The Rensselaer Red Hawks came up just short in their showdown with fifth-ranked Nazareth Saturday, falling 11-9. In a previous match with Vassar, the Red Hawks welcomed the Brewers to the conference with a 29-4 shellacking.
In Saturday’s game, the Golden Flyers of Nazareth came out strong, scoring just 28 seconds into the contest. This was followed by another goal about a minute later.
The Red Hawks finally responded when Attacker Lucas Ruglis scored on an assist from Attacker Ben Terzulli 4:51 into the first quarter. Late in the first, Ben Terzulli picked up another assist when he fed Midfielder Nick Childs with just 40 seconds left in the quarter, knotting the score at 2.
The momentum shifted over to the Red Hawks when Attacker Jeff Hobbs scored just 37 ticks into the second quarter, putting Rensselaer up by one. The Golden Flyers responded by scoring the next two goals to go up 4-3.
Midfielder David Perlman tied the score at the 8:32 mark of the second on an assist from Attacker Andrei Lombardi. Nazareth went up a little under a minute later, before Attacker Tom Terzulli got his first goal of the game on an assist from Ben Terzulli. With less than two minutes left, Nazareth’s Josh Lewis scored to give Nazareth a 6-5 lead at the half.
After the intermission, the Golden Flyers opened up a 2-goal lead before Tom Terzulli struck again. A little over a minute later, Nazareth would extend the lead back to 2, and then both teams went cold for the remainder of the third.
The fourth proved to be an all-out battle, as the Hawks mounted a comeback that started with another Perlman goal. After Perlman, Childs scored just 30 seconds later to tie the game at 8-8. But the Golden Eagles would respond by scoring the next 2 goals. Ruglis connected for the Red Hawks to make it a 10-9 game, but Nazareth’s Eric Goodberlet would score with just one minute remaining, putting the game out of reach.
In all, Ben Terzulli finished with a goal and five assists, while Tom Terzulli had 2 goals and two assists. Childs, Perlman, and Ruglis each added 2 goals.
Overall the loss didn’t hurt the Red Hawks that much in the national standings, as they are still the nation’s 11th-ranked team. Nazareth moved up from fifth to third. The Red Hawks are still in good shape to make the NCAA tournament if they win the UCAA.
Last Wednesday, Rensselaer took the first step towards the league championship when they thrashed Vassar in the opening UCAA match for both teams.
The Red Hawks came out strong, scored early and often, and simply buried the Brewers. Rensselaer scored 7 goals before Vassar was on the board for the first time and added another 8 before the Brewers’ second goal. In the end, the board showed RPI 29, Vassar 4.
Ben Terzulli netted 5 goals and three assists, while Attacker Steve Snyder netted 4 goals to go with two assists. Tom Terzulli had 2 goals and four assists and Attacker John Boxberger totaled 2 goals and four assists. Hobbs added 3 goals and two assists and Ruglis also had 2 goals and two assists. Perlman, Blount, and Long each had 2 goals.
