Mount Ida College junior Matthew Savage (Peabody, MA/Peabody) tallied a game high six goals en route to a 22-2 North Atlantic Conference (NAC) romping over visiting Thomas College Saturday afternoon for the hosts first conference victory of the season in their home opener. The Mustangs improve to 2-3 overall, 1-0 in league play while the Terriers remain winless at 0-2 and fall to 0-1 in the NAC.
Mount Ida scored the first 16 goals of the contest leading 5-0 in the opening quarter with two scores from Savage and one a piece from senior Brandon Keith (Barnstable, MA/Barnstable), and sophomore’s Billy Gerke (Essex, VT/Rice Memorial) and Brendan Hylan (Clinton, CT/Morgan).
The offensive barrage did not let up watching the Mustangs fire in eight scores in the second quarter with two more goals from Savage. Keith, junior Dan Harrington (Westford, MA/Westford Academy), sophomore’s Sean Slattery (South Burlington, VT/South Burlington), and Derek O’Reilly (East Setucket, NY/Ward Melville), and freshmen Eric Parhiala (Derry, NH/Pinkerton Academy) and Nick Yacuzzi (Oakham, MA/St. John’s) all added one a piece during the attack going into the half up 13-0.
Two and a half minutes into the third quarter Savage netted his fifth and sixth goals of the contest on feeds from Keith and senior Matt Vernik (Bethany, CT/Amity Regional) taking a commanding 15-0 lead. Less than a minute later, Gerke fired in his second of the game giving the Mustangs the 16-0 advantage.
The Terriers finally got on the board in the 11th minute of the third quarter on an unassisted goal from freshman Sean Machin (Brunswick, ME) trailing 16-1.
Mount Ida reeled off four more scores immediately following the first goal by Thomas on three consecutive goals from junior Paul Battapaglia (Clinton, CT/Morgan) and a single goal from Gerke, his third of the game off dishes from Vernik, Yacuzzi, Hylan and senior Michael Simone (Dover, NH/St. Thomas Aquinas).
Thomas notched their second and final goal of the game in the third minute of the final quarter on another unassisted score, this time by senior Kolby Peckham (Gardiner, ME) trailing 20-2.
The Mustangs tallied the final two goals of the game on an unassisted score from freshman Matt Ferrick (Dorchester, MA/Catholic Memorial) for his first goal of the season. Junior Bill Eagan (North Andover, MA/North Andover) flicked in the final score of the game with time expiring on a feed from freshman John Whelan (Cranston, RI/Bishop Hendricken) for the 22-2 final.
Mount Ida took an amazing 79 shots on goal, a game high 25 in the first half, to the Terriers 13 shots for the game. The Mustangs dominated the middle circle winning 22 of 27 face-off attempts, 19 of which were won by Vernik. Vernik was a groundball machine snatching up 12 on the day out of the 74 the Mustangs grabbed for the game.
Sophomore goaltender Justin Famiglietti (Peabody, MA/Peabody) played three quarters of the game for the Mustangs notching three saves while sophomore Craig Naftal (Bellmore, NY/JFK) and Chandler Webb (Quincy, MA/Bishop Hendricken (RI)) split the final quarter with Naftal denying two shots.
Junior goaltender Josh Colello (Yarmouth, ME) and freshman Jesse Morkeski (Damariscotta, ME) split the game between the pipes for Thomas with Colello stopping 15 shots while Morkeski blocked eight Mount Ida shots.
The Mustangs will travel to Green Mountain College this coming Tuesday for more conference action starting at 4:00 p.m.