By: Thomas Pagliei NU '13, Assistant Coach

This past weekend, your Neumann University Roller Hockey club traveled to Grove City, PA for regular season game action. This particular trip was the farthest the teams would travel during their regular season campaign, second only to the national tournament in Missouri this coming April. The town of Grove City is a small suburban town in the upper-northwestern region of Pennsylvania off of PA-Interstate 79. The town is home to Primanti Bros. restaurant which has been featured on the Food Network. The teams had a few of their meals there as well. Within very close proximity of Grove City is Slippery Rock University. SRU is in the same region as Neumann, but this was the first time Neumann has made the trek out to the Pride's home rink.  

In the first game of the series, the Division I squad took on the Pride of Slippery Rock. With multiple goals by senior assistant captains, AJ Ehinger and Nick Allison; along with goals from team captain and Junior Tom Youmans, sophomore PJ DiMartino, and freshman Tyler Kraft, the Knights took it to the Pride with a final tally of 7-1 defeating Slippery Rock on their home rink. In the next Division I matchup, the Knights took on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The Neumann Knights beat Rutgers by the wide margin of 11-4. Goals from this game include a total of six different Neumann players scoring. The Knights have outscored Rutgers 33-7 in total in two regular season games and one preseason game. The Division I squads final matchup of the weekend was against the University of Pittsburgh. Pitt is one of the more solid teams in the eastern region. The Knights did not let that worry them one bit. In the Sunday morning matchup, the Knights beat Pittsburgh by a score of 9-5, coming back from being down by two goals in the beginning of the game. The Knights regular season record now sits at 13-0, with 137 goals for, and only 23 goals against since the beginning of the season.

The Knights Division III team also made the trip out to Grove City for a pair of regular season games against the hometown team Slippery Rock University. Like the Division I team, Division III did not let the hometown crowd get into their heads one bit. In the first tilt, the Knights decimated the Pride by a score of 12-2. Freshman Gregory Saklad scored three goals in the affair, while freshmen Sean Phelan and Luc Corso; Senior captain Blake Lowry; and sophomore Nick DeSalvo each netted two goals apiece. The Knights also played Slippery Rock once again later on Saturday night. The Knights did just as they did in the first tilt, just kept scoring and scoring. Neumann beat the Pride of Slippery Rock by a score of 11-4 with goals from multiple Neumann players.  After this weekend the Division III team helped to improve their regular season record to 14-0, with 157 goals for, and only 39 goals against in fourteen games.

This upcoming weekend the Knights Division I team heads to Choice Inline in Sewell, NJ for three regular season games against Hofstra University (NY), University of Rhode Island (RI), and Northeastern University (MA). We hope to see many supporters out rocking the navy and gold!