By Nick Konotopskyj
Sports Assignment Editor
Halloween weekend saw the St. Bonaventure club hockey team come away victorious against the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) by a score of 6-4 on its home ice at the William O. Smith Recreation Center.
The team followed it up on Saturday with a road trip to Niagara where they fell to the Purple Eagles 11-2.
Freshman forward Andrew Hayn produced in a big way for the brown and white, scoring two goals against RIT and adding another one against Niagara. The Bonnies entered the game Friday night with a lot of confidence, according to Hayn.
“We knew going in that it was a game we could win,” Hayn said. “We got off to a shaky start, but then our lines started to gel and the big difference to me was we had a full bench that was fresh and rested, and they did not.”
St. Bonaventure got lucky with a couple of RIT penalties as well, which led to a few goals, senior forward John Rogers said.
“Two back-to-back five-minute penalties allowed us to score two goals which ended up being the winning margin,” Rogers said. “We struggled to keep a lead early but continued to work hard despite not being able to pull away from a team we were better than.”
Losing by nine goals to Niagara was disappointing, but it was certainly better than last year, said Hayn.
“Niagara is a great team, and a team that is ranked nationally,” Hayn said. “We lost to them 19-1 last year, so we showed some improvement this year. “
The weekend split puts the Bonnies’ overall record at 3-4-1 with a couple upcoming matchups against teams that Hayn said he believes will challenge the Bonnies.
“IUP [Indiana University of Pennsylvania] and Mercyhurst are both good teams,” Hayn said. “Staying out of the [penalty] box is big for us. We do that and we will have a huge advantage.”
Rogers is impressed with the way this team has come out and gotten some early wins to start the season, he said.
“Three wins on the year is a tremendous improvement on last year, since we only won three on the entire season,” Rogers said.
Rogers added that the freshmen and sophomores are producing right away and making plays for the Bonnies.
“They (the freshmen) have played a big role this season and added a lot of depth to the offense and defense,” Rogers said. “I am really excited to see what the future holds for this team.”
