Roller Hockey Finishes Season with .500 Record

Photo by Mike Montalto

The Roadrunners roller hockey team finished the regular season with a 6-6 record in the Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association Division IV after winning two of three games on Friday and Saturday in Old Bethpage, N.Y.

Ramapo lost their first game 11-8 on Friday night against Syracuse, who finished the season undefeated at 12-0. The Roadrunners earned two wins on Saturday with a 7-3 victory against the University of Vermont and a 5-3 win against Kutztown University.

“It was extremely important for us to play our game this past weekend, and I think we accomplished that,” said senior and team captain Jeremy Higginson.

Junior Chris Mecca led the Roadrunners in scoring over the weekend with eight goals and five assists in three games, including the game-winning goal against Kutztown and Ramapo’s first three goals against Syracuse.

Higginson scored six goals for the Roadrunners while junior Dan Cohen and freshman Josh Filipovits each scored two in the three games.

After starting the season 2-5, the Roadrunners rallied to win four of their final five games and finished fifth in the Division standings. The Roadrunners will play two round robin playoff games on March 6 and 7 before the elimination round.

The Roadrunners will want to keep up their performance in the second half of the season into the playoffs. In the final five games of the season, they outscored opponents 40-21 after being outscored 54-29 in the first seven.

“We are making necessary adjustments at practice and preparing ourselves mentally for the challenge ahead,” Higginson said. “There’s a great morale building within the locker room and we’re trying to build off that.”

The team has shown that they can score as a team, as five players averaged at least a point per game. Mecca led the Roadrunners in scoring for the season with 22 goals and 12 assists in 12 games, followed by Filipovits with 14 goals and nine assists in 12 games and Higginson, who had 13 goals and seven assists in nine games.

Ramapo is also finding ways to keep the puck out of its own net. In each of their six wins the Roadrunners did not allow more than four goals, including a 10-0 shutout win for goalie junior Eddie Skrzypek on Jan. 31 against Temple.

The Roadrunners will play Syracuse and Shippensburg University in the round robin games, who finished first and fourth in the Division respectively. Shippensburg finished the season four points ahead of the Roadrunners with a 7-3-2 record.

Ramapo and Shippensburg have not met since the first game of the season on Nov. 1, which resulted in a 7-4 loss for the Roadrunners.

Syracuse, who lost in the Division Championship Game last year, is 12-0 heading into the round robin with 105 goals for and only 30 against. The good news for Ramapo is that they scored 11 of those goals, including three, in a 7-3 loss on Nov. 22.

“There isn’t a doubt in my mind that we can not only stay with any team in this league, but beat any team, including undefeated Syracuse,” Higginson said. 

mhausch@ramapo.edu