Cortland Reaches the Elite Eight Before Falling to Farmingdale
The last 5 days have been some of the most exciting days of the year for not only the Cortland Dragons, but also the rest of the NCRHA. For the last week, Cortland Roller Hockey was in Independence, Missouri participating in the NCRHA National Championships. Cortland started off the week with their 3 pool games in the first 3 days. They faced Akron University, Chico State, and Denver University.
The first game of the entire tournament was Cortland’s opening game vs. the Akron Zips. The Zips finished their season as the runner up in their region so Cortland knew they could not take this team lightly. Cortland forward Justin Carpenzano opened up the scoring on the powerplay just 2:45 into the first period. From there, the Dragons never looked back. The team would score 7 goals overall in the game, including 6 straight. Seniors Tyler Ballantyne and Evan Schlicht, as well freshman Steven Marvin, each netted 2 goals in the game. Cortland started off hot with a 7-1 victory going into their second game against Chico State. Chico State was another team that had a successful season. The only losses they recorded during the season were to teams ranked higher in the national rankings. Led by freshman forward Chris Seeback and goaltender Nick Marrone, the Dragons won the game 4-0. Marrone recorded his second shutout of the playoffs. A notable highlight from this game occurred in the 3rd period when Seeback scored one of the top goals of the tournament. He received the puck behind his own net and proceeded to go end to end, before beating the defender through his legs and shooting the puck past the sprawled out Chico State goalie. Cortland rode this momentum into their final game of pool play. After starting 2-0, the Dragons knew that the winner of the game against Denver (2-0) would win the pool. Led by a 3 point performance from Thomas Hughes, as well as a 2 goal game from both Evan Schlicht and John Wagner, the Dragons defeated the Denver Pioneers to win the pool. Cortland finished pool play with a record of 3-0 and also with the least amount of goals given up in the tournament (3).
Saturday morning, Cortland faced off against the Illinois State Redbirds in the first round of the elimination bracket. Illinois State finished pool play with a record of 0-3, but because they were in Pool B, they had a guaranteed spot in the elimination round despite their record. Cortland overpowered the Redbirds and defeated them by a dominant score of 11-4. This brought Cortland into the Elite 8 of the tournament, where once again, they met Farmingdale State. Like the other matchups earlier in the season, Farmingdale once again defeated the Dragons, this time by a score of 4-1. With that loss, Cortland was eliminated from the tournament. Farmingdale went on to win the National Championship against the University of Massachusetts-Amerherst by a score of 10-5.
Although Cortland did not achieve their goal, they matched the best finish in the club’s history. The Dragons reached the Elite 8 for just the second time in the team’s history and they finished 5th overall. This is something to build off as most of the team will be returning next season. We would, however, like to wish the best of luck to our seniors Tom Hughes, Chris Fidotta, Nick Marrone, Evan Schlicht and Tyler Ballantyne. Congratulations on all of your accomplishments.