Gophers Take Down Royals in Landmark Semifinals

Gophers Take Down Royals in Landmark Semifinals

GK Main Surrenders Only Two Goals, Makes 17 Saves

April 30, 2008

TOWSON, Md. - Goucher filled one of the spots in Saturday's Landmark Conference championship game by pummeling Scranton, 12-2, today in the semifinals of the conference's inaugural postseason tournament.

As the tournament's No. 2 seed, the Gophers (11-4) will take on either top-seeded Drew or the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy for the title. The Rangers battle the Mariners tonight in the other semifinal and would also host the championship game if they win. If Merchant Marine prevails in the semifinals, the championship game would take place in Gopher Stadium.

Against the Royals (12-5) today, head coach Kyle Hannan's Gophers needed only eight shots to produce five unanswered goals in the opening quarter. An illegal procedure penalty on Scranton led to an extra-man goal by Sam Fitzpatrick (Littleton, CO/Arapahoe) that put Goucher ahead 1-0 just 1:28 into the contest.

Over the final 6:29 of the first period, the Gophers tacked on even-strength goals by Alex Boucher (North Wales, PA/Germantown Academy), Cooper Mazon (Littleton, CO/Mullen), Brian Hoge (Crofton, MD/Arundel) and Dave Duff (Westwood, MA/Suffield Academy) to stretch their lead to 5-0.

Goucher, which had to go into overtime to defeat Scranton earlier this season, struck for four more goals - including a pair by Adam Pietrocarlo (Hamburg, NY/Frontier Central) - in the second period for a commanding 9-0 advantage at halftime.

The Gophers went ahead 10-0 on an unassisted goal by Alan Tiet (Aurora, CO/Smoky Hill) 3:04 into the third period before the Royals finally got on the scoreboard on an unassisted goal by Doug Homan after 35:10 had elapsed.

Austin Main (Berlin, MD/Stephen Decatur) went the distance in goal for Goucher and made saves on 17 of the 35 shots the Rangers got off.