BEVERLY, Mass. – Top seed Endicott and #3 seeded University of New England will compete for the 2012 ECAC DIII New England Championship after both teams advanced past their semifinal opponents on Saturday afternoon. Endicott and UNE will meet on Sunday, May 13th at 12:00 pm at Endicott Stadium in the championship game.
Endicott (10-9) defeated #4 Curry (10-8) by a score of 12-10 behind faceoff man Sam Ozycz’s (Cheshire, Conn.) 22-for-26 day on the draw with 17 groundballs to go along with three points (two goals, assist).
In the day’s second semifinal between #2 Castleton State and #3 University of New England, UNE pulled away in the second half to win their first ever ECAC Tournament game 15-11 over the Spartans.
Semifinal #1 – #1 Endicott 12, #4 Curry 10
Five different Endicott players scored twice and Ozycz’s three-point effort lifted the Gulls to their fourth appearance in the ECAC Championship. Along with Ozycz’s two goals and one assist, senior attackman Harry Holden (Duxbury, Mass.) also tallied two goals with an assist to lead the offense.
Jon Thanas (Cumberland, R.I.), Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.), and Nick Togneri (Longmeadow, Mass.) also found the back of the net twice in Endicott’s victory on Saturday.
For the Colonels, attacker John Castellano (Scarsdale, N.Y.) capped off his phenomenal rookie season with a game-high six points on four goals and two assists. Castellano wraps up his first year with 24 goals, 36 assists and 60 points.
Defensively for the Blue and Green, Michael Armstrong (Winchester, Mass.) and Kyle Burke (Haverhill, Mass.) each caused three Curry turnovers. They account for six of Endicott’s 13 caused turnovers. Curry junior Andrew Navoni (Natick, Mass.) matched his counterparts with three caused turnovers for the visitors.
Between the pipes, the Gulls duo of Conley Cummings (Simsbury, Conn.) and Tom Burke (Sudbury, Mass.) combined for six saves. Cummings earned the victory, his first of the season, after leaving at halftime with a 6-5 lead. Colonels goalie Michael Hibbard (North Chelmsford, Mass.) took the loss despite making 18 saves on 30 shots faced.
Curry held a 2-0 lead within the first 3:34 of the first quarter after two quick goals by Russell Lanham (Silver Spring, Md.) and Connor Arnold (Clifton Park, N.Y.). The Gulls scored three straight unassisted goals to take the lead midway through the quarter. Endicott and Curry exchanged goals for the rest of the opening quarter to make it 4-4 after one.
In the second, tallies by Togneri and Thanas put Endicott on top by two but a Arnold goal with 2:34 remaining in the half cut the lead down to one.
In the third and fourth quarters, Endicott rattle off a five-goal unanswered streak that included a man-down goals by Pinciaro, from Ryan Tocci (Arlington, Mass.), and James Sasso (Cheshire, Conn.) from Burke.
Late in the fourth quarter and down 11-5, Curry battled back by scoring five of the final six goals. Two of those goals came in the final minute to cut the Endicott lead down to 12-10 with 30 seconds remaining. Ozycz won the game’s final faceoff and Endicott led the clock run out to seal the win.
Curry’s Joseph Natale (Haverhill, Mass.) finished with a hat trick with Arnold chipping in with two goals in the loss for the Colonels.
Semifinal #2 – #3 University of New England 15, #2 Castleton State 11
Playing in their first ever ECAC Tournament, the UNE Nor’easters won their semifinal 15-11 over Castleton State to advance into the champion game against CCC rival Endicott. UNE saw sophomore midfielder Dan O’Gorman (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) turn in a phenomenal day with five points (three goals, two assists) and a .818 faceoff win percentage (18-of-22) with nine groundballs.
Castleton State got hat tricks out of sophomore Alex Green (Braintree, Vt.) and freshman Zach Davidson (South Burlington, Vt.) but the Spartans defense was under heavy fire as UNE outshot Castleton State 53-27 in the game. Spartans goalie Eric Horsfield (Tolland, Conn.) played well with 16 saves but took the loss.
UNE keeper Jay Letendre (Southington, Conn.) earned his first win of the season after making eight saves 19 shots on goal.
Castleton State’s goal to open the first quarter accounted for their only lead of the game but the Spartans battled to either keep the score tied or to a one-goal deficit for much of the semifinal. Spartan’s junior Nohea King (St. Albans, Vt.) beat the goalie at 12:15 of the first quarter, unassisted, to put to his team on top early.
UNE tied the game at 9:45 on a Georff Bruno (Durham, Conn.) goal from Mike Allan (Billerica, Mass.) and then scored just five seconds after O’Gorman won the faceoff as the sophomore raced down the field to give the Nor’easters the lead. Castleton State tied the game at 2-2 on the first two goals by Green.
In a high scoring second quarter, UNE held a two-goal lead three times at 4-2, 5-3, 7-5 before settling on a 7-6 lead at the half. Green’s second goal of the game, from Cam Ormiston (Wakefield, R.I.), gave the Spartans some momentum going in the break.
Castleton State came out in the second half with another goal, this time Phil Patterson (Essex, Vt.) scored his 16th of the season off another assist from Ormiston to tie the game at 7-7. That would the final tie of the game as the Nor’easters took the lead just 18 seconds later at 12:02 of the third quarter off another O’Gorman tally.
UNE would use a four-goal rally from the 13 second mark of the third quarter to the 7:20 mark of the fourth quarter to build a 14-9 lead. Castleton State scored two of the final three goals, but lost the game 15-11. Nick Gross (Kennebunk, Maine), Dylan Thomas (Mount Pleasant, N.Y.), O’Gorman and Davidson accounted for the UNE goals during the four-goal streak.
UNE’s defense was sharp as defenseman Brent Bourgeois’s (New Haven, Vt.) four caused turnovers was a team-high. The Nor’easters finished with 15 as a team. (Game Recap Courtesy of Endicott Sports Information)