Hockey Club recovers from forced foreits, beats Oneonta 8-3
By Nicole Russo
Last Updated:7:34 PM EST 1/30/08 Section: Sports
Warren Kosel, Jr. knows what a championship team looks like. After all, he was part of the squad that delivered Fisher's first Upstate New York Club Hockey League (UNYCHL) championship last February.
Now the assistant coach of the club hockey team, Kosel believes the Cardinals have what it takes to bring home back-to-back titles.
After a rocky ending to the fall semester, the team seems to be living up to Kosel's beliefs. In their first game of 2008, the Cardinals earned an 8-3 road win at SUNY Oneonta to boost their record for the season to 9-7.
Junior Matt Selover and senior captain Ray Arnold each scored twice. Selover added an assist, and four other players also scored, including team leader Nick Donofrio, a sophomore.
"He scores at least once every game, which is amazing," Kosel said. "We're definitely receiving goals there.
"This season, we have the most talent Fisher has ever seen. The majority of players returned from last year, which leaves us a strong foundation for this season and next season. We've also done a lot of recruiting around campus and get a lot of great kids from high schools. Most importantly, everyone is mixing well together as a team, and they all have one goal in mind, which is to win."
Despite that goal, the Cardinals found themselves on thin ice at the end of the fall semester, as they suffered back-to-back losses to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) club hockey team. In the home-and-home series, RIT made off with 6-3 and 7-3 wins.
In another troubling incident, a player on the team was found to be ineligible due to insufficient academic credits. Fisher was forced to forfeit three games from the fall.
"We're overcoming that," Kosel said. "We're trying to put it behind us and just keep moving on. We had a shaky end to the first semester with a few losses, and with that situation. We're just trying to keep our mindset and remain focused on bringing another championship back to Fisher."
The team will take one more step toward that goal the weekend of Feb. 8-9, when it faces LeMoyne College in a home-and-home series.
"That'll mostly make or break our playoff hopes," Kosel said. "It's always a good battle against LeMoyne. They're a great group of guys. They're classy and they know how to play the game."
Now the assistant coach of the club hockey team, Kosel believes the Cardinals have what it takes to bring home back-to-back titles.
After a rocky ending to the fall semester, the team seems to be living up to Kosel's beliefs. In their first game of 2008, the Cardinals earned an 8-3 road win at SUNY Oneonta to boost their record for the season to 9-7.
Junior Matt Selover and senior captain Ray Arnold each scored twice. Selover added an assist, and four other players also scored, including team leader Nick Donofrio, a sophomore.
"He scores at least once every game, which is amazing," Kosel said. "We're definitely receiving goals there.
"This season, we have the most talent Fisher has ever seen. The majority of players returned from last year, which leaves us a strong foundation for this season and next season. We've also done a lot of recruiting around campus and get a lot of great kids from high schools. Most importantly, everyone is mixing well together as a team, and they all have one goal in mind, which is to win."
Despite that goal, the Cardinals found themselves on thin ice at the end of the fall semester, as they suffered back-to-back losses to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) club hockey team. In the home-and-home series, RIT made off with 6-3 and 7-3 wins.
In another troubling incident, a player on the team was found to be ineligible due to insufficient academic credits. Fisher was forced to forfeit three games from the fall.
"We're overcoming that," Kosel said. "We're trying to put it behind us and just keep moving on. We had a shaky end to the first semester with a few losses, and with that situation. We're just trying to keep our mindset and remain focused on bringing another championship back to Fisher."
The team will take one more step toward that goal the weekend of Feb. 8-9, when it faces LeMoyne College in a home-and-home series.
"That'll mostly make or break our playoff hopes," Kosel said. "It's always a good battle against LeMoyne. They're a great group of guys. They're classy and they know how to play the game."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Warren C. Kosel
posted 1/31/08 @ 7:54 PM EST
1/31/2008
Nicole,
You wrote an excellent article on a great team! The heart and soul of this year's hockey team are the third and fourth lines who don't see as much ice time as the first and second lines and rarely if at all see any game action on "special teams". (Continued…)
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