NEVILLE TWP.,PA- The goals came fast and furious for the Robert Morris Colonials on Friday night at Clearview Arena as they opened their regular season with a determined, 6-2 victory over the visiting Assumption Greyhounds in a non conference matchup. Starting net minder Maggie Hatch stopped 29 of 31 shots faced in collecting the win while six different goal scorers lit the lamp for the Colonials as freshman defenseman Linnea Misner and senior forward Morgan Giannone passed the offense with three point nights each.
Robert Morris seemed to get off to a quick start as they turned puck possession into scoring chances at will in the first frame, especially towards the second half of the period as they accumulated an 11 to five shot advantage over the Grehounds while hitting posts and crossbars along the way. Captain Alaina Giampietro came up with three of the eleven and nearly came away with goals on at least two of those.
“We got a lot of pucks to the net in the first but we just had to stay patient and play our game,” Colonials head coach Logan Bittle said. “And that was the lesson in the locker room, it was like just keep doing what you’re doing and it’s going to come and then after the first one you could feel the weight come off the back and some of our skill was able to show up.”
After a scoreless opening twenty minutes, junior forward Catriona Crarer opened the scoring for the Colonials with a power play tally at the 2:07 mark for her eighth career goal. From that point on, the Colonials were methodical, generating chances at will and burying them in quick fashion as Giampietro doubled the lead at 9:20, followed by Jessica McKinnon’s breakaway goal at 18:05 and Lindsey Smolen’s tally with just 15 seconds left in the second stanza. All told, Robert Morris stashed away four goals while peppering starting Greyhound goaltender Jayden Weiser with 18 shots. All seemed to be going the Colonials way until Assumption woke up in a big way with two goals just over two minutes apart from Rachel Agerter and Kayla McGaffigan to start the third period, prompting the coach to use a timeout after watching his team’s lead cut in half abruptly.
“It was a reset,” Bittle said regarding the timeout. “We got those four goals because we played the game the right way and I think we came out in the first 10 minutes of the third and tried to cheat things a little bit.”
The reset worked as the Colonials came up with the icing on the cake with late third period goals from Giannone and Misner and some key saves from Hatch to salt away the 6-2 result.
“I think we’re a lot deeper than we were last year,” Bittle remarked. “Not bad for game one but we’ve got to turn it around and do it again tomorrow.
The Colonials and Greyhounds will close out their weekend set with a game on Saturday at Clearview Arena with puck drop scheduled for 3 PM.
