By Richard Graham

 

San Jose, CA - There’s a new team at the top of the heap in the National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association’s Division II.

 

After the Tampa Knights kindly knocked off two-time national champion (2006 and 20008) Neumann University in overtime in the elite-eight round, the door was opened for a new Division II champion, and the West Chester Rams walked right through it. Not without a fight, however.

 

After starting the tournament with lopsided scores against Stephen F. Austin State (15-0) and Cincinnati (8-1), the Rams had won squeakers against Metro State - Denver (4-3), Missouri State (5-4) and Rowan (5-4) before meeting the Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville Cougars in the championship game.

 

The Cougar’s run to the final took one more game than the Rams, as they lost a game in round robin – SIUE narrowly defeated Brockport (8-7) and Missouri State (4-3), lost to Chico State (3-2), and then won three in a row against Kennesaw (7-6), UC San Diego (7-4) and Tampa (7-3) before meeting up with West Chester in the final. That game, the fourth and final division championship contest at the 2010 National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association finals, took place on Sunday, April 11, at the Silver Creek Sportsplex in San Jose, California,

 

The game was chippy throughout, with lots of pushing and shoving after whistles, and probably the best of the final four games in terms of excitement – the game was in doubt for longer than the B Division, Junior College or Division I championship finals.

 

West Chester scored first, just shy of three minutes into the game, on an unassisted goal by Mike Carroll. His teammate Bob McLaughlin followed up 35 seconds later, assisted by David Castor and Eric Keene. This put SIUE into a 2-0 hole after only 3:26 had elapsed in the first period. Midway through the period, however, the Cougars struck back on a goal by Jason Walker, assisted by Brad Keenan, making it 2-1. With just 19 ticks left on the clock in the first stanza, West Chester’s Eric Keene scored the Rams’ second unassisted goal of the game on a fine individual effort. Late-period goals can be back breakers in any hockey game, and spectators had a right to wonder if the wheels were about to come off for the Cougars.

 

Before the Rams fan could begin to entertain such thoughts, SIUE’s Jason Walker scored his second goal of the game, just 1:33 into the second period, making it 3-2. The teams traded chances – and shoves and pushes and harsh words – for most of the rest of the period. It looked like the game might go into the third period as a one-goal game, but West Chester’s Mike Carroll had other thoughts about that, scoring with 88 seconds left in the stanza to reestablish the Ram’s two-goal lead.

 

(SIUE’s Chance Webb provided a bit of comic relief after taking a cross checking penalty with 5:35 elapsed in the second period. Noticing that a NCRHA staffer was playing music during stoppages of play on the rink’s public address system, Webb asked, “Do you take any requests?)

 

In the third period, West Chester scored yet another early period goal – this time by James Shaffer at 0:18 – and the Rams were up 5-2. Less than three minutes later, Adam St. Clair potted West Chester’s sixth goal, and now it looked like the Cougars would fold. Exactly 90 seconds later, SIUE scored again, this time on the power play – Michael Dolan’s goal made it 6-3. With seven minutes to go in the game, it appeared that the Cougars had enough time left to mount a final challenge. However, Mike Carroll scored his third goal and a hat trick, a short-handed goal that made it 7-3 and just had to be the final nail in the Cougars’ coffin. Right?

 

Not quite. TJ Henson scored a power play goal with 1:31 left, making it 7-4, and his second goal (both were assisted by Michael Dolan) with 51 seconds left made it 7-5. In roller hockey, a lot can happen in 51 seconds. This rollercoaster battle looked like it might go down to the wire. The Cougars pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and kept the play in the Rams’ zone for much of that time, but simply couldn’t get the puck past West Chester’s goalie, Ben Wirjosemito. Brian Ems dove, blocking a final last-gasp SIUE shot with his legs, and the celebration is on—Rams’ players streamed off their bench and mobbed Wirjosemito.

 

SIUE’s Jason Walker, West Chester’s Mike Carroll and SIUE’s Michael Dolan were named the number one, two and three stars of the game, respectively.

 

“We played hard, we tried to keep it simple just like another game, but they’re fast, they move the puck well, and we didn’t put them in tonight,” said SIUE forward Brad Keenan.

 

“It’s real disappointing,” added Cougars’ Coach Andrew Tucker. “We weren’t even supposed to get this far, so we’re excited to be here, but we thought we could win it. They got a couple of good bounces, and they’re a good team and they got us in the end. A couple more minutes and we might have been able to make a run at it. We were behind the whole entire tournament and had to come back in almost every game.”

 

 “In the playoff round, every game was close, and we had a bull’s-eye on our back, but one way or another, we found a way to win,” said West Chester Coach Alex Kozik. “Winning this game was just an unbelievable feeling.”

 

 “It feels great,” said West Chester goalie Ben Wirjosemito. “We worked as hard as hell and came here with a mindset that we weren’t going to lose. I had a lot of confidence in my team and I knew that we were going to kill the power plays. They put in a couple nice goals. Their team showed a lot of resilience there trying to come back, but we just knew we wanted it more. We couldn’t let it slip away; we worked too hard, and I knew I had to be the backbone of the team. I can’t be happier with my team.”

 

Rams’ forward Tim Babcock came back to grad school at West Chester to enhance his education – and play hockey.

 

“I feel great,” Babcock said. “I came back to grad school to play. It’s my fourth year playing and I’ve never been on a team as good as this team here. It’s tough playing in the ECRHA because there’s so much competition. Winning the ECRHA gave us the confidence to come into nationals with.”

 

Babcock also praised the Cougars.

 

“They played us hard,” Babcock said. “They’re a very good team. They’ve got some good scorers with Jason Walker and a couple of other guys. We got an early lead and we just kind of ran with it. Once we got that lead, things went out way the rest of the night. It was a little chippy; guys were giving it everything they had out there. They didn’t leave anything on the floor.”

 

“I feel phenomenal,” said Rams’ defenseman Eric Keene. “We’ve been national contenders for a while now; it feels good to finally pull one out. SIUE is a very hardworking, skilled team. They worked hard and moved the puck well. As soon as we got control of the puck, settled down, ran breakouts, played our game – so it was just a matter of relaxing and keeping it cool. Ben [Wirjosemito] played huge for us.”

 

After a chippy, hard-fought battle, it was good to hear both teams’ respectful comments toward each other. The Rams and Cougars definitely “left it all on the rink” in a great NCRHA Division II championship game.

 

“It was a good game, what can you say? I had a lot of fun at this tournament. This is actually the first roller hockey tournament that I’ve ever been in. Everybody down here was nice, it was run perfectly, no delay of games or anything. It was a great experience. I’d love to come back and do it again.” – SIUE forward Brad Keenan

 

 “They came a long way from last year – we had played them in round robin and we did not expect them to get this far, but they’ve made a lot of strides, and they’re a good group of guys.” – West Chester Coach Alex Kozik