WINTER PARK, Fla. (March 10, 2011) - Freshman
goalie Paul
Valukas set aside 10 shots against No. 12 Catawba as the Tars
dropped 12-7 to the Indians on Thursday afternoon in Winter Park.
The loss drops Rollins to a mark of 0-6, and 0-4 in Deep South
Conference play, while Catawba advances to an overall record of
4-1, and opens conference play with a 1-0 mark.
Valukas made six saves in a demanding second quarter, slowing
down Catawba's momentum and setting the Tars up for a strong second
half. Seeing a total of 35 shots and 22 shots on goal, Valukas
yielded only 12 goals to the nationally-ranked Indians, while
setting aside 10 for a career-high. His counterpart, Michael
Pecchia, also set aside 10 on the afternoon.
Fellow freshman Jack
Dever led the Tars with four goals. Behind Dever, Eric
Schmit, Austin
Ricci, and Matthew
Lunnen also put shots between the pipes, with Schmit adding two
assists to his total for three points on the day. Ben
Adrian, Peter
Harvey, John
Herbert, and James
Libutti all contributed one assist to help the Tars put up
seven goals on the scoreboard.
Catawba was led by Braden Artem with four goals and one assist.
Matching Artem in points was John Scheich, who's three goal, two
assist final tally helped the Indians get the job done. Catawba
saw scoring efforts from six different players.
Rollins scored just 17 seconds into the game as Schmit connected
a pass to Dever for a quick shot past Pecchia. But the Tars found
themselves in man-down situations for five minutes in the first
period, which allowed the Indians to post five straight goals to
pull ahead to a 5-1 lead with 4:42 remaining in the quarter.
Dever closed out the period thanks to a fast break pass from
Herbert to set the score at 5-2 entering into the second quarter,
but Catawba posted three unanswered goals throughout the period to
enter the half with an 8-2 advantage over Rollins.
The Tars surrendered one more Catawba goal to start the third
quarter before finding their third tally of the day off of a Lunnen
shot assisted by Schmit, but the Indians scored the subsequent
three before the Tars could put another goal on the scoreboard to
enter into the final period with a score of 12-4.
Rollins posted three unanswered goals in the final quarter while
holding their opponent silent. The Tars were out-shot 35-26, but
led the battle on the ground as they bested their opponent 33-28.
The Tars also found more success on faceoffs, winning 13-of-22
attempts thanks to Schmit who was 8-for-14, and Harvey who won
5-of-7. A stingy Tars man-down unit held the Indians to just three
goals on 13 opportunities.
The Tars return to action on Wednesday, March 16, when they host
Mars Hill in another Deep South Conference matchup. Game time
against the Lions is set for 5 p.m. at Hungerford Preparatory
Field. Fans will be able to catch all of the action live on the
Tars Sports Network at RollinsSports.com.
