Bears Earn Gritty Win

Photo is courtesy of Coast Guard Academy

NEW LONDON, Conn. – Coast Guard came back from three goals down to earn a nonconference win over Plymouth State Wednesday afternoon at Cadet Memorial Field.

With the win the Bears improve to 8-3 on the season while the Panthers drop to 2-8.

Senior Kyle Carosotto scored his first two goals of the season while junior Blaise Curtis also scored two including the eventual game winner. Senior Louis DePaolis added two points with a goal and an assist. DePaolis is fourth in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) with 22 goals on the season.

Plymouth State was led by seniors Phil Pichel and Cody Carlson who each had a goal and an assist.
Sophomore Cam Cormier, freshman Jake Burns and junior Alex Croatti also scored for the Panthers.
It was an early 3-0 advantage for Plymouth State after the first quarter, as they possessed the ball for the majority of the period and held the Bears to three shots on goal.

The Coast Guard defense only allowed two more goals over the final 45 minutes of the game and managed to take the lead for good in the fourth quarter as Curtis took a pass from DePaolis and cranked a shot for the game winner with 7:02 on the clock. Carosotto added on an insurance goal with just under two minutes to play.

Freshman Trey Johnson (8-2) made two saves, on seven shots on goal and allowed seven goals. Johnson has not given up double-digit goals once this season.

Johnson is still first in the NEWMAC with a 6.29 goals-against average, second in goals allowed (56) and third in save percentage (57.6%). As of April 12^th Johnson was eighth in the nation in goals-against average and 27^th in save percentage.

Junior goalie Jayson LaRiviere (2-7) made a season best 19 saves on 26 shots on goal, holding Coast Guard to seven goals. LaRiviere is third in the Little East Conference (LEC) in goals-against average (8.99) and fourth in both goals against (81) and save percentage (54%) .

The Bears defense continued their suffocating play causing 13 turnovers and only allowing the Panthers to complete 2-15 clears. Freshman Connor Ellis had a game high five caused turnovers while freshman Jeff Porter had two. Ellis is first in the conference with 29 caused turnovers and 30^th in the nation in caused turnovers per game (2.4). The defense as a whole leads the NEWMAC as well with 131 total caused turnovers and is 21^st in the NCAA averaging 11.8 caused turnovers per game.

Freshman Colin Cashin was 12-14 on face offs with a team high six groundballs. Cashin is second in the conference in won face-offs (113) and third in groundballs (58). The Bears dominated on the ground collecting twenty more ground balls than the Panthers (38-18).

Coast Guard is back in action on Saturday, April 16 when they travel to Norton, Massachusetts for a key conference game against Wheaton. Opening face off is 4:00