Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Ferris, Rallo sweep Mercyhurst on the road

The Ferris State Bulldogs swept Mercyhurst last weekend, winning 6-3 on Friday and 5-4 on Saturday. Greg Rallo (pictured), who was named the CCHA Offensive Player of the Week, had three goals and two assists over the course of the weekend.

The first period of Friday’s contest was a goalie showcase. Bulldogs goalie Derek MacIntyre turned away eleven shots and let in only one; the Ferris offense peppered Mercyhurst goalie with fifteen shots to no avail. It wasn’t until the second stanza that the lamp began lighting with greater frequency: Rallo evened the score for Ferris (Mark Bomersback and Dan Riedel assisted), but Mercyhurst pulled ahead again less than a minute later. Eric Vesely scored an unassisted shorthanded goal at 12:35 of the second period, and then set Jeremy Scherlinck a few minutes later to give Ferris their first lead of the night. Mercyhurst again tied up the game at the end of the period, and the goalies once again did their jobs flawlessly for the first half of the third period.

At 13:02 of the third period, Matt Frank scored the first of three unanswered Bulldogs goals. It was Frank’s first of the season, and came unassisted while the Bulldogs were shorthanded. Three minutes later, Rallo and Riedel set up Bomersback to widen the lead. Mercyhurst pulled their goalie to try to catch Ferris, but Bomersback slid a pass to Riedel, who capitalized on the empty net. The victory was sealed, 6-3, for Ferris.

Saturday saw Ferris jump to an early lead, fall behind, but catch back up to win 5-4.

The Bulldogs nailed three straight goals in the first period: Vesely set up Matt Stephanishion, Rallo scored Ferris’s third shorthanded goal of the weekend (Bomersback assisted), and Corey Couturier got some help from Adam Miller and Zac Pearson to put the Bulldogs up by three. But the second period belonged entirely to Mercyhurst; the team beat Ferris goalie Mitch O’Keefe three times to tie the score heading into the second intermission.

Mercyhurst scored again early in the third, though Ferris dominated the play, outshooting Mercyhurst 18-7 in the third period. But it wasn’t until a power-play opportunity at 13:35 of the third that Ferris could get back in the game: Rallo and Riedel set up Stephanishion for his second goal of the game. Rallo notched the game-winner off a Bomersback assist with less than two minutes remaining.

Ferris will be on the road again this week: they will face off against Nebraska-Omaha on Friday and Sunday.

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