Falcons Notch Key Conference Win Over Westfield

Warilia and DiNicola each with 4 points

Fitchburg, Mass. – The Fitchburg State University men' s ice hockey team scored five third period goals en route to a 9-3 victory over the Owls of Westfield State in Massachusetts Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) action at the Wallace Civic Center on Thursday evening.

The Basics

Score: Fitchburg State University 9, Westfield State University 3
Records: Fitchburg State (10-5-2, 5-4-2 MASCAC) | Wesfield State (5-10-1, 3-7 MASCAC)

How It Happened

Fitchburg State potted a pair of goals early in the contest, while Westfield State answered late in the first frame to make it a 2-1 contest after 20 minutes of play. Senior James Gordon (Hingham, Mass.) collected a loose rebound in front of the Owls net and deposited the puck into the net for his seventh goal of the season and first goal of the game. Sophomore Joshua Suboyu (Bradley Beach, NJ) doubled the lead with a blast from the point off a feed from classmate Tyler Warila (Shirley, Mass.). Falcons' netminder Kirby Saari (Cape Elizabeth, Me.) made several key saves in the first, allowing just one goal off the stick of Owls' sophomore Francois-Xavier Girard (St. Lazare, Que) with 3:10 remaining in the stanza.

Westfield continued the pressure in the second period, knotting the score at 2-2 with a marker from junior Aaron Clancy (Quincy, Mass.). Midway through the frame sophomore Pearce Vance (Berkley, Mich.) gave the visitors their first lead of the game (3-2). However, the Green and Gold battled back with a pair of nasty goals to regain the advantage (4-3) after two complete. Warila got the host even, when he found a streaking Nick DiNicola (Wolcott, Ct.) at the left post for the tally. The Falcons pushed the score to 4-3 when Gordon laced a saucer pass across the front of the net to Ricky Kramer (Barnstead, NH) for a short-handed score.

FSU put the game away in the third period with five unanswered goals.  Gordon opened the floodgates with a power-play goal at 7:07. Sophomore Christopher Vicario (Cranston, RI) and Warila netted goals over a 25 second span to push the lead to 7-3. Freshman Sascha Figi (Kloten, Switzerland) and sophomore Alexander Joscelyn (Bow, NH) rounded out the stat sheet for the 9-3 final.

Inside the Numbers

Saari finished the night with 36 saves for his fourth win of the season, while Kameron Limburg (Howell, Misc.) made 26 saves in 56 minutes for the Owls.

Suboyu tallied his first collegiate goal for the Falcons.

Warila and DiNicola led a scorers with a goal and three assists for four points apiece, while Gordon finished with two goals and an assist.

30th meeting between the two schools in ice hockey with the Falcons 17-11-2 all-time when taking on the Owls.

Two teams have split the previous six matchups against each other (3-3-0).

Up Next

Both teams return to action on Saturday, the Falcons host Worcester State at 4:00pm, while Wesfield State will host Plymouth State at 5:35pm.