There were enough games this past weekend to consider the Division II/III season officially underway, although some teams won’t start practicing for two more weeks. But let’s look at what did transpire over the weekend:
- Cortland State is off to a 2-0 start after winning just four games all of last season. The SUNYAC Challenge champions allowed just one goal on the weekend with a 3-0 win over host Brockport and a 2-1 victory against Fredonia. The Red Dragons’ main weapon? Freshman goalie Ben Binga. Cortland was outshot 37-22 on Friday and 46-13 on Saturday. That’s 83 saves on 84 shots.
- Morrisville kicked off its first season of varsity play the hard way on 10/15 at seventh-ranked Oswego. The Lakers outshot the Mustangs 53-11 en route to a 9-1 win. But thanks to some better goaltending, the results were respectable this past weekend with a 5-3 loss to fourteenth-ranked Geneseo and a 6-3 defeat at the hands of Number Twelve Plattsburgh. Travis Moore made 51 saves in the first game and 46 in the second. The Mustangs’ next games will be against the other new Division III school, Becker College, this weekend. Morrisville will face Becker four times this season out of its 17 NCAA games.
- Oswego christened its new rink with a 3-2 win over Utica. A sellout crowd of 2.980 was on hand. I’m planning on being up there for the Pathfinder Bank Oswego Hockey Classic in December. I’m giving up a roadtrip with RIT to Army that weekend, but it’s just too good a tournament to pass up.
- And finally, in the “I’m really old” department, I remember teaching the aforementioned Ben Binga in my seventh grade religious education class. And it seems like yesterday.
