Pine Valley, NY – The Elmira College Men's Ice Hockey team scored seven goals in another tough conference battle Friday evening, beating Manhattanville College 7-2,  at the Murray Athletics Center. The win improves the Soaring Eagles to 13-5-2 overall and 6-0-1 in ECAC play, while the loss drops the Valiants to 10-5-2 overall and 4-3-0 in conference competition.
 
In the first period the Valiants got the edge scoring the first goal of the game at the 13:30 mark. Ron Smith scored the goal, placing the puck in the top right shelf over Darren MacDonald '13 (Stittsville, ONT -- Nepean Raiders). Assisting on the play were Brian Elser and JP Witkop. The Soaring Eagles looked to score a goal near the end of the period, but were denied by the Valiants tough defense.  
 
In the second period of play things got a little more physical with both teams wanting to gain an edge on the offensive side. The Soaring Eagles got that offensive edge, scoring four total goals. John Clewlow '12 (Brampton, ONT -- Dixie Bee Hives) tied the game at one all on a short-handed goal. He stole the puck from a Valiant defender to go on a breakaway and score the goal at the 3:29 mark. rk EC took the lead at the 6:23 mark on a power-play marker as Brendan Sanders '12 (Mississauga, ONT -- Vaughan Vipers) scored off a rebound shot. Kevin Willer '12 (Toronto, ONT -- North York Rangers) and Martin Lee '12 (Toronto, ONT -- Vaughan Vipers) tallied assists on the play. A little over two minutes later Lee scored another power-play goal with Willer and Sanders assisting on the play. At the 11:51 mark the Soaring Eagles scored again to widen its lead to 4-1. Similar to how the first goal for EC was scored, Colin Hoey '13 (Doylestown, PA -- New England Huskies) took the puck from a Valiant defender and scored the short-handed, unassisted goal. The score remained 4-1 at the end of the period with Manhattanville looking for some opportunities to score.
 
Early in the third period Manhattanville looked to start a comeback when Derek Serdachny scored the goal past the glove side of MacDonald. However, EC responded 33 seconds later with Sanders taking the puck behind the goal and passing it back out to D'Arcy Oakes '13 (Shanty Bay, ONT -- Quinnipiac University).  Then Oakes passed it up to Rick Acorn '12 (Barrie, ONT -- Couchiching Terriers) who knocked it home past Valiant goalie Pierre-Olivier Lemieux. Later in the period Oakes scored a power-play goal of his own being assisted by Lee and Willer. Ending the scoring drive for Elmira was Wes Consorti '12 (Brantford, ONT -- Niagara University) who snuck it past Lemieux for the score. Assisting on the play was Christian Morissette '12 (Beaconsfield, QUE -- RPI). MacDonald and Lemieux each finished the game with 28 saves on the night. 
 
The Soaring Eagles return to action tomorrow when they play Manhattanville College for the second time in two days, at 7:00 p.m. in the Murray Athletics Center.