dropping both games of their weekend home stand against Army and Siena, snapping their three-game home win streak.
Fresh out of winter break, the odds were already stacked against the Red Foxes, having to face two of the top teams in the SECHL on consecutive nights. Army shut them down in their first game on Friday, 8-0, but played Siena much closer on Saturday, losing only 3-2. Despite the shutout against Army, Marist rebounded well against another quality opponent, despite not pulling the victory out in the end.
“Army is tough, they’re gonna run through a wall if they need to, so not the result we wanted,” said assistant coach Tristan Schoberle. “But [against Siena] it could’ve went either way, obviously penalties killed us, but I’m proud of how the boys battled today.”
“I think we can be competitive with teams even if they’re in the top 10,” added Schoberle
With the season winding down before the playoffs, it’s been vastly different than what the Red Foxes expected for themselves back in September. Mounting losses and being towards the bottom of the division haven’t discouraged the squad at all, though, with confidence still high heading towards the end of the season.
“Regardless of how the regular season has gone, we’ve been in close games against good teams, so going into the playoffs, we just need to make sure we’re continuing to play our game,” said Schoberle.
For Friday’s game, goaltender Anthony Russo started for the Red Foxes against SECHL South Division wins leader, Army goaltender Charlie Zurowski, who led all goalies with 12 wins.
Army got started fast, scoring just 25 seconds into the game, after forward James Delia forced a turnover on Marist defenseman Richie Williams and drove to the net, but lost the puck, only for fellow Army forward Robert Starling to pick it up with Russo out of position and making the game 1-0. Despite getting punched in the mouth quickly, the Red Foxes made the effort to not let the game get away from them despite Army’s early possession control, playing solid defense and not letting anything snowball.
The scoring chances came very sparingly for Marist through the first period, with Army’s staunch defense not allowing them to test Zurowski with quality chances. It wasn’t until an Army penalty at the 9:33 mark that Marist was able to get anything on Zurowski to make him work.
After struggling to find offense for most of the period, freshman forward TJ Fragoso got the best opportunity of the period for the Red Foxes off a dumped puck, creating the breakaway but getting stopped by Zurowski.
Army struck once again with just under four minutes to go in the period, after a shot from defenseman Robert James off a drop pass from forward Nate Heller that trickled past Russo to give the Black Knights a two-goal advantage to take into the locker room.
The second period saw Army open up the floodgates, a negative trend that’s been plaguing the Red Foxes almost the entire season. Forward Raymond Bergeron picked up a loose puck in the slot and got it just past Russo’s shoulder to put Army up three. Just minutes later, forward Jackson Dickson snuck one in from the goal line to push the lead to four and establish full control of the game.
Army then started burning the Red Foxes for their mistakes, after an errant cross-ice pass from defenseman Brayden Kehoe got intercepted by Army forward Michael Fregman, who had a free lane to the net and beat Russo to make it 5-0. After continuously hammering Marist in their own zone, Army made it 6-0 after causing chaos in front of the net for Staring to shoot right past a scrambling Russo. Just like that, what was a close game turned into a blowout. Army added two more goals in the third to make it 8-0.
For Saturday’s game, the Red Foxes started goaltender Adam D’Errico against Siena’s Matthew McCarthy. The Red Foxes found themselves in the same exact situation they were in the night before: down early in the first period.
Siena forward Luke Kurdziolek beat D’Errico from the side of the net. The Red Foxes, trying to rewrite the actions of Friday’s blowout, once again didn’t let the game get away from them. Two Siena penalties put Marist on a 5-on-3 advantage, where they quickly tied the game off a shot from Sean Bruno that caught a stick and trickled right past McCathy. Both teams finished out the period playing solid defense against each other, and Marist went into the locker room down a man after a Jake Dargento penalty.
Siena got the action started right away in the second period with forward Dominick Oppendisano taking advantage of a sloppy Marist change to go on a breakaway, but D’Errico came up big to keep the game tied with his team still short-handed. The Red Foxes penalties got the better of them in the early moments of the period, after Richie Williams took another penalty and Siena broke the tie off a shot from Kaeden Wood that got a few lucky bounces as well.
Instead of folding and letting the game get out of hand again, the Red Foxes stuck with it. D’Errico stayed solid in the net and kept the score unaffected. Forwards Alex Armada and Bruno created a 2-on-1 off a Siena turnover but were whistled down due to a close offsides call. Despite the opportunity squandered, the door was open for the Red Foxes to tie the game. They ended the period putting quality looks on McCarthy and inching closer to that game-tying goal.
The third period saw the chippiness between both teams at its highest as the penalty minutes kept stacking. Siena forward Dominic Rosone took a penalty early, and the Red Foxes capitalized right away. Seconds into the powerplay, Bruno passed to Williams, who tied the score at 2-2 off a slapshot from the point.
Siena’s special teams responded right back, after two Red Foxes penalties put them on a 5-on-3 advantage that forward Daalten Demarsh scored on to give Siena back the lead.
The Foxes pushed hard for that game-tying goal, and D’Errico came up with big saves, especially shutting down a 3-on-1 for Siena. A hooking penalty put the Red Foxes on the power play with under four minutes to go in the period, but the tying goal never came. D’Errico was pulled shortly with a minute to go, but came right back in after play was pushed out of Siena’s zone. The Saints defended the final push well and secured the victory.
The Red Foxes continue their season-ending home stand next weekend with games against Roger Williams University and CCSU.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Photo by Jaylen Rizzo
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