Colorado trip ends on positive note
At #18 the Beach headed to Colorado for their toughest tests of the year with three away games against #2 ranked Northern Colorado, #12 ranked Colorado University-Boulder, and #7 MSU Denver. Unfortunately, The Beach would be without Francis Lemay who suffered a knee injury and would not make the trip.
@ Northern Colorado
The weekend started off tough as a seasoned Northern Colorado team would prove why they are ranked #2 in the West. Northern Colorado routed the Beach 9-1; both Tyler Gealy and Adam Moroz would see action in the game. Matt Hoeksema would get the team’s lone goal. Despite the tough loss Coach Mitrano stayed positive and was happy with the team’s effort against a tough opponent. Unfortunately, the Beach would have to finish the weekend without Evan Rusch, and Austin Stanovich who both were injured in the game.
@ Colorado University - Boulder
Next, the Beach would travel to Boulder to take on the Buffalos. This would prove to be another tough game for the Beach, running into penalty trouble and dropping the game 7-3. Tyler Gealy got the start in net and saw a lot of action facing 43 shots. The Beach got two goals from Tyler Galgas and a goal from Ryan Schlerf. Coach Mitrano was disappointed with the effort and lack of discipline against a team he felt they could have better competed against.
@ Metro State
The Beach would look to salvage the weekend with another tough matchup against the #7 ranked MSU Roadrunners. This proved to be the game that the Beach would figure things out. MSU got an early goal but the Beach refused to go away and battled MSU throughout the first ending the period down 1-0. The Beach came out flying in the second scoring four unanswered goals. Tyler Galgas, Kody Ichinaga, Matt Hoeksema, and Ryan Schlerf would all get goals in the second. MSU answered late in the period with a goal of their own, but the Beach would take a 4-2 lead into the third. MSU would not make it easy on the Beach scoring halfway through the final period, closing the lead to one. The Beach would answer right back as Adam Stanovich would score less than a minute later extending the lead back to two. MSU got a PP goal late in the period but the Beach stayed strong defensively blocking a number of shots. The goal by Stanovich would prove to be the game-winner as the Beach completed the upset. Despite the two tough losses to start the trip, a huge upset win would make the trip a successful one.
