At 8:05 in the second period of the Cabrini and Drexel University men’s roller hockey game on Sunday, Feb. 22, the Cavs were trailing 5-1, with Drexel scoring three goals in less than four minutes. Junior captain Dave Arnold called a timeout and decided it was time to regroup. In the next six minutes, Cabrini netted three goals and brought the game to a close 5-4 at the end of the second period, but the momentum was not enough as Drexel came out victorious with a score of 6-5.
The game started out quickly with both Cabrini and Drexel tallying goals less than a minute apart. For most of the remainder of the period, the two teams battled for possession of the puck without a goal being scored, but with 2:42 left, Drexel’s John Facas scored a goal on the power play. Facas’ teammate Anthony Leusner added another goal with 1:07 left in the first period.
At the start of the second period, Drexel came out strong and scored three goals in less than four minutes. Arnold called a timeout, deciding it was time to pull the team together and gathered the group by the Cabrini bench.
“We needed to relax and focus. We weren’t working together, communicating, or playing as a cohesive unit,” Arnold said. “We were letting them [Drexel] dictate the flow of the game and not playing to our strengths.”
It took Cabrini just one minute and three seconds to regroup. Junior Rich DeMatteo scored a goal at 7:02 in the period, with senior Mike Casey scoring his second goal of the night at 4:15 and junior Paul Lollio adding another with 1:40 left in the period.
The third period was non-stop action for both teams. Cabrini’s goalie, senior Ethan Pfeiffer, made several saves to keep Cabrini in the game, but at 10:25 Drexel’s Vaughan Piccolo scored the eventual game-winning goal. Cabrini freshman Steve Hughes added another goal at 9:44, but it was not enough to lead the Cavs to victory.
“I think that the team knew we had to play well and that it was an important game,” sophomore Mike Egan said. “We scored first, and then made some bad plays as a whole and got down by four goals. Then we started playing our usual game and scored three fast goals, but couldn’t score in the last two minutes to tie the game”
The Cabrini men’s roller hockey team has been a tough opponent for the teams in the Philadelphia Collegiate Roller Hockey League’s tier I division. The Cavs overall record is 6-4-3, which makes the team seventh overall in the standings, but DeMatteo said the loss may jeopardize the team’s road to the playoffs.
“The overall team consensus is that if we don’t start winning, we may not make the playoffs, and that that would be a waste because we have been in second for two, almost three weeks,” DeMatteo said. “Everyone is real disappointed by the loss. We keep losing one-goal games, and it’s irritating. They were a faster team tonight, but we should have won. We knew we had to, but we lost”
The Cavs have three more games left on its regular season schedule. For more information on the men’s roller hockey team, visit the PCRHL website at www.pcrhl.org.
Posted to the Web by: Mark Garlit
