Jim Woods

The Icers must have been good all year because Santa brought them four more wins over the holiday break.

The Icers, who are now 16-0, demolished the previous unbeaten record which was 14 games. The most recent additions to the winning streak came in the form of a 14-2 spanking of Rhode Island on Saturday and an 8-1 thumping of Worcester Polytechnical Institute on Sunday.

At the conclusion of the first period, the score was a meager 2-1 in favor of the Icers. The chemistry did not start flowing until the second period for the Icers.

Suddenly, eight minutes into the second period, Don Lamison ignited a five goal chain reaction with his first goal of the game. Ben Bouma, Mark Konchar and captain Jim Adams each followed suit, within a three minute span. Lamison capped the chemistry with his second goal of the game.

“This blew the game wide open,” Coach Joe Battista said. “When we get started, it is hard to shut us down.”

Riding high, freshman John Lucas finished off the Icers’ scoring with his first goal as an Icer.

“We have just too many weapons for these teams to deal with,” Battista said. “It comes from our talent and depth.”

Battista’s Icers offensive weapons fired off 46 rounds at the W.P.I. goal and allowed only 17 attempts in Icers’ territory.

The Icers mixed up the chemistry in their typical second period scoring frenzy against Rhode Island Saturday.

All four of the Icers’ lines left their mark on the score board. Forward Steve Karl cashed in for the black line. Forward Rob Keegan chalked one up for the blue line. Konchar tallied for the white line followed by forward Andy Strasser representing the red line.

“A lot of different guys are capable of scoring for us,” Battista said, “This makes it hard for the defenders, because they never know who to watch.”

Everybody wanted in on the action, by the end of the match, 18 of the 19 Icers figured in on at least one of the Icers 14 goals.

Rhode Island was not at full strength, the Rams lost three of their key players to academic ineligibility, including Chuck Cornell, who was the MVP of last year’s Nittany Lion Invitational. The Icers’ effort, this weekend, was not without casualities. Chris Cervellero sprained his shoulder and Scott Mangene hurt his back against W.P.I.

“It is kind of ironic,it was almost to the day last year when Civy seperated his other shoulder and had to miss the Nittany Lion Invitational,” Battista said. “Fortunately this time, I don’t think it is as serious this time, and he will be back soon, hopefully.”

Icers’ Notes:

— Prior to the holiday break, the game scheduled for December 11 against Toledo was forfeited after State College was hit by a snow storm…in lieu of the match, the Icers played a Blue-White game.

— The Icers grounded the Toledo Rockets 12-3 on December 12…Ross Cowan scored seven points, Rob Keegan finished with five, and Eric Lightner had four in the win.

— The record for the longest winning streak (11) was broken in the 12-3 win over Toledo.

Holy Toledo!

The Icers’ run and gun offense has outscored its opponents 116-19 this season, and, at 13-0, Penn State is on the verge of breaking its all-time unbeaten streak.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Coach Joe Battista said. “So far we’ve had a ball. And their (players) confidence is great.”

The Icers’, however, will not be the only undefeated team playing in the ice pavilion this weekend.

The undefeated Toledo Rockets, who are riding a 37-game winning streak, land in the pavilion at 9 tonight and again at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. The Rockets are 8-0 so far this season, and look to play a physical match against the Icers.

Battista is well aware of the Rockets intent and is confident his Icers can stand up to Toledo’s rugged checks.

“If they’re worried about hitting us all the time, then it takes them out of the game,” Battista said. “Four teams have tried that, and four teams have sat in the penalty box watching our power play pump goals.”

The Icers’ power play lines have scored 36 of the 91 times they have had the one or two-man advantage.

Speaking of ice, Battista said the weather will have no bearing on tonight’s or tommorrow’s match, and said Toledo has taken the necessary precautions to assure their safe arrival.

“We are anticipating that the games will go on as scheduled,” Battista said. “The show must go on, but we’ll use good judgment in reacting to Mother Nature.”

Both teams are also fearing another common opponent: Finals.

“We both have to contend with these end of the semester distractions,” Battista said. “But I do know that they have other worries, such as injuries, and the fact that we are on such a roll.”

Battista is confident the Icers can overcome the end of the semester stresses, and will launch the Rockets back to Toledo.

“As long as we stay focused,” he said, “I am confident that our winning ways will continue.”

Battista is pleased with the numbers the Icers’ roll has produced so far this season and hopes they can carry over the break.

Upon their return, the Icers face undefeated Rhode Island on Saturday, Jan. 9, and Worcester Polytech Institute on Jan. 10.

Rhode Island is also undefeated and is tied for first with the Icers in the ACHA.

“These two games (Rhode Island and Toledo) could decide who will finish first, ” Battista said. “We’re getting into the meat of the schedule, and we have to make sure we stay honest to our ways, and I think we’ll come up on top.”

