Jeremy Higginson, captain of the Ramapo College roller hockey team, has high hopes for the 2013-2014 season. After a disappointing season last year that saw the Roadrunners finish last in the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association division three and post a regular season record of 3-8-1, the Ramapo junior has his eyes set on a division three championship.
“We need to play solid defense this year,” Higginson said. “If we thrive with a defensive mindset and continue with offensive pressure, we have a good shot at a championship.”
Higginson said that his team wants to build on a strong preseason performance. The Roadrunners finished preseason weekend 3-0, beating Syracuse and Temple on Oct. 12 and Cornell in overtime on Oct. 13.
In those games, Higginson tallied three goals and five assists, as well as 12 penalty minutes. However, he said that the team could not get too confident because of a strong preseason performance.
Last year, the Roadrunners finished the preseason 2-0-1 before struggling through the regular season.
Despite the team’s overall poor results last year, Higginson was still a dominant offensive force for the Roadrunners. He finished fifth in the league in points with 23, totaling 18 goals and five assists. His 18 goals were tied for second highest in division three.
However, with impressive offensive numbers also came a lot of penalty minutes for Higginson and the Roadrunners last year. Higginson had 36 penalty minutes in 10 games, second highest on both the team and in the league behind fellow junior Mike Montalto with 56.
The captain stressed that his team will need to spend far less time in the penalty box to finish as a top seed this season.
“We need to start by staying out of the penalty box and trying not to get frustrated when we’re losing. I took a bad penalty in the preseason, but preseason is there to get mistakes out of the way. Now we can move on,” Higginson said.
Higginson said that while scoring a lot last year was fun, he thinks that the team should have more scoring depth through the whole roster than last year.
“We only lost one senior last year, our goalie, so with help from high-scoring players like Dan Cohen and the addition of a few new guys we should have more consistent offensive production,” he said.
In his first season as the team’s captain, Higginson plans to lead by example. He said he wants to set the tone for the team by playing responsible defense, staying out of the penalty box and contributing offensively.
Higginson was an assistant captain last season as a sophomore, and said being named captain this year is an honor.
“It’s a privilege to be the captain. Since I have been on the team I haven’t seen a junior named captain and I’m looking forward to meeting high expectations,” he said.
—
dhervey@ramapo.edu
