Soaring Eagles rise above Panthers in 6-0

John LaPierre

He/Him

Staff Writer

2/9/24

On Friday night, the Plymouth State Panthers welcomed Elmira College Soaring Eagles to campus. The Panthers went into the game with an overall record of 6-17-0 and a 6-10-0 record in the New England Hockey Conference. The Golden Eagles of Elmira College came into the game with a record of 16-6-1 and a 13-2-1 record in the New England Hockey Conference.

The first period started slow and quiet early on. Both teams were trying to test the waters and find their offensive spark, but were still able to maintain a solid defense , with some notable saves from Amelia Julian. Elmira College quickly gets on the board with a goal coming from Mckenzie Schmidt off of a rebound of a shot from her teammate, Claire Meeder. The Soaring Eagles were controlling the offensive zone time. While the Panthers were granted a power play late in the period, there were a lot of fast paced offensive opportunities for both teams within defensive zone breakouts

With the second period underway, the Panthers had quite a few chances in the offensive zone within the first few minutes. Defenseman Jacquline Martin gave the Panthers a solid defense in both periods. Elmira College notched their second goal coming from Holley Riva assisted by Claire Meeder. As the Panthers spent much of their time in the defensive zone, the Soaring Eagles managed to score another goal on a 2 on 1 breakaway from MK Boyle assisted by Mckenzie Schmidt. 

For round three it was the Soaring Eagles starting off the first couple of minutes in the offensive zone. The Soaring Eagles scored three minutes into the period by Alayna Toole. Two minutes later at 15:47 The Panthers conceded another goal to the Soaring Eagles, carried out by Erika Goleniak.

The Soaring Eagles scored again with a rocket of a shot from the top of 12:58 by Emily Lenzen. The Panthers managed another powerplay, but nothing was going past Soaring Eagles goaltender Leonie-Louise Kuehberger, who pitched a twelve goal shutout.

After the game, Forward player Katie Porrello commented, “Yesterday our energy and work ethic was great. Playing a team like Elmira is always challenging because they can capitalize on everything and going forward into the playoffs we just need to find a way to put the puck in the net.”

Coming up for both teams, the Panthers will host Hobart and William Smith College for senior day on Saturday for a 2:00pm puck drop. As for the Soaring Eagles, they will travel to Castleton University on Saturday for a 3:00pm puck drop.