While Penn State’s transition into the Big Ten may be beneficial to the big money sports, some of the smaller sports, like field hockey, are experiencing growing pains.

“Specifically looking at joining the Big Ten for field hockey, it did not benefit us,” Lady Lions Coach Char Morett said. “It always helps to be involved in a conference, but I think this year was more distracting, because we have to travel so far.”

Morett believes the University is unnecessarily dumping money into travel expenses, when some of the best competition is within Penn State’s region.

“I think the perspective is out of line, we’re not going to Iowa to make a quarter of a million dollars,” Morett said. “We’re going to play field hockey. I think we’re spending so much, where as we have strong, if not better competition within a bus trip away.”

Morett attributes many of the problems to the Big Ten’s double round-robin schedule. She has been pushing for a system in which the teams would only meet up once during the regular season.

“I feel that there are some good things to come from the Big Ten,” Morett said. “If we can get away from a double round-robin, I think that then I would enjoy being in the Big Ten. But right now we are in the double round-robin, which really puts a burden on our performance academically and athletically.”

The Lady Lions are also missing the large following they had when many of their matches were played regionally.

“We usually had a great following before, but this is the first time, in all my coaching here at Penn State, that we did not have one Penn State fan at a far game. That is tough, usually when we were travelling, our fans were bigger than their fans.”

The fans, however, were not the only ones having problems with all of the travelling involved with the Big Ten. Many of the field hockey players found themselves missing two, three days of class a week due to extended trips.

“For me, the travel was really hard,” senior co-captain Amy Stairs said. “A lot of the work I had to do had to be done on the computers, which is hard to do when you are on a small airplane.”

Stairs, however, was not the only player to run into these academic dilemmas, Sophomore defender Jill Pearsall said without the understanding of her professors she would have ended up much worse than she did.

“I am just lucky that my professors were so great and understanding,” she said. “The traveling really jepordized a lot of people, and I was fortunate that everything worked out for me.”

Senior Danielle Annibale said that she too was caught off guard by the academic strain from the travel, but she said that she accepted that when she became a student athlete.

“This year was really tough for us, but I think it is something everybody has to get used to,” Annibale said. “All the other teams are doing the same things. It is a sacrafice you make when you become a student athlete. You just have to concentrate, and communicate with your professors.”

Next year, however, is not expected to be much better for the Lady Lions travel wise. Seven of the field hockey team’s last eight conference games are away. Given this, combined with this year’s travel experience, the Lady Lions find themselves having to make academic preparations.

Many are looking to take lighter loads, but Pearsall argues that it is not always an option.

“Once you are in your major, you cannot pick and choose,” she said. “If I want to graduate on time, I cannot play around. We are all here for academics first, and right now the way our schedule is, it makes it hard to be a student first.”

Friday night’s hockey match was so rough, even the referee needed stitches.

With three minutes and 46 seconds remaining in the second period, one of the many scuffles of the night broke out in front of the Icers’ bench. Referee Dave Quindlen jumped in to separate the skirmish, and caught a stick to the eye in the process.

Both officials determined that Quindlen’s gash demanded immediate attention, and they ended the period.

As stated in the rules, if it is nearing the end of a period, and an official has an impairment that requires immediate attention, they can end the period, and tack the time onto the following period pending the official’s judgment.

“He needed the stitches right away,” Coach Joe Battista said. “It was a pretty deep cut. It blew up golf ball size, and rather than making him finish the period, the referee has the option to halt the period. Our physician came down and stitched him and iced him, and he was able to continue to officiate.”

Battista feels the injury was just one of those many occupational hazzards.

“It is just the dangers,” he said. “They just went to making referees wear helmets, and some would argue they should wear shields too. Sticks do inadvertently come up, and in this case it was a scuffle.”

The number of scuffles and penalties were rising along with the tempers of both teams, and the halting of the period came at a good time to provide a cooling down period for both teams.

“It was a smart call by the officials,” Battista said. “We were starting to get frustrated. We felt they were taking their liberties there, and they got their penalties for it.”

Eastern Michigan had spent much of the match poking, spearing and cross-checking the Icers from behind, and late in the second period the Icers began to retaliate.

“I don’t like the little chippy, cheap stuff, but I like the hitting,” senior defender Matt Hoffman said. “They started sticking and hooking, and throwing the body around. I really get into those kind of games.”

Even after the third period began, the Eagles maintained their poking, and sticking, but the Icers continued to maintain their composure, and walk away when possible.

Battista feels he has instilled their ability to walk away as a part of Penn State’s pride and class.

“I would like to think that it is my directive, and their compliance,” Battista said.

Senior Dave Murphy agreed: “Without coach we’d be out there gooning them right back. We’d be giving them the stick. But coach has been able to teach us to take their cheap stuff, the extracuricular activities, and put your head down, and hit them on the scoreboard.”

And hit them they did, 10 times to be exact.