SCC roller hockey off to a good start

The Saint Charles Community College roller hockey Cougars started their season on October 24th and 25th. Here is a recap of their three games. All three games were played at the Omni Sportsplex. In their first game, the Cougars faced their rivals, the Meramec Magic. The Cougars started pulling away from the Magic towards the end of the first half as Freshmen forward Mike Russell scored the game's first goal, and then shortly after sophomore forward Kenny Gales scored to put SCC on top 2-0 to end the first. It was all Cougars in the second. SCC scored four times, sophomore defensemen and Captain Sean Daft scored, Gales scored, and forward Joshua Bryson scored twice. The Cougars won 9-3. SCC goalie Kyle Rutkoski stopped 22 shots and allowed three goals, he gets player of the game honors. "I felt like it was a pretty complete game start to finish across the board," explains head coach Pat Ramshaw, who gets his first win as head coach. Rutkoski commented on his first start in net, "first game of the season, we came out strong, [we] worked the puck really well… good coaching this year, better team this year than last year." In the second game the Cougars faced the Mizzou Tigers. SCC dominated the first two periods and lead 8-3 in the third. The Cougars thought they could coast their way into victory, but not so fast said Mizzou. The Tigers scored four times to make it an 8-7 game. Two of the goals were short-handed goals. But Mike Russell scored two goals to put it away. "We kind of got loose, didn't stay focused," said Russell, who scored five goals in the game and is the player of the game "We started getting out on them and we had pretty decent lead and I felt like we got away from the game plan," commented Coach Ramshaw on the third period of the Mizzou game. The Cougars won it 11-8. Cougars won 10-0 in their third game against Missouri S & T's b team. Coach Pat Ramshaw's debut as Cougar coach went well; the team is 3-0 and looking good. "I thought it was a really good start to the season," says Ramshaw, "I thought we played real well, started strong, it's a good start to the season… [The] puck movement and the defense and the goaltending was good… I think we are looking good for the season." Ramshaw also commented on his team, "All the kids are experienced, they know what they are doing and they understand the game of hockey."