A look at the SUNYAC standings typically finds some usual suspects leading the way year after year. Geneseo, Oswego and Plattsburgh have long been the dominant teams in the conference, but this year sees an interloper sitting in second place at the semester break. Cortland finished conference play at 5-2-1 in the first-half including a tie with No. 2 ranked Geneseo on the road and a major non-conference win at Hobart. Confidence is high. Results have been positive. There is a lot to expect in the second half.
It has been a couple of years in the making but we are starting to see the results mirror the effort and hard work that the players have put in over the last two seasons,” said head coach Joe Cardarelli. “We played Oswego, Geneseo and Plattsburgh all on the road in the first half and lost two one-goal games and tied at Geneseo. We can look forward to playing them in our rink in the second half of the season knowing we can compete with them.”
The night following the Oswego game, the Red Dragons traveled to Hobart with a quick turnaround against another perennial D-III power. After surrendering the games first goal in the first minute of play, Cortland flipped the script and scored a goal each in the next two periods to steal a big win.
“Yeah, it is probably never great to get scored on in the first minute of any game, but you definitely don’t want to get in that hole against a team like Hobart,” noted Cardarelli. “It is a tough place to play but I was very pleased with how we bounced back. We weathered the first period and then we scored in the first minute of the second period and found a way to win it in the third period. This group does not get flustered by much and that bounce back win against a nationally ranked team provided a big confidence boost – we got a result that was emblematic of the work on and off the ice.”
One of the biggest surprises this season for Cortland has been the balanced scoring from their roster. While Domenic Settimo and Sutter Donegan lead the team with six goals each, 13 players have scored at least two goals providing a very balanced lineup for opponents to try to defend against.
“That was a very pleasant surprise for the coaching staff,” stated Cardarelli. “We kind of expected that a couple of guys would be carrying the scoring load, but it has been much more balanced – Nick Grupp has eleven points and two goals – both shorthanded. We have a 50% new team including the sophomores that didn’t get to play a season and they are factoring in on the scoresheet regularly. Those are the contributions we have been getting up and down the lineup and from different players each game. We hope that continues in the second half.”
While the diversity in goal production has been new and exciting, the netminding has been a constant strength in junior Luca Durante’s play in the crease. Durante has a 2.17 goals-against average and a .938 save-percentage, and his stellar play adds to the confidence level of the players in front of him.
Luca has been great for us and not just this season,” said Cardarelli. “He really has improved his game with his save selection and rebound control. He has dramatically cutdown the second and third scoring chances by controlling the puck and putting rebounds into safe areas. His play really gives the guys skating in front of him the motivation to play hard every shift.”
The Red Dragons returned to the ice on Tuesday night and showed off their offensive balance with an 11-2 win over Rivier. Nine different players scored including Settimo and Donegan. They have four more non-conference games with Nazareth, Neumann, Wilkes and Skidmore before returning the conference play against Plattsburgh on January 21.
“It kind of feels like big time college basketball where we play a bunch of non-conference games before running the gauntlet of SUNYAC teams to close out the season,” stated Cardarelli. “We play three of those first five games on the road so it will be more experience for us to build our game before getting back into conference play. The team came back in good shape from the semester break, and we are excited for a big second-half of the season.”
Cortland travels to Nazareth on Friday before returning home to face Neumann on Saturday night opening up a stretch of four games in eight nights.
