We won our 2nd midweek home game of the season on
Tuesday against the Plattsburgh Cardinals. As I may have mentioned in an
earlier update, we have been talking about being ready to play in these midweek
home games since day one in February. Last spring we went 0-3 in these
games and did not play the way we were capable with guys running down straight
from class. While we started off slowly against Plattsburgh, we found our
groove in the 2nd quarter.
After falling behind 3-2 after the first quarter, Harry
Giarrusso opened up our scoring in the 2nd quarter and from there we
would score 10 in a row to take a 12-3 lead early in the 3rd.
During that run we scored in all kinds of ways, step downs, in transition,
crease feeds, and driving to the cage from behind. While we are far from
a finished product on offense, we are definitely more versatile than we’ve been
in a while. We are also finally starting to run our scheme with the tempo
and spacing we want, it has made a big difference.
It was another monster day for junior Henry Riehl who finished with 4 goals and an assist. Henry
has the ability to be the best player on the field every time he laces them up
and has started playing that way this spring. Another spark plug for us
was senior captain, Joey Zelkowitz who was 2 and
2. Joey was the most dangerous 2 way middie in
the league two years ago and missed most of last year with an injury. It is
exciting to see him returning to form in the past few games.
Sophomore Jack Gould is starting to get things going as well and also finished
2 and 2. First-year AJ Kucinski is getting
better and better every game, he also went 2 and 2, if you haven’t watched us play
yet this year, you will like AJ’s game when you do!
It always helps when you win over 80% of your faceoffs like we did the other day! I had John
Jackson going 15 of 16 and Jake Madnick going 11 of
13! These two guys are workhorses and make each other better every single
day. Coach Brakeley is doing a phenomenal job with
them as well, hopefully they can keep it up.
Finally, first-year Frankie Cosolito
(Catholic Memorial, MA) scored the first two goals of his career against
Plattsburgh. Frankie made an impact this fall on the football field for Rit as a tight end and also was a major contributor for the
hockey team this winter with Coach Sinclair. After starting up with us a
few weeks late due to the overlap with hockey, Frankie has worked his way onto
our 2nd midfield line. He is a tough match up at 6-4, 220.
Frankie’s 2nd goal of the game came off a skip pass through the
defense from Cedric Rhodes and Frankie let it fly from about 11 yards out and
stuck it right in the upper corner. I hope you get to see Frankie play in
person soon as well, he’s a heck of a competitor and a great kid.
Next up we have the Polar Bears coming to town on
Saturday. They were a popular pick to win the league this year in the off
season with all they had returning from a year ago but have gotten off to a bit
of a slow start. Recently they have started to round into form with the
return of their face off specialist and definitely have the talent to beat
anyone in the league. We expect them to bring it on Saturday, should be a great
game.