NEVILLE TWP., Pa. — For the second night in a row, the Bentley Falcons skated out to a 4-0 lead and carried the momentum forward, picking up a 5-1 win to complete a weekend sweep of the Robert Morris Colonials.
It was a better effort from Colonials who brought more energy, but still not the complete game they’d been looking for from an execution standpoint.
The Falcons used a two goal night from freshman forward and Pittsburgh native Brendan Walkom and a 24 save performance from starting net minder Aidan Pelino as catalysts, once again capitalizing on their chances while keeping The Colonials limited to a one goal effort.
“I thought we brought a little bit more effort today,” Freshman forward Aidan Spellacy said. “I thought we were better in certain areas, we just have to put it all together. We have to find ways to weather the storm. They capitalized on the opportunities they got and at the end of the day we didn’t. We have a great locker room. We have all the confidence in the world in that locker room.”
FALCONS OPPORTUNISTIC
Once again it was Luke Santerno who ignited the Falcon attack with an early goal at 2:27 of the first frame, the marker coming after an early Colonial onslaught failed to produce the opening marker. Defenseman Tanner Jago chimed in with goal just minutes later to double the lead. The Falcons outshot Robert Morris by a 11-6 margin and carried all phases of play.
“We have to do a better job in our own end picking up players,” Colonials head coach Derek Schooley said. “We have to defend better, our defense really hurt us this weekend.”
Walkom put his team firmly in the driver’s seat with his two goals coming at 17:05 of the second period and 15:11 of the third, his second and third goals of the season respectively.
PUTTING IN THE EFFORT
Though the effort was there for the Colonials, the decision making and puck management was not where it needed to be to produce a victory against a hungry Bentley squad.
Robert Morris pushed back in the middle frame, one that saw them come very close to making it a one goal deficit as defenseman Nick Jenny managed his second goal of the weekend at 17:57. A power play situation presented itself simultaneously and the Colonials nearly cashed in as a shot went inches wide in the waning minutes.
The Colonials weren’t able to draw any closer the rest of the way despite a much better third period battle level than the night before.
“Our energy was very good,” Colonial head coach Derek Schooley said. “Right off the bat I thought our energy was outstanding in the first period. Our execution was not. We made some mistakes and they beat us. I thought we were good in the second, we played with a lot of intensity. They just scored more than us, they made us pay and they were opportunistic. Their best players were their best players.”
