Ferguson’s early goal sets pace for RMU opening win

Lea Chocolas

The Robert Morris Colonials won their exhibition game Saturday night versus the University of Ottawa with the score of 5-1.

Colonials senior center Brady Ferguson scored two goals in the first and second periods to help Robert Morris beat Ottawa.

“It was a power play breakout,” Ferguson said in reference to his second goal in the second period. “Mike (Louria) threw it across to Alex (Tonge) and just went far to the net, and Tonge put it right on my stick and all I had to do was put it in the net.”

Coach Derek Schooley didn’t know what to expect from his players after having only nine hours and 20 minutes’ worth of practice.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Schooley said. “We’ve had nine hours and 20 minutes of practice. We felt we’ve had a lot of returners and wanted to get some kinks out.”

During the first and second periods, the Colonials found themselves not being able to keep the puck in Ottawa’s end. The Colonials feel they didn’t have enough time to work on things in practice.

“We were good in some areas and sloppy in other areas. It’s also hard when you have 15 forwards and eight defensemen to keep everybody active in the hockey game,” Schooley said.

“We worked on 5-on-3 and 3-on-5 for literally 30 seconds this morning. We haven’t had a chance to work on a lot of our system.”

Despite the lack of practice, Coach Schooley liked what he saw in his players and the energy the team brought.

The Colonials found themselves getting the puck faster and Brady Ferguson knows the importance of getting pucks fast for this team.

“I think it’s really important. Division I hockey is really fast, a lot of dumping pucks and getting hungry with defensemen,” said Ferguson. “I think tonight we kind of proved that we can get pucks behind the defensemen and use our speed.”

Ottawa leftwinger Marco Azzano scored late in the third period to put Ottawa on the board, but they were still trailing 4-1. Newcomer Brett Beauvais saw his first goal as a Colonial along with Eric Israel in the second period and Michael Louria in the third.

The Colonials open their regular season on the road at Niagara University on Friday, Oct. 6 at 7:05 p.m. The next home game for the Colonials is Oct. 20 when they face Army.