NEVILLE TWP, Pa. — On Friday night against Air Force, Robert Morris freshman goaltender Francis Marotte was pulled from a start for the first time in his young career.
After giving up three goals on 12 shots and taking a seat in favor of senior Dalton Izyk early in the second period Friday night, Marotte had about 23 hours to think about the first subpar performance of his season before being thrown right back into the fire the next night against the top team in the Atlantic Hockey Conference.
It’s been an impressive season for the young netminder, who has the nation’s second-best save percentage at .943 and has a 12-4-2 record. But part of the hot start to his RMU tenure has men that he hasn’t had a lot of adversity to overcome along thew way.
That’s why he might be the most proud of his return performance against the Falcons on Saturday, when he turned aside 23 of 24 shots to preserve a 2-1 victory for the Colonials.
“I think it’s the toughest part of being a goalie: getting pulled one night and then having to come out the next day and totally forget about it,” Marrotte said after the game. “When I got pulled [Friday] night, and trying to get it out of my head, the guys were super supportive and having the partners I have in goal so much easier.”
Marrotte’s teammates came to rescue in more ways than one. After the game Friday, Izyk called the defense lapses early in that game “a team brain fart.”
“We kind of hung him out to dry [Friday],” added senior captain Rob Mann. “We wanted to make sure that we had a solid performance in front of him [Saturday]. Like usual, he didn’t disappoint. He was lights out today.”
To say the defense had a solid performance is a bit of an understatement. The Colonials came out determined, holding the the Falcons without a shot in the first 9:15 off the game. Mann had four blocks in the opening frame as the RMU collapsed on the shooting lanes. While he certainly appreciated the effort, it made that first save even more nerve-wracking for Marrotte.
“That’s going to happen,” Marrotte said. “We’ve been blocking so many shots. Our defensive system has been so good. … It was about bouncing back today and we did that as a group.”
The Colonials are usually known for their offensive performances, but they’re 16th in the country in goals against and 16th in blocked shots per game.
All that’s happened while breaking in a pair of freshman defenseman in Alex Robert and Sean Giles. Robert played on Friday and after a first-period miscommunication with partner Alex Bontje that led to a goal, he was lifted in favor of Giles, who earned praise from his head coach.
“Sean Giles did a very good job coming in for Alex,” Schooley said. “That’s the good thing with healthy, competitive depth. It’s a good thing when you can take out guys that have been playing pretty well for you.”
