NEVILLE TWP., Pa.– Robert Morris received a strong showing from Francis Marotte, who made 27 saves on Saturday night on the way to his third career shutout in a 3-0 victory over Holy Cross at RMU Island Sports Center.
Until that point, the season for the Colonials (3-5-1) had been marred by inconsistencies and defensive lapses, showed promise for change on Saturday evening, as the team allowed an old philosophy to return to the ice by keeping the game simple as a team.
“We wanted to make sure we defended the rush well and picked up down low,” Derek Schooley said. “The reason that our defense had that much success was because our forwards back-checked so hard. We allowed them to step up, have good gaps and forced them to dump pucks.”
He also gave a nod to the defensive core.
“I really liked our effort – our defense blocked shots and sold out. There was a chance where there was a breakdown and Alex Bontje slid and broke up the play. We did the little things right tonight.”
Marotte looked dialed in from the opening drop, making routine save after routine save, while coming up with big saves for when his team needed him the most.
“By making the big saves tonight that I had to make in the second period,” Marotte said. “I only had to make a few, gave us energy in the rest of the second and the third period.”
Senior Spencer Dorowicz scored his second goal of the season on a net-crashing effort in the first period, slipping a puck behind a sprawling Crusaders netminder Paul Berrafato. Freshman Ryley Risling pocketed his first collegiate goal ten minutes later on a similar play, stretching the Holy Cross senior post to post before depositing the puck in the net. Luke Lynch capped off the evening with his team-leading seventh goal of the season on a clone of the first two plays.
NOTES
Robert Morris finished the game 0-for-3 on the powerplay, accumulating only two shots after a 2-for-6 effort on Friday night. … Matthew Graham and Michael Louria registered two assists a piece. … Sean Giles tallied his first point of the season on the Risling marker. … The teams finished with 26 faceoff wins each. RMU sophomore Daniel Mantenuto led the way with eleven wins to only one loss. … Bontje blocked five shots.
TIGERS IN WAIT
Robert Morris heads off to Henrietta, New York for a matchup with Atlantic Hockey rival RIT Tigers on Nov. 10 and 11. Both games will take place from the Gene Polisseni Center with faceoffs scheduled for 7:05 p.m. RMU returns to the Island Sports Center for a series of matchups with American International on Nov. 17 and 18.
