Sports
Ohio Hockey pulls off home series sweep in dominant win over Stony Brook
By: Craig Neal
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – The Ohio Bobcats (8-0) looked to sweep yet another home weekend series as they faced off against Stony Brook University (1-3-1) in front of a packed Bobcat crowd. They would try to carry over some momentum from the first game in the series against the Sea Wolves where they scored 8 goals in just the third period, and did just that in a dominant 7-0 win.
The Bobcats would pick up right where they left off as the senior Will Cohen would find the net just 30 seconds into the game. Ohio would ramp up the physicality in this one early, but they wouldn’t be able to get through the first period clean as senior captain Noah Holt would head to the penalty box on a two minute minor for holding.
Even on their power play Stony Brook wouldn’t be able to create much offense in the middle; they would struggle to work the puck up the ice all evening. Ohio had significantly less shots on goal than what fans are used to in this one. Nonetheless they passed well and were creating opportunities for one another.
The starting goalie for the Sea Wolves Michael Foglia was making acrobatic saves all night. It seemed like if Foglia saw the puck it was getting saved. With their goalie playing well the Sea Wolves started increasing the physicality while still struggling on offense. Both teams held out and ended the first period 1-0.
Ohio’s scoring party would start back up again two minutes into the second period as Alex Mazzuca found the net to extend the Bobcat lead. Ohio would use this momentum to get physical on defense. This playstyle would lead to two more goals within three minutes of each other from Barron Stibbe off an assist from Will Cohen. The second goal would come from Nolan Abraham as he went top shelf to put the Bobcats up 4-0 as they picked up steam.
Stibbe wasn’t finished though as he went between his legs in front of the goal for his second goal of the evening off a pass from Luc Reeve. The Bobcats and Sea Wolves would play a back and forth game for the rest of the second period with Ohio maintaining possession very well.
The third period would continue this trend, but with 15 minutes left in the game, Stony Brook’s Foglia went down with an injury and was pulled, substituted by Colin Rowbotham. This change in personnel wouldn’t stop the Bobcats though as Luc Reeve would score a power play goal with eleven minutes remaining off an assist from Breydan Zupsansky and Alex Thomas.
Stony Brook was not able to stay at full strength in the third period, racking multiple unnecessary penalties that didn’t help their case against Ohio. This would culminate to a Gavin Keller goal for the Bobcats with under a minute left off an assist from TJ Richey and Nolan Abraham as the Bobcats would close out the game with a final score of 7-0.
After the game Head Coach Barry Schuttie attributed their defensive success to wanting to help their goalie Matt Zazon have a shutout. He remarked that the Bobcats pride themselves on being a team first group always looking to create success for one another.
The Bobcats improved to 8-0 on the season with yet another home series sweep, they will take the ice next when they face off against rivals Adrian in a home and home series that will be a rematch of last year’s ACHA National Championship game.