Following a 9-2-0 start to the season, Cortland came out of the semester break and struggled with some inconsistency to open the second half. Since the start of February that strong 200-foot game has returned along with the strong play of their leading players to reflect a four-game win streak that has them playing for a SUNYAC championship for the first time in eighteen years.
“We started out really strong,” said head coach Joe Cardarelli. “We usually have a great start to the second-half where we have won a number of holiday tournaments over the past four or five years to get us going but this year for whatever reason we struggled with inconsistency in January. Our game is to play a 200-foot game and be aggressive and I think we got away from that a bit in January but we have found it in February along with our big players coming out of their lull and getting back to producing on the scoresheet regularly – that was missing in January as well.”
Cortland’s top five guys in points account for 55% of the teams 103 goals on the season. Senior Nate Berke (14G – 19A – 33 Pts; +15), Colby Seitz (11G – 17A – 28 Pts; +16), Domenic Settimo (8G – 18A – 26 Pts; +12), Sutter Donegan (14G – 5A – 19Pts; +7) and Stephen Kyrkostas (10G-11A – 21 Pts; +10) have been the backbone of the team’s offensive production with Berke leading the team in goals and assists while Seitz leads in power play and game-winning goals.
“Nate and Colby have been dynamic upfront for us this season,” noted Cardarelli. “Colby had such a strong freshman season that you might have expected him to drop off this year but he continues to sharpen his game and has been a good fit playing with Nate both as a passer and a finisher.”
After closing out the regular season with a huge overtime win against Oswego, the Red Dragons entered the SUNYAC playoffs as the No. 4 seed and continued their strong play with a 5-1 win over Brockport in the quarterfinal round before stunning top seed Geneseo on Saturday, 3-2 to earn their spot in the SUNYAC championship game against the defending champions from Plattsburgh.
“You play a couple of important games on a Wednesday to Saturday and the adrenaline is certainly flowing,” stated Cardarelli. “What I like about our game in the last few weeks is no matter what the score we continue to play our style of hockey and pressure. Even with a 5-1 lead against Brockport, we kept the pressure on them and that carried over to a great 60-minute effort at Geneseo on Saturday. Now we have to try to make this as normal a week as possible in getting ready for Saturday and I think this team is ready to play another strong game against a tough opponent.”
Cortland as an institution has enjoyed some significant athletic success in this academic year as the football team won their conference and carried that through to a national championship. With the coaching staffs and players for hockey and football being close, coach Cardarelli is hoping the championship pedigree will rub off on his hockey guys and that they can find a way to emulate their football brethren.
“The football guys are some of our biggest fans,” said Cardarelli. “It was tough when they came back from winning the national championship that not a lot of the students were around so when we played Anna Maria at the end of January, we had the football captains do the ceremonial puck drop and recognized the team on their huge achievement. I think we will have that level of support when we travel to play Plattsburgh for our conference championship and a chance to play more hockey. I know our guys are ready and excited about the challenge.”
Plattsburgh won the season series against Cortland by 6-1 and 5-4 scores but as the Cardinals and Red Dragons demonstrated last weekend, it is difficult to beat the same opponent three times in a row.
“I don’t think it matters where we play the game,” stated Cardarelli. “We will be ready to go, and I think they have more pressure on them than we do on Saturday night. We have been playing good and consistent hockey in February and hope that can extend into March.”